University of South Carolina Libraries
? V mu'ii Bill wmm ' ' | A Corporal's Story. Edward Hinmao, corporal in one of the Ne w York Regiments, has written a letter to Harper's Weekly, J "which gives as fair an idea of a soldier's person J experience as anything we remember to have read.! * His regiment enlisted for two years, but at first the Government would only accept it for tfirec months' service. Afterwards it was unexpectedly mustered.in for the original term. Having advert- < ed to the hardships which resulted through incom-: petenCy of officers, and lack of means on the part | of the Government to provide for the men, j Hinman says: But it was pretty tough when our three months were nearly up-=-and we had never had a fight, and it seemed as if we never should?to he claimed for i the the rest of two years, and taken for it without *- ? * llr ? Kiifnro nnw Wfl ! OUT COUSeilU I! D ncrc luiuuiwio w.viv , ? were pressed. We offered two years at first ; the Government would only take three months If a new bargain wai to be mad .- we thought we had a right, the same as at the first, to volunteer instead j of beiag forced. This made us a good deal of j trouble; but I thought that the Government would | not take us if they did not med us; and 1 made up ; my mind if this great nation needed a poor man . like me it pould have me in its own way. And, besides, we had learned just what we ought to know to be go,4 for something, and had got tough, ened to it. For one, I felt rather proud that we was considered good enough to be kept And if it ! had not been for Sally and Johnny, who got nothf ing from the neighbors and had a hard lookafor the winter eoming on, I should not have carcj to be anywhere else. Some of our young feWws asked me how I liked being pressed away fronLmy wife and boy. Well, I said, I should be gla&to go home and see them ; but if it was to sneak out and have somebody else fight for my wife and boy while I staid at home, I should be ashamed to have mv Jntin ?**]! me father at that.' After a while we all got over grumbling, and began to take pride in standing hardships and keeping ourselves as comfortable and clean as possible, no * matter how bad the weather and how hard the service. One day last December, after a long march in the snow. which slipped, and slushed and melted on our shoes, and then froze the ah *es stiff, we got in late at night and slept in a big barn in the hay without supper, or breakfast next morning, for the . roads were so bad the wagons could not get up. Well, that morning our Brigadier-General rode down to see us. We heard he was coming, and 11 every man had hts musket bright and his clothes brushed up, the snow had cleaned our shoes, and our cotton "dirt-covers," as the boys called their ",Arflo nnmfnrtAhle in hold ncr a musket gftl/TVO, nvtw ?vt^ vw.M 0 on a frosty morning. So we were paraded in line as for dress parade, an 1 when we presented arms to the General it went like the tick of a clock, for we ( were vexed, and we would have done it fine that morning if we had died. '-Ah, hah, my fine fellows," the General said, "somebody has been lying about you. They said you had no supper or ( breakfast, and that your feet were frozen on you, j and that you slept in a barn last night." We ( heard how he bragged about us afterward, and said that there was not a hay seed on our coais or a ration m the bellies of the whole regiment. The next day we went into Clear Sping, in Maryland, and that is a place for Union soldiers I must say. The people gave us the whole town, and all they had was welcome. It is only a village town, but, as one of the girls said to Pat Mahoney. that though nnf ahior hHAn. there was risrht smart of i folks there. Here we had a good rest, plenty to ? eat and a hearty welcome. The first time we had a scrimmage with the secesh was not a long while after this. We forded the Potomac and marched towards Martinsburg. Cold and wet was nothing now, and hunger was not to be talked of. We were at last going to fight Jackson and Co. We thought our first fight! was beautifuL The secesh all ran away as soon as we began firing. They^ were Virginia Militia. I Some of our officers wrote home flaming accounts | about it, but our Colonel became all at once very ! severe on us, and said such nonsense would spoil us. | TT? mm -M/l /\?/lna *511 rlaxr on/1 n 1 flrVtf 1 X1U vrucicu US uuu VIUCICU US uu UUJ uuu uiguv seemed nothing but orders, and he was very Severe on any disobedience. I guessed afterward what he meant. For the next fight we had I think I found out that obeying orders meant not running away. I was scared and no mistake. We were marching in column of divisions expecting work, when suddenly a secesh battery opened on us and j one or two b Jls came plowing through the column. I We looked at one another just ready to run, when i the Colonefi's voice came down the line as sharp as a knife: "Battalion halt. On third division de- ' ploy column. Battalion by right and left flanks, .March J" Now as much scared as we were, I really IMtevte ttyrt wt wttuld fcavs aD if wb j - < j. ? . ' jm \ ? ' . ' 1 i 1 * had not been more afraid to disobey orders. 