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011 - Florida Again · Army Life in a Black Regiment

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven of Army Life in a Black Regiment. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by f n H. Army Life
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  Speaker 1: in a Black Regiment by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Chapter eleven, Florida. Again,
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  Speaker 1: let me revert once more to my diary for a
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  Speaker 1: specimen of the sharp changes and sudden disappointments that may
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  Speaker 1: come to troops in service. But Friquet saw too of
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  Speaker 1: valeroid in the regiment. We should have taken part in
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  Speaker 1: the Battle of Ulustee, and should have had, as was reported,
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  Speaker 1: the right of the line. At any rate, we should
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  Speaker 1: have shared the hard knocks and the glory, which were
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  Speaker 1: distributed pretty freely to the Color troops then and there.
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  Speaker 1: The diary will give better than can any continuous narrative
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  Speaker 1: our ups and downs of expectation in those days. Camp Shaw, Beaufort,
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  Speaker 1: s c. February seventh, eighteen sixty four. Greater are the
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  Speaker 1: uncertainties of military orders. Since our recall from Jacksonville, we
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  Speaker 1: have had no such surprises as came to us on
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  Speaker 1: Wednesday night, It was our third day of a new
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  Speaker 1: tour of duty at the picket station. We had just
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  Speaker 1: got nicely settled, men well tented, with good flaws, and
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  Speaker 1: in high spirits. Officers out to outstations, all happy. Missus
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  Speaker 1: Blank coming to stay with her husband, and we at
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  Speaker 1: headquarters just in order, house cleaned, mos garlands up, camellias
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  Speaker 1: and jessamines in the wash tin basins, Baby in bliss.
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  Speaker 1: Our usual run of visitors had just set in to Beaufort.
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  Speaker 1: Captains and a surgeon had just risen from a late
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  Speaker 1: dinner after a flag of truce. General Saxton and his
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  Speaker 1: wife had driven away but an hour or two before.
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  Speaker 1: We were all sitting about, busy with a great fire blazing.
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  Speaker 1: Missus d had just remarked triumphantly, last time I had
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  Speaker 1: but a mouthful here, and now I shall be here
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  Speaker 1: three weeks when in dropped like a bomb shell, a
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  Speaker 1: dispatch announcing that we were to be relieved by the
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  Speaker 1: eighth Main the next morning, as General Gilmore had sent
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  Speaker 1: an order that we should be ready for departure from
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  Speaker 1: Beaufort at any moment. Conjectures, orders, packing, sending couriers to
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  Speaker 1: outstations were the employments of the evening. The men received
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  Speaker 1: the news with cheers, and we all came in next morning,
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  Speaker 1: February eleventh, eighteen sixty four. For three days we have
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  Speaker 1: watched the river, and every little steamboat that comes up
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  Speaker 1: for coal brings out spyglasses and conjectures and darsdy forth
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  Speaker 1: New Hampshire. For when that comes, it is said, we go. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: we hear stirring news from Florida, and the men are
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  Speaker 1: very impatient to be off. It is remarkable how much
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  Speaker 1: more thoroughly they look at the things as soldiers than
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  Speaker 1: last year, and how much less us home bound men,
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  Speaker 1: the South Carolinians I mean, for of course the Floridians
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  Speaker 1: would naturally wish to go to Florida. But in every
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  Speaker 1: way I see the gradual change in them, sometimes with
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  Speaker 1: a sigh, as parents watch their children growing up and
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  Speaker 1: miss the droll speeches from the confiding ignorance of childhood.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes it comes over me with a pang that they
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  Speaker 1: are growing more like white men, less naive, and less grotesque. Still,
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  Speaker 1: I think there is enough of it to last, and
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  Speaker 1: that their joyous buoyancy at least will hold out while
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  Speaker 1: life does. As for our destination, our greatest fear is
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  Speaker 1: of finding ourselves posted at hilton Head and going no farther.
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  Speaker 1: As a dashing Irish officer remarked, the other day, if
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  Speaker 1: we are ordered away anywhere, I hope it will be
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  Speaker 1: either to go to Florida or else stay here. Sublime uncertainties. Again,
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  Speaker 1: after being ordered in from Picket under marching orders, after
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  Speaker 1: the subsequent ten days of uncertainty, after watching every steamboat
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  Speaker 1: that came up the river to see if the fourth
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  Speaker 1: New Hampshire was on board, at last the regiment came.
