Chapter X

BAYOU GENTILLY--JUNE--FAREWELL TO GENTILLY CAMP--IN NEW ORLEANS.

The month of May passed rapidly without the occurrence of any event of importance to the regiment. With the commencement of June affairs in the Department began to assume such a shape as to lead officers of the Forty-Second to think the regiment was to get some service.

Affairs at Port Hudson reached a stage when reënforcements were needed to maintain the effective strength of the army, and to continue the siege. Troops from Brashear City and Ship Island were ordered to Port Hudson, and from Key West and Pensacola to New Orleans, while the small garrison in the Defences of New Orleans had to be ready for instant service at all hours. It was evident to all hands the regiment was about to be concentrated, as far as possible, to be able to meet any emergency, and soon was it verified.

The detachment at Battery St. John, about sixty men of Company A, was relieved by a detachment Fifteenth Massachusetts Battery, and returned to the regiment June 1st. On the third the detachment under Lieutenant Martin Burrell, Jr., at Battery Gentilly, about twenty men, was also relieved by a detachment Fifteenth Massachusetts Battery, and returned to the regiment. On the sixth Companies C and H marched into camp with about one hundred and forty men, from Camp Parapet, having been relieved from engineer service. With the exception of a detachment Company A, about forty men, at Lake-end Bayou St. John, Company F at Lakeport, and Company K at Port Hudson, the regiment was again united.

Upon receipt of orders from brigade headquarters to draw as many men as possible from the post at Lakeport, in case the regiment was ordered to move, leaving only a small picket-guard upon the Lake shore and a camp-guard to look after regimental property and the hospital at Gentilly, drills were immediately resumed to an extent allowed by hot weather, and inspections made to see if every man was in proper condition for duty. All parades of ceremony, drill and guard-mounting had to be made before eight o’clock A.M. or after six o’clock P. M. The sentinels had to have sun shelters erected, or were posted in the shade so far as practicable.

The exact state of affairs was not generally known. A majority of the men refused to believe that any danger existed, or that the regiment would do any field duty, arguing that concentration meant the regiment was to proceed home promptly on the expiration of its time of enlistment, June 25th, as they claimed. This was not so, and could not be.

At this time the entire Second Brigade, Second Division, Nineteenth Corps, composed of two New York batteries, three Massachusetts batteries, not equipped, one squadron cavalry, the Twenty-Sixth, Forty-Second and Forty-Seventh Massachusetts Infantry, Ninth Connecticut Infantry, a detachment One Hundred and Seventy-Fifth New York Infantry and Twenty-Eighth Maine Infantry, with some smaller detachments of troops, composed the garrison in New Orleans and its defences, who were under standing orders to be ready to move immediately with one hundred rounds of ammunition to each infantry-man.

On the ninth, after a mixed detachment of one hundred men under Captain Cook had left camp for Brashear City, everybody woke up and began to think there was music in the air, causing them to feel anxious for something to come next. Their anxiety was increased when Captain Cook and Lieutenant Clifford reported at the regimental hospital on sick leave, and told what a hole the detachment was in.

The case of Captain Cook was singular. Other than a thick-coated tongue, the captain did not show any signs or symptoms of illness. He did not go into the hospital, but lived in his company tent, ate heartily, and acted in every way like a well man. Surgeon Heintzelman said, as his private opinion, that the case was one of fright. It is true that Captain Cook did not do any more duty during the regiment’s term of service, but remained on the sick list.

Two men were noticed lurking around camp on the nineteenth, and were recognized by some of the paroled men as Texans from the Confederate army. They were arrested, and claimed to have left the service and had taken the oath of allegiance. As General Emory had issued orders on the fourteenth to arrest and send to him any person found lurking around the forts or intrenched positions, they were sent to his headquarters for examination. What became of them is not known.

Positive information having been received that the enemy was raiding on the west bank of the river and threatened to cut communication with Brashear City, on the nineteenth all troops of the Second Brigade were again ordered to have two days cooked rations on hand, and be in readiness to move any moment, and Colonel Cahill was ordered to concentrate the brigade as much as possible. All officers and men, of all arms, whether on detached service, provost duty, or other duty, were under orders to hold themselves ready to move, with cooked rations and one hundred rounds each man. All outlying companies were to be ready to move into the city at a moment’s notice, except the guard over prisoners at Algiers and the troops at Pass Manchac. All leaves of absence were absolutely stopped, and every officer and man obliged to remain at their quarters.

