History of the 13th Infantry Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers During the Great Rebellion

graphic of a union soldier kneeling with a rifle

CHAPTER II.

graphic of a union soldier at a cannon

graphic of a union soldier at a cannon

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ARRIVING in New York Harbor on the morning of March 18th, 1862, we were transferred to the ship City of New York, a staunch vessel of eighteen hundred tons. The ship had been fitted up for our reception under the superintendence of Captain Mitchell, who had been sent to New York for the purpose by Colonel Birge, and whose extensive experience in traveling by sea had thoroughly qualified him for the task. The "bunks " for the officers had each the sliding tin dish fastened alongside suggestive of the effects of sea-sickness. We laughed at the Idea at first, but most of us came to regard the contrivance with a friendly and solemn interest. In one particular the arrangements were*defective, No proper and sufficient room had been allowed for a hospital. Col. Birge and staff and Captain Mitchell occupied the cabin rooms on the quarter deck with Mr. Salter, the captain of the ship. The rest of the officers were in the ward-room below. The nominal aggregate of the regiment was one thousand and seventeen, of whom thirty-nine were commissioned officers. Many of the enlisted men were left behind, sick or deserters ; so that the number on board, all told, was about nine hundred and fifty, besides the crew.

We remained in New York Harbor and Sandy Hook Bay five days, taking in stores and waiting for favor-able winds. Sunday, March 23d, we weighed anchor about noon, and in a few hours saw the heights of Neversink vanishing beyond the distant waves.


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For twenty days we were afloat. We stood far out Into the Atlantic, passing "around the eastern coast of Great Abaco, one of the Bahamas, and in full view of the famous " Hole in the Wall," through which the billows are forever tumbling. A barren group appeared these islands, windy, rocky, sandy ; the peaks and ridges of submerged mountains scorched by every sun and swept by every blast. We thought If Guanahani, the San Salvador of Columbus, and the first land discovered by Mm looked like the rest, a melancholy satisfaction must have rewarded the great navigator after his seventy days' sail; but the books say that to his vivid imagination the island seemed " covered with forests and decked with all the flowers of the tropics !"

Soon after passing Cape Hatteras we had the usual " Storm at Sea." We were in the Gulf Stream. It, came on at night with much lightning and heavy wind, rain and thunder. Some of the soldiers, who had never been on salt water before, were afflicted with anxiety and sea-sickness ; a combination amusing enough to all but the sufferers. It was a night of horrors to poor Underwood, our fife-major, the beginning of whose fatal sickness dates from, this storm.

An officer of the day was regularly detailed to look; after the order and cleanliness of the ship and men. The work of scrubbing was renewed every morning by fatigue parties. Messrs. Wait and Champion,sutlers, accompanied us. Either the soldiers or the sailors committed extensive larcenies of their goods. Tobacco, cigars and raisins strangely disappeared. Poor Wait was reduced to the point of death by rheumatic fever. This was but a prelude to their woes ; for soon


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after arriving in New Orleans, they were robbed of a large sum; in the following autumn Champion had both legs broken, and his stock of merchandise was smashed by a railroad explosion.

Daily, when the weather permitted, the Colonel assembled the officers on the quarter deck at three P. M., and heard them recite carefully-prepared lessons from Hardee's Tactics or the Army Regulations. These lessons and the discussion of disputed points were of great utility.

Occasionally for some misdemeanor it was found necessary to punish a soldier by tying him to the mast, gunwale, or rigging, or thrusting him into the stifling air of the " dark hole." Many of us recollect how Captain Salter pursued one of the seamen with cocked pistol, endeavoring to shoot him for mutinous 'language, and how emphatically he swore on the occasion; which drew out from Captain M., the remarkable statement, " I should never dare to cross the ocean in a ship with a captain who did not swear."

Every morning at nine o'clock the soldiers were called together for prayers by our faithful chaplain Salter, when a chapter of the bible was read, a hymn sung, and prayer offered. At evening, religious meetings of great interest was held in the quarters of the enlisted men. Cases of undoubted reformation and conversion gladdened the chaplain and those seriously disposed. The experience of after years often showed us what indeed must be evident to a thoughtful observer, that, of all persons, the soldier has most need to be a religious man. Napoleon's maxim (if he ever uttered it), " The worse the man, the better the soldier," may be true in a clearly unrighteous cause ; but not otherwise.


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Sometimes dramatic representations were given at evening, with recitations and songs. In fact, quite a theatre was started. Sergeants Gardner, of K, and Gardner, of H, corporal Defraud Jones, of A, afterwards lieutenant in the First Louisiana, and private Charles Raffile, of K, all actors of experience, gave scenes from Hamlet and other plays. Between the scenes songs were sung by private Jeremiah Keefe, of H, musician James McAllister, of I, private William B. Bragg, of .D, afterwards captain in the First Louisiana Cavalry, and by others. These performances afforded entertainment to hundreds of delighted listeners until near midnight.

Often at evening in fair weather Go. A's .accomplished Glee Club, comprising Lieutenant Woodruff, sergeant Gladden, corporals Warren, Jones and Carpenter, and private Gladden, assembled on the quarter deck at twilight, and charmed all with such songs as The Star Spangled Banner., The Sword of Bunker Sill, Hurrah for Old New England, Home Again, and the more modern music of patriotism and the fireside.

On the 27th of March occurred the first death on ship-board. It was that of private Michael Dobson, of Co. H. The disease had long been undermining his constitution, and the close, crowded, unhealthy" quarters had quickly destroyed his remaining vitality The funeral services made a deep impression, as they always do on those who behold for the first time a burial at sea. Chaplain Salter officiated, reading the Episcopal service from the Book of Common Prayer. The body had been sewed up in the blanket of the deceased, with a cannon ball at the feet to sink it.


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The pall-bearers laid it on a plank and lifted it on the gunwale. The tender pathos of the chaplain's voice touched every heart. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, (just to dust! The corpse splashed heavily in. the dark green waves and vanished forever. Three times was this solemn scene repeated before we arrived at Ship Island.

With the usual curiosity we gazed upon the gulf-weed drifting on its aimless journey ; saw the dark-blue forms of sharks gliding like attendant demons beneath us; saw the dolphins flash past us, the porpoises rolling, the flying fish leaping, the sea-gulls perpetually hovering in our wake. On the distant line where sky and water seem to meet, we loved to watch with our glasses the projecting masts of invisible hulls, proving so plainly the convexity of the ocean. Sleeping on deck as we advanced further south and the air grew warmer, we nightly witnessed the stupendous march of the moon and stars across the sky; and at the great miracle of sunrise and sunset, we could almost imagine we heard the hiss of the burn- ing wheels.