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  Speaker 1: Then followed another break. There was no transportation to take us.
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  Speaker 1: At last a boat was notified. Then General Saxton, as
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  Speaker 1: anxious to keep us as was the regiment to go,
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  Speaker 1: played his last card in a small pox telegraphing to
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  Speaker 1: Department headquarters that we had it dangerously in the regiment
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  Speaker 1: notebook all very alloyed light at that, and besides we
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  Speaker 1: always have it. Then the order came to leave behind
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  Speaker 1: the sick and those who had been peculiarly exposed, and
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  Speaker 1: embark the rest. The next day, great was the jubilee.
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  Speaker 1: The men were up, I verily believe by three in
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  Speaker 1: the morning, and by eight the whole camp was demolished
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  Speaker 1: or put in wagons, and we were on our way.
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  Speaker 1: The soldiers of the fourth New Hampshire swarmed in. Every
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  Speaker 1: board was swept away by them. There had been a
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  Speaker 1: time when colored boards, if I may delicately so express myself,
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  Speaker 1: were repudiated by white soldiers, but that epoch had long
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  Speaker 1: since passed. I gave my new tent frame, even the latch,
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  Speaker 1: to Colonel Bell, ditto Lieutenant Colonel, and to Lieutenant Colonel Down.
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  Speaker 1: We marched, the men, singing John Brown, and marching along
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  Speaker 1: and gwine into wilderness. Women in tears and smiles lined
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  Speaker 1: the way. We halted opposite the dear General's We cheered,
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  Speaker 1: he speeched, I speeched. We all embraced symbolically, and cheered
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  Speaker 1: some more. Then we went to work at the wharf.
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  Speaker 1: Vast wagon loads of tents, rations, ordnance and what not
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  Speaker 1: disappeared in the capacious more of the Delaware. In the
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  Speaker 1: midst of it all came riding down General Saxton with
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  Speaker 1: a despatch from Hilton Head. If you think the amount
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  Speaker 1: of smallpox in the first South Carolina volunteers sufficient, the
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  Speaker 1: order will be countermanded. What shall I say, quoth the
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  Speaker 1: guilty General, perceiving how preposterously too late, the negotiation was reopened. Say,
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  Speaker 1: Sir quoth I say that we are on board already
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  Speaker 1: in the small pox left behind. Say we had only
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  Speaker 1: thirteen cases, chiefly very alloyed, and ten almost well. Our
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  Speaker 1: blood was up with the tremendous morning's work done, and
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  Speaker 1: rather than turn back, we felt ready to hold down
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  Speaker 1: Major General Gilmore, Commanding Department, and all his staff upon
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  Speaker 1: the wharf and vaccinate them by main force. So General
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  Speaker 1: Saxton rode away, and we worked away, just as the
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  Speaker 1: last wagon load but one was being transferred to the
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  Speaker 1: omnivorous depths of the Delaware, which I should think would
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  Speaker 1: have been filled ten times over with what we had
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  Speaker 1: put into it. Down rode the General with a fiendish
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  Speaker 1: joy in his bright eyes, and held out a paper
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  Speaker 1: one of the familiar rescripts from headquarters. The marching orders
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  Speaker 1: of the First South Carolina Volunteers are hereby countermanded. Major
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  Speaker 1: Trowbridge said, I will you give my compliments to Lieutenant
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  Speaker 1: Hooper somewhere in the hold of that steam, and direct
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  Speaker 1: him to set his men at work to bring out
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  Speaker 1: every individual article which they have carried in. And I
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  Speaker 1: sat down on a pile of boards. You will return
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  Speaker 1: to your old camping ground, colonel, said the general placidly. Now,
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  Speaker 1: he added, with some serene satisfaction, we will have some
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  Speaker 1: brigade drills. Brigade drills. Since mister Pickwick, with his heartless tomato,
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  Speaker 1: saw some warming pans, there had been nothing so aggravating
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  Speaker 1: as to try and to solace us, who were as
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  Speaker 1: good as on board the ship and under way, nay
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  Speaker 1: in imagination, as far up as Saint John's as politica,
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  Speaker 1: at least with brigade drills. It was very kind and
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  Speaker 1: flattering in him to wish to keep us, but unhappily
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  Speaker 1: we had made up our minds to go. Never did
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  Speaker 1: officer ride at the head of a battalion of more
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  Speaker 1: woebegone spiritless wretches than I led back from Beaufort that
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  Speaker 1: day when I marched down to the landing, said one
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  Speaker 1: of the men. After Wards, my knapsack full of feathers.