By the sudden departure of all available troops at New Orleans to reënforce Colonel Stickney at La-Fourche Crossing, orders were received at noon on the twenty-first, at the Forty-Second camp, to immediately report in Lafayette Square to General Emory, in heavy marching order. The picket-posts at Lakeport and Bayou St. John were also ordered to be weakened, that as many men as possible should join the regiment. At two P.M., having packed baggage and struck camp, leaving behind the surplus baggage, a hospital-guard and the paroled men of Companies D, G and I, the regiment proceeded by rail to the city, with a total effective strength of about two hundred men.

On first receipt of marching orders a general impression prevailed in the ranks that they were _en-route_ for Port Hudson. The prospect of active field duty was hailed by every one with feelings of lively satisfaction. After lying inactive in camp for nearly the whole term of enlistment everybody thought the regiment was to see a little service before going home, and perhaps taste powder in a different way than by biting cartridges when loading for guard duty. These feelings were dispelled on arriving at Lafayette Square, where the regiment was ordered to take possession of the Ninth Connecticut Infantry camp and to do provost duty in the city; a few days after joined by a detachment Twenty-Eighth Maine Infantry, from Camp Parapet.

All convalescent men and stragglers in the city capable of bearing arms were collected together and made ready for duty in case of necessity. Private instructions were given Lieutenant-Colonel Stedman, by General Emory, to have every available man in quarters ready for any emergency at a moment’s notice. The regiment was kept so, for there could not have been over five hundred soldiers in the city from the twenty-first to the twenty-sixth.

The city was remarkably quiet at this time. Movements of the troops were made so quietly the citizens were not aware of what was going on. There was no indication among the populace that the enemy were near, or expected to get near. Some of them must have been aware of it, but gave no outward sign.

When the enemy ceased to seriously menace New Orleans, on the twenty-sixth, most of the troops at Boutee Station, on the Opelousas Railroad, returned to the city, including a part of the detachment Forty-Second, in command of Lieutenant Tinkham, and the Ninth Connecticut Volunteers. They brought with them a small number of Texan prisoners, who looked more like Mexicans than Americans. They looked clean, were well clothed in loose-fitting trousers and jackets of gray cloth, with large, slouchy-looking, gray felt hats. Their blankets, carried slung over the shoulder, were of the best quality, in fact, better than those in use by men of the Forty-Second. The complexion of these prisoners was quite dark, and they had a savage look in their faces.

Some slight disturbances, soon quieted, occurred between men of the Ninth Connecticut and Forty-Second Massachusetts, growing out of disputes as to who should occupy the tents in Lafayette Square. On this occasion the Ninth Connecticut again behaved in a disgraceful manner, more like rowdies and bullies than soldiers, and it appeared as though the line officers had no control over their men.

The Forty-Second marched back to its old camp-ground at Bayou Gentilly, five miles in a hot sun, on the afternoon of June 27th. Camp was put in order and arrangements made for a long stay, the picket-post detachments rejoined their stations, when, the next morning, twenty-eighth, orders were received, by a mounted orderly, to report at once in the city at the Custom House and occupy quarters vacated by the Twenty-Sixth Massachusetts Infantry. The entire regiment, with the exception of small detachments left on picket-stations, arrived at the Custom House during the afternoon.

This was a final farewell to Bayou Gentilly. The duty detachments left behind on this second breaking up of this camp were: two sergeants, four corporals and thirteen men of Company A, under Captain Coburn (who was not in condition for field duty), on picket at Bayou St. John; four sergeants, three corporals and thirty-four men of Company F on picket at Lakeport; Private Rufus C. Greene, Company G, placed on detached service June 25th, in command of picket-schooner _Hortense_; a hospital-guard of one sergeant, two corporals, and eighteen men of Company A. These picket-posts, the Gentilly Camp and paroled men were under command of Major Stiles, then not well and unfit for active duty. There were fifty-eight men under the surgeon’s care June 28th; twelve were returned to duty, and there was left, when the regiment moved, twenty-six men sick in hospital and twenty men sick in quarters.

The accommodations for troops at the Custom House were not good, and it seems a pity and a shame men were obliged to occupy such dark, damp and feverish quarters for any length of time. No surgeon could sanction the quartering of troops in the manner they were placed at this Custom House, except under the most pressing circumstances. The men were distributed in quarters, the guard of the Twenty-Sixth Massachusetts relieved, and by sunset the Forty-Second was in full possession of the New Orleans Custom House, with regimental headquarters established in a room formerly occupied by Major-General Butler. A few officers, who did not like their quarters, provided for themselves elsewhere in the neighborhood. This could not be tolerated at the time, owing to the peculiar position of affairs; General Emory insisted on all officers quartering with their men.