The unpoetic side of sleeping there was this: that precisely at earliest dawn the deck was flooded with water by the sailors, who took a malicious delight in getting us as we lay unconscious in the arms of Morpheus!

About daylight, Sunday morning, April 6th, we were suddenly aroused by noise on deck, the loud voice of the first mate, Mr. Craig, shouting, " Belay, there! Belay !" the stopping of the ship, the heavy rumbling of the great anchor-chain down the side. We were wedged in among the most dangerous of the


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Florida keys, having been drifted several miles out of our true course by unsuspected currents. Two or three old wrecks lay in sight. The white breakers and coral reefs all around us betokened our peril. A. couple of miles distant in the direction of the main-land lay a beautiful circular island, shaded with cocoa-nut trees. Half hid among these were buildings that so far off looked like well-built mansions. An old man came from the island in a boat. He told us the place was Indian Key; he lived by wrecking ; did not know much about war; the war did not disturb him; the last he had heard was that the Yankees were rather getting worsted, but that was several months before. He gave us valuable information about the " lay y of the laud, or rather, of the rocks. As it was likely to take several hours to extricate the ship, Col. Birge went ashore in a row boat, accompanied by Adjt. Grosvenor, Captains Bid well, Mitchell, Sprague, Lieut. Tibbets and one or two others. The sun's rays were intensely hot, but with sergeant (afterwards major) Grosvenor, and several other picked oarsmen, we quickly reached the little island, that looked up so pretty in the distance. We found it two or three acres in extent. The romance vanished, for the most part, on reaching the place. It was low, sandy,. almost destitute of vegetation except a few clusters of cocoa-nut tree. It had three or four small families, as many cows, and a dozen pigs. The buildings shrunk into poor, dilapidated houses without glass windows and almost without furniture. For drink, the inhabitants depended on reservoirs of rain-water beneath the houses. They gained a rather precarious and miserable subsistence by wrecking and fishing, selling cocoa-nuts, shells and sponges. On every side the sea-


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water broke monotonously over the worn, porous, coral rocks. The margin was fringed with sand which was bespangled with shells. These, with some enormous sponges and a few cocoa-nuts, were all we brought away as curiosities.

After two or three hours' strolling about the island, during which some of the party went in bathing and got the prickles of the sea-urchin or some equally sharp acquaintance introduced to their feet, we commenced returning. On our way back we were startled by the sight of a large ocean steamer, which seemed to rise like an apparition from the waves. It made swiftly for our ship, on board of which we observed considerable commotion. The troops took post for fighting, hoisted the Star Spangled Banner, and run out the two cannon. The strange craft showed no colors, nor was any one to be seen on her. She steered straight for the ship, but when about half a mile distant she suddenly shifted her course and passed away like a phantom.

We had heard before leaving New York that the rebel privateer Alabama was on the Atlantic coast, and after some sort we had made arrangements to show fight if attacked. We had taken on board two old twenty-four pounders from the Brooklyn navy yard, with a supply of ball cartridge. Every morning at sunrise, First; Sergeant Merrill, with private Thomas Harrison and the rest of his squad of cannoniers, fired a shotted gun, and went through an artillery drill.

On reaching the ship, Colonel Birge was greatly annoyed to find that nearly all the officers had taken the liberty to go off in one of the ship's boats, and had


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not returned. This breach of discipline he rebuked in terms so emphatic that no officer of the Thirteenth cared to repeat the offence, Passing Key West we stood iii |a northerly and afterwards in a westerly direction,! keeping not far from the Florida coast. As we passed Pensacola the wind freshened, and by and by it blew almost a gale. Next morning, off the mouth of Mobile Bay, a violent thunder storm overtook us. Its effects on Ship Island were quite serious, prostrating tents and destroying property, Several soldiers on guard were killed by lightning. The view of our anchored squadron lying opposite Forts Morgan and Gaines, and tossing in dreary solitude on the wild waste of waters, gave us a repulsive idea of the monotony of life on a blockader.

Saturday, April 12th, towards evening, we first came in sight of Ship Island. The lower end was thronged by shipping. It is a long bank of the finest sand. The greater portion is utterly destitute of trees and verdure. A few blades of coarse grass and weeds straggled here and there. We gained a more just appreciation of the simile in Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, "Thou art long and lank and brown As Is the ribbed sea-sand." The water at high tide covers most of the island and a storm sometimes rolls the billows quite across, sweeping everything before them. A few summer ago it was thus submerged, and quite a number of lives were lost of persons visiting it from New Orleans for pleasure. The unfinished fort and the


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lighthouse, half destroyed by the rebels soon after the commencement of the war, were the only evidence of prior occupation. A sergeant of Co. H informed the writer that lie had hunted wild hogs on the upper end of the island while engaged in smuggling!

As we drew near, the island seemed almost covered with tents. Sixteen regiments of Butler's command were already there, besides artillery and cavalry. As we came to anchor, several batteries were practicing on the level beach, and in the deepening twilight their flash and roar made the scene quite sublime.

We disembarked next morning, Sunday, April 13th, 1862. For the first time we pitched tents as a regiment. We were much straitened for want of room. The camp ground was an irregular sand-heap. While the rest of us were leveling it, marking out company limits, and quarreling about the possession of shovels, the cooks were busy boiling coffee. Colonel Birge coming along took a cup, and for want of a spoon stirred in the sugar with his forefinger, remarking, " This is what we've got to come to."

On the 15th of April, musician Underwood, of Co. E, died ; a man of pure character, and simple unpretending piety. He had enlisted from patriotic motives, and won the sympathy of all by his sufferings on the ship. His comrades buried him in the sands ; the first of our regiment to mingle his dust with southern soil.

We remained three weeks on Ship Island, having daily battalion and company drills and dress parades. Colonel Birge pursued his design of perfecting the personal appearance of the men, by selecting at every guard-mounting the neatest and handsomest for his


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orderly, and bestowing special honor upon air such. His maxim was, Good officers make good men. Slovenliness was the unpardonable sin. Those were days of crocus, emery paper, paste blacking, and white gloves, A spirit of emulation prevailed among the officers, and they contributed from ten to a hundred dollars each, to purchase the means of display for their commands. Our first dress parade at Ship Island is well remembered. The long line of eight hundred men in dark blue clothing with white gloves and burnished arms showed like a beautiful painting in the yellow rays of the setting sun. " Look at them.!" said the Colonel, pointing to the soldiers with enthusiastic pride as the officers marched up on the dismissal of parade.

