Eleven days in the militia during the war of the rebellion by Louis Richards

Author:Louis Richards [Richards, Louis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789354597916
Google: Nys9AAAAYAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Alpha Edition
Published: 2021-06-08T00:00:00+00:00

Thursday, September 18. About 11 o'clock last night the beating of the ominous long roll aroused us from our peaceful slumbers, and the word quickly passed that we had received marching orders for Hagerstown, and were to be ready to leave at 12. The accoutrements having been collected by the light of the fires, the regiment marched to the railroad, a mile off, where it was expected a train would be in waiting for us. Alas! we here received our first practical lesson of the great uncertainty of military movements, and the mechanical nature of the duties of the soldier, who must obey orders, simply, without inquiring for reasons. In the quality of civilians, which we could not altogether consent to drop, our sense of individual importance was frequently infringed upon in our new capacity. Each in his turn felt disposed to divide with his superiors the responsibility of the command. After waiting several hours in the crisp cool air of the autumn night, without any train appearing, we lost all patience and lay down on our blankets for temporary repose. As the dews of heaven gently distilled upon our unprotected forms, the memory of the comfortable quarters we had just left did not add to the feelings of reconciliation to our present miserable situation. Sundry imprecations were vented upon the unknown authority in charge of the department of transportation. Many went to sleep, from which they would be occasionally roused by the rapid passing of trains, but our own looked-for conveyance did not, nevertheless, arrive. Morning broke at length and breakfast was improvised by the cooks.

We waited hour after hour for our train, but in vain. Wrote letters home beside the railroad track, on the ends of the sills. Various reports from the army were in circulation, respecting the result of the battle, and the movements of the enemy, subsequently found to be unreliable. After dinner had a battalion drill, and when all expectation of the train had been given up, between 3 and 4 o'clock it suddenly appeared. Cheers greeted its arrival. It consisted, like the one in which we had come down, of house cars adapted for the present purpose, and we boarded it just in time to escape a shower which began falling at this moment. Were off, at length, and after a short halt at Greencastle, where I laid in some provisions, arrived about 6 o'clock at Hagerstown, which we found occupied by a considerable militia force that had been pushed forward within the past two days. Were surprised to find the companies of Captains Hunter and Eisenhower, from Reading, already there, as they had started from home after we had. Were informed by them that they had left Harrisburg on Tuesday night, and arrived at Hagerstown on Wednesday morning. They had been attached to the 11th Regiment, to the command of which Charles A. Knoderer, a talented civil engineer of Reading, who went as a private of Captain Eisenhower's company, had been promoted. The regiment was encamped a short distance below town on the Williamsport pike.

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