1,8 trembled all over, but our company was in third p division, and Ve had to stand fast while the rest I /V* /vn ?m An/1 aM KoVkif L'Ont 11 Q flll fhort* I P iUl IIICU Uil UO U11U U1W UIU MUi/iv nv|T? US/ .uv. w. ; _ A cold sweat stood all over me. but I had not time; 1 to think before the other divisions were double- j quicking it through some open woods into line of battle, wIwh we were ordered to lie down till our1 battery came Bp. Pretty soon a Georgia Regiment advanced on?s4own through a dip in the ground, I halting occasionally and loading and firing as they j came on. The bullets whistled all around but j done no harm. Our battery on our right drew the fire of the secesh b ittery and we had an open chance ! before us. By forming on third division we had just a slight roll of ground between us and the dip j in the meadow in front, and when we lay down the , balls from the battery would ricochet over us, or ; go over our heads without striking. A few men got hit with pieoes of shell, but nearly all we lost by artillery was from the first firing. The Colonel stood leanidg against a tr?c at the right and n the crown of the knoll, as cool as a cucumber, watching 1 the enemy. The surgeon, and assistant and band were p.cking up. the wounded men and carrying them to the re irout of fire. Every now and then the Colonel would turn and look at ub lying along the ground, and I could see him from where I was show his teeth with a fierce-looking kind of grin as he looked at us. The same as to say, it seemed to me, just w&if till I order these fellows at ypu. It seemed a ve^ short time before the order came. We fired a single/ volley at 100 yards distance and then fixed bayonets, and down we went at double* u: quick cnarge, every mmi jcumg duu uimovu. The Georgians stood till we were twenty paces i from them, and then 'broke Hnd run for a worm 1 fence, where they tried to rally, but in climbing J the fence we came up with them, and the rails flew off and we after them right up on to their battery, which could not hit us without hitting them. So we took the battery of four brass guns. This is all I know about the first batt.e of Winchester. After we were ordered up to fire and charge I did not see any body th kt looked scared ; for my part I did not think anything about it then, though, till the secesh broke, men were every now and then dropping out of the ranks hit or killed. Our Brigadier-General came down to see us next raorr' g, and we were ordered out to receive him, and he made us another short speech. Says he : ] 'Boys, we have been just learning you a little here, and you have done very well. But I am going to take you over into McJellan's c ,rps one of these days, and then I shall expect you to fight in real earnest. But I see your clothes look as nice ] as usual this morning." We had a bold talking " -I- --J sergeant in uievwr^uaiu, nu? s^hc u{> ? That's mo^e than yours do, General," which made us all grin. For the skirt of his coat had a hole j through it, and his baggage had been started toward Manassas the day before the fight, and he had no change, and the hole could only be mended whh a patch; but I suppose for as cool as he would 1 talk to us he was rather proud of that hole in his coat. If he wasn't we were. We lay at Winchester some days before we marched across the She- i nandoah for Manassas, and while lying there I 1 went into the hospita.s where our boys and the se- j cesh wounded were being taken care of. And here i I saw something th it made me feel pretty bad.. < One of our corporals had a bullet through his thigh. 1 He was wounded on picket the night before the battle. He had an Irishman on his picket-guard ! who would smoke his pipe through anything and 1 everything. Well, it was cold and damp this , - ? - -? l-J- ?' 1 ?1?A night, SO i'El llgQIv'U "is P?pv aim aUIUM.11 ana;, ] lying down with his shoulders ag dnst a fallen tree, for it was not his relief, and as he could not sleep he said he would tike it out in a good sinoke. This spark of fire made a good mark, and pretty so.m a bullet struck the oorporal who was standing some 1 distance from Pat. "Bless the pipe, thin," siys Pat, for if you had been smoking it, corporal, he I would have fired at you and hit me." The guard i fired back by chance, and afterward approached cautiously toward the place from which the shot had been fired. They heard groans which guided them, and soon came to a badly wounded man, in a farmer's dress, with a large bore rifle lying by his side. They stopped the bleeding hs well as they could, and turned out Jfat's reuei 10 carry him and the corporal to the nearest house in our lines. This turned out to be the farmer's own house. But it was deserted of every body except an old darkey and a little girl about nine years old. It turned out that they had been sent to the house by the girl's mother, thinking nobody would disturb them, to get some clothes, left behind when they ran away from their home, which they did on hearing that Jackson was coming back to drive us out of Winchester. They went into the mountains, for tho father was suspected of Unionism. rlhe father had started from his hiding-place for news, when ho was impressed by the secesh and made to serve as guide for placing the pickets as he knew ; the neighborhood . lie said that he had his ride to protect himself, and I belj'ieved him. But when they saw fyt &. ipg hiiu .to be a good !J1". .J . ' . . . ? 