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A EECORD OF COLLEGE, FIELD, AND PRISON. ^, .

THE

KNIGHTLY SOLDIER:

A BIOGRAPHY

OF

MAJOR HENRY WARD CAMP,

TENTH CONN. VOLS.

BY

,^^t

CHAPLAIN H^'CLAY TRUMBULL.

-OOj^OO-

BOSTON: NICHOLS AND N O Y E S.

NEW YORK: OLIVER S.FELT. 18G5.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1805, by

NICHOLS & NOYES,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massa- chusetts.

Stekeottped by C. J. Petees & Son, Boston.

Peess of Geo. C. Rand & Aveet.

^

€a tijc parents

TO WHOSB

JUDICIOUS TBAINING AND EARNEST PEATEBS

HENRY CAMP

OWED SO MUCH, AND WHOM HE LOVED SO DEABLT,

This Tribute of Affection

IS DEDICATED IN TENDEEEST SYMPATHY.

This book is not an attempt to prove that Henry- Camp was brave, accomplished, and upright in all the coiu'se of his beautiful hfe here, or that he was fully prepared for the future to which God so early called him. It simply shows him as he was, group- ing the memorial sketches of those who knew him best in the various relations of student, soldier, and Christian; with copious extracts from his own let- ters, written in all the freedom of family corresj^ond- ence.

It was undertaken in behalf of his home friends, college-mates, and army comrades, who are sure to prize whatever concerns his record, or honors his memory. Yet, it is believed, it will have si^ecial value to many who, without knowing him, were his campaign associates in the Carolinas and Virginia, and who here find narrated the more striking inci- dents of their own army experience. Nor can any reader fail to admire his glowing details of personal

VI preface:

adventure, and his graphic descriiition of events na- tional in scojDe and of historic significance.

One thing demands exphination. The relations between the compiler and the subject of this volume were of j^eculiar and rarest intimacy. The two were, during the years chiefly considered in this record, united in well-nigh perfect oneness. To have left out all the references to Henry Camp's friend, of whom almost every page in his later writ- ings made mention, would have been impossible without destroying the fullness and coherence of the narrative, and distorting the j^icture of army life to the eyes of those familiar with the seldom- equalled attachment of the friends to each other. Very much of this nature was stricken from the record, — all indeed that could be with seeming propriety. It is hoped that what remains will be ascribed to the afiectionate partiality of him who has fallen, and not to any want of good taste on the part of one who was loved by and who mourns him.

H. C. T. KiCHMOND, Va,, April 21, 1865.

CHAPTER I.

CHILDHOOD AJTO SCHOOLDAYS.

Eomance of the War with Rebellion — Henry Camp's Parentage and Boyhood — His Sensitive Conscience — Responsibility for Baby Sister — Child Sermons — Infant Sabbath School — High-school Experiences — S. M. Capron's Tribute — Passes Examination for College — A Year at Home — Enters Yale — Professes Christ — Letter from Rev. Dr. Bushnell 13

CHAPTER II.

COLLEGE LIFE.

Boating — University Races of 1850 — Reflex Influence of a Hard Struggle — A Ring won and worn — Yale and Harvard Oarsmen in the Army — Chaplain TwichelPs Sketch of the Worcester Regatta — Testimony of College Comrades — An Unbelieving Classmate led to Christ — Contribution from E. G. Holden . 23

CHAPTER III.

TEACHER — LAW-STUDENT — SOLDIER.

Teaches at East Hartford — War-clouds — Letter to Arrogant

Southerner — Commences Study of Law — Self-denial in not

vn

vm CONTENTS.

enlisting on First Call —Joins City Guard — Funeral of Gen. Lj'on — Commissioned in Tenth Conn. —Farewell Speech at Asylum- Hill Sabbath School — Joins Kegiment at Annapolis — Open-air Prayer Meeting — Camp Varieties — Foster's Brigade — The Burnside Expedition — First Sabbath at Sea — Trials on the " Swash " — " City of New York" wrecked — A Fair Face and a Brave Heai-t 43

CHAPTER lY.

ROANOKE AND NEWBERNE.