We soon found the island an uncomfortable place. A small fly abounds here, that bites as vigorously as the African tsetse, though not poisonous. The fine white sand would not soil the cleanest linen, but it drifts like snow in the perpetual breeze, unerringly insinuating itself into every crevice. No pains nor skill could keep it out of our food. Months after-wards on unpacking clothing from the inmost recesses of our trunks, we found the omnipresent sand even there. It has one admirable quality: it holds rain water like a sponge. Dig down two or three feet, and you find fresh, sweet water in abundance. It is said, however, to be impregnated with sulphur, and it had a very laxative effect. In a week or ten days, too, the water of each well became vitiated, and it was necessary to dig in another spot. Beneath, the and lies a beautiful, compact, blue clay, which seems to form the bottom of this sort of rain-water reservoir.


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Above it the sun glares like a white-hot furnace ; so that we found it necessary to use green goggles.

It was exceedingly difficult to get wood for cooking, We were obliged to send parties to cut and haul it through the surf from the upper end of the island several miles distant.

On Ship Island we first saw General Phelps, of Brattleboro, Vermont. He had preceded Butler in arriving on the ground, and had published the celebrated Ship Island Proclamation, in which he declared the death of slavery, and invited the Louisiana planters to adopt free labor. It required two years for the nation to come up to that high stand-point, and the country could not even bear to hear the truth at that time. They thought him insane, and he was soon forced to resign his commission rather than submit to what he deemed the tyrannical requirements of a political general in the interest of slavery. Like so many of the illustrious advocates of progress in every age, he may have been too much in advance of his times; yet this is his imperishable glory, that he alone of all our generals at this early day had the intellect to perceive the truth, the courage to proclaim it and the hand to execute it; and that, in the summer of 1862, he dared, first of all our generals, to arm the blacks in defense of liberty, as the rebel governor of Louisiana had already done in defense of slavery.

The General used to amuse his soldiers by his dry wit and shrewd criticisms. He had a cool incisive way of taking out conceit, that was refreshing to the beholder. One day a red-legged Zouave officer in the fantastic dress of his regiment swaggered past a group among whom was General Phelps. The general


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asked, " What are you ?" " Me! I'm a Zouave." " A Zouave !" said the general, "Why, what on earth is that ?" " A Zouave, sir, is a soldier," replied the " Zou Zou." " Ah ! a soldier ! I thought you was a circus rider!"

Another day on Ship Island the general was attentively watching an officer who was pompously displaying his ignorance of the very rudiments of tactics at a battalion drill. The general called him aside, and said, " I have been observing for a long time your remarkable performances in the way of drill." Here; the officer's eyes brightened, expecting some high compliment, " I noticed," continued the general. " that you seem acquainted, I might say, perfectly acquainted, with everything,'' (here the officer's face wore the blandest of smiles)-" perfectly acquainted with everything ; except your duty ! Now, you go to your tent. Study tactics a few weeks; and when yon have learned something about war, I'll come and see you drill your company !"

Near the end of April we heard the distant booming of cannon, and at night some thought they could distinguished the occasional flash of exploding shells It was the bombardment of Fort Jackson, about sixty miles in a direct line from Ship Island. We had hoped to share in the first grand attack in Louisiana, but never doubted we should see fighting enough in the expected battles around New Orleans. It seemed incredible that they should give up their chief city without one tremendous conflict by land as well as by water. The naval fight was indeed terrible; hardly paralleled in the annals of war, either for the fierce ness with which the combatants fought, the destruc-


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tiveness of the Contest, or the completeness of the victory. To the surprise of all of us, the chivalry that had flamed so brightly seemed to have been suddenly extinguished in the river. The great city tamely surrendered at sight of the first gunboat; her thirty-thousand soldiers vanishing before Farragut came near. The forts surrendered on the twenty-eighth; the city, on the twenty-ninth of April, 1862.

On the 3d of May we received orders to be in readiness for re-embarkation on the ship City of New York. Sunday, May 4th, we struck tents in the morning, and after waiting all day in the hot sand and sunshine, we commenced going on board at night. On the fifth we set sail for the southwest pass of the Mississippi. As we approached this great outlet, Captain Salter insisted that it was impossible to cross the bar without first lightening the ship of its enormous ballast. Accordingly several scores of soldiers were kept at hard work a day or two, shoveling the dirt overboard. It was strongly suspected and loudly complained by many of the laborers, who "had been there before," that all this statement about the difficulty of crossing the bar at that stage of the water was a mere pretence of Captain Salter's, who thus anticipated, they said, the labor which would have been necessary at New Orleans, and saved a few hundred dollars by the operation. " Sugar," they argued, " makes as good ballast as pure gravel."

A small steam-tug slowly towed our ship up the majestic river. It was the second week in May. The breath of orange groves and millions of flowers, the broad level fields, bounded by the green woods in the distance, and rich in all the waving glories of that


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lovely climate and unequaled soil, the beautiful pillared mansions of lordly planters, whose taste, culture, luxury and pride had been amply ministered to by the unpaid toil of hundreds of slaves-all contrasted strongly with the white burning sand of Ship Island or the limitless expanse of the " harvestless sea."

The Mississippi had not been so high for many years. It filled its channel to the top of the levees. Like the Po, as it nears the ocean it becomes more and more, and increasingly from year to year, an enormous aqueduct between artificial banks; and the day may arrive when the deposit of sediment and the necessary rising of the levees will have lifted the very bottom of the river above the surface of the surrounding country. On a level with the house roofs we glided along as if by enchantment. Hoeing in the green fields, or thronging the banks of the Father of Waters, were swarms of many-colored slaves, from the delicately-tinted white of the octaroon with the soft, lustrous eyes, to a darkness before which night grows pale. These, with indubitable demonstrations of joy, waved their handkerchiefs, shouting, "Welcome ! Welcome ! Glory to God !" while their white masters and mistresses scowled defiance, or turned their backs in impotent scorn and rage.