1 1 PJP hot, they compelled him to fire at the HgfiT, he >urposely aimed one side and hit the corporal. )ur return fire drove away their picket, but woundd him in the chest, and he died in a few days, .'he darkey went back to the mountains but the ittle girl would not leave her father, and he was arried to the hospital along with the corporal. >he staid with him, giving him water, bathing his lead, and saying, "Poor Daddy! poor daddy!" all he while till he died. Pat got a pass to go and iee the poor man buried, and the next roll call he vas among the missing, and nobody saw anything >f Pat for the next four days, when he came into lamp and reported to the Colonel, and pulled out lis pass as innocent as a baby. Upon being quesioned about such an absurd pretence as the pass 1 * J Ti.a ?rv jeing gooa lor iour uuys, rut sctiu uc uuu iv gir rome with the mourner irom the funeral. And he fact was, the fellow had taken the little girl rome to her mother in the mountains. I do not know if you will think what I say of iny interest worth publishing. Hut I thought a plain soldier's account of what did happen really n this war might encourage some others to enlist ust now wh^n we want them; for we have got Jiinned out somewhat from what we were at first, ind if our people will come into our old regiments with names already on their flags, or get up new >nes that will do better than we have, why then it jeems to me we can kill out rebellion before it gets >ld enough to go alone. And if they don't come md join us now why a great many more will have to come by-and-by. S. C.?Hits it ever occurred to our readers how much significant meaning thoie is in these wellinown initials of the Southern l onfederacy ? Here is a decade of examples: 1. It originated in South Carolina. 2. It ci -menced on State apital 3. It contains a Suffering Community. 4. Its success has a Slim chance. 5. Intervention brings it Small Comfoi t 6. Its leaders invent Shameless Calumnies. 7. Its people exhibit Surprising Credulity. 8. It has initiated a Suicidal Conflict. 9. Its women are Saucy Creatures. ? - - * n . i:? ?. J n x 10. Its History win De scorn ana c-onteinpu [Louisville Journal. The editor might have added an eleventh example, viz: 11. Its termination will be Slavery Condemned. Regulab line of PACKETS between new york AND PORT ROYAL, S. C.?The undersigned will despatch a vessel twice a month from each of the above named ports. For Freight or passage, apply to JOHN PITTS, Agent, Bay Point, 8. C., B- H. BIXBY, Vi Green-rush St., N. Yorlf. MS" The Brig "Leni," of this line will sail for New York cm the 30th inst. She made the* passage here in 4 days? Oca ting the steamer "Ericsson." All persons having claims for or against the late Capt A. HAMILTON, of the 76th Regt, P. V., will please make it known to Lieut MILLF.K of the 76th. American watches for American soldiers. The American Watch Company of Waltham, Mass., give notice that they lately issued a uew staple of watch expressly designed lor soldiers and others who desire a good watch tt a m-iterate price. These watches are intended to take the place of the cheap anchors and lepines of foreign rnanu * " ?*- ' *--* 1- *i .tKL>K ao lacture wim wmcn me market is uuuucu, mu nuw, <? every one knows, were never made to keep time, being refuse manufactures, unsaleable in Europe and sent to this 9 lountry for jocceyiny and .<?.-in>Uiny purposes only. Our new watch is most substantially made, cased in sterling sdver, and is a reliable and accurate tini^^2. It is offered at a price but little above that whiclAsVK& tor the trashy anchors and lepines already referred to^We have named this new scries of watches Wm. Ellery, and they may be found at the stores of our agents, Chancey <i. Bobbins, Beaufort; Douglas, Steele U- Co., Hilton Head, for the American Watch Company. H. A. R0BBIN8, General Agent TUST RECEIVED, AT THE UNION SQUARE STORE, J under the Post Office?a fine lot of Letter and Note Paper?ruled and plain?extra super and common qualities. Envelopes, Buff, White, Tinted, Opaque, Prtriotic, uc..?all sizes and qualities. Steel and Gold Pens. Ink?black, blue ? J -?> Tnbutanita nnru.p tolilpr* friUUTK nort folios. Dell knives, prize stationery, Uc. <j.c. Also, Patten's Manual"for Officers, Infantry Tactics, Du&ne's Engineers Manual and various other books of interest and value to the soldier. Also, a large variety of Novels, Song-books, pictorial papers, and by each mail the latest issues of the New York daily papers. i F)RT ROYAL HOUSE, HILTON HEAD, 8. C.?THE SUBscribers wish to inform their friends and the Public that their House is now open for visitors, the traveling public add permanent boarders, on reasonable terms. No pains will be spared for the comfort of guests. FRANZ ??- GILSON, Proprietors. r* n/iprpv 1vt> ktttt.VT? STORE.?Messrs. FRANZ dr U" GLLSON will keep constantly on hand, at their large Warehouse under the Port Royal House, a good supply of Ship's Groceries and Sutler's Goods, which will be sold at reasonable prices. They will also advance money and take bills of credit on Shipments upon the owners in Boston or New York. Refebexce CoL Peter Dunbar, J. J. Dunbar <? Co., Hill d- Simpson, Benton ?C* Caverly, Potter <? Snow and C. I?. Curtis. All of Boston. Mass. FRANZ d GILSON. MR. C. G. BOBBINS, BEAUFORT, S. C., IS NOW ESTAB liahed ob the corner opposite "Stevens House." Ho has always on hand, for sole, the most desirable goods for this section of the country, and for army uses, at the lowest