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007 - Up the Edisto · Army Life in a Black Regiment

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Speaker 1: Chapter seven 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 aught 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 seven
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Speaker 1: up the edisto. In reading military history, one finds the
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Speaker 1: main interest to lie undoubtedly in the great campaigns, where
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Speaker 1: a man, a regiment, a brigade, is but a pawn
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Speaker 1: in the game. But there is a charm also in
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Speaker 1: the more free and adventurous life of partisan warfare, where
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Speaker 1: if the total sphere be humbler, yet the individual has
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Speaker 1: more relative importance, and the scene of action is more
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Speaker 1: personal and keen. This is the real and given by
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Speaker 1: the eccentric revolutionary biographer Weems for writing the life of
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Speaker 1: Washington first and then that of Marion. And there were
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Speaker 1: certainly high in the early adventures of the colour troops
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Speaker 1: of the Department of the South, some of the same
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Speaker 1: elements of picturesqueness that belonged to Marion's band on the
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Speaker 1: same soil, with the added feature that the Blacks were
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Speaker 1: fighting for their personal liberties of which Marian had helped
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Speaker 1: to deprive them. It is stated by Major General Gilmore
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Speaker 1: in his Siege of Charleston, as one of the three
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Speaker 1: points of his preliminary strategy, that an expedition was sent
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Speaker 1: up by the Adisto River to destroy a bridge on
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Speaker 1: the Charleston and Savannah railway as one of the early
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Speaker 1: raids of the Coloured troops. This expedition may deserve narration,
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Speaker 1: though it was, in a strategic point of view, a disappointment.
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Speaker 1: It has already been told briefly and on the whole
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Speaker 1: with truth, by Greenley and others, but I will venture
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Speaker 1: on a more complete account. The project dated back earlier
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Speaker 1: than Jederal Gilmore's siege and had originally no connection with
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Speaker 1: that movement. It had been formed by Captain Trowbridge and
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Speaker 1: myself in camp, and was based on the facts learned
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Speaker 1: from the men. General Saxton and Colonel W. W. H. Davis,
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Speaker 1: the successive post commanders, had both favored it. It had
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Speaker 1: been also approved by General Hunter before his sudden removal,
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Speaker 1: though he regarded the bridge's secondary affair because there was
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Speaker 1: another railway communication between the two cities, but as the
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Speaker 1: main object was to obtain permission to go. I tried
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Speaker 1: to make the most of all results which might follow.
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Speaker 1: While it was very clear that the raid would harass
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Speaker 1: and confuse the enemy and be the means of bringing
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Speaker 1: away many of the slaves. General Hunter had therefore accepted
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Speaker 1: the project mainly as a stroke for freedom and black recruits,
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Speaker 1: and General Gilmore because anything that looked towards action found
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Speaker 1: favor in his eyes, and because it would be convenient
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Speaker 1: to him at that time to effect a diversion. If
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Speaker 1: nothing more, it must be remembered that after the first
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Speaker 1: capture of Port Royal, the outlying plantations along the whole
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Speaker 1: southern coast were abandoned and the slaves withdrawn into the interior.
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Speaker 1: It was necessary to ascend some river for thirty miles
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Speaker 1: in order to reach the black population at all. This
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Speaker 1: ascent could only be made by night, and it was
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Speaker 1: slow process, and the smoke of a steamboat could be
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Speaker 1: seen for a great distance. The streams were usually shallow, winding,
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Speaker 1: and muddy, and the difficulties of navigation were such as
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Speaker 1: to require a full moon and a flooded tide. It
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Speaker 1: was really no easy matter to bring everything to bear,
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Speaker 1: especially as every projected raid must be kept a secret
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Speaker 1: so far as possible. However, we were now somewhat familiar
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Speaker 1: with such undertakings, half military, half naval, and the thing
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Speaker 1: to be done on the Edisto was precisely what had
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Speaker 1: been proved to be practicable on the Saint Mary's and
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Speaker 1: the Saint John's, to drop anchor before the enemy's door
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Speaker 1: some morning at daybreak without his having dreamed of our approach.
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Speaker 1: Since a raid made by Colonel Montgomery up the Combayee
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Speaker 1: two months before, the vigilance of the rebels had increased.
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Speaker 1: But we had information that upon the South Adisto or
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Speaker 1: Pompon River, the rice plantations were still being actively worked
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Speaker 1: by a large number of Negroes, in reliance on obstructions
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Speaker 1: placed at the mouth of that narrow stream where it
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Speaker 1: joins the main river, some twenty miles from the coast.
