My Little War Experience

Class b-k04_ Book JEOiL Copyiight]^°_ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. MY LITTLE War Experience* WITH Historical Sketches and Memorabiliat BY EDWARD W. SPANGLER, Private Company K, 1 30th Rcgfiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Second Brigade, Third Division, Second Corps, Army of the Potomac. Sl3 Two Copies Revived JUN 2 1904 A Copyrtefat Entry (iLASS/\ XXc'Na' COPYRIGHTED 1904 BY EDWARD W. SPANGLER. All Rights Reserved. Printed by the York Dally Publishing Company, York, Pa. INTRODUCTION. THE generous tribute ot praise bestowed upon the writer's brief and insignificant Army Ex- perience upon its appearance serially in the York Daily is his excuse for essaying its publication in book form. This tribute was doubtless evoked more by the appendant historical sketches than the commonplace narrative itself. A large majority of our present population has grown up since the termi- nation of the terrible internecine struggle for the maintenance of the Union, which logically ended in the abolition of slavery and the perpetuity of republican institutions. To them, especially, this book may be instructive and entertaining—notably the parts relat- ing to slavery—the primary cause of war, the bitter hatred engendered thereby, the graphic battle descriptions by the commanders on both sides of the great contest, and the portrayal of the cognate contempora- neous events. To the younger local population must be peculiarly gratifying the patriotism displayed by their ancestors in the enthusiastic war meetings held in York, published in full because they were typical of patriotic assemblages held during the war period throughout the entire North. The sires nobly supported the flag when the war clouds first emerged above the horizon, and were ever conspicuous in the stirring local events and scenes enacted during the greatest conflict in history. Dur- iv INTRODUCTION. ing the great struggle, they, too aged themselves to enlist, furnished their full quota of men and money, and extended a most generous and practical hospital- ity to the thousands of sick and wounded men sent from the front to the York Soldiers' Hospital. They were sons of heroic forbears of a County which sent more equipped soldiers to the theatre of war in the Revolution and lost more men in proportion to population than any other section of the Colonies. This prosaic narrative, without literary finish, is in itself but a weak and attenuated thread which has been made the expedient for suspending from it cam- paign excerpts and historical sketches and memora- bilia, relevant and irrelevant, that were believed to be specially interesting and instructive. The book, therefore, can justly be denominated a medley or hodge-podge. The thrilling battle scene and other pictures, perhaps too profuse, illustrative of the text and as varied, were also conceived to be attractive to the reader for whose entertainment, if any, this Lit- tle War Experience was alone written and compiled. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I. The Causes of the Great Civil War. The Private Soldier. Protective Tariff and African Slavery. Slavery in York County. Sensational and Most Remarkable Negro Re- ligious Meeting in New Orleans. Contention for Secession. The Brutal Assault upon Sen- ator Sumner. Intense Indignation in the North. The Dred Scott Decision. Disgrace- ful Melee in Congress. The John Brown In- vasion. I — 12 CHAPTER II. The Genesis of the War. Southern States Secede. Patriotic Meetings IN York. Fort Sumter Surrenders. Intense Excitement in the North. Enlistments. Off FOR the Front. At Arlington, Va. The March through Maryland. The Battle of South Mountain 13—28 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. Antietam. Nothing Like Imminent Peril to Stimulate Piety. Sensations upon Entering a Battle. The Fears Experienced by Generals Grant and Sherman. The Battle of Antietam. The Bloodiest Single Day of the War. "Bloody Lane." Gallantry of the i^gth Regiment. Compliments by Gen. French. Desperate Con- dition OF the Enemy. Errors and Mistakes. 29—45 CHAPTER IV. Losses in Battle. Immense Losses of the Second Corps. The Best Fighting Corps in the Army. Its Extraor- dinary Achievements. Confederate Descrip- tion of the Battle of Antietam. Comparison OF Battle Losses with those of Europe. Im- mense Superiority of the American Soldier. My Shattered Rifle. Taken to Hagerstown on a Hay Wagon. The York Soldiers' Hospital. 30-53 CHAPTER V. Fredericksburg. Return to the Army. Picturesque Harper's Ferry. Cousins in the Confederate Armies. Gen. McClellan Removed. At Belle Plains. Our Extreme Hardships and Sufferings. Ter- rible Fighting in the City of Fredericksburg. The Rigid Dead Confederate. Our Division Makes the First Charge on Marye's Heights. The Awful Slaughter. The Field Literally Covered with Dead and Wounded. The En- try of the Shell. Fortunate Escape. 