Advance up Pamlico Sound — The Night before the Fight — Battle of Roanoke Island — The First Wounded — On Special Duty — Crying a Cry out — Again on Transports — Kerosene Water — Energetic Cockroaches — Courage in Dark Days —Always knight- ly—Sunset at Sea— Poetry — Lauding at Slocum's Creek — The Battle of Newberne — Victory — The City entered — Guard Duty — Sympathy with Enlisted Men — Picket Life — An Alarm — Bold Scouting— Love of Home — Volunteering for Special Service — Living and Dying to a Purpose 56

CHAPTER V.

CAMP-LIFE AND CAMPAIGNING.

Incidents among the Contrabands — Fugitives at the Picket-line — " Dey sell Ebry One " — Pet Deviltry of the South — Praying for Liberty — Fighting for Government — Proficiency in Stealing — Letters on Personal Religion to a Classmate — In Hospital — Rumors of a Move — New BriJ,^ade — Capt. Vicars's Memoir — Longings for a Clmm — Promotion — The Adjutant's First " Con- solidated " — A New Chaplain — The Two Friends — Forty-fourth Mass. Regiment — Tarboro' Scout — Evening Skirmish at Little Creek — Halt at Williamston — Song from the Jack Tars — Pa- triotism thawed out — Foraging — Home Relics protected — A Southern Swamp — John Brown Chorus — Wayside Prayer — First Visit Home — Goldsboro' Raid — A New Disappointment — Fredericksburg Failure 83

CONTENTS. IX

CHAPTER VI.

THE FIRST CHARLESTON EXPEDITION.

New Expedition — Sail to Port Royal — Camp at St. Helena — Bat- talion Drill — Sabbath-school Teaching — Oriental Scenery — The Twins — Wine and Cards — Seabrook Island — Exciting Debark- ation and Advance — A Skirmish — Camping in the Rain — Scout- ing— First Attack on Charleston — Chafing at Inaction — Out- post Life —Was the Behemoth a Mosquito ? — Prayer-meeting in the Woods — Another Separation — Loneliness — Work for Christ

— College-mates — Excursions — Beauties of the Seabrook Place

— Gen. Stevenson's Reconnoissance — Under Fire — Dodging Bul- lets—Artillery Duel— Enjoyable Excitement of Danger — Com. Rodgers — Court Martial 112

CHAPTER VII.

JAMES ISLAND AND FORT WAGNER.

A New Campaign— Chowder Party— Orders for a Move — Prayer- meeting on Shipboard — Landing at James Island — Watching Distant Battle — An Evening Advance — Bewilderment on the Picket-line — More Mosquitoes — A Morning Nap — Advantages of a Short March to the Battle-field — Second Battle of James Island— Attack on the " Pawnee "— Taking to the Woods — Capt. Rockwell's Battery — Col. Shaw's (54th Mass.) Regiment — To Morris Island — Grand Bombardment — Second Assault on Wag- ner—Niglit Battle-scene — Gen. Gillmore — Stopping Stragglers

— A Wail of Agony — Defeat — Morning after the Battle — Flag of Truce —Visit to the Field — Treachery — The Friends are Pris- oners—Fort Sumter— Charleston Jail 137

CHAPTER Vni.

CHARLESTON AND COLUJMBIA — PRISON LIFE AND

ESCAPE.

Prison Sensations — The Friends separated — Gloomy Forebodings — Removal to Columbia — Affectionate Letter — Re-union— Pris- on Occupations —" De Mates" — Thought ruled out — Chaplain

CONTENTS.

released — Sabbath-evening Reflections— Columbia and Hartford

— Longings for Liberty — Plan of Escape — Baggage — Parched Corn — Lay Figures — Moments of "Waiting — Capt. Chamberlain

— Ivanhoe in tlie Kitchen — Corporal "Bull Head " — Capt. Senn

— Nervous "Work — Out and Off — Joy in Freedom — Trestle "Walking — Refreshing Sleep — Fear of Detection — A Long "Way Round — Rain and Darkness — Spectral Ox-team — Blind Guide- posts — A Wet Lodging — The Lazy Farmer — Kindness to Ani- mals— Fire on the Hillside — Freshet — A Lost Day — Terror to Small Boys — A December Bath — Cheerless Wakenings — Sabbath of Hope — An Unwelcome Attendant — Discovered — Prisoners once more — Child's Opinion of Yankees — Politics — Soldiers' Graves — A Well-laden Table well cleared — Gathering Broom-straw — Soft Pillow — Tied to the Saddle — Slip 'twixt the cup and the lip — Chesterville— Yankee Menagerie — McDon- nell the Brute — Attempted Conversion— Worth of a Good Moth- er— Whittling — Lost Brother — Pepper-wash after a Flogging — Genuine Rebels — Again in Columbia — Close Confinement — Sat- isfaction in Effort — Box from Home 159

CHAPTER IX.