At midnight, on the twenty-ninth, the long-roll called the regiment to arms, and crossing Algiers Ferry to Algiers, a reconnoissance was made for some miles to find the enemy’s cavalry, reported to be on the river road below that town. None were found, or any traces of them, and at eight o’clock A.M. next day the regiment was back in quarters again. On this occasion Company C was thrown out in skirmishing order to move down the road and over fields that bordered on a woody swamp, and here they first discovered those watermelon patches which they afterwards despoiled of the luscious fruit. That night march, who can forget it? Awakened from a sound sleep, clothes and equipments put on quick, ferried across to Algiers, and then marched down a lonely road for several miles on a hunt for an imaginary foe. Lucky was the man who wore his overcoat, for the air was damp and chilly, though it was in June. Every sentry on guard at storehouses along the river front of Algiers was dressed in his great-coat; experience had taught them to fear the treacherous midnight air.

An effort was made by General Banks to reënlist men from the nine months’ troops for one, two, or three years, at their option. For some reason it was not successful. From the Forty-Second the only man who reënlisted was Musician Bernard McKenna, Company C, who was discharged May 25th to reënlist as a bugler in the Twenty-Sixth New York Battery. The same date, Lewis Eddy, drummer in Company D, was discharged by Department orders, and returned home.

In connection with this reënlistment attempt, more men from the Forty-Second would have done so but were unable, on account of disqualifications or irregularity on the part of recruiting officers. Privates Diomede Roseline, Company G, Luigi Briana, Company D, and John Brown, Company G, offered to enlist in a battalion called the First Louisiana Sharpshooters. Roseline and Brown were under parole and could not do so until duly exchanged, and Briana was not a member of the regiment. Somebody had given an _alias_ to Captain Salla, commanding the First Louisiana; who it was could not be ascertained. Privates Charles Slattery and George Ward, Company C, were claimed by Lieutenant Whitaker, Second Rhode Island Cavalry, as having reënlisted in that regiment, but they changed their minds before they could be mustered in.

At the close of June there was present for duty in New Orleans, twelve officers and three hundred and eighty-two men. Sick in hospital and quarters, five officers and forty-six men. Twenty-nine of the men were in the regimental hospital at Bayou Gentilly. The officers sick and not on duty were: Adjutant Davis, Captain Cook, Company B, Captain Emerson, Company E, and Lieutenant Tinkham, Company B. Adjutant Davis was absent from June 25th to July 9th; Lieutenant Powers, who was relieved from charge of the paroled camp by Major Stiles, acted as adjutant during that time.

The average sick per day for the month had been: taken sick, five; returned to duty, four; sick in hospital, twenty-one; sick in quarters, thirteen.

The extra-duty details for June were:

June 8th--Sergeant T. M. Turner, Company B, and Sergeant George Bell, Company C, as color-bearers.

June 8th--Privates Everett A. Denny, Company E, and John A. Paige, Company B, as clerks at headquarters Defences of New Orleans. Private Paige returned to his company for duty June 26th.

June 14th--Corporal Alfred Thayer was made chief-wagoner, _vice_ Wagoner John Willy, Company B, ordered to his company. Private George A. Davis, Company D, on duty in Company E, was made wagoner. Private Warren A. Clark, Company B, was made wagoner.

The deaths in June were:

June 5th--Private Nelson Wright, Company E, typhoid fever.

June 13th--Private Buckley Waters, Company E, chronic diarrhœa.

June 19th--Private Lewis E. Wales, Company B, typhoid fever.

June 30th--Private Benjamin Gould, Company G, congestion of the brain.

The case of Private Waters was not considered fatal up to the time of his death. The surgeons were inclined to think he was suffering more from home-sickness than disease. He died quietly in the evening, as the glee club, composed of Sergeant Hunt, Company I, Sergeant Waterman, Company D, Quartermaster Burrell, and Lieutenant Powers, Company F, were singing an appropriate song in the headquarters office, adjoining the hospital ward. They did not know that Waters was dying, and when the nurse asked some one in the ward to stop it Waters requested them not to do so, as he preferred to listen to the song.

Notwithstanding the general orders issued April 24th by General Sherman, to prevent sending North bodies of deceased persons until after decomposition had ceased, in order to prevent any quarantine to Government vessels, the bodies of Privates Nelson Wright and Lewis E. Wales were prepared and partially embalmed by the regimental surgeons for transportation home.

