CHAPTER X.
PICKET LINES, BATTLES AND BATTLEFIELDS.
PICKET LINES.
Picket or Scout.—Different phases of soldier life have been partially explained, but the elements that enter into the make up or the varied experience of the successful sharpshooter or scout are beyond description. Take the foremost soldier in the army whose energy, pluck and daring deeds of valor have aided him in forging his way to the front, then add all the nerve, fearlessness, disregard of danger, determination to surmount all obstacles and you get only a faint idea of the sturdy firm, intrepid picket or scout, looking not for trouble but for adventure. History often records raids made by such dashing leaders as Jackson, Stuart, Morgan or leaders of that character with picked men. Such leaders select from different commands men who have passed through firey ordeals and have been weighed in the balance and found not wanting. With such soldiers wonderful victories have been achieved that would have been failures with a different class of men. The common soldier on the skirmish line however courageous he may be finds himself facing a problem that calls into play some traits of the soldier that he does not possess. The picket lines were often very close together, sometimes on friendly terms and sometimes hostile to each other.
On The Picket Line.—In the night time the lines have been near enough to hear pickets in the opposite line talking in a low tone, but usually the lines were further apart. A very slight demonstration on the picket line sometimes precipitated a fight. The sentinels on the lines of the two armies were at one time respectively walking their beats on opposite sides of the Rapahannock river in plain view of each other. A sentinel on post on one of the lines playfully pointed his gun at the sentinel on post opposite him on the other side and was at once shot at by the sentinel, who took the matter seriously. There was something doing along the line for a little while but the situation was soon understood, the excitement subsided and the sentinels resumed their places, walking their beats but refrained from quite so much familiarity.
Exchange of Courtesies.—Sentinels on post on the picket lines representing the opposing armies often exchanged courtesies and greetings and on the sly met between the lines, exchanged daily papers, swapped tobacco for coffee, had a pleasant chat with each other and returned to their respective posts with the kindliest feelings. The following lines demonstrate or illustrate the friendly feeling that prevailed among the soldiers of the two opposing armies.
Fearful Experience.—During the time of the engagements in the wilderness a soldier on the picket line one night had a fearful experience. The lines were very close and the sentinels on post had strict orders to walk their beats, keep a sharp lookout and let no one approach or cross the line without giving the countersign. It was very dark and the thick underbrush made the darkness more dense. The officers making their rounds were embarrassed not knowing how soon they might march into the enemy’s lines. The sentinel quietly walking his beat heard a soldier approaching and soon as he came near enough in as low a tone as possible challenged him and asked for the countersign. The soldier approaching apparently like the soldier on post was uncertain whether he was in the presence of a friend or an enemy. In an evasive way they made inquiries with a view of ascertaining each others identity. Each one was afraid to fire on the other fearing he would be firing on a friend instead of an enemy, knowing too that the least disturbance would precipitate a movement of both armies and perhaps cause a battle which in the darkness would have been horrible to contemplate. Without understanding their true relationship to each other, they simultaneously turned and walked in opposite directions and to this day the soldier does not know whether he challenged a friend or a foe.
Burned Bodies of the Dead.—To augment the horrors of the Wilderness battles a fire broke out immediately following the retreat of the enemy in an engagement and swept over the battlefield before the dead could be moved. The picket line reconnoitering moving forward to discover the position taken by the retreating army was obliged to run over the crisp burned bodies of Yankee soldiers lying dead on the field. It was an awful sight illustrating the horrors of war. The soldiers on the picket line in consequence of the heat, smoke and stench were very nearly overcome and were driven to the extreme necessity of drinking the turbid waters of a ditch where dead bodies of Yankee soldiers were lying very close.
Test of Valor.—On the skirmish line was the place to test the real powers of the soldier. In the Southern army were plain unassuming men, without reward or the hope of reward, or even realizing that they were doing anything extraordinary, that performed deeds of daring that stamped them as heroes of the highest type.
Escape of the Enemy.—Near the close of the war an inducement was offered by the Yankees to dissatisfied Southern soldiers to pass through the lines, and occasionally a sentinel would leave his post and with his gun and equipments make a dash for the lines on the other side. As he approached the picket post on the other side the Yankee sentinel would call out, “Come in Johnnie.” A few soldiers escaped sometimes under the fire of sentinels at contiguous posts. While a few citizens and soldiers crossed over the line but few joined the Northern army.