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  Speaker 1: Coming back, he led, and the lead instead of the feathers,
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  Speaker 1: rested on the heart of everyone. As if the disappointment
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  Speaker 1: itself were not sufficient, we had to return to our
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  Speaker 1: pretty camp, accustomed to its drawing room, order to find
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  Speaker 1: it a desert, every board gone from the floors, the
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  Speaker 1: screens torn down from the poles, all the little conveniences scattered,
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  Speaker 1: And to crown it all, a cold breeze such as
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  Speaker 1: we had not known since New Year's Day, blowing across
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  Speaker 1: the camp and flooding everything with dust. I sincerely hope
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  Speaker 1: the regiment would never behave after a defeat. As they
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  Speaker 1: behaved then, every man seemed crushed, officers and soldiers alike.
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  Speaker 1: When they broke ranks, they went and laid down like
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  Speaker 1: sheep where their tents used to be, or wandered disconsolately
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  Speaker 1: about looking for their stray belongings. The scene was so
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  Speaker 1: infinitely dolorous that it gradually put me in the highest speed.
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  Speaker 1: The ludicrousness of the whole affair was so complete there
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  Speaker 1: was nothing to do but laugh. The horrible dust blewed
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  Speaker 1: till every officer had some black spot on his nose,
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  Speaker 1: which paralyzed pathos. Of course, the only way was to
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  Speaker 1: set them all to work as soon as possible, and
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  Speaker 1: work them we did. I at the camp, and the
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  Speaker 1: major at the wharf, loading and unloading wagons, and just
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  Speaker 1: reversing all which the morning had done. The new Hampshire
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  Speaker 1: men were very considerate and gave back most of what
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  Speaker 1: they had taken, though many of our men were really
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  Speaker 1: too delicate or proud to ask or even take what
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  Speaker 1: they had once given to the soldiers or to the
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  Speaker 1: colored people. I had no such delicacy about my tent frame,
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  Speaker 1: and by night things had resumed something of their old aspect,
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  Speaker 1: and cheerfulness was restored in part. Yet long after this
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  Speaker 1: I found one first sergeant absolutely in tears, a Florida man.
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  Speaker 1: Most of those kindred were up the Saint John's. It
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  Speaker 1: was very natural that the men from that region should
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  Speaker 1: feel thus bitterly, but it shows how much of a
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  Speaker 1: habit of soldiers they have all acquired that the South
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  Speaker 1: Carolina men, who were leaving the neighborhood of their families
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  Speaker 1: for an indefinite time, were just as eager to go,
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  Speaker 1: and not one deserted, though they knew of it for
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  Speaker 1: a week beforehand. No doubt, my precarious health makes it
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  Speaker 1: now easier for me personally to remain here, easier on reflection,
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  Speaker 1: at least, than for the others. At the same time,
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  Speaker 1: Florida is fascinating and offers not only adventure but the
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  Speaker 1: command of a brigade. Certainly, at the last moment there
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  Speaker 1: was not a sacrifice I would not have made rather
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  Speaker 1: than wrench myself and the others away from the expedition.
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  Speaker 1: We are, of course thrown back into the old uncertainty.
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  Speaker 1: And if the small pox subsides, and it is really diminishing,
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  Speaker 1: decidedly we may yet come in at the wrong end
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  Speaker 1: of the Florida affair. February nineteen not a bit of it.
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  Speaker 1: This morning the general had ridden up Radiant has seen
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  Speaker 1: General Gilmour, who has decided not to order us to
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  Speaker 1: Florida at all, nor withdraw any of this garrison. Moreover,
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  Speaker 1: he says that all which is intended in Florida is done,
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  Speaker 1: that there will be no advance to Tallahassee, and General
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  Speaker 1: Seymour will establish a camp of instruction in Jacksonville. Well,
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  Speaker 1: if that is all, it is a lucky escape. We
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  Speaker 1: little dreamed that on that very day the march toward
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  Speaker 1: Olisty was beginning. The battle took place next day. And
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  Speaker 1: I add one more extract to show how the news
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  Speaker 1: reached Beaufort. February twenty three, eighteen sixty four. There was
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  Speaker 1: the sound of revelry by night at a ball in
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  Speaker 1: Beaufort last night, in a new large building, beautifully decorated.
