Pentecostal Possibilities or "The Story of My Life"
by Milton Lorenzo (M. L.) Haney
CHAPTER 35
Before Vicksburg
The Mississippi River being cleared to Vicksburg, everything now centered in taking that stronghold. Sherman's force was to reach the mouth of the Yazoo, above the city, and await the arrival of Grant's force across the country, but the latter was compelled to return to Memphis. After Sherman affected a landing on the Yazoo River, it leaked out, some way, that he was to wait till General McClernard arrived, who was the ranking officer, and would assume command. This angered Sherman's officers and was displeasing to Sherman as well. A council of war was held, and the decision arrived at, that "we would be in Vicksburg or in hell," before General McC. arrived. Many, I fear, reached the latter place, but we did not get into Vicksburg.
Before leaving for Chickasaw Bayou, where the battle was to be fought, Captain Schleich, of Co. F, took breakfast with my mess, and after eating said boys, I am going to be killed in this battle, and I want you to bury me in this sand bank!" I attempted to change his trend of thought, but without success. The night before leaving Memphis he was quite unwell, and his tent did not protect him from rain. I had taken a room with a comfortable bed, and asked him to lodge with me, which he did. In the night he made a nervous spring, which aroused me, but I refrained from suggesting that I was disturbed. He was fearful that he had disturbed me, and recited the strange dream which he had, that so moved him. He said: "I seemed standing facing a rebel about fifty yards away, and he shot me through the heart," and when thus shot he made the spring which he feared disturbed me. All the way from Memphis to the Yazoo, he was unlike himself, and spent much of his time in his stateroom. This dream had so fastened itself on him that he could not shake it off. After the battle had opened on the Bayou, I had charge of some wounded and the temporary oversight of two bodies awaiting burial some distance from my regiment, when I felt I must go to the regiment, and obeyed the impression. I was overwhelmed with an inner sense of impending calamity. On reaching the. boys Captain Schleich was "falling in" my old company, to go on to the picket line. The day as fearfully dark, and the woods were draped with Spanish moss, giving the enemy every advantage over us. I was much moved, and urged the Captain to take the utmost care. As they marched off I had to follow them, and as they filed by me to the left, I spoke to the Captain again, and also to the men, urging the utmost care, and then started for my post of duty, 100 yards away, but before reaching it I was compelled by this unspeakable heart concern to turn right about and go to the regiment. As I reached it, I met three men bringing the dead body of my Captain in their arms! He had done just as he dreamed. On reaching the picket line he stood facing a rebel, who was hidden from him, and as he was stretching out his hand to warn some of the boys of danger, he was shot through the heart! After those grounds were taken a soldier showed me the place where the Captain stood, and the tree which sheltered the rebel, and I stepped the distance and made it just fifty yards! I have always hoped that this warning was given the Captain to give him time to shelter his soul by the cross.
We found it utterly impossible to reach Vicksburg from this point, and after a fearful struggle, and great loss of life, we retired under cover of the night, glad to get away from utter death. From the consequences of this defeat, General Sherman was largely saved by the capture of Arkansas Post. Our fleet reached the Post by way of the Arkansas River, effecting a landing below the Post, the infantry and artillery being thus enabled to reach the entire circuit of the enemy's works, while the gunboats reached them from the river. We aimed at the utmost quiet till the enemy was surrounded. The river ran northward, making a short bend and then southward, and each wing of their breastworks rested on the river. We were nearly one-half way round before dark, and my regiment was on the east side. It had been hot in the march of the day, and some men wildly threw away their blankets. Then night came it was cold. I had fixed my bed at regulation distance from the line, when the thought struck me that some of the men might suffer for want of covering. Going forward, I found it so, and as they could not move, I proposed to move my blankets up to the line and share with them. A detachment was just then ordered forward to open fire at that point, so as to make the impression of a night attack and thus divert their attention from what we were really seeking to do. Of course, this meant a fire opened on us in return. My blankets were hurriedly thrown down and my horse hitched just so he could not step on the bed. When the fire opened we all fell flat on the ground and I never lay flatter than just then.