We anchored a day at Fort Jackson, and had opportunity to examine the effect of the iron hail which Farragut had poured upon it. All the ground within a quarter of a mile of the fort on every side was thickly dotted with great holes scooped out by the explosion of the thirteen-inch mortar shells. The river face of the fort was considerably battered. A few guns had been dismounted. Two casemates had


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been nearly knocked into one. But though some-what disfigured, covered with debris, and blackened by the fire that had consumed the wood-work of the interior, the fort was pronounced by Chief Engineer Weitzel " as strong as before the bombardment." Evidently it might have made a much more protracted resistance. Fort St. Philip, lying diagonally opposite on. the other side and a little higher up, was entirely unharmed. In the river we saw the ugly hulk of the iron-clad Manasses and other rebel wrecks. The deep stream, now swollen by the spring floods, covered nearly all; an occasional mast or smoke stack, like a grave stone, marking the spot where a buried vessel lay. Quite a number of fire-rafts loaded with pitch pine, tar, rosin, and other combustibles, were seen here and there along the banks.

At last on the twelfth of May we came in sight of the city. How changed from the New Orleans of other days! A dozen government vessels were all the shipping that could be seen, where, a year before, hundreds of sea-going vessels and river craft crowded upon one another along the whole front of the city. Many of these had gone up the Red River for safety ; some had been sunk ; some burned at the wharves ; Many concealed in the numerous bayous that connect with the Mississippi. A charred and blackened mass of burnt cotton lined the wide empty levee for miles, where, a few months before, bales, barrels, boxes, bags, and every kind of merchandise, were piled high as the roofs. A hundred or so of jubilant negroes of both sexes, and a score or two of white men and boys immediately gathered at the pier. The second mate threw ashore the looped end of a stout cable. "Boy,"


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said lie to a youth of a dozen years, who wore a confederate artillery cap, " Boy, won't you just put that 'ere rope over that log ?" "No, I'll be damned if I will!" was the instant reply.

Towards evening Colonel Birge buckled on sword and pistol and went unattended from the ship up through the streets to report to General Butler. Apprehensive for his safety, we were gratified to see him return safe, after an hour's absence.

May 13th, we landed on the levee and marched a short distance to the yard of the Orleans cotton press, where the regiment went into temporary quarters. We immediately proceeded to make ourselves comfortable, and had just got nicely settled when orders came to move again. General Butler's eye had rested on the regiment, and he assigned us the post of honor, the Custom House. So, on the morning of May 15th, every man put on his best attire, and we marched through the streets with great pomp, going a little further than was absolutely necessary, in order to give the rebels a full view of a live Yankee regiment. Many old citizens of New Orleans told us afterwards they had never seen so fine-looking troops, either in the Union or Confederate service.

We found the building filthy beyond expression. Never completed nor even roofed, though millions of dollars had been spent upon it by the United States, under the superintendence of Beauregard and other engineers, it had been tenanted a year by the Confederate troops ; cannon had been mounted on the topmost story and peered through the upper windows; the walls were disfigured by disloyal and obscene inscriptions ; and a confused mass of rubbish had


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been piled up in the numerous rooms. In. front and rear were many half-burnt gun-carriages. Here too were scores of church bells, which the frenzied inhabitants had contributed from all parts of Louisiana to fee melted into cannon-fit illustration of the demon. power of war, which substitutes the horrible clangor of arms and the din of hell itself for the melodious chimes that call to prayer and praise.

" Is it, O man, with such discordant noises, With such accursed instruments as these, Thou drownest Nature's sweet and kindly voices And jarrest the celestial harmonies ?"

The Custom House was now the military center of , the Department of the Gulf. From this point Butler fulminated his famous orders. Here was the Post Office. Here the Provost Court, the Courts Martial, and the Military Commissions sat. Here, in case of insurrection in the city - no improbable contingency at that time - was the strongest, most defensible position; a fortress in itself.

General Butler's office was in the second story, northeast (rear) angle. The Provost Court, of which Major Bell, of the old firm of Choate & Bell, was Judge, was held in the second story looking out on Magazine Street. The officers of the Treasury Department occupied rooms in the same story, on the river side. Hon. Reverdy Johnson, during his inquisitorial visit, occupied the front center room, same story, on Canal Street. The Post Office was on the first or ground floor, on the cooler Of Canal and Magazine streets. Prison rooms, blacksmith shops, kitch-sutler's rooms, guard-houses, stables, boat-build-


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ers' shops, Quartermaster's and Commissary's rooms were on the same floor. The companies of the Thirteenth Connecticut were scattered through the large building. Company A took the rear room, top of the building, fourth story, near the center; Company C, directly under Company A; Company H, directly under Company C, and therefore in the second story; Company D, alongside Company H ; Company G, third story, back corner room, on Magazine Street; Company B, the same side and story, front corner room; Company F, front room, third story, next to Company B; Company D, front corner room, third story, on the river side ; Company E, a large room, second story, on Magazine Street; Company K, the front corner room, next to Company E.

Battalion drills were commenced, but soon discontinued on account of the other laborious duties and the oppressive heat. Returning in route step one May morning from our second battalion drill, the regiment at suggestion of Colonel Birge struck up as one man the song, never before heard in New Orleans,

" John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the grave, His soul is marching on."

We immediately began to put the Custom House in order. Overwhelmed by the influx of contrabands, who came from every part of the country as well as the city, making their way by stealth or force past, it Confederate pickets, and past the city police who will every effort to exclude them, we set about a humor of them at work cleaning the floors, ceilings, stairways, walls, drains, casement, and kept them so employed week after week, until the Augean Stables


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presented an appearance worthy of the "finest-looking regiment that ever entered New Orleans." Among permanent improvements, Major Holcomb built inroad, handsome and substantial flight of stairs in the center of the front on Canal Street, leading from the sidewalk to the second story. On the summit of the Custom House we flung to the breeze, amid the enthusiastic shouts of the soldiers and the peals of artillery, a large United States flag. It floated from a beautiful flag-staff which had been mysteriously " conveyed" from a ship lying at anchor at Ship Island when the Thirteenth took its departure for New Orleans.

In addition to the heavy guard about the Custom House, we sent out every night an officer with a company to patrol the streets till morning. At nine every evening we also sent a company to serve as the special body-guard of the hated prince of policemen.