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Speaker 1: This point was known to be further protected by a
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Speaker 1: battery of unknown strength at Wilketown Bluff, a commanding and
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Speaker 1: defense of all position. The obstructions consisted of a row
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Speaker 1: of strong wooden piles across the river, but we convinced
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Speaker 1: ourselves that these must now be much decayed, and that
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Speaker 1: Captain Troubridge, an excellent engineer officer could remove them by
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Speaker 1: the proper apparatus. Our proposition was to man the John Adams,
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Speaker 1: an armed ferryboat, which had before done us much service,
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Speaker 1: and which had now reverted to the pursuits of peace.
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Speaker 1: It is said on the East Boston Line to ascend
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Speaker 1: in this to Wiltown Bluff, silence of and clear the
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Speaker 1: passage through the obstructions, leaving the John Adams to protect
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Speaker 1: this point. We could then ascend the smaller stream with
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Speaker 1: two light draft boats and perhaps burn the bridge, which
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Speaker 1: was ten miles higher, before the enemy could bring sufficient
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Speaker 1: force to make our position at Wilton Bluff untenable. The
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Speaker 1: expedition was organized essentially upon this plan. The smaller boats
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Speaker 1: were the Enoch Dean, a river steamboat which carried a
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Speaker 1: ten pound parrot gun and a small howarzer, and a
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Speaker 1: little mosquito of a tug, the Governor Milton, upon which,
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Speaker 1: with the greatest difficulty, we found room for two twelve
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Speaker 1: pound armstrong guns with their gunners forming a section of
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Speaker 1: the first Connecticut Battery under Lieutenant Clinton, aided by a
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Speaker 1: squad from my own regiment under Captain James. The John
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Speaker 1: Adams carried if I remember rightly two parrot guns of
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Speaker 1: twenty and ten pounds caliber and a howartzer or two.
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Speaker 1: The whole force of men did not exceed two hundred
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Speaker 1: and fifty. We left Beaufort, s c. On the afternoonnoon
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Speaker 1: of July ninth, eighteen sixty three. In former narrations I
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Speaker 1: have sufficiently described the charm of a moonlight ascent into
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Speaker 1: a hostile country upon an unknown stream, the dark and
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Speaker 1: silent banks, the rippling water, the whale of the reed birds,
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Speaker 1: the anxious watch, the breathless listening, the veiled lights, the
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Speaker 1: whispered orders. To this was now to be added the
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Speaker 1: vexation of insufficient pilotage, for our negro guide knew only
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Speaker 1: of the upper river, and, as it finally proved, not
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Speaker 1: even that while to take us over the bar which
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Speaker 1: obstructed the main stream, we must borrow a pilot from
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Speaker 1: Captain Dutch, whose gunboat blockaded that point. This active naval officer, however,
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Speaker 1: whose boat expeditions had penetrated all the lower branches of
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Speaker 1: those streams, could not supply our want, and we borrowed
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Speaker 1: from him not only a pilot, but a surgeon to
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Speaker 1: replace our own, who had been prevented by an accident
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Speaker 1: from coming with us. Thus accompanied, we steamed over the
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Speaker 1: bar in safety and had a peaceful ascent past the
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Speaker 1: island of Johosey, the fine estate of Governor Aiken. Then
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Speaker 1: left undisturbed by both sides, and fired our first shell
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Speaker 1: into the camp at Wilton Bluff at four o'clock in
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Speaker 1: the morning. The battery, whether fixed or movable we knew, not,
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Speaker 1: met us with a promptness that proved very short lived.
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Speaker 1: After three shots, it was silent, but we could not
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Speaker 1: tell why. The bluff was wooded, and we could see
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Speaker 1: but little. The only course was to land under cover
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Speaker 1: of the guns. As the firing ceased and the smoke
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Speaker 1: cleared away, I looked across the rice fields which lay
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Speaker 1: beneath the bluff. The first sunbeams glowed upon their emerald leaves,
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Speaker 1: and on the blossoming hedges along the rectangular dikes. What
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Speaker 1: were those black dots which everywhere appeared? Those moist meadows
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Speaker 1: had become alive with human heads, And along each narrow
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Speaker 1: path came a straggling file of men and women, all
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Speaker 1: on a run for the river. I went ashore with
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Speaker 1: a boat load of troops at once. The landing was
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Speaker 1: difficult and marshy onish negroes tugged us up the bank
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Speaker 1: and gazed at us as if we had been Cortes
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Speaker 1: or Columbus. They kept arriving by land much faster than
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Speaker 1: we could come by water. Every moment increased the crowd,
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Speaker 1: the jostling, the mutual clinging on that miry foothold. What
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Speaker 1: a scene it was, with the wild faces, eager figures,
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Speaker 1: strange garments. It seemed as if one of the poor
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Speaker 1: things revernently suggested like nutting, but dejudgment. Day presently they
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Speaker 1: began to come from the houses, also with their little
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Speaker 1: bundles on their heads, then with larger bundles. Old women
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Speaker 1: trotting on the narrow paths would kneel to pray a
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Speaker 1: little prayer, still balancing the bundle, and then would suddenly
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Speaker 1: spring up, urged by the accumulation of procession from behind,
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Speaker 1: and would move on till irresistibly compelled by the thankfulness,
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Speaker 1: to dip down for another invocation reaching us. Every human
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Speaker 1: being must grasp our hands and amid exclamations of bressu
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Speaker 1: massa and breasty law at the rate of four of
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Speaker 1: the latter ascriptions to one of the former women brought
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Speaker 1: children on their shoulders. Small black boys leaned on their
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Speaker 1: black little brothers, easily, inky and gravely, depositing them shook hands.