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  Speaker 1: All of the collected flags of the garrison hung round
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  Speaker 1: and over us, as if the stars and stripes were
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  Speaker 1: divis for an ornament alone. The array of uniforms was
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  Speaker 1: such that a civilian became a distinguished object, much more
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  Speaker 1: a lady. All would have gone according to the proverbial
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  Speaker 1: marriage bell. I suppose had there not been a slight,
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  Speaker 1: palpable shadow over all of us. From hearing vague stories
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  Speaker 1: of a lost battle in Florida, and from the thought
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  Speaker 1: that perhaps the very ambulances in which we rode to
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  Speaker 1: the ball were as only until the wounded or the
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  Speaker 1: dead might tenant them. General Gilmour only came, I supposed
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  Speaker 1: to put a good face upon the matter. He went
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  Speaker 1: away soon, and General Saxton went. Then came a rumor
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  Speaker 1: that the Cosmopolitan had actually arrived with wounded. But still
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  Speaker 1: the dance went on. There was nothing unfeeling about it.
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  Speaker 1: One gets used to things. When suddenly, in the midst
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  Speaker 1: of the lancers there came a perfect hush, the music ceasing.
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  Speaker 1: A few surgeons went hastily to and fro, as if
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  Speaker 1: conscience stricken, I should think they might have been. Then
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  Speaker 1: there waved a mighty shadow in as in Newland's black night,
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  Speaker 1: and as we all stood wandering, we were ware of
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  Speaker 1: General Saxton, who strode hastily down the hall, his pale
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  Speaker 1: face very irresolute, and looking almost sick with anxiety. He
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  Speaker 1: had just been on board the steamer. There were two
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty wounded men just arrived. And the ball
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  Speaker 1: must end. Not that there was anything for us to do,
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  Speaker 1: but the revel was mistimed and must be ended. It
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  Speaker 1: was wicked to be dancing with such a scene of
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  Speaker 1: suffering near by. Of course, the ball was instantly broken up,
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  Speaker 1: though with some murmurings and some longings of appetite on
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  Speaker 1: the part of some towards the waisted supper. Later I
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  Speaker 1: went on board the boat. Among the long lines of wounded,
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  Speaker 1: black and white intermingled. There was the wonderful quiet which
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  Speaker 1: usually prevails on such occasions, not a sob nor a groan,
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  Speaker 1: except from those undergoing removal. It is not self control,
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  Speaker 1: but chiefly the shock to the cysts and produced by
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  Speaker 1: severe wounds, especially gunshot wounds, and which usually keeps the
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  Speaker 1: patient stiller at first than at any time. Later, a
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  Speaker 1: company from my regiment waited on the wharf in their
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  Speaker 1: accustomed dusky silence, and I longed to ask them what
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  Speaker 1: they thought of our Florida disappointment. Now, in view of
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  Speaker 1: what they saw, did they still wish we had been there?
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  Speaker 1: I confess that, in the presence of all that human suffering,
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  Speaker 1: I could not wish it, but I would not have
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  Speaker 1: suggested any such thought to them. I found our kind
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  Speaker 1: hearted ladies, Missus Chamberlain and Missus Dewhurst on board the steamer,
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  Speaker 1: but there was nothing for them to do, and we
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  Speaker 1: walked back to the camp in the radiant moonlight. Missus
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  Speaker 1: Chamberlain more than ever strengthened in a blushing woman's philosophy.
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  Speaker 1: I don't care who wins the laurels, provided we don't
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  Speaker 1: February twenty nine, But for a few trivial cases of
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  Speaker 1: very Alloyd, we should certainly have been in that disastrous fight.
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  Speaker 1: We were confidently expected for several days at Jacksonville, and
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  Speaker 1: the commanding general told Colonel Halliwell that we, being the
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  Speaker 1: oldest colored regiment, would have the right of the line.
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  Speaker 1: This was certainly to miss danger and glory very closely.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter eleven recording by f NH. Visit www.
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  Speaker 1: Dot book ranger dot co dot uk