Prince of policemen ! for General Butler had, per-, the most villainous set of rascals to deal with ever disgraced and endangered a city. Deserters from the Confederate army, deserters from the Union army, foreign rogues from the four quarters of the world, gamblers, "fancy men," thieves, cut-throats- all extent banded together, and forming a sort of ^Devil's regiment of the line," under the significant appellation of Thugs! A vigilance .committee had to be organized a few years ago to protect decent people from the assaults of these Thugs-! The city to a man, Jrea, to a woman, was hostile to Federal rule. "Every man is drunk, and every union woman a -- [censored],"

Colonel Birge to the writer, one evening - an assertion too sweeping, but yet conveying some


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idea of the truth, though exaggerated. Add to this moral Gehenna the material filth that had accumulated for a year, and that made the most pious of the confederates believe that God would mercifully sweep away the Yankees by yellow fever, when the set time to favor the rebel Zion should have fully come ; arid; some idea may be gained of the need that existed in this city for the prince of policemen. They needed a master and they found one. He governed the city with "an iron hand" without " a velvet glove," and he governed it well. He made it safe for any man or woman to pass alone, on any street at any hour from one end of New Orleans to the other. The streets the drains, the canals, were cleaned as they never had been before. The sanitary condition of the city was perfect. Yellow fever did not come. " Order reign-; ed in Warsaw;" Thugdom was tranquil.

Before we had been a week in the Custom House we began to discharge the disabled and to receive recruits. We took in about two hundred and twenty in all, filling the regiment to the maximum. Nearly all were of foreign birth, and most of them had lived in the? northern states. For illustration: Company It received twenty four recruits in May. Of these twenty were born in Ireland, ten in Germany, one in New York, and one in Massachusetts. All but five had lived to the North. All but six had been in the service. These New Orleans men were a accession to our ranks, many of them men, experienced in war. They were quota of Connecticut, and few of them; ie dishonored- ordered her name. They were well aware of the risk they incurred of being executed as deserters if recap


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tured by the rebels. At the Bayo Des Allemands, on the .New Orleans, Opelousas and Great Western Rail-Road, during that very summer, several companies of the Eighth Vermont, stationed at Algiers, were am-bushed and captured, and seven of their number were recognized as having served in the Confederate ranks. They asserted that it was by compulsion; but the plea did not avail. They were taken about five rods from the rail-road, a single shallow pit was dug, they were placed on the brink, and without respite were shot down; their bodies tumbled into the ditch, and a few shovelfuls of earth were thrown over them. The desolate spot has a mournful interest, and we often visited it. Overgrown with weeds, it is yet easily re-cognized, beside some trees, nearly abreast with the earthworks, on the right side as you go from Algiers. The traveler who has either sentiment or patriotism will hardly restrain his tears, when he stands there and listens to the story of a father's anguish as he shoveled the dirt away to find the mouldering remains of his handsome and manly boy. Will not the great republic some day rear a monument to mark the last resting place of the seven martyrs who died for her at the Bayou Des Allemands in the summer of '62 ?

About two weeks after our arrival in the Custom House, we concluded to have a brass band. We ac-accordingly engaged the services of Mr. Charles Bother, one of the best band leaders in the United States. He selected sixteen other musicians, all of them distinguished for their skill. They were enlisted into the raiment, and mustered into the United States service. The same band, with two or three exceptions, had been in the Confederate army, and had played on the


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bloody field of Shiloh. All being professional musicians, the band of the Thirteenth soon became famous in the Department of the Gulf. Active and long- continued operations in the field finally forced us to the conclusion that it was impracticable to retain them, and they were accordingly mustered out after a year and a half with the Thirteenth.

We were more than four months in the Custom House, during which the regiment by its general good. conduct gained the esteem of the citizens. Of course there were exceptional cases, About the first of June a band of burglars was organized, including one member of Company F, Thirteenth Connecticut, and Mr. Craig, First Mate of the ship City of New York. They represented themselves as officers of our army, and empowered to search houses for arms and contra-band papers. With forged orders and in disguised uniforms they forced their way at dead of night into the dwellings of peaceable citizens, searched trunks, drawers, wardrobes, seized whatever money or plate they could lay hands on, and made off with their booty. The villainy was quickly, laid before General Butler. A Military Commission tried them on Friday, sentenced-ed them on Saturday, and four of them, including the two above named, were hanged the following Monday, June 16, at the Parish. Prison.

Butler executed only one other person during our stay in New Orleans. It was the gambler, Mumford.

He was hung at the Mint. His offence was endeavoring to excite insurrection by tearing down the United States flag from the top of the Mint after the surrender of the city. after his conviction he was con-fined in the Custom House under a guard from our


58
regiment. Here Chaplain Salter repeatedly visited him, and with tears offered him the consolations of religion, and begged him to accept a Saviour's mercy. Mumford's reply to the exhortation to prepare for eternity was singular enough. He said in substance as follows : " I have no fear of death, because I have lived a blameless life. Having never done any-thing wrong, I am prepared for a future world, if there is any future world. I only hate to leave my friends." Well might our kind chaplain be perplexed and amazed. In this stoical indifference, without a prayer on his lips, Mumford met death as coolly as did old John Brown on the Virginia scaffold. But Brown was a man of different mould; of austere morals, trained to piety, accustomed to spend much of his time in reading, his bible or on his knees in prayer. Mumford was conceded to. have no religious convictions, was dissolute, intemperate, and a noted gambler-poor material to exalt into a martyr, even in the cause of slavery, for which he died.

Six other men were doomed to be shot by sentence of a Military Commission, for the offence of recruiting for the Confederate army within our military lines. The appointed day came. A detachment of the Thirteenth Connecticut was detailed to do the shooting, At early morning the prisoners, with a strong military escort from our regiment, proceeded a couple of miles towards the lake, with a vast concourse of spectators thronging around. Passing out of Canal Street, they halted in an open field- on the left. The troops were drawn up on three sides of a square. The soldiers charged with the execution stood in line about ten paces from the victims, who were seated on their cof


59
fins. Perfect silence reigned. The order for trial, the charge, specifications, find Ings and sentence, were read by the Provost Marshal in a clear voice. The muskets were loaded. The fatal word " Fire" Was just on the point of being uttered, when an orderly rode up with a reprieve! Two of them listened to the merciful tidings in silence. Two thanked God aloud and manifested ardent gratitude. But one of them damned General Butler with horrible oaths for having "fooled" him and the others by this mock show!