LIBBT PRISON — HOME — CAMP PAROLE.

The Tenth Regiment — Fears lest it should Fight — No Rest in Prison— Exchange Rumors — Clouds — Egg-gatherers of the Ork- neys— New Escape Plans — Tunneling — Discovery — Removal to Richmond — Ride through Rebeldom — A Night at Petersburg

— $300 for a Hack — Life at the Libby — Rations — Cooking — Opening Boxes — Dead Lights — Gloom — Boat up! — Reading the List — Hamp or Camp — Sensations of Freedom — Stewart Nos. 1 and 2 — Leaving the Libby — Sick Privates — The Old Flag

— The Regiment leaves St. Augustine — Meeting of the Friends

— ^Annapolis — Privileges of Freedom ..... 207

CHAPTER X.

CAMPAIGNING WITH THE ARMY OF THE JAMES.

The Tenth Moves to the Front — "Unselfish Anxiety — Exchanged - A Hasty Leave — Work of the Regiment — Joyful Re-union -

CONTENTS. XI

Ride to the Front — Disaster — Search for a Corps — Glad Greet- ing — Covering a Retreat — Flying Artillery — Calculating an Aim — A Long Campaign — A Good Correspondent — Love of Home — From Prayer to Fighting — Picket Skirmish — A Night of Peril — Explosive Bullets — Volleys better than Sharp-shoot- ing— Bermuda Hundred — Major Trumbull's Battei-y — Dread of Inaction — Cold Harbor — Picket Duty — Danger on tlie Vidette Line — Sociable Pickets — Night Evacuation — Listening — Ex- citing Advance — Capture of Prisoners — Howlett's Redoubt — Naval Gunnery — The White Flag — Another Retreat Covered — Letter-writing under Difficulties — Severe Shelling — Moment of Expectation — Under-estimated Descriptive Powers . . 220

CHAPTER XI.

DEEP BOTTOM — STRAWBERRY PLAINS — DEEP RUN.

The James crossed — Establishing Pickets by Night — Columbia Acquaintances — Another Shelling — Hot Days — Stormy Nights

— Narrow Escape — Uniform Cheerfulness — Strawberry Plains

— In Reserve — Dangers of the Rear — Exposed Picket-line — Anxious Night — Second Corps Advance — A Check — Brave Commander — Successful Flanking — Indian Warfare — Military Execution — A Week's Hard Fighting — Falling Back — Casual- ties in the Tenth Conn.- Night Marching and Countermarch- ing. 249

CHAPTER XII.

IN THE PETERSBURG TRENCHES.

Col. Plaisted again in Command — Move from Deep Bottom — Night- marching — Waiting at the Pontoon — Cheerless Bivouac — Pe- tersburg in Sight — Deserted Negro Camp — Burro wing for Quar- ters— Dangerous Locality — Mortar-shelling by Night — Deadly Fascination — Weeks of Peril — Sharpshooting in the Trenches

— The Courageous Coffee-bearer — Ricochet Shot — Presence of Death — Incidents of Picketing — The Wounded Vidette — Socia- bility of Enemies — More Sharpshooting — A Miss as good as a Mile — Rejoicing over Atlanta — Shotted Salutes — Railroad Target — Longings for Rest — Promotion — Withdrawal from Trenches — Halt at the Rear 281

XII CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIII.

LIFE AND DEATH BEFORE KICHMOXD.

Petersburg to Deep Bottom — Tedious March — Gloomy Day-dawn

— Battle of Newmarket Heights — Gen. Terry's Approach to Richmond — Days of Activity and Privation — Laurel-Hill Skir- mish — Happy Prisoner — Poor Families — Reluctant Rebel — The Treasured Flag — Old Men leave the Regiment — Flag of Truce- Wayside Prayer-meeting — Threatened Battle — Signs of a Re- treat— Gen, Kautz's Flank turned — Crash of Battle — The wounded Skirmisher — Flying Infantry — Brave Soldiers — Vic- tory— Even Terms — Seen through the Clouds — New Move — Out and In again — Last Night of Life — The Death Morning — Darbytown Road — Brilliant Scene — Opening Battle — Prepar- ing for an Assault — Cheerful among the Desponding — True Heroism — Good-bye — Deadly Race — The Final Charge — " I do Believe" — The Death-shot — Last Look at the Flag — Left on the Field— Heartless Foes — Flag of Truce — Recovery of Body

— Generosity . . 296

CHAPTER Xiy.

