Ozaukee County's
War History
by Daniel E. McGinley

as extracted from THE PORT WASHINGTON STAR
December 4, 1897



Life in the Trenches
Chapter 4

At times, the boys amuse themselves by singing while they shoot, and the darkies song "Babylon has Fallen" is a favorite with them at such times. While singing it, the boys all load their rifles, take aim at the enemy's pits, and when they come to the chorus, they raise their voices and shout as loudly as possible:

"Look out dar, now, for Ise a gwine to shoot!
Look out dar; don't you understand?"

and follow the last word with a well-directed volley. The rebs at times try to irritate our boys by singing parodies on ìYankee Doodle,î and we return the compliment by singing an amusing parody on the ìBonnie Blue Flag.î

Sometimes the rebels try to capture one or more of our pits in the dead of night for the purpose of capturing some coffee -- a scarce article with them -- or more often just for the fun of the thing. At times, they succeed in crawling up close to our pits in the darkness, and then with a sudden rush, manage to get into one or more of the pits before our boys recover from their surprise. But at such times, many of them get doses of cold steel or lead, and even if they do gain possession for a few moments, they are quickly driven out again. One or two such raids has a very good effect, as it puts the pickets on guard and makes them keep a close watch on every sound and motion until daylight again returns. Our boys make similar raids on the enemy's pits for the purpose of capturing tobacco, which is very scarce in our lines at present, but such raids are not countenanced by the officers. The boys tell a story of one of the Indian members of a Wisconsin regiment crawling to the rear of a rebel pit, and stealing and bringing back with him one of the enemy's knapsacks, which contained tobacco, without being seen or heard by the rebs.

Our regimental headquarters, drum corps, cooks, etc. are located a quarter of a mile or more in the rear of the main line. Their bivouac is near a spring or stream and is sheltered from the rebel musketry by a large hill; but the enemy's shells will often go over there with their hair-raising sounds, which seems to be "where are you?" "where are you" or "where's dat nigger?" "where's dat nigger?" To protect themselves from such visitors, they have dug a number of diminutive bomb-proofs in the side of the hill, in which they sleep and into which they dive when they hear a shell coming. That they are far from being safe, so far to the rear, is often proven by some of them getting wounded or killed. Our company had a cook killed here one day while picking up fire wood nearly a mile from the enemy's picket. A bullet fired from one of their pits struck him at that distance, and went clear through his body.

Every three days, the division supply wagons come to within a mile of our main line, and there issue rations to the different regiments. The rations are carried to the intrenchments by a detail of men from each regiment, and there distributed to the companies and then to each soldier. Mail arrives daily and is a great source of comfort to the soldiers. About once a week, rations of whiskey, or "commissary," as the boys call it, are issued to the troops. This does considerable good, as it comes in small quantities to each man, is very welcome, especially in rainy weather or when the men are working hard in the trenches. Even the "Christian General," Howard, knows that it is good for the boys once in a while, and we draw it as often since he assumed command of the Army of the Tennessee, as we ever did.

Hold, there comes an orderly at full speed with a large envelope in his belt, which fact indicates that he is the bearer of written orders. He rides at a gallop up to our division headquarters, and must be the bearer of an important order, for staff officers immediately mount and gallop to the different brigades. In a few minutes, the command "fall in" passes along the main line, and the troops are quickly in line behind their breastworks when they are informed that a noisy demonstration is to be made all along the line, to prevent Hood from detaching any troops to send against Gen. Kilpatrick, who is now in Hood's rear with the Union cavalry, cutting his communications. We are told that we will not be asked to leave our works on this part of the line, but that we must pretend to be on the point of doing so.

Presently, our batteries open and in a few minutes, cannon in our line is firing. A steady shower of shot and shell is poured into the enemy's lines, while every man on the picket line is loading and firing as fast as he is able; the rebs are startled, not knowing what to make of the outburst, and when a minute later, our main and picket lines break into cheers and yells, they are sure that we are about to make an assault, and their artillery opens all along their lines while many of their pickets believing that we are coming with a rush, desert their rifle-pits and run back to the main line. Our artillery doubles its fire, the boys yell long and lustily, and our pickets keep up a steady roll of musketry. The noise is deafening; clouds of smoke hang over the batteries and picket lines, while shells shriek and burst in every direction. Officers not in on the secret come galloping up from the rear, fearing the enemy had made an attack, for the din closely resembles a heavy battle. Off near the right and left of the lines, our troops leave their intrenchments and cautiously advance as though about to assault, the firing and yelling takes a fresh start all along the line, and the tumult is continued nearly an hour. The demonstration, we learn later, had the desired effect, and Kilpatrick, after making a complete circuit of the city and cutting its communications, returns thus safely.

THE END