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Speaker 1: Never had I seen human beings so clad, or rather
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Speaker 1: so unclad, in such amazing squalidness and destitution of garments.
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Speaker 1: I recall one small urchin without a rag of clothing
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Speaker 1: save the basque waist of a lady's dress, bristling with
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Speaker 1: whalebones and worn wrong side before beneath which his smooth
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Speaker 1: ebony legs emerged like those of an ostrich from its plumage.
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Speaker 1: How weak is imagination, how cold is memory? That I
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Speaker 1: ever cease for a day in my life to see
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Speaker 1: before me the picture of that astounding scene. Yet at
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Speaker 1: the time we were perforce a little impatient of all
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Speaker 1: this piety, protestation and hand pressing, for the vital thing
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Speaker 1: was to ascertain what force had been stationed at the bluff,
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Speaker 1: and whether it was yet withdrawn. The slaves, on the
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Speaker 1: other hand, were too much absorbed by their prospective freedom
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Speaker 1: to aid us in taking any further steps to secure it.
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Speaker 1: Captain Trowbridge, who had by this time landed at a
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Speaker 1: different point, got quite into despair over the seeming deafness
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Speaker 1: of the people toward questions. How many soldiers were there
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Speaker 1: on the bluff? He asked of the first comer, Massa.
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Speaker 1: The man said, stutting terribly, I tell me how many
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Speaker 1: soldiers are there? Roared Trowbridge in his mighty voice, and
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Speaker 1: all but shaking the poor old thing in his thirst
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Speaker 1: for information. Oh, Massa recommenced in terror. The incapacitated witness
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Speaker 1: I Carpenter, holding up eagerly a little stump of a
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Speaker 1: hatchet his sole treasure, as if his profession ought to
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Speaker 1: excuse from all military opinions. I wish that it were
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Speaker 1: possible to present all this scene from the point of
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Speaker 1: view of the slaves themselves. It can be most nearly done,
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Speaker 1: perhaps by quoting the description given by a similar scene
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Speaker 1: on the Kumbahee River by a very aged man who
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Speaker 1: had been brought down on the previous raid already mentioned.
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Speaker 1: I wrote it down in a tent long after, while
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Speaker 1: the old man recited his tale with much gesticulation at
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Speaker 1: the door. And it is by far the best glimpse
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Speaker 1: I have ever had through a negro's eyes at these
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Speaker 1: wonderful birth days of freedom. De people. Was all hoe
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Speaker 1: in Massa, said the old man. There was a hoe
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Speaker 1: in the rice fields when de gumboats come. Then every
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Speaker 1: man drop dem hoe and de lef de rice. De
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Speaker 1: Massa he stand and call, run to dee woods for hide. Yankee,
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Speaker 1: come sell you to Cuba. Run for hide. Every man
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Speaker 1: he run, and my god, run all tud away. Massa
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Speaker 1: stand in de wood peep beep fade for truss. Afraid
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Speaker 1: to trust, he say, run to dee Wood, and every
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Speaker 1: man run by him straight to de boat de BRAC's soldier.
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Speaker 1: So presumptuous they come right ashore, hold up dee head fusting.
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Speaker 1: I know, dear a barn ten thousand bushel rough rice,
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Speaker 1: all in a blaze, den Massa's great house, all crackling
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Speaker 1: up de roof. Didn't I hear for sea umblaze law
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Speaker 1: Massa didn't care nothing at all was gwine to devote doors.
