The Sword and Gun 7

The Sword and Gun 7

And so the 2d of April draws to a close, the rebel line is broken and

the city of Petersburg is, virtually, ours. All that night we pass,

under arms, in the rebel works, and at daylight on the 3d, advance in

line of battle, not a shot from the enemy to check our progress--we

can see the cannon remaining in several of the forts, but where are

the gunners?

 

"Did traitors lurk in the _rebel_ hold?

Had their hands grown stiff or their hearts grown cold?

I know not in sooth, but from yonder wall

There flashed no fire, there hissed no ball."

--_Siege of Corinth._

 

and now we are up to the second line of works, they are silent and

empty, and Gen. Hartranft, commanding the 3d Division of our Corps,

jumps astride of the 8-inch Columbiad, which, a week or two before,

had shelled his headquarters in the Avery House, and which he had

sworn he would "straddle."

 

And now the fact becomes evident, _Petersburg is evacuated_. We break

from line of battle into column, and dipping down into a ravine we

see, as we mount the hill on the other side, the cockade city lying

stretched out at our feet, the goal we have been striving for, for

almost a year, is won, and Petersburg is ours.

 

It seems strange and dream-like, at first, to stand there and look

down, at close quarters, on the spires and cupolas that for many

a long month we have watched from a distance, and to trace their

connections, with the buildings of which they formed a part, in

reality, instead of only in imagination, as before.

 

Yes, there it lay before us looking, somehow, strangely civilized

and peaceful with its old fashioned steep-roofed houses nestled down

amongst the trees, the smoke from the chimneys curling upwards into

the bright blue sky overhead--a crowd of darkies "Hurrahing and

Hallelujahing" around us, accompanying their __EXPRESSION__s of delight

with a grotesque exhibition of antics and grimaces, and "_Bressing_

de Lord and the Yankees," about alike, for the freedom that had

this day come to them. And now as the light gets stronger, we see

the colors of the 2d Michigan waving from the Court House, and

the strains of a brass band come floating down the wind faint and

indistinct in the distance. But a note here and there is sufficient

to show that it is a salute to the flag that waves over the captured

city, and, as the well-known strains of the "Star Spangled Banner"

fall clearer and clearer on the ear, our own flags are "unfurled to

the glad breeze of heaven," and a cheer goes up to greet them, that

awakens the echoes of the city far and wide.

 

We sit down under the shade of the locust trees and discuss a hasty

breakfast, when the word is given, "Fall in," and we march back to

camp, to bid farewell to the spot that, for nearly six months, has

been our only home, to pack up our Lares and Penates and transporting

them, like Ulysses, (not Grant, but him of Troy) on our back, start

off in pursuit of the rebel army, or wherever it may please Grant to

send us.

 

The same evening the brigade was moved out on to the Boydton

Plankroad where the men were allowed a brief rest after a week of

duty, which had pretty well tired us all out, both officers and men.

It is true that we had had little or no marching, and only one day's

fighting, but the continual state of tension in which our nerves

were kept all that time, and the want of rest, made us all glad of a

respite from our labors.

 

We remained camped near the city till the 6th of the month, Col.

Ely, commanding 2d brigade, 1st division, 9th army corps, being

appointed Military Governor of the same, Brevet Major General Wilcox,

commanding the district. We found the inhabitants, for the most part,

orderly and well disposed, though a few cases of outrage towards our

troops occurred which were as much deprecated and resented by the

more orderly and well behaved portion of the community, as by us.

 

* * * * *

 

PETERSBURG is a remarkably neat and pretty city, situated on the

Appomattox River, about ten miles above its confluence with the

James at City Point. Before the war it contained somewhere in the

neighborhood of twenty thousand inhabitants, though at the time

of our occupation of it, its population scarcely numbered over

fifteen thousand. It was originally a trading post, established by

one Peters, for traffic with the Indians, and in process of time,

and as the country became settled, became a place of trade for the

settlers in the vicinity. The original town was located about where

the cemetery at Blandford now stands, and for a time, was known as

Peter's, afterwards as Pocahontas, this latter name being still given

to a hamlet across the river, forming a suburb of the city. The name

was finally changed to Petersburg which it retains to this day; it

is situated principally in Dinwiddie county, and is the principal

tobacco shipping point in the South. The neighboring counties of

Prince George and Pocahontas, have a fertile, highly productive

soil, raising corn, tobacco, sugar-cane and cotton as well as wheat,

barley, oats and other cereals. It has railroad communications with

Richmond, distant twenty-five miles, Burkesville sixty miles, Weldon,

N. C., seventy-five miles, Norfolk and Suffolk sixty-three miles, and

a short railroad also connects it with City Point, its port of entry,

to which place there is easy access, from the coast, for vessels

drawing fifteen feet of water.