The irrepressible conflict met us constantly. What-ever a Federal bullet struck, wherever a Federal bayonet pierced, the demon of Slavery started up into visible and gigantic proportions, like Satan at the touch of Ithuriel's spear. Butler at first tried hard to pacify the people, and avoid wounding their feelings. On the subject of slavery he was especially anxious to win their favor. For about three weeks' he used all Ms Influence, and in at least one instance* his authority, to cause fugitives to be restored to their masters. Vain and foolish attempt. To serve liberty by prop-ping slavery! To soothe Niagara by pouring on a little sweet oil! Yet he tried it. The police as of old were allowed to seize and deliver up fugitive slaves. The punishment of whipping them in jail was still inflicted with the full sanction of the military authorities.

When the Thirteenth Connecticut had established Itself in the Custom House, most of the companies employed, as laundresses, colored women, who had run

*Case of the slave girl Caroline. See Appendix


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away or been driven off to the Yankees. Besides these slaves, about a hundred negro men had been set at work by Bromley in the Quartermaster's Department, as black-smiths, carpenters, shoemakers, wagoners, and laborers. Somehow we got the reputation of being an anti-slavery regiment; or as a certain high officer on Butler's staff expressed it, " a damned abolition regiment!" Butler issued stringent orders to keep the negroes out of the Custom House. On the 26th of May he caused the names of all to be taken, and ordered all unemployed negroes to be driven out. On the 27th he commanded that all laundresses should. be put out. On the 28th he directed that the pay for servants be deducted from the pay for officers, in. order to prevent officers from harboring runaways.

The night after the promulgation of the order to admit no more slaves into the Custom House, several able-bodied negro men from the plantation of Alexander Grant, twenty miles down the river, made their way with much difficulty and danger to our quarters. They had been shot at, hunted with dogs, and some of them bore the marks of recent whipping. With tears they begged to be protected from the police, who would pounce upon them at daybreak and lodge them in jail to be again whipped and returned to their rebel master. - Here was a quandary. It was past mid-night ; the Custom House was full; there was no work for any more blacks. Butler's order was still ringing-in our ears. The Officer of the Day (Captain of Company H) went to Bromley, in whom as in Daniel of old, "were found an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, * * * and showing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts." " I have no


61
use for them," said Bromley; "I have more now than I can well employ, I can take them up on my papers, however, and will do so, if you'll find work for them. Will you agree to find labor for them?" '"Yes. But I'm curious to know how you'll enter their names on your papers so as to evade the General's order." "Oh! that's easy enough," replied the Quartermaster. " I'll give them a pass dated a week back in red ink. There's great magic in red ink! " So the Quartermaster received them. Next morning the Officer of the Day set them at work washing floors; and week after week they scrubbed with mi-wearied industry, and endless repetition. They proved to be most valuable hands, and we never regretted our kindness to them. In due time they enlisted in the military service and fought well for freedom.

The idea of a Southern slave was associated with that of a black skin. In this we were quickly undeceived. On the 19th of May, a handsomely dressed young man, having found his way into our quarters, asked the captain of Company II if he could not furnish him employment. The officer surveyed the well-behaved applicant, and noticed a certain diffidence and respectful, air mingled with his otherwise aristocratic bearing, remarked his polished manners, fault-less broadcloth, and soft white hands, and with real compassion said:

" I regret, sir, that I. have no such position at my command as you would probably desire."

" I would accept a'most any situation, sir."

" Excuse me, sir, but I presume you are in the same condition as scores of others in this city -- temporarily reduced to straitened circumstances by the


62
fortune of war-and that you would prefer a clerk-ship, or some writing in the Custom House or Post Office."

"O no, sir, I can't write! My Massa never learnt me to write! But I should be glad to do most any-thing. I can take care of your clothes, black your boots, wait on table, and do a right smart heap o'things."

"What! Are you a slave ?"

"Yes."

"Why, I had'nit noticed any African features."

"My father was a white man-Mr. Barnes, my former, master."

"What's your name ? "

" Charley Barnes."

" Whom do you belong to now ?"

"Mr. Oviatt, on [censored] street. He's .from Connecticut."

" You 'd easily pass for white."

"Yes. But if you notice my hair carefully, you'll see it a little kinky about the roots. There's many slaves a heap whiter'n me."

Lieutenant Julius Tobias employed him as his servant, gave him the name of Julius Caesar Thompson, and in a few weeks got him enlisted as a white soldier in the First Louisiana regiment. There he served faith-fully and gallantly, to the great grief of Mr. Oviatt, who was afraid some harm would befall his valuable chattel, and often called to enquire after his welfare.

In spite of Butler's stringent and repeated orders, the negroes would get inside the building, which was besieged daily by owners hunting for their slippery property. Some of these chattels had their backs


63
shockingly lacerated by whipping; others had huge freshly-burned marks of the branding iron. Many. had chains on their wrists, ankles and necks. A few wore great iron collars with long projecting prongs, like the spokes of a wheel. More than once did the writer of this history work till past midnight filing off these collars. " I used to think," said Captain McCord, " that the stories about cruel treatment of slaves were exaggerated; but the reality is fully equal to the worst description." It was hard to resist the piteous appeals of these slaves for protection. And even when received within our quarters, they were not safe. Repeatedly slaves were seized in the Custom House, sometimes by the connivance of United States officers; repeatedly were they knocked down, and brutally dragged away from under the folds of the " Flag of the Free." Colonel Warner rescued one to these victims at considerable personal risk. The captain of Company H was Officer of the Day, on the 6th of June. That day, one of the Quartermaster's employees was violently torn away by armed police- men, and was dragged across Canal Street, in spite of his vigorous resistance, in the midst of a great crowd. The captain was notified of the high-handed outrage In time to interpose. Drawing his sword and seizing a revolver, he rushed to the scene, forced his way to the center of the mob, released the negro, brought the two men-stealers back in custody, and lodged them in the guard house.

Another time, the same captain, as Officer of the Day, stood at the door on Magazine Street, through which Butler usually entered, A venerable looking


64
gentleman with white neck-tie approached, and the following conversation ensued:

"Captain, I would like to come into the Custom House and look round a little."

"What for?"

"I want to look for a boy of mine that has run away, and I think he's inside." "Oh! You want to come in and hunt for a nigger ?" "Yes. He's a boy I've always been kind to--- al-ways treated him as one of the family. He's always had every thing he wanted. It's very strange he should treat me so. But they're an ungrateful race."

"I don't think I can admit you without a pass from General Butler to come in and hunt your nigger."

"Cant I go in and see the General ?"

" Not about the nigger. The General has more important business. Besides, you are probably aware that the United States Government forbids its officers to return fugitive slaves to their masters."