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Speaker 1: Don Quixote could not surpass the sublime absorption to which
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Speaker 1: the old gaunt man with arm uplifted, described this stage
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Speaker 1: of affairs till he ended in a shrewd chuckle worthy
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Speaker 1: of Sancho Panza. Then he resumed de Brac soldiers so
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Speaker 1: presumptuous this he repeated three times, slowly shaking his head
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Speaker 1: in an ecstasy of admiration. It flashed upon me that
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Speaker 1: the apparition of a black soldier must amaze those still
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Speaker 1: in bondage, much as a butterfly just from the chrysalis
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Speaker 1: might astound his fellow grubs. I inwardly vowed that my
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Speaker 1: soldiers at least should be as presumptuous as I could
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Speaker 1: make them. Then he went on, old woman, and I
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Speaker 1: go down to de boat. Then they say behind us,
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Speaker 1: rebels comin rebels coming, old woman say come ahead, come
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Speaker 1: plenty ahead. I have nothing, none but my shirt and
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Speaker 1: pantaloon o woman, one single frock he have on, and
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Speaker 1: one handkerchief on his head. I left all two of
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Speaker 1: my blankey and run for de rebel. Come and Denday
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Speaker 1: didn't come, didn't trust for come. I is eighty eight
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Speaker 1: year old Massa, My old Massa lownds kept all the
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Speaker 1: ages in a big book, and when we come to
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Speaker 1: the age of sense, we mark em down every year.
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Speaker 1: So I know, too old for come, massa jokin never
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Speaker 1: too old for deleaved the land a bondage. I old,
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Speaker 1: but great food for Chilburn. Give thousand tank every day.
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Speaker 1: Young people can go through Massa, but de old folk
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Speaker 1: must go slow. Such emotions as these, no doubt, were
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Speaker 1: inspired by our arrival, but we could only hear their
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Speaker 1: hasty utterance in passing our duty. Being with the small
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Speaker 1: force already landed to take possession of the bluff. Ascending
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Speaker 1: with proper precautions the wooded hill, we soon found ourselves
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Speaker 1: in the deserted camp of a light battery, amid scattered
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Speaker 1: remaining equipments and suggestions of a very unattractive breakfast. As
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Speaker 1: soon as possible. Skirmishes were thrown out through the woods
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Speaker 1: to the farther edge of the bluff, while a party
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Speaker 1: searched the houses, finding the usual large supply of furniture
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Speaker 1: and pictures brought up for safety from below, but no soldiers.
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Speaker 1: Captain S. Trowbridge had then got the John Adams beside
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Speaker 1: the row of piles and went to work for their removal. Again.
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Speaker 1: I had the exciting sensation of being within the hostile lines.
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Speaker 1: The eager explorations, the doubts, the watchfulness, the listening for
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Speaker 1: every sound of coming hoofs. Presently a horse's tread was
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Speaker 1: heard in earnest, but it was a squad of our
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Speaker 1: own men, bringing in two captured cavalry soldiers. One of these,
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Speaker 1: a sturdy fellow, submitted quietly to his lot, only begging
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Speaker 1: that whenever he should be evacuated from the bluff, a
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Speaker 1: note should be left behind stating that he was a prisoner.
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Speaker 1: The other, a very young man and a member of
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Speaker 1: the rebel troop, a sort of cadet corpse among the
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Speaker 1: Charleston youths, came to me in great wrath, complaining that
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Speaker 1: the corporal of our squad had kicked him after he
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Speaker 1: had surrendered. His air of offended prize was very rueful,
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Speaker 1: and it did indeed seem a pathetic reversal of fortunes
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Speaker 1: for the two races. To be sure, the youth was
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Speaker 1: a scion from one of the foremost families of the
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Speaker 1: South Carolina, and when I considered the wrongs which the
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Speaker 1: Black race had encountered from those of his blood first
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Speaker 1: and last, it seemed as if the most scrupulous recording
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Speaker 1: angel might tolerate one final kick to square the account.
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Speaker 1: But I reproved the corporal, who respectfully disclaimed the charge
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Speaker 1: and said the kick was an incident of the scuffle.
