. History of the Twenty-fourth Michigan of the Iron brigade, known as the Detroit and Wayne county regiment .. . sons, and trains of all kinds plungedaxle deep into the miry clay, whence they could be scarcely drawn byany effort of teams and men with ropes combined. All werebesmeared with the adhering soil. The enemy opposite discoveredthe attempt and jocularly offered to come over and help build thebridges, The elements this time spared the President a prohibitionof the movement. What might have been, but for these naturalcauses, it is idle to divine, as the enemy had massed his artillery and
. History of the Twenty-fourth Michigan of the Iron brigade, known as the Detroit and Wayne county regiment .. . sons, and trains of all kinds plungedaxle deep into the miry clay, whence they could be scarcely drawn byany effort of teams and men with ropes combined. All werebesmeared with the adhering soil. The enemy opposite discoveredthe attempt and jocularly offered to come over and help build thebridges, The elements this time spared the President a prohibitionof the movement. What might have been, but for these naturalcauses, it is idle to divine, as the enemy had massed his artillery andtroops opposite for a desperate resistance. [For map of march seeChapter VII.] From a letter of Chaplain W. C. Way, we learn the movementsof the Twenty-fourth Michigan on this famous march, as follows : The Twenty-fourth broke camp at noon on Tuesday, January 20, and marchedtowards Stonemans Switch on the Acquia Creek railroad, which we reached at 9 p. m.,a distance of twelve miles. Toward evening it began to rain and when we hadireached the railroad, it came down thick and fast. Amid storm and darkness the. 112 HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN. regiment filed into the woods and bivouacked for the night, pitching tents by thedim light of a distant campfire. Many, tired and exhausted, lay on the ground withnothing but a blanket and rubber to protect them, sleeping soundly till all were astir, coffee made, the plain repast eaten, and soon in line of marchforward — and such a march. The rain had made sad work with the roads, and wepushed forward through the fields, over ditches and streams whose banks wereoverflown, for four miles; when at i oclock, we encamped in a dense pine forestnear the enemy. The scenes on the march defy description. Here a wagon miredand abandoned; there a team of six mules stalled, with the driver hallooing andcursing; dead mules and horses on either hand — ten, twelve and even twenty-sixhorses vainly trying to drag a twelve-pounder
Size: 1249px × 2000px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidhistoryoftwentyf00curti