"But the boy is my properly-my own nigger."

"We can't investigate questions of that sort. The "military law don't acknowledge the right of one man to own another."

"You come here pretending to respect our rights; our constitutional rights, our bible rights; and yet you wont let me get back my nigger, my nigger that's my lawful property. I say it's unconstitutional, it's inconsistent, it's unchristian."

" I don't know whether you own the nigger, or the nigger owns you. I would as soon deliver you to him, as him to you. I tell you we can't investigate such questions."

"This is strange language-strange language !"


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" Very common language where I came from. I guess it'll be common here before long. Look here sir. You appear to be a minister. What do you make of that passage which says, 'Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee'?"

" I don't choose to argue that - question, sir. Do you say I can't come in to look for my nigger?"

"That's what I said."

" Can't I come in to see General Butler?"

" Good morning, sir."

" Good morning."

Such cases were of daily occurrence. Some officers were disposed to allow indiscriminate slave-hunting. Large bribes were offered.

To protect our servants still more from the man-stealers we gave our blacks new names. Among them were John C. Calhoun, Horace Greeley, Tiglath Pile-ser, Henry Ward Beecher, Julius Caesar Thompson, Solomon, Wendell Phillips, Prince of Darkness, King Richard, Polyphemus (a one-eyed man), Sardanapalus (a " slow coach").

The change of views at Head Quarters in regard to slavery, was announced by deeds rather than words. One night twenty or thirty slaves fled from a plantation, and attempted to enter New Orleans. But a body of policemen sent out to patrol by the slave-holders, who still tenaciously clung to the reeling institution, undertook to arrest them as they entered the city limits. The negroes were armed with cane-knives ; the police, with pistols; and a hard fight en-sued. Some negroes were shot dead, others were severely wounded ; but eleven of them reached the


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Custom House just as morning tinted the east. The Officer of the Day, making his nocturnal visits to the sentinels, came to the contrabands, heard their story, and determined to secure fair play, if possible, to men who had shown by their courage that they deserved liberty. That day, on complaint of their overseers, the slaves were arraigned before Judge Bell for violating the peace, riotous conduct, assault with dangerous weapons, and the like. The case was pretty clearly proved. Captain Sprague acted as counsel, and insisted on the failure of the prosecution to identify. Judge Bell cut him short in the midst of his argument, and much to his chagrin said, " I think there can be no doubt about their guilt." " But, your Honor," said the captain, "there surely is no evidence to inculpate more than two or three, and are these eleven to be delivered to their masters on such a pretence as that ?" A roguish twinkle and a knowing smile from Judge Bell, re-assured -the captain as he proceeded with his decision: " I find them all guilty, and sentence them to six months at Fort Jackson!" This was precisely what the owners did not want. One of them went to General Butler. Lieutenant Tibbets was present and heard the master ask the General, " What assurance have I that I can get my niggers back after their six months at Fort Jackson ?" "None at all," replied the General. "Then I'm afraid I shall never get 'em again," sadly exclaimed the proprietor of the sable merchandize. " Very likely," responded the General. They found their way subsequently to the Corps d' Afrique.

Surgeon -[censored]- of our army, an associate of Dr. Fisher in hospital, had employed a fugitive slave as


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a hospital nurse. The former master, finding the girl In the street near the hospital, forcibly seized her and hurried her off to his home. The surgeon brought the matter to the attention of General Butler. The General opened the law books and found that, by the Code of Louisiana, the least penalty for abducting a slave was a term of two years in the Parish Prison. He took the position that the slave being rightfully in the surgeon's possession, had been abducted by her own master! Consequently, he sentenced the patrician owner to two years in the Parish Prison ; a decision which made the New Orleans aristocrats open their eyes very wide. The prince of policemen was progressing fast.

The rebel Governor, Moore, having raised, armed, drilled, and reviewed a regiment of negroes, and call-ed them into service in behalf of the Confederate cause, Butler took the very same appeal in which the Governor had summoned these colored men to the side of treason and slavery, and, changing only a few words, the General bade' them fight for union and liberty, Three regiments were quickly raised, and officered by colored men, whereat all the confederates sent up a howl! How atrocious the man who had first dared to follow their own example!

Some of the city magnates having threatened Butler with French or English intervention, he silenced them by declaring with tremendous emphasis, " Gentlemen, I warn you that if England or France intervenes , I shall call on Africa to intervene, and the men that cut your bread to-day will cut your throats to-morrow!"

These anecdotes are recorded as illustrations of life in the New Orleans Custom House in the summer of


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1862. There was no escaping the omnipresent negro. It did not require much discernment to see the signs of the times. Butler did not have a very tender con-science, but he had a great deal of tough common sense. And even a little common sense will some-times wonderfully light up one's path. He was a rather rough specimen of civilization, but not a savage ; severe, but not cruel; summary, but not a Jeffries ; as far removed from Polyphemus as from Abdiel. He had a Napoleonic vigor, but a kind heart. He some-times stooped to blackguard, but oftener rose to generous deeds. He never was marked as a perfect man, and he. never was the slave of low vice. If some of his subalterns stole books, furniture and plate, lie was not therefore a Verres. If he kicked a fashionable courtezan down stairs, who had been put up by the waggish secession lords to call on Mrs. Butler, that did not make him a Haynan. If lie unceremoniously bade the rich leaders of rebellion "stand and deliver," he bounteously fed the poor victims of rebellion from the proceeds. If he told the high-born ladies who spit on Federal officers that such conduct would make them " liable to the treatment of common women plying their avocation," there was none more prompt than he to punish any officer or soldier who should interpret that order as licensing to insult any woman.

During the summer several of our companies were temporarily detached from the rest of the regiment. Company A, Lieutenant Cornwall commanding, was stationed at Hickox's Landing on the lake ; Company E, Captain Tisdale commanding, was detailed as Provost Guard, (with Captain, afterward Colonel, Stafford Provost Marshal); Company I, Captain Schleiter


69
commanding, was stationed as body-guard for General Butler at General Twiggs' house; Company K, Captain Mitchell commanding, as guard at Colonel Birge's head-quarters, in St. Charles Street. Squads were stationed as guards at other points in the city; as at Lieutenant Colonel Warner's house, Carondelet Street; Adjutant Grosvenor's house, Burgundy Street; and other places.