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Speaker 1: It certainly was not their habit to show such poor malice,
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Speaker 1: they thought too well of themselves. His demeanor seemed less lofty,
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Speaker 1: but perhaps piteous, when he implored me not to put
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Speaker 1: him on board any vessel which was to ascend the
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Speaker 1: upper stream, and hinted by awful implications the day of
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Speaker 1: such as scent. This meant torpedoes, a peril, which we
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Speaker 1: treated in those days with rather mistaken contempt. But we
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Speaker 1: found none on the Odisto, and it may be that
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Speaker 1: it was only a foolish attempt to alarm us. Meanwhile,
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Speaker 1: Trowbridge was toiling away at the row of piles, which
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Speaker 1: proved easier to draw out than to soar asunder, either
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Speaker 1: work being hard enough. It took far longer than we
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Speaker 1: had hoped, and we saw noon approach and the tide
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Speaker 1: fall rapidly, taking with it inch by inch our hopes
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Speaker 1: of effecting a surprise at the bridge. During this time,
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Speaker 1: and indeed all day, the detachments on shore under Captains
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Speaker 1: Whitney and Samson, were having occasional skirmishes with the enemy,
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Speaker 1: while the colored people were swarming to the shore or
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Speaker 1: running to and fro like ants, with the poor treasures
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Speaker 1: of their houses. Our busy quartermaster mister Bingham, who died
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Speaker 1: afterwards from the overwork of that sultry day, was transporting
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Speaker 1: the refugees on board the steamer, or hunting up bales
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Speaker 1: of cotton, or directing the burning of rice houses in
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Speaker 1: accordance with our orders. No dwelling houses were destroyed or
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Speaker 1: plundered by our men, Sherman's bummers not having yet arrived.
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Speaker 1: Although I asked no questions as to what the plantation
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Speaker 1: Negroes might bring in their great bundles, one piece of
17:19
Speaker 1: property I must admit, seemed a lawful capture a United
17:22
Speaker 1: States dress sword of the old pattern, which had belonged
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Speaker 1: to the rebel general, who afterwards gave the order to
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Speaker 1: bury Colonel Shaw with his niggers. That I have retained,
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Speaker 1: not without some satisfaction to this day. A passage having
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Speaker 1: been cleared at last, and the tide having turned by noon,
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Speaker 1: we lost no time in attempting the ascent, leaving the
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Speaker 1: bluff to be held by the John Adams and by
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Speaker 1: a small force on shore. We were scarcely above the obstructions. However,
17:49
Speaker 1: when the little tug went aground and the Enoch Dean,
17:52
Speaker 1: ascending a mile farther, had an encounter with a battery
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Speaker 1: on the right, perhaps our old enemy, and drove it back.
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Speaker 1: Soon after she also ran aground, a misfortune of which
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Speaker 1: our opponents strangely took no advantage, And on getting off,
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Speaker 1: I thought it best to drop down to the bluff again,
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Speaker 1: as the tide was still hopelessly low. None can tell,
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Speaker 1: save those who have tried them, the vexations of those
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Speaker 1: muddy southern streams, navigable only during a few hours of
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Speaker 1: flood tide. After waiting an hour, the two small vessels
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Speaker 1: again tried the ascent. The enemy on the right had disappeared,
18:27
Speaker 1: but we could now see far off on our left
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Speaker 1: another light battery moving parallel with the river, apparently to
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Speaker 1: meet us at some upper bend. But for the present
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Speaker 1: we were safe, and the low rice fields on each
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Speaker 1: side of us, and the sea was so peaceful it
18:42
Speaker 1: seemed as if all danger were done. For the first time,
18:45
Speaker 1: we saw in South Carolina blossoming river banks and low
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Speaker 1: emerald meadows that seemed like New England. Everywhere there were
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Speaker 1: the same rectangular fields, smooth canals, and bushy dikes. A
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Speaker 1: few negroes stole out to us in gouts and breathlessly
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Speaker 1: told us how others had been hurried away by the overseers.
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Speaker 1: We glided safely on mile after mile. The day was
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Speaker 1: unutterably hot, and all else seemed propetitious. The men had
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Speaker 1: their combustibles all ready to fire the bridge, and our
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Speaker 1: hopes were unbounded. But by degrees the channel grew more
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Speaker 1: tortuous and difficult, And while the little Milton glided smoothly
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Speaker 1: over everything, the enoch Dean, my own boat, repeatedly grounded
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Speaker 1: on every occasion of a special need. Too. Something went
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Speaker 1: wrong in her machinery. Her engine had been constructed on
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Speaker 1: some wholly new patent, of which I should hope this
19:39
Speaker 1: trial would prove entirely sufficient. The black pilot, who was
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Speaker 1: not a soldier, grew more and more bewildered, and declared
19:46
Speaker 1: that it was the channel and not his brain, which
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Speaker 1: had gone wrong. The captain, a little elderly man, sat
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Speaker 1: wringing his hands in the pilot box, and the engineer
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Speaker 1: appeared to be mingling his groans with those of the
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Speaker 1: deceased engine. Meanwhile, I, in equal ignorance of machinery and channel,
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Speaker 1: had to give orders only justified by minute acquaintance with both.
