CORRESPONDENCE.
REMINISCZNCES OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.—II.
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Sm,—What struck me most in talking with the officers with whom I lived was the entire absence of bitterness against the Southerners. Most of these officers had been educated at, Mast Point, and, of course, they had very numerous friends serving in the Confederate Army, for one of the great advantages which the latter obtained at the beginning of the war was that the majority of the West Point officers came from Southern families. Moreover, all appeared to feel the sympathy and respect which brave men entertain for each other. I do not think that during the whole time I was with the Northern Army I ever heard a single one of those bitter tirades against the "rebels," as they were called, which were rather frequent amongst the civil population in New York and elsewhere ; but, though the officers were all staunch Unionists, a feeling of deep sadness prevailed amongst them that, by a cruel fate, they had been destined to bear arms against their own kith and kin. Assuredly, of all forms of strife, civil war IS the most odious—a fact which I trust has by this time penetrated into the minds of both Ulstermen and Nationalists in Ireland.
The Army itself resembled, I fancy, in some respects that of the Beers in the recent South African War. The boots and arms were in excellent condition, but beyond that, with the exception of General Butler and his Staff, who kept up a certain amount of what we should nail smartness, there was very little attempt to display any of the pomp and circumstance of war. The uniforms were very dilapidated. There was not much outward appearance of discipline ; but, in point of fact, it was very severe. The morning that I arrived at headquarters a Federal soldier was hung for assaulting a woman.
So far as I was concerned, there was really very little danger in going down to the trenches. So long as one kept under cover, the risk incurred was slight ; but one had to be careful to keep under cover, as the :7onfederate sharpshooters—the word " sniper " not having been then invented—were admirable marksmen. On one occasion I put my forage-cap on the end of a walking-stick and held it above the parapet. In a couple of minutes it was pierced by three bullets. I remember also that the French Colonel to whom I have already alluded eat himself quietly down behind a loophole made of sandbags to look at the enemy's position through his glasses. Hardly had he begun to do so when two bullets plumped into the sandbag on either side of him—within a few inches of his nose. During the time I was there, or just before my arrival, one of the Federal Generals, I think it was General Sidgwick, being some six or seven hundred yards from the Confederate lines, which was then considered too far a range for accurate rifle-fire, thought he could safely go into the open and look through his glasses at the sosition. In a few minutes he was shot dead.
Petersburg was never invested. The Federal Army was entrenched En straggling lines some eight or nine miles long. The distance from the Confederate lines varied from about one hundred and twenty yards it the nearest point in the centre to several miles at the flanks. I remember that on the left flank, where the distance was considerable, rifle-pits, which were very close together, were thrown up in advance of both sides. There were two men in each of them. A couple of Federal soldiers, being rather bored with the situation, holloaed out to the two Confederates in the opposing rifle-pit, inviting them to meet in the space which separated them and play a game of poker. They did so. Alter the Southerners had lost all the money they had, it was suggested that both should lay aside their arms and play for who should be taken prisoners. The Yankees again won, and the two Southerners were marched off in triumph to the Federal camp. They complained to General Meade that the whole thing was a joke and they ought to be set free, but the General decided that when he had once got them he would keep them. Also, at times, some good-humoured chaff, which does not bear repetition, went on between the outposts, particularly on the subject of a lady who at that time had gained a somewhat unenviable notoriety.
Much amusement and admiration was excited owing to the fact that when an entrenchment was made across a railway line of which the Federals had gained possession, it was discovered that the Southerners, before withdrawing, knowing that the telegraph-wires on poles would be destroyed, had laid wires under the sleepers of the line, and had thus been able to communicate for some while with their friends outside through the Federal camp.
On the extreme right, the officer in command was General Butler, of New Orleans fame. He did not appear to be popular either with the Army or with the civil population. I recollect that on the occasion of a-visit I paid to his battery, when I got within about fifty or sixty yards, I saw a puff of smoke from a wood opposite, some two or three miles off. A shell came whizzing over. A very good shot was made, as it plumped into one of the embrasures of the battery on our side and dismounted a gun. I remarked on the range being very long, and was told, but without reproach or comment of any kind, that the shot was from a Whitworth gun ; which, of course, must have been furnished by a British blockade runner.
At the point where the two lines approached each other most nearly, the distance being, as I have already mentioned, about one hundred and twenty yards, a mine had been constructed. None of the Staff officers thought it would be of much use, but an officer in command of a regiment of Pennsylvanian miners earnestly begged that he might be allowed to see what he could do, and permission was accorded to him. I remember going into the chamber of this mine. It was curious hearing the Confederate guns being run up a few feet above one's head and the shells being discharged at the lines which we had just left. It was on this ocaaaion that I realized the truth of what I had learnt In the classroom as a cadet at Woolwich—namely, that it is extremely difficult, especially for any one who is not a thorough expert, to judge from the sound of the pickaxes and shovels in which direction counter- mining is going on.
About a thousand yards behind the Confederate lines a series of redoubts had been constructed, which completely commanded the first line. Little as I knew of military affairs at tho time, it appeared to me that the mine could be of no use, and this view was fully shared by the American Staff officers. I waited some days to be present when it was exploded, but eventually, as the date seemed to be very uncertain, I had to leave. Shortly after I left, the mine was exploded early one morning, not just before dawn, as had been intended, but after it was light. Of course, the Confederate battery under which the mine had been placed was blown sky-high. Then the Federal troops, black regiments being employed, rushed to the attack and easily made a lodgment in the crater of the mine. When they got there, as was anticipated, the redoubts in the rear opened fire and speedily rendered their position untenable. They therefore had to retire in driblets, exposed to the rifle-fire of the Confederates on either flank- This melees attack cost the lives of several thousand men.
I do not know if any of the Staff officers of General Meade's Army were aware that the whole of the operations before Petersburg were little more than a feint, and that the real attack was about to be made by Sherman in the West upon Atlanta. If they did know anything about it, which I rather doubt, they, of course, were very careful to hold their tongues, otherwise I should certainly have asked, and might perhaps have obtained, permission to accompany Sherman on his cnward march, which practically ended the war. I have always very greatly regretted that I was not able to do this.
The general impression which I carried away from my visit to the American Army was that, although, of course, the United States at the commencement of the Civil War were as unprepared as they probably are now, and as we were at the commencement of the present war, when once the people of that country put their backs into an effort, they are capable of creating in a short time a most formidable military force. I conceive that the main difficulty now, as then, in the event of any large force being organized, would be the dearth of trained and capable officers. I was also deeply impressed with the fact that in time of trial the American democracy were prepared to put aside all minor differences of opinion, to accord a whole-hearted support to the Executive Government of the time being, and to display the greatest Indulgence towards any mistakes which were committed.—I am,
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