Arkansas Post was an old Government fort, and there stood a very old United States gun, which the rebels loaded with grape shot, and let them loose on us. There were three successive shots, which came directly over my bed. Either of them would have cut me in two if I had been standing. The gun was so large and so near by that those grape shot came with awful force. First the flash of the gun, then the whiz of the grape, and then the crack of old Prince's heels in response to the grape, over my bed. He was said to be the fattest horse in the army and was full of life. The grape came so near him, following the flash of the cannon, that he responded each time. But while this was going on, our larks had closed up the gap and seven thousand brave Confederates were at our disposal. They made a bitter fight, but the odds were against them. The next day we were idle for a time, and the gunboats were playing fearfully on the fort. I was anxious to see, and galloped down, and had hardly gotten there till the old Government gun above referred to was again pouring out wrath. A little Dutch Sergeant was ordered to silence that gun and I got in such a position that I was nearly behind his little boat and witnessed her destruction. My eye followed each solid shot till it reached the gun. The first struck her rigging the second seemed only a foot too high. and the third struck her square in the middle. She stood with side to the Dutchman and was very long. She had just emptied herself of a load of grape, or canister, when the third missile struck her and she never spoke again. I shouted when I saw her tumble. There were casemate guns strongly protected in that fort, except their muzzles, and they faced toward the river. That little Dutch Sergeant put a solid shot right into the mouth of one of those guns and broke it into fragments, and also destroyed the other. The fight was heavy around to our right, when I returned, and the silencing of that gun gave us a rest again.
While standing there idle, I felt a strong inclination to go around to the right, and I somehow feared the wounded were being neglected. On reaching the rear of the hottest fire I found no ambulances, and many wounded men were staggering about in the woods. On inquiry it was plain the commander of the ambulances was frightened by the bullets in those woods, and hastening to General McClernard's headquarters I complained to the Medical Director, who gave me authority to bring them up and they came on the run! About the time the wounded were sent away those brave Texans hoisted the white flag, and such a shout I have never heard before or since as went up from the Union army. After seeing the capture, I hastened to the boats to see what was done with the wounded. A large Southern Mississippi steamer lay near, which they said was filled with the wounded. On reaching her cabin I found two rows of men laying side by side, the whole length of the cabin and apparently wholly neglected. There were doctors on board, and I asked what this could mean. They said the doctor in charge was drunk, and they could do nothing without orders. "Orders," said I, and found myself nearly wild with the spectacle before me. There was not a dish in the cabin that could be used to wet their wounds. Flannel clothing, when wet with blood and dried in the sun, becomes nearly as hard, as a board, and inflammation was coming up in every wound. Finding a large wash dish below, I went the whole round and wet every wound with cold water. In this round I marked many who would die, and made a second round, leaving a tract to be read to the dying man by his comrade near him who was stronger, giving words of cheer as I went.
I had not quite finished the second round when a little Dutch Captain came in, who found several of his company in that condition, and he broke loose on me like a thunderstorm. Supposing me to be in charge and responsible for that fearful neglect, he cursed me bitterly. I waited patiently till the Captain had relieved his mind, when I explained the case. Then he insisted on apologizing, but I said: "Captain, if your mind in any way has been relieved it is all right with me." I then made a search for the drunken doctor with the intention of cooling him in the river, but I did not find him. I did not intend to drown him, but to keep him in the river till he was sober. I am sure, today, he would not have been drunk for a whole week if I had found him.
I hastened to my Brigadier General to induce him at once to go to Sherman with this outrage. He higgled about it, and after I had pressed it till my heart was sick, he said he would. As I turned away I felt he would not. So I turned toward Sherman's headquarters myself and found him standing by his tent. Saluting him, I laid the thing before him. Sherman was a very nervous man, and when excited strongly he would turn clear round on one foot. He was evidently angry, and much excited as he said: "____ it, Chaplain, I am not responsible for the neglect of the doctors." To this I responded: "General Sherman, I am aware, sir, you are not responsible for the neglect, but you command all the doctors in this realm, and if this matter is not righted I will publish it if it costs my head!" It seemed but few minutes till the doctors were in commotion, and I think in less than three hours all those dear boys were on nice cots with clean, white sheets and pillows, their wounds dressed, and they nicely cared for.
The next time I met General Sherman was in front of Vicksburg when the regiment wanted to send me home for sanitary goods for our sick, and the papers had to have General Sherman's signature. I went to his tent for that purpose, and he met me very cordially. I said: "General Sherman, if it please you, sir, I would like to get your signature to this paper," and turning to his Adjutant, he said: "Adjutant, sign that paper," and remarked of me that to the end of the war he would be glad to do anything he could to accommodate me. Sherman was a great man, and, of course, knew my course as erratic and not in accord with military usage, but his great soul knew it was right.