Welcome Peace.—Soldiers on both sides were tired of war and welcomed the treaty of peace, and were glad to return to their homes and again engage in the quiet peaceful pursuits of life.
On the Warpath.—The campaigns of the civil war were generally vigorously prosecuted in warm weather. In the good old Summer time soldiers slept on blankets thrown on the ground with nothing but the canopy of heaven as a covering, and then if they received marching orders the boys had nothing to do but to take up their beds and walk at quick step or if in case of urgent necessity at double quick time.
Often while sweetly sleeping not disturbed by the fear of Yankees or anything else, the drum would beat and soldiers would be aroused from sleep and then there would be something doing, and very soon the command would be moving.
Unreliable Soldiers.—On the warpath the artful skulker did clever maneuvering worthy of a better cause to sustain his position that for plausible reasons he ought to be an immune and not required to join at the critical time when the battle was on.
Fortunately the Southern army did not have many of this class, and the few placed as they were among soldiers disposed to do their duty, were obliged to take their places in line.
Music in Battle.—Before the beginning of hostilities the average citizens were under the impression that soldiers marched into battle to the tune of martial music and to cheer them on the drums would beat and the bands play, but soldiers’ first experience convinced them that a very different kind of music prevailed. It was the terrific sound of bursting shells, the hateful, hissing, singing of minnie balls, mingled with commands of officers occasionally heard above the din, and the screams and groans of wounded and dying soldiers crying for help and calling for water to quench their burning thirst.
Instead of selecting a certain soldier in the enemy’s line as a target to shoot at, a soldier merely leveled his gun and fired at the line of battle of the enemy, dimly seen through the smoke and dust, then loaded his gun with another cartridge and repeated. In a hotly contested fight soldiers often shot fifty rounds of cartridges and their guns got so hot that they could scarcely grasp them with their hands.
Battles.—A succession of battles is by no means a monotonous repetition. Each battle has its peculiar phases. A battle is often an exhibition of the artistic skill of officers in arranging and maneuvering, and of men carefully executing, and may be a trial of physical endurance and the well trained handling of the weapons of warfare used. In any event a battle is a spectacular scene imposing and grand.
Opposing armies, on the warpath, require but little provocation to induce them to get up a rumpus. Battles are by no means precipitated in a uniform cut and dried way, but are brought about in as many ways as there are battles fought. A single shot fired by a picket from his post may cause the picket lines to exchange shots and fall back, and the commands represented by them to settle the disturbance by engaging in a battle. Cavalrymen sometimes make a raid and start a fight into which the entire armies are drawn. Cannonading is a very common way to start a fight. Sometimes a command is surprised by a detachment from the opposite army and a battle ensues, and sometimes the armies come together apparently without any preconcerted plan on either side, simultaneously line up and get busy, with their work of carnage.
On the battlefield soldier life is delineated in its most revolting phase. Two contending armies present a spectacle grand and awful to contemplate. The surging masses of human beings intent on each others destruction with the death dealing artillery with its terrific roar and the more destructive missiles of small armies with their hateful hissing sounds, together with the deafening cheers of the moving armies, and the heartrending screams and moans of the wounded and dying make the scene agonizing to the extreme. Two contending armies engaged in battle present to the eye of the beholder an indescribable panorama.
Battle Fields.—Nature in some places has provided spots of ground that answer the purpose of belligerent armies where one line has the advantage of protection or shelter from the onslaughts of the other. Where grounds have been selected not affording safe protection against the invading force, soldiers are subjected to hard work throwing up breastworks, digging intrenchments or placing abatis to entangle the advancing army so as to detain it and shoot down the soldiers while extricating themselves from the entanglement. Every device or subterfuge that the fertile brain or imagination of man can discover or invent is called into requisition to give an advantage considered honorable in war. Sometimes though contending armies meet in open field in plain view of each other and fight to the finish and retire from the field leaving there a harrowing scene of suffering and destruction. Sometimes soldiers engage in hand to hand encounters, display physical force, power of endurance, and their expertness in handling the weapons of warfare, sustained by indomitable courage and stubborn willpower.
After the Battle.—The heat and excitement of the battle having subsided and the smoke cleared away, the battlefield presents a harrowing scene that beggars description. The grim monster death having done its terrible work leaves its impress on the faces of its unfortunate victims. Passion, determination and conflicting emotions plainly stamped on the faces of the victims now wrapt in the cold embrace of death.