Occasionally an expedition was sent up the Mississippi pi or across Lake Pontchartrain to procure sugar, corn, cattle, cotton, and other supplies, or to chastise pat ties of guerillas. Companies B and C, under command of Captains Comstock and Blinn, respectively, embarked as part of a force under Major (afterwards General) Strong, to cross the lake, surprise and capture the [rebel force at Pass Mancliac and Pontehatoula, the head-quarters of the eccentric general, Jeff. Thompson. The steamers grounded as they approach- ed their destination, and only a portion of the troops disembarked. They were but partially successful. The rebels rallied, drove them back, and inflicted a loss of a considerable number killed, wounded, and prisoners. Among the latter was Dr. Avery, surgeon of the Ninth Connecticut, a pretty good specimen of a smart Yankee. While a prisoner, he beat Jeff. at cards, got him drunk, and challenged him to a horse- race, in which he managed to run Jeff, off among some trees, Jeff", fell from his horse and nearly broke his neck. Altogether, the rebel general gained some new views of Yankee character.

On the return of this expedition, Major Strong represented it as a brilliant success, inasmuch as he captured a sword and a pair of spurs. He was soon


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promoted to be General, and afterwards fell, gallantly fighting, at Fort Wagner.

In August, Companies A and K, under command of Captain Mitchell, made a foraging expedition up the Mississippi, and returned, partly by steam-boat and partly by land, down the left bank to New Or-leans. They had some skirmishing with guerillas, but without loss returned, bringing a few prisoners, and an immense number of horses, cattle, mules, sheep, swine and poultry. While up the river, Captain Fuller, with a detachment of Company D, went up on a steamer, and by some misunderstanding, they were smartly shelled by one of our own gunboats.

On Monday, September 22, Captain Sprague, with fifty men of Company H, proceeded up the Mississippi as a guard to the Steamboat Iberville. On the 23d they reached a point six miles from Bayou Gottla. Here they found a Frenchman with four hundred cattle, trying to cross the river to the same side as the rebel rendezvous, not many miles distant. Captain Sprague demanded his papers; whereupon he produced a pass dated a few days earlier from the United States Provost Marshal at Jefferson City. The captain, not satisfied, searched him, and found another similar pass in his pocket signed by the rebel colonel commanding in that vicinity; also a permit from the rebel general Dick Taylor. It was decided to take Mm and his cattle to New Orleans. If he proved to be honest, he could have his cattle on paying twenty dollars a head for transportation; if dishonest, his cattle would go- to the United States Commissariat. In any case it was thought unsafe for his cattle to be so near Camp Moore. We commenced taking them


71
on board. They were the wildest, fiercest of Texas oxen. The fifty soldiers formed a circle around them, taking the position of "Guard against Infantry!" Crowding in a compact mass, which moved like a roll-ed wheel circularly round the center, the desperate beasts manifested a most passionate hostility to man. Often two or three would dart off in a tangent, trampling clown, as if all flesh were grass, the soldiers that stood in their way. Bayonets had no terrors for them; nearly twenty were bent double on the fore-heads of the brutes. Others of the infuriated animals would rush along the plank, cross the steamer and plunge into the stream. Gunboat No. 8 " headed them off" by steaming up and down the river, and drove them back to the same bank. Occasionally a few would be secured on our boat. This exciting affair lasted from, noon till night; when the frantic beasts made one grand charge, broke en masse through, the line, and dashed away into the darkness. The region being infested with guerillas, and the captain of the steamboat being very drunk, we steamed rapidly down with one hundred and seventy-six cattle, and eight hundred hogsheads of sugar. Reaching New Orleans September 25th, Captain S. repaired immediately to General Butler, stated the facts of the seizure, submitted the papers, and said he had felt some hesitation about taking the cattle by force. After about five minutes examination and study, the general fixed; his half-shut eye on the captain and with a smile Said, " Captain, you did right. You followed the old rule in Hoyle, ' When you're in doubt., take the trick'!"

In July, 1862, Major Holcomb, of the Thirteenth Connecticut, was empowered to raise a regiment of


72
white Louisiana volunteers. His recruiting station was the old United States barracks, a few miles below the Custom House and on the same bank. Company G, Thirteenth Connecticut, under Captain Finley (successor of Captain Gilbert) and Lieutenant Baker, was stationed there as a guard. The Thirteenth contributed quite a number to the offices in the First Louisiana. Besides Major Holcomb, the following among others were commissioned : Commissary Sergeant Charles A. Tracy; First Sergeants Oscar F. Merrill, Company H, and George A. Mayne, Company D; Sergeants James T. Smith, James M. Gardner, Charles H. Grosvenor, George G. Smith; Corporal Deveraux Jones; Private Leonidas R. Hall. We lost also scores of other valuable men, who were detached from the regiment to officer colored troops, and to act as clerks, orderlies, telegraph operators, messengers, recruiting agents, signal-corps men, and the like. No regiment was so constantly culled from, and yet the supply of good men seemed inexhaustible.

Parton, in his Butler in New Orleans,, relates what he considers a pretty good joke perpetrated at the expense of the Thirteenth. It appears that two very handsome girls, the Misses C--e, of New Orleans, who had made deep inroads into the affections of certain officers, and who professed a great love for the Union had made a beautiful embroidered silk flag for the Thirteenth Connecticut. Arrangements were perfected to have it presented in fine style on the coming Fourth of July. The day came. General Butler, with his brilliant Staff, reviewed the regiment on the levee. The troops looked as beautiful as extraordinary efforts could make even the Thirteenth; resplen-


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dent in brass and steel, neat clothing, and polished accoutrements. The review closing and the distinguished officers taking proper stations, the fair donors of the flag rode up to the front of the regiment in a magnificent carriage, under the escort of our most stylish officer, the handsome Lieutenant T--, of Company K. The banner was brought out, unrolled, and presented to Colonel Birge in a neat and tasteful speech by one of these dark-eyed beauties. Colonel Birge received it in a dignified and graceful manner, amid thunders of applause. Everybody was happy that day ! But how horrified were certain fine gentle-men on the morrow, when it began to be whispered around that those seraphic patriots had African blood under that celestial skin! In fact they were perfect specimens of the effects of that miscegenation which the Chivalry of the South condemn so loudly and practice so freely!

The halcyon days of the summer of 1862 quickly pissed. Colonel Birge longed for active service in the field, and the regiment shared his desire. They thirsted for adventures, marching, fighting, and "glory." "Fortunati, si sua bona norint!"

graphic of a union soldier kneeling with a rifle

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