MEMORIAL TRIBUTES.

Body borne Home — Funeral Services — Testimony of Col. Otis — of Gen. Hawley — of "Daily Post" — of "Evening Press" — Letter from John Hooker, Esq. — Letter from Gen. Plaisted — Close of the Record — From the Battle-field to Glory ... 319

THE

KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

♦ ■ » ■ »

CHAPTER I.

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS.

HE short lives of some who have fallen on the field of the new American conflict contained more of romantic adventure and of heroic daring than the material of which the novehsts and the poets of our language have wrought their most attractive narratives during the present century.

Another Cooper could find a Leather Stocking and a Harvey Birch in almost every camp of our army. Another Tennyson could sing of exploits of American battalions which would pale the brilliancy of the charge of the Light Brigade. Dumas could bring out of the truth from An- dersonville and the Libby such tales of horror as would commonplace the ghastliest stories of the French Bastile.

The famihar, every-day home letters of young officers of culture and of nobleness, who have had widest experience

13

14 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

in campaigning, and greatest vicissitudes of fortune in tbis now-closing war, furnish a variety of description and inci- dent, possessing permanent interest even to those who have no special knowledge of the writers. To present such material from the record of one of whom his brio-ade-com- mander said, " Our cause cannot boast a nobler martyr," and his colonel, that '* the service has never suffered a heavier loss in an officer of his grade," is the purpose of this volume.

HENRY WARD CAMP, son of Rev. Henry B. Camp and Cornelia L. Baldwin, was born February 4th, 1839, in Hartford, Conn., where his father — formerly pastor of the church in Bradford — then resided as a pro- fessor in the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb.

To the judicious training and Christian faithfulness of his parents, young Camp was indebted for the preservation of his rare symmetry of mental and moral character, and for its full and delightful development. Unusually gentle and retiring, even for a child, he shunned the boisterous companionship of city boys, and clung to his home, con- tented with its quiet occupations and satisfied in its enjoy- ments. Almost unaided, he learned to read at four years of age, and, from that time onward, found his chief enjoyment in books. His love of reading was so great, that, after he had devoured all the children's books in the house, he resorted to those far beyond his years. He

BOYHOOD. 15

gained an excellent knowledge of history before taking it up as a study, and was ever fond of books of travel. Too close devotion to reading, with too little out-door exercise, began to affect his head seriously ; and he was so troubled by somnambulism that, during his eighth year, he was sent to Durham to spend some time with his grandfather on a farm, where books were entirely forbidden him. This rest to his brain, with the exercise and other advantages of country Kfe, quite re-established his health ; and, after a few months, he returned re-invigorated to his home.

One of the earliest observed peculiarities of young Camp's chai-acter was the exquisite sensitiveness of his conscience. He shrunk from every appearance of evil, and was oppressed by a fear of doing wrong. When he was five years old, a sister was born to him. As he first looked at the baby treasure, with childish joy and wonder- ment, a shade of thought came over his face, and he went alone from his mother's room. On his return, his mother * asked him where he had been. " I've been, mamma," he said, " to pray to God that I may never hurt the soul of dear little sister." Although too young to have a con- sciousness of responsibility for others, the incident is in keeping with his whole course in boyhood.

A year later, he exercised himself in writing a little book of sermons, taking a text, and making on it brief comments as striking and original as the employment was unique for a boy of his years. In looking over the manuscript, his

16 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

good mother observed frec[uent blanks where the name of God should appear. Inquiring the reason of these omis- sions, Henry informed her that he had feared he was not feeling just right while he was writing, and, lest he should take the name of God in vain by using it then, he had left the blanks in its stead. The strictest letter of the Jewish law could scarcely exact more reverent use of the ineffable name of Jehovah than was demanded by the tender con- science of this pure-minded boy.