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Speaker 1: So I navigated on general principles, until they grounded us
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Speaker 1: on a mud bank just below a wooded point and
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Speaker 1: some two miles from the bridge of our destination. It
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Speaker 1: was with a pang that I waved to Major Strong,
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Speaker 1: who was on the other side of the channel in
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Speaker 1: a tug, not to risk approaching us, but to steam
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Speaker 1: on and finish the work if he could. Short was
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Speaker 1: his triumph. Gliding round the point, he found himself instantly
20:33
Speaker 1: engaged with a light battery of four or six guns,
20:36
Speaker 1: doubtless the same we had seen in the distance. The
20:40
Speaker 1: Milton was within two hundred and fifty yards. The Connecticut
20:44
Speaker 1: men fought their guns well aided by the Blacks, and
20:47
Speaker 1: it was exasperating for us to hear the shots while
20:49
Speaker 1: we could see nothing and do nothing. The scanty ammunition
20:53
Speaker 1: on our bow gun was exhausted, and the gun in
20:55
Speaker 1: the stern was useless. From that position in which we
20:58
Speaker 1: lay in vain. We move of the men from side
21:00
Speaker 1: to side, rocking the vessel to dislodge it. The heat
21:04
Speaker 1: was terrific that August afternoon. I remember I found myself
21:08
Speaker 1: constantly changing places on the scorched deck to keep my
21:11
Speaker 1: feet from being blistered. At last, the officer in charge
21:14
Speaker 1: of the gun, a hardy lumberman from Maine, got the
21:17
Speaker 1: stern of the vessel so far round that he obtained
21:19
Speaker 1: the range of the battery through the cabin windows. But
21:22
Speaker 1: it would be necessary, he coolly added, on reporting that
21:25
Speaker 1: to me the fact, to shoot away the corner of
21:27
Speaker 1: the cabin. I knew that this apartment was newly painted
21:31
Speaker 1: and gilded, and the idol of the poor captain's heart.
21:34
Speaker 1: But it was plain that even the thought of his
21:36
Speaker 1: own upholstery could not make the poor soul more wretched
21:39
Speaker 1: than he was. So I bade Captain Dolly blaze away,
21:44
Speaker 1: and thus we took our hand in that little game,
21:46
Speaker 1: though at her sacrifice it was of no use. Down
21:51
Speaker 1: drifted our little consort round the point, her engine disabled
21:55
Speaker 1: and her engineer killed, as we afterwards found, though then
21:58
Speaker 1: we could only look and wonder, still pluckily firing, she
22:02
Speaker 1: floated by upon the tide which had now turned, And
22:05
Speaker 1: when with the last desperate effort we got off, our
22:08
Speaker 1: engine had one of its impracticable fits, and we could
22:11
Speaker 1: only follow her. The day was waning, and all its
22:15
Speaker 1: range of possibility had lain within the limits of that
22:18
Speaker 1: one tide. Our previous expeditions had been so successful it
22:24
Speaker 1: now seemed hard to turn back. The river banks and
22:27
Speaker 1: rice fields so beautiful before, seemed only a vexation now.
22:31
Speaker 1: But the swift current bore us on, and after our
22:34
Speaker 1: party and shots had died away, a new discharge of
22:37
Speaker 1: artillery opened upon us from our first antagonist of the morning,
22:41
Speaker 1: which still kept the other side of the stream. It
22:44
Speaker 1: had taken up a strong position on another bluff, almost
22:47
Speaker 1: out of range of the John Adams, but within easy
22:49
Speaker 1: range of us. The sharpest contest of the day was
22:52
Speaker 1: before us. Happily, the engine and the engineer were now
22:55
Speaker 1: behaving well, and we were steering in a channel already
22:58
Speaker 1: traversed and of which the dangerous points were known. But
23:02
Speaker 1: we had a long straight reach of river before us,
23:05
Speaker 1: heading directly toward the battery, which, having once got our range,
23:09
Speaker 1: had only to keep it while we could do nothing
23:11
Speaker 1: in return. The rebels certainly served their guns well. For
23:15
Speaker 1: the first time I discovered that there were certain compensating
23:18
Speaker 1: advantages in a slightly built craft as compared with one
23:22
Speaker 1: more substantial. The missiles never lodged in the vessel, but
23:26
Speaker 1: crashed through some thin partition as if it were paper
23:28
Speaker 1: to explode beyond us or fall harmlessly in the water. Splintering,
23:34
Speaker 1: the chief source of wounds and death in wooden ships,
23:36
Speaker 1: was thus entirely avoided. The danger was that our machinery
23:40
Speaker 1: might be disabled, or that shots might strike below the
23:43
Speaker 1: water line and sink us. This, however, did not happen.