The operation was performed in the rear of the hospital, a guard being posted to prevent men from coming near who had curiosity to witness it. The skin upon the chest was first cut, and after removing a small bone in the upper part was laid back upon each side a sufficient distance for work. Interior parts of the chest were then taken out and examined, followed by removing the bowels; the vacant space thus left was filled with charcoal, the skin replaced and sewed together. The body was then packed in liquor, with the heart separate, and was ready to be sent home. The parts of bodies removed were properly buried. This process is similar to that of dressing cattle for market.

Private Wright, according to the surgeons’ testimony who examined his lungs, could not have lived much more than a year longer, as they were diseased.

Of those men who were curious to witness these operations, some would stand, eyes wide open, with no evidence of any feeling more than of wonder that the surgeons could handle their knives with so much composure; others would evince so much interest and desire to get near, in order to learn such secrets of the human system as they could, that they troubled the guards; while others had a look of sorrow on their countenances, and after a short stay would saunter slowly away in deep thought. No man knew whether he would or not be treated in the same manner in case he sickened and died.

Bodies sent home were invariably escorted a certain distance from camp by the regular Guard of Honor detail, according to the rank held by the deceased, with arms reversed, followed by the regiment with side arms, as mourners, the band playing a dirge. On arrival at the prescribed distance three volleys were fired over the remains, when the regiment marched back to camp, while the body was carried to New Orleans in an ambulance, attended by a few members of the company to which the deceased belonged, and put aboard some steamer for New York. In all such cases burial service was held in front of the hospital, in presence of the regiment.

The dead that were buried near camp were escorted to the grave, and burial service held there. After the service all passed around the coffin to take a last look of the remains before committal to the earth. Burials were solemn occasions, and it was plain to see such scenes were not without some influence on the men. He must be a hardened man who can gaze upon the remains of a departed comrade, perhaps a few weeks and sometimes only days before as full of life and hope as himself, but now cold, rigid and at rest, without some mysterious sensation creeping over him. The chances were that any one was as likely in a short time to be an inhabitant of the same ground as the one just buried.

All coffins were made of pine board, painted a dark brown color, filled with shavings on which to rest the body. They were very good for the kind, and answered the purpose for which they were intended. Each grave was marked with a head-board, on which was inscribed the name of deceased, rank, company, regiment, age, and time of death.

Privates John H. Cary, Benjamin Gould, and Sergeant Philip P. Hackett, of Company G, Private Buckley Waters, Company E, Private Rufus G. Hildreth, Company C, and Private Thomas J. Clements, Company H, were buried at Bayou Gentilly. Their graves were situated near three large oak trees, between them and the swamp, at the end of the Gentilly race-course, looking towards it from the Ponchartrain Railroad. Some three or four soldiers of a native guard regiment (Union colored troops) were also buried at the same spot.

Chaplain Sanger officiated at these burial services. His remarks were generally to the point and well delivered. A brief resume of the deceased soldier’s life, as far as known, was usually given, and a prayer offered for his relations. The chaplain always attended to notifying relations of their loss, forwarding the personal effects, any rings or valuables, together with locks of hair taken from the person before burial. This duty was done well and conscientiously. It is not pleasant, however, to record that Chaplain Sanger was not popular with the command. A feeling was first manifested by the Galveston prisoners, and by them communicated to the rest of the regiment. The only reason for this, so far as could be ascertained, was that they did not like his behavior when the prisoners were marched from Texas to the Union lines. They accused him of neglect to their sick and suffering when he should have at least tried to do something for them; of currying favor with the Confederate officers in such a manner to lead them to suppose he was deficient in manly bearing.

On this march Chaplain Sanger was sick with diarrhœa, and remained so for some time after reaching regimental headquarters, a fact sufficient to account for any lack of energy he did display. He always spoke well of the men, was anxious to do for their good and to gain their esteem. That he did not do so was a misfortune for both. Many regarded the chaplain as ranking among some of the best that left Massachusetts. Except a rather quick temper, his personal behavior was in keeping with his profession.

Private William F. Lacount, Company F, a hospital nurse, acted as chaplain on Sundays from the time the regiment arrived in Louisiana, in December, until Chaplain Sanger returned with the paroled men, afterwards conducting divine service on the Sabbath at the paroled camp; the chaplain officiating at the regimental camp. It was thought proper to have these separate services on account of the feeling prevalent. Private Lacount deserves much credit, more than he received, for the able and intelligent manner in which he performed these volunteer duties. He displayed a true Christian spirit and was satisfied in doing good.