His fear of transs-ressino; induced habits of self-examina- tion which gave him no little discomfort. Recognizing the standard of absolute right, his rigid scrutiny of motive and purpose, with his discriminating review of each outward act, revealed to him his imperfections of thought or deed ; and, as a consecjuence, he sometimes suffered keenly from unmerited self-reproach. At five years old, he joined the Sabbath-school infant-class of the Centre Church (Rev. Dr. Hawes) . His teacher there was Mrs. Roswell Brown, who has held the same position for a quarter of a century. Writing little notes to her, young Camp said m more than one, with his uniform sensitiveness, "I am sometimes afraid I shall love you better than I do my mother. I don't think I do, but I am afraid that I shall. " " Mrs. Brown," he said, one Sabbath morning, .as he took his place by her side^ "I am afraid I did wrong last Sabbath. While you were talking to us all, I wrote my sister Cor- nelia's name with my finger on the seat. I didn't think it

SCHOOLDAYS. 17

was wi'ong then ; but I've thougbt it was, since, and I've wanted to tell you of it." No misdeed of bis during bis foui'-years' stay in tbat infant-class was greater tban tbe one tbus candidly confessed. His teacber tbere says of bim, witb warmtb, " I bad nearly four bundred and fifty children under my care in tbat room, but never but one Henry Camp."

Yet, in spite of bis quickly-reminding and often-accusing conscience, Henry Camp was of cheerful temperament, and richly enjoyed Hfe. His refined sensitiveness made bim only more lovely to others, and be was the light of a happy home. No laugh was more merry than bis, and no one did more than be to provoke a laugh at every proper tune.

With the exception of a few weeks at the district school, he studied at home until he was ten years old. In 1849 he entered the Hartford Public High School, which be attended for six years. It was there that be first mingled actively with his fellows. Although be did not seek to lead, he found himself ahead. His comrades looked up to bim. In the recitation-room, tbe play-ground, and the gymnasi- um, he was a pattern. Loving out-door sports and athletic exercises, he practised and strengthened his muscular pow- ers until his form and figure were a type of bis compacted and well-rounded intellectual development.

S. M. Capron, one of bis high-school teachers, says of bim, " There was a charm about him even then, which attracted all who knew bim. I never bad a pupil who

2

18 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

possessed a purer cbaracter, or more completely won the respect and even admiration of his teachers. He despised every thing mean, every thing vulgar ; and his generosity and manliness in his intercourse with other boys made him a general favorite among them. He was remarkably truthful also, and this, never from a fear of consequences, but with a spontaneity which showed that truth was at the foundation of his character. As a scholar he was very faithful, accurate, and prompt in his recitations ; especially copious and rich in his choice of words ; of superior talent as a writer. No one stood above him in bis classes ; and he took some prizes, while in the school, for English composi- tion and other exercises. But it was chiefly his uncom- mon nobleness of character which made him conspicuous then, as in later years."

In the summer of 1855, Camp passed examination for admission to Yale, and connected himself with the Brothers' Society. But as he was yet only sixteen, and had been so long in seldom intermitted study, his judicious parents strongly advised his waiting another year before entering on his collegiate course. The disappointment to him was severe, yet he yielded gracefully, as always, to the judgment of his parents, and for a twelvemonth occupied himself in out-door exercise, in attention to pencil-sketching, and in the study of French and German. He joined the fresh- man class of Yale, in September, 1856. Then commenced his life away from the home he had so dearly loved, and in

CONVERSION. 19

the possession of which he had been so favored. Then, fii'st, he was obhf>;ed to forego the privilege of speaking in all freedom of the experiences of each day to those whose sympathy and affection were not to be doubted.

Perhaps it was the missing of home confidences, with the accruing sense of personal lonehness in a crowd of compar- ative strangers, that, soon after he entered college, caused thoughts to centre, as never before, on his need of fellow- ship with a loving and sympathizing Saviour, who alone could fally understand him. He had long been a prayer- ful, reverent worshipper of God, approaching him in con- scious need, in reliance on the one Mediator ; and his life had for years given delightful evidence of the power of grace in his inner being : but not until now did he make open profession of faith in Jesus as his Saviour. Just when his heart was transformed into Christ's image by the power of the Spirit is known only to the Omniscient one. During his spring vacation, in May, 1857, he connected himself with the North Congregational Church at Hartford, of which the Kev. Dr. Bushnell was pastor. That pastor's counsel he had often sought, and to him he had confided his doubts and fears. Of Henry Camp as an inquirer concerning divine truth, and as he showed himself before •and later, his good pastor writes thus in glowing eulogy : —

20 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

LETTER FROM THE REV. DR. BUSHNELL.