23:48
Speaker 1: Fifteen projectiles, as we afterwards computed, passed through the vessel
23:52
Speaker 1: or cut the rigging. Yet few casualties occurred, and those
23:56
Speaker 1: instantly fatal. As my orderly stood leaning on a comrade's shoulder,
24:01
Speaker 1: the head of the latter was shot off. At last,
24:04
Speaker 1: I myself felt a sudden blow in the side, as
24:07
Speaker 1: if from some prize fighter, doubling me up for a moment.
24:10
Speaker 1: While I sank upon a seat. It proved afterwards to
24:13
Speaker 1: have been produced by the grazing of a ball, which,
24:16
Speaker 1: without tearing a garment, had yet made a large part
24:19
Speaker 1: of my side black and blue, leaving a sensation of
24:22
Speaker 1: paralysis which made it difficult to stand supporting myself on
24:27
Speaker 1: Captain Rogers. I tried to comprehend what had happened, and
24:30
Speaker 1: I can remember being impressed by an odd feeling that
24:33
Speaker 1: I had now got my share and should henceforth be
24:36
Speaker 1: a great deal safer than any of the rest. I
24:39
Speaker 1: am told that this often follows one's first experience of
24:42
Speaker 1: a wound. But this immediate contest, sharp as it was,
24:46
Speaker 1: proved brief. A turn in the river enabled us to
24:49
Speaker 1: use our own stern gun, and we soon glided into
24:52
Speaker 1: the comparative shelter of Wilktown Bluff. There, however, we were
24:57
Speaker 1: to encounter the danger of shipwreck superadded to that of fight.
25:01
Speaker 1: When the passage through the piles was first cleared, it
25:04
Speaker 1: had been marked by stakes, lest the rising tide should
25:07
Speaker 1: cover the remaining piles and make it difficult to run
25:09
Speaker 1: the passage. But when we again reached it, the stakes
25:13
Speaker 1: had somehow been knocked away. The piles were just covered
25:16
Speaker 1: by the swift current, and the little tug boat was
25:18
Speaker 1: aground upon them. She came off easily, however, with our aid,
25:23
Speaker 1: and when we, in turner essayed the passage, we grounded also,
25:27
Speaker 1: but more firmly. We getting off at last and making
25:31
Speaker 1: the passage. The tug again became lodged when nearly passed danger,
25:35
Speaker 1: and all our efforts proved powerless to pull her through.
25:39
Speaker 1: I therefore dropped down below and sent the John Adams
25:42
Speaker 1: to her aid, while I superintended the final recall of
25:45
Speaker 1: the pickets and the embarkationing of the remaining refugees. While
25:50
Speaker 1: thus engaged, I felt little solicitude about the boats above.
25:54
Speaker 1: It was certain that the John Adams could safely go
25:56
Speaker 1: close to the piles on the lower side, that she
25:59
Speaker 1: was very strong, and that the other was very light. Still,
26:03
Speaker 1: it was natural to cast some anxious glances up the river,
26:06
Speaker 1: and it was with surprise that I presently saw a
26:08
Speaker 1: canoe descending which contained major strong coming on board. He
26:13
Speaker 1: told me, with some excitement, that the tug could not
26:15
Speaker 1: possibly be got off, and he wished for orders. It
26:19
Speaker 1: was no time to consider whether it was not his
26:22
Speaker 1: place to have given orders instead of going half a
26:25
Speaker 1: mile to seek them. I was, by this time so
26:28
Speaker 1: far exhausted that everything seemed to pass me by as
26:31
Speaker 1: one in a dream. But I got into a boat
26:34
Speaker 1: pushed up stream, met presently the John Adams returning, and
26:37
Speaker 1: was informed by the officer in charge of the Connecticut
26:39
Speaker 1: Battery that he had abandoned the tug, and worse news yet,
26:43
Speaker 1: that his guns had been thrown overboard. It seemed to
26:47
Speaker 1: me then and has always seemed that this sacrifice was
26:50
Speaker 1: utterly needless, because although the captain of the John Adams
26:53
Speaker 1: had refused to risk his vessel by going near enough
26:56
Speaker 1: to receive the guns, he should have been compelled to
26:58
Speaker 1: do so. Though the thing was done without my knowledge
27:01
Speaker 1: and beyond my reach. Yet as commander of the expedition,
27:05
Speaker 1: I was technically responsible. It was hard to blame a
27:09
Speaker 1: lieutenant when his senior had shrunk from a decision and
27:12
Speaker 1: left him alone. Nor was it easy to blame Major Strong,
27:16
Speaker 1: whom I knew to be a man of personal courage,
27:18
Speaker 1: though without much decision of character. He was subsequently tried
27:22
Speaker 1: by court martial and acquitted, after which he resigned and
27:25
Speaker 1: was lost at sea on his way home. The tug,
27:28
Speaker 1: being thus abandoned, must of course be burned to prevent
27:31
Speaker 1: her falling into the enemy's hands. Major Strong went, with
27:35
Speaker 1: prompt fearlessness, to do this at my order, after which
27:38
Speaker 1: he remained on the Enoch Dean, and I went on
27:41
Speaker 1: board the John Adams, being compelled to succumb at last
27:44
Speaker 1: and transfer all remaining responsibility to Captain S. Trowbridge. Exhausted
27:49
Speaker 1: as I was, I could still observe in a vague
27:51
Speaker 1: way the scene around me. Every available corner of the
27:55
Speaker 1: boat seemed like some vast auction room of second hand goods.