54—69 ^ CONTENTS. Vii CHAPTER VI. Description of the Battle of Fredericksburg. By the Count of Paris, 'and Generals French AND Couch. Gen. Franklin's Assertion that Gen. Burnside's Going to Sleep Lost us the Battle. His Erroneous Letter and Conclu- 7° sion. Gen. Burnside's Utter Incompetency. • — CHAPTER VII. After the Battle of Fredericksburg. Taken to the Hospitals at Washington and Philadelphia. Minister to a Wounded and Dying Confederate. Thaddeus Stevens in Congress. His Intellectual Supremacy, and Invaluable Services in the Cause of the Union. Noble Tribute by his Contemporaries. Henry Ward Beecher's War Lectures. His Great Speeches for the Union in Great Britain. He Confronts Angry and Violents Mobs. Converts A Hostile Public Sentiment at a Critical Period. Fierce and Ludicrous Scenes. 8i —86 CHAPTER VIII. Chancellorsville. Return to the Army in Front of Fredericksburg. Winter Dug-outs. Picket Duty. Battle of Chancellorsville. The Rout of the Eleventh Corps. That Dreadful Saturday Night; Both Armies Mixed Up in Total Darkness. Horrors OF the Shrieking Wounded, Mingled Curses. Havoc Wrought by the Artillery. 87—93 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. Chancellorsville. Stonewall Jackson's Mortal Wound and Death. Thrown from his Litter. Graphic and Thrill- ing Descriptions of the Horrible Night-Battle AND Jackson's Tragic Death, by the Count of Paris, and Jackson's Widow in his Memoirs. His Rank as a Chieftain. A Religious Fanatic. Demands the Killing of all Prisoners of War. His Death, and not the Battle of Gettysburg, the Turning Point of the War 94— 108 CHAPTER X. Chancellorsville. The Battle Renewed on Sunday. Gen. Berry Killed in our Company. The Fatal Blunder of his Successor. The Terrible Retreat Step BY Step to an Inner Line. Hand to Hand Conflict. Horses .Shot .Between .the .Lines. President Lincoln's Unique Letter to Gen. Hooker. The Latter's Incompetency as an Army Commander. Corps Commanders in Coun- cil OF War, Urge a Renewal of the Attack which would have Retrieved the Disaster. The Retreat to our Abandoned Winter Quarters 109— 120 CONTENTS. ix CHAPTER XL Our Return Home. Hospitable Reception Given by the Citizens of York. Heroism Extolled. York County in THE Revolutionary War. Continental Con- gress IN YoRKTowN. Generals Lafayette, Gates AND Wilkinson and the Conway Cabal in York. The Unfought Duel. Ducking of the Tory Rector in York. Banquet on the Commons to the 130TH Regiment. Witty Toasts and Elo- quent Speeches. Complimentary Order by our Division Commander, Gen. French. 120— 129 APPENDIX. NOTE I. (Page 6. Negro Religious Meeting. Negro -Religious Meeting in New Orleans before THE • Civil \N\ar. Graphic and Humorous De- scriptions OF the Ministers and Congregation who even Surpassed in their Ejaculations, Shrieks and Spasms the "Howling Dervishes" of the East 131 — 138 NOTE 2. (Page 8.) Assault upon Senator Sumner. The Murderous Assault by Preston Brooks upon Senator Charles Sumner in i8.s6. A Most Interesting Description of the Acrimonious Slavery Debate that Led to it. and the Preg- nant Consequences. 139— 144 NOTE 3. (Page 10.) Free Fight in Congress, 1858. The Swagger of Southern Fire-eaters is Resented BY Blows. Struggling Masses in Fistic Con- flict. Grow fells Keitt. Ludricrous end of the Row. How the loss of the Wjg of Gen. Barksdale (afterwards killed at Gettysburg) Stopped the General Melee i45— 148 APPHNDIX. XI NOTE 4- (Page 12.) John Brown Invasion. The John Brown Raid and Battle at Harper's Ferry. His Last Moments and Execution. In- tense Excitement Throughout the Country. 149—153 NOTE s. (Page 14.) Union Meeting in York, 1861. 154—155 NOTE 6. (Page 15.) Fearful Excitement in York. "Large and Enthusiastic Town Meeting, April i8th, 1861. Patriotic Speeches and Resolu- tions. Aid for the Families of York Citizen Soldiers. Telegraph and Railroad Communica- tions with Baltimore Suspended. Ordering off and Departure of the York Military. Passage OF Troops. Patriotism of York Citizens." - 156— 158 NOTE 7. (Page 16.) "The War Excitement in York." Arrival of the Military. Over Five Thousand Troops Quartered in York. Return of the York Companies. Immense County Meeting. Appropriation of $10,000 by the Commissioners AND $q,000.00 Subscribed for the Families of Soldiers. Formation of a Home Guard 159—163^ XU APPENDIX. NOTE 8. (Page 17.) "The President's Call for Troops in 1862." War Meeting in York. Large and Enthusiastic Gathering of the People 164— 166 NOTE 9. (Page 48.) Losses in Battle. Our Battle and Regimental Losses in the Civil War Compared with those of the Great Con- flicts OF Europe. Americans the Best, most Courageous and Tenacious Fighters in the World 167—170 NOTE 10. (Page 55.) Harper's Ferry. By President Thomas Jefferson. 171 — 172 NOTE II. (Page 83.) Thaddeus Stevens. The Great Commoner. 173— 181 APPENDIX. xm NOTE 12. (Page 86.) Rev. Henry Ward Beecher in Great Britain. 1863. Delivers Brilliant Speeches to Convert the Dom- inant Class of that Country to the Cause of the North. Is Confronted by Armed and Hos- tile Mobs. In Imminent Peril. Graphic and Humorous Descriptions. His Transcendent Swaying Power as an Orator 182—187 NOTE 13.

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