HARTFORD, Nov. 7, 1864.

Eev. H. C. Trumbull.

My dear Sir, — I most deeply regret that I cannot do more to help you in your difficult but laudable endeavor to prepare a memorial for om' young friend, Major Camp. It is my great misfortune that I do not remember facts and conversations so as to be able to report them. I only remem- ber impressions, or resulting estimates and opinions ; and these will give you little help in the sketching or living pre- sentation of a character.

It was my privilege to know this young patriot and sol- dier from his childhood up. The freshly vigorous, wonderfully lusti'ous, unsoiled look he bore in his childhood, made it con- sciously a kind of pleasure to pass him, or catch the sight of his face in the street. I do not recall ever havinsr had such an impression, or one so captivating for its moral beauty, from any other child. And it was just as great a satisfaction to see him grow as it was to see him. I used to watch the progress of his lengthening form as I passed him, saying in- wardly still, " Well, thank God, it is the beautiful childhood that is growing, and not he that is outgrowing his childhood."

The noble man-soul was evident enough in the child, and when it was bodied forth in his tall, massive, especially manly person, it was scarcely more so. Indeed, the real man of the child was never bodied forth, and never could be, without a history of many years, such as we fondly hoped for him, but shall never behold. He died, in fact, with his high, bright future shut up in him, — it will only come out

DR. BUSHNELVS LETTER. 21

among tLe angels of God ; and, I doubt not, will make a really grand figure there. Seldom have they hailed the advent among them, I think, of a youth whose kinship, and peership and hero-life begun, they will more gladly acknowledge. Indeed, I have never been able to keep it out of my mind, since I first heard of his death, that there was some too great aptness in him for a place among these couriers and squad- rons of glory. It seems to be a kind of extravagance to say this, but I know not how otherwise to describe real impres- sions. He was such a man as, going into a crowd of strangers, would not only attract general attention by his person, by his noble figure and the fine classic cut of his features, by the cool, clear beaming of his intelligence, by the visible repose of his justice, by a certain, almost superlative sweetness of mod- esty : but there was, above all, an impression of intense puri- ty in his looks, that is almost never seen among men, and which everybody must and would distinctly feel.

But I am only describing here what others felt as truly as I, and could describe, if they would, much better than I; though, perhaps, the acquaintance I had with Henry's interi- orly personal character and struggles in the matter of religion may have prepared me to note more distinctly than some others would the signs outwardly appearing. He came to me a great many times, from his early childhood onward, to lay open his troubles, and obtain spiritual direction. My conviction, from the very first, was, that I had nothing to do with him but to put him in courage, and enable him to say, " I believe. " I never saw him when I did not think he was a Christian, and I do not believe that he ever saw himself early enough to properly think otherwise. Still he did think

22 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

otherwise much longer than I wished. The difficulty was to get him away from the tyranny of his conscience. It was so delicate and steadfast and strong, that his faith could not get foothold to stand. I feared many times that he was going to be preyed upon all his life long by a morbid con- science. Still there was a manly force visible, even in his childhood ; and I contrived, in what ways I could, to get that kindled by a free inspiration. To get him under impulse, afterwards, for the war was not half as difficult, I presume, after the point of my endeavor was already carried ; for, having now become a soldier of Christ, by a clear and con- scious devotion, he had only to extend that soldiership for the kinsfdom of heaven's sake.

As far as he was concerned, the kingdom of heaven was not worsted when he fell ; but the loss to his country and his comrades in arms was certainly great, greater than most of as will know. Besides, it is a great and sore disappointment to us all, that we are cut off abruptly from that noble and high future we had begun to hope for him. Let us beUeve that he can have as high a future where he is, and resign him gladly to it !

Sympathising deeply with you in the fall of your heroic brother and friend, I only wish I could help you more effec- tively in the very tender office you have undertaken.

Wishing you all the success which the beautiful subject of your memoir deserves,

I am truly yours,

HORACE BUSHNELL.

CHAPTER II.

COLLEGE LIFE.

T tte commencement of his sophomore year, Camp became especially interested in boating; finding pleasure in both its exercise and its ex- citement. He joined the Varuna Boat-club, and was soon as prominent there for his strength, skill, and energy in the use of the oar, as he was distinguished in every other pursuit to which, at any time, he devoted himself. So well established was his reputation in this line, that he was one of the picked crew to represent Yale in the Uni- versity race, at the Worcester regatta, in July, 1859.