27:59
Speaker 1: Great piles of bedding and bundles lay on every side,
28:02
Speaker 1: with black heads emerging and black forms reclining in every
28:05
Speaker 1: stage of squalidness. Some seemed ill or wounded or asleep.
28:10
Speaker 1: Others were chattering eagerly among themselves, singing, praying, or soliloquising
28:15
Speaker 1: on joys to come breast de lord. I heard one
28:18
Speaker 1: woman say, I spec I got salt victual now, nothing
28:22
Speaker 1: but fresh victual d six months, but eyes get salt
28:25
Speaker 1: victual now, thus reversing under pressure of the salt embargo
28:29
Speaker 1: the usual anticipation of voyagers. Trowbridge told me long after
28:36
Speaker 1: that on seeking a fan for my benefit, he could
28:38
Speaker 1: find but one on board. That this was in the
28:41
Speaker 1: hands of a fat old auntie who had just embarked
28:44
Speaker 1: and sat on an enormous bundle of her goods in
28:46
Speaker 1: everybody's way, fanning herself vermently and ejaculating as her gasping
28:51
Speaker 1: breath would permit. Oh do Jesus, Oh do Jesus. When
28:55
Speaker 1: the captain abruptly disarmed her of her fan and left
28:58
Speaker 1: her continuing her pious exercises. Thus we glided down the
29:03
Speaker 1: river in the waning light. Once more we encountered a battery,
29:07
Speaker 1: making five in all. I could hear the guns of
29:10
Speaker 1: the assailants and could not distinguish the explosion of their
29:13
Speaker 1: shells and the answering throb of our own guns. The
29:17
Speaker 1: kind quartermaster kept bringing me news of what occurred, like
29:20
Speaker 1: Rebecca in front de Biceuff's castle, but discreetly, withholding any
29:24
Speaker 1: actual casualties. Then all faded into safety and sleep, and
29:29
Speaker 1: we reached the beaufort in the morning, after thirty six
29:31
Speaker 1: hours of absence. A kind friend, who acted in South
29:35
Speaker 1: Carolina a nobler part amid tragedies than in any other
29:39
Speaker 1: early stage of triumphs, met us with an ambulance at
29:42
Speaker 1: the wharf, and the prisoners, the wounded, and the dead
29:45
Speaker 1: were duly attended. The reader will not care for any
29:49
Speaker 1: personal record of convalescence, though among the general military laudations
29:54
Speaker 1: of Whiskey, it is worthwhile to say that one life
29:57
Speaker 1: was saved, in the opinion of my surgeons, by the
30:00
Speaker 1: the habitual abstinence from it, leaving no food for peritoneal
30:04
Speaker 1: inflammation to feed upon. The able bodied men who had
30:08
Speaker 1: joined us were sent to a General Gilmour in the trenches,
30:11
Speaker 1: while their families were established in the huts and tents
30:13
Speaker 1: on Saint Helena Island. A year after, greatly to the
30:17
Speaker 1: delight of the regiment, in taking possession of a battery
30:20
Speaker 1: which they had helped to capture on James Island, they
30:23
Speaker 1: found in their hands the self same guns which they
30:25
Speaker 1: had seen thrown overboard from the Governor Milton. They then
30:29
Speaker 1: felt that their account with the enemy was squared, and
30:32
Speaker 1: could proceed to further operations. Before the war, how great
30:37
Speaker 1: a thing seemed the rescue of even one man from slavery,
30:41
Speaker 1: And since the war has emancipated all, how little seems
30:44
Speaker 1: the liberation of two hundred. But no one then knew
30:48
Speaker 1: how the contest might end. And when I think of
30:51
Speaker 1: that morning sunlight, those emerald fields, those strong in numbers,
30:56
Speaker 1: the old women and their prayers, and the little boys
30:59
Speaker 1: with them living burdens, I know that the day was
31:02
Speaker 1: worth all it cost and more. End of Chapter seven.
31:08
Speaker 1: Recording by f n H. Visit www dot book Ranger
31:12
Speaker 1: dot co dot uk.