 

There are several large cotton, flour, and lumber mills erected on

the rapids of the Appomattox, which furnish an unequalled water

power, as yet only partially developed, and a proper attention paid

to which would largely increase the wealth and importance of the

place. The streets are wide and straight, nicely ornamented with

shade trees, and the public buildings, for the most part, well

designed and well finished. In hotels the city is rather deficient,

there being but one decent one, the Jarrett House, in the whole

place. Sycamore street, the principal business street of the city,

contains a few fine buildings and stores, and quite a number of

handsome residences.

 

The stores were mostly closed on our arrival, and but few of them had

much of a stock on hand, Confederate scrip having for a long time

been quoted "low" and the supply scant. On the Saturday preceding

the Monday on which we arrived in the city, flour had been sold at

$1,400 a barrel, wood $50 a cord and other necessaries of life in

proportion. The lower part of the city bore severe traces of the

siege, hardly a house being unmarked by either shot or shell. The gas

works were nearly torn to pieces, a long chimney, eighty-five feet

in height, which had once formed part of the building, having been

thrown down a short time before our arrival, after having received

thirty-five shells through it in different places. The clock on the

Town Hall had also been perforated by a three inch shell, though

strange to say, the missile had not damaged the works in the least.

Two bridges across the Appomattox and three large warehouses full of

tobacco, had been set on fire and destroyed by the rebels when they

evacuated. A fine strong bridge leading across the river, from the

South Side railroad depot to the railway company's machine shop, had

been loaded with two new locomotives and all the cars that could be

placed on it, and then set fire to, cars and locomotives being thus

precipitated into the river.

 

A large quantity of commissary stores, consisting of corn meal,

bacon, coffee, (unroasted,) sugar and tobacco, was found in the rebel

government warehouses and were afterwards issued to the destitute

citizens, irrespective of color. Captain John Cooper, of the 5th

Wisconsin, was appointed C. S., and the scene in his office, from

daylight till dark, was a novel one.

 

Ladies of the first family type, clothed in deepest black, with a

sullen, defiant look on their handsome faces, sometimes closely

veiled; Africa, of all shades, from the genuine sable "mungo," with

skin like polished ebony, and showing from between his extended

gums a formidable array of ivory, to the graceful quadroon, hardly

a shade darker, and very often a great deal handsomer than her late

mistress, standing within a few feet of one another, all jubilant and

triumphant, all rejoicing in their new found freedom, kind and polite

to the boys in blue, their liberators, and obsequious, to a degree,

to shoulder straps. Poor things, what their future may be, we know

not, but they can never know a happier day in their lives, than when,

there on the third of April, 1865, the fetters fell from their hands,

as from Paul and Silas in prison, and they stood, for the first time

in their lives, free men and women.

 

On the 6th of April, the 1st division, 9th army corps, was relieved

from duty in Petersburg, and moved out on the line of the South Side

Railroad, having its headquarters at Burkesville, and the corps being

strung along the road from that place to Petersburg. The 37th moved

out at daylight and camped about dark near Ford's Station, from

whence they were afterwards removed to beyond Wellsville and in the

neighborhood of Black's and White's, where they remained till after

the surrender of Lee and Johnston and their armies, guarding the

railroad and the farms and plantations adjoining, and administering,

as far as our commissariat would permit, to the wants of the adjacent

population.

 

Overrun and devastated by two contending armies, the once rich

country, surrounding Petersburg and Richmond, is to-day a wilderness.

Not only have the crops been swept off to supply the wants of the

Confederate soldiers, but the cattle and horses have been also

absorbed for the same purpose. Fences have been torn down and burnt,

houses, sheds and barns stripped of their coverings to furnish huts

for winter quarters, and the whole country converted into a scene of

devastation and ruin. Deserters from both armies have formed bands

of guerrillas for the purposes of plunder and pillage, men from the

opposing armies having in some cases associated together for this

purpose.

 

A rather amusing incident of this kind which occurred whilst we

were near Black's and White's, may serve as an illustration. Col.

Harriman, having been informed that large body of guerrillas had

formed a camp in his neighborhood, sent Capt. Burnett, A. D. C.

on his staff, accompanied by a sufficient force, to reconnoitre

and report on the condition of affairs. The Captain set out on his

expedition and soon arrived in sight of the enemy, (?) whom he found

to consist of about a couple of hundred colored individuals camped

in due form, and with camp guards, &c., duly posted. The _commanding

officer_ was a private of the 5th Mass. Colored Cavalry, who had, by

some means or other, strayed from his command, and had, like David,

"gathered to him every one (of his color) that was in distress and

every one that was discontented," and had established a camp in

regular military style.

 

The sable chieftain sat at his tent door as the Captain approached,

and while one intelligent son of Africa was carefully cleaning his

master's (?) horse, another highly intellectual contraband was

blacking his boots. The scene was a rich one and might be taken for

the frontispiece of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's next novel. The

terms of capitulation were not, we believe, quite as ceremonious nor

so advantageous as those agreed on between Gens. Grant and Lee, for

poor Cuffee was sent back to his regiment under arrest, and his sable

warriors who belonged to the neighboring plantations dispersed to their homes, and their arms, which they had collected from the battle field of the Five Forks, turned over to Uncle Sam.