That regatta was an era in his life, and its influence was important in shaping his whole future course. In it he first realized the keen enjoyment of exciting endeavor, and attained the satisfaction of accomplishing something, through the straining of every nerve, in a contest with his fellows, while stayed by the consciousness that he held the honor of those whom he loved, in his keeping. He gave himself up to the struggle, both in preparation and perform- ance, with his whole heart and soul, and seemed to secure

23

24 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

thereby a relish and a fitness for the work to which he was subsequently called for his country. A plain but massive ring, made from the gold of the regatta prize, he wore to the last, — refusing to part with it, even at an extravagant price, when most pinched for the comforts of life in a Southern prison ; and he yielded it only when the enemy wrenched the sword from his grasp, and di-ew the ring from his finger as he lay in the helplessness of death on the field of his last battle.

The Yale and the Harvard crews in the Worcester races of 59 were,

Yale. Harvard.

H. S. Johnson (stroke), C. Crowninshield (stroke),

Charles T. Stanton, jr., W. H. Forbes,

Henry W. Camp, E. G. Abbott,

Joseph H. Twichell, H. S. Russell,

Charles H. Owen, J. H. Wales,

Frederick H. Col ton, J. H. Elhson (bow), Hezekiah Watson (cockswain),

It is a noteworthy fact, that every man of the Yale crew, and a majority of those from Harvard, were subse- quently in the Union army.

Of Johnson, Camp wrote, when he met him in North Carolina on the staff of Gen. Terry, " He is an Aide, ranking as lieutenant, — very nice little position, — left the sig- nal corps some time since to take it. Signalling, he didn't like at all, — no fighting, — slim business, — at it through the whole Peninsular campaign, and was heartily sick of it.

HIS ASSOCIATES. 25

At Fair Oaks, he volunteered on some general's staff, and went in — lively time — horse shot under him. That was more like it." Stanton, as captain in the 21st C. y., was wounded at Drury's Bluff. He was subse- quently commissioned Lieut. -Col., but was mustered out in consequence of the severity of his wound. Owen, Camp's early playmate, school-fellow, and always attached friend, was in the 1st Conn. Heavy Artillery, and later on the staff of Gen. Eobert 0. Tyler, receiving at Cold Harbor a wound, the effects of which he must cany to his grave. The fair and stalwart arms of Stanton and Owen were often admu-ed by enthusiastic boatmen in the days of college racing. The right arm of Stanton and the left of Owen dropped powerless by their sides in the same good service for then- country. For three years, Twichell filled with rare usefulness and acceptance, the chaplaincy of the 2d Regiment, Excelsior (Sickles') Brigade. Col- ton, as an army surgeon, had Owen under his skilful charge at the Douglass Hospital, in Washington, D.C. Watson has fought long and nobly as colonel of the 143d Regiment, N. Y. S. Y. Crowningshield and Forbes are, at the writino; of this, colonel and lieutenant-colonel of the 2d Mass. Cavalry, the former command of the lamented Gen. Lowell. Abbott fell at Cedar Mountain, while Russell, going out a captain in the 2d Mass. Infantry, returned a colonel of a colored cavalry regiment. Surely a noble record of noble men !

26 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

The following graphic and thrilling sketch of the Wor- cester regatta is from Twichell's graceful pen : —

THE WORCESTER REGATTA.

" la looking back to Henry Camp, as I knew him in col- lege, it is impossible not to recall his singular physical beauty. The memory of it harmonizes very pleasantly with the mem- ory of his beautiful daily life. Each became the other so well, while they were joined, that, though now his body has gone to dust, I find, while musing on my friend, an unusual delight in continuing to associate them. He furnishes a perfect example of the truth, ' Virtus pulclirior e pulchro corpore veniens. ' His handsome face, his manly bearing, and his glorious strength, made that gentleness and goodness which won our love, the more illustrious. I well remember, while in college, riding out one day with a classmate of his, and passing him, as, erect and light of foot, he strode lustily up a long hill, and the enthusiasm with which my comrade pro- nounced this eulogy, ' There's Henry Camp, a perfect man, who never did any thing to hurt his body or soul ! ' That was before I knew him well ; for, as I have intimated, we were not in the same class : but what I heard and saw, made me so desirous of a better acquaintance, that when, in the summer of '59, our crew was made up for the college regat- ta, to take place at Worcester, and it fell out that he was assigned to duty in the boat, as No. 3, while I was No. 4, I was more than pleased.

" The six weeks of training that followed, culminatinj^ in the grand contest, witnessed by far the greater part of all our

THE REGATTA. 27

personal intercourse, for after that time our paths diverged. That was the last term of my senior year, and the end was not far off. AVe parted on commencement day ; and thouo-h I afterward heard from him, especially of the fame of his soldiership, and hoped to see him, we met again no more than once or twice. But, at the distance of five eventful years, the news of his death struck me with a sense of my bereavement, so deep and painful, that, looking back to those six weeks, I could not realize that they were nearly all I had intimately shared with him. Nor am I alone in this : I know of others, whose private memories of Henry Camp, as limited as mine, stir in their hearts, at every thought of his grave, the true lament, ' Alas, my brother ! '

" During the training season of which I speak, the crew had, of course, very much in common. We ate at the same table, and took our exercise at the same hours ; so passing consider- able part of every day together, beside the time we sat at our oars. Our hopes and fears were one, our ardor burned in one flame ; we used even to dream almost the same dreams. The coming regatta was our ever-present stimulus. To win, — there was nothing higher in the world. It quick- ens the pulse even now to remember how splendid success then appeared.

" Camp gave himself up to the work in hand with that same enthusiasm of devotion that carried him to the fore- front of battle on the day of his glorious death. He was always prompt, always making sport of discomforts, always taking upon himself more than his own share of the hard things.. Severe training in midsummer is something more

28 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

than a pastime. It abounds in both tortures of the body, and exasperations of mind, as all boating men bear witness. Under them, not all of us, at all times, kept our patience ; but Camp never lost his. Not a whit behind the best in spirit and in zeal, he maintained under all circumstances a seren- ity that seemed absolutely above the reach of disturbing causes. The long, early morning walk Into the country, the merciless rigors of diet, the thirst but half slaked, the toil of the gym- nasium, the weary miles down the Bay, under the cockswain's despotism, the return to childhood's bed-time, and other at- tendant afflictions, often outweighed the philosophy of all but No. 3. He remained tranquil, and diligently obeyed all the rules ; serving as a sort of balance-wheel among us, neutra- lizing our variableness, and making many a rough place smooth. He had a presence, — almost the happiest I ever saw, and a temper that betrayed no shady side. He carried all his gi'ace with him everywhere, and had a way of shed- ding it on every minute of an hour, — no less on little matters than on great, — that gave his company an abiding charm, and his Influence a constant working power; and so he went on working with all his might for the college, doing us good daily, gaining that skill and muscle, which afterward enabled him to pull so brave an oar through the stormy waves of Hatteras.

" He had soldierly ways about him then. Discipline was his delight, and coolness never deserted him. We were up- set one day. In deep water, under a bridge ; and, at first, each struck out for land, till Camp, remaining in mid-stream, called us back to look after the boat, which was too fi'all a

THE REGATTA. 29

structure to be left to chance floating. That Hatteras ex- ploit, when we heard of it, did not seem at all strange. It was just like him to volunteer, and still more like him to be the last man to give up what was undertaken.

"At last the day came, — the day big with fate, dreaded, yet lono-ed for. Noon of July 26th found us sitting in our good boat, 'Yale,' on the beautiful Lake Quinsigamond, near Wor- cester, ready at the starting goal, for the signal to 'Give way.' The waters of the lake glittered and dimpled under the summer sky, as if mocking our deep cares with levity. Each grasped his oar, and, though it was a vain attempt, tried to be calm. A mile and a half away up between the woody banks fluttered the white flag, that marked the turn- ing goal. Beside us was the ' Harvard ' and her splendid crew, gentlemanly fellows, whom we had liked at sight. There was also in the line a boat from Brown University, with a son of Adoniram Judson at one of the oars. Many thousands of spectators clustered on either shore, among whom were hundreds of college men, all eager and emulous, but with no stirring of bad blood. The grace of generosity presides most happily over those congresses of youth, and keeps out bitterness from their rivalries, — or did, at least, in our day. But the bustle of the crowd did not reach us as we sat watching the slow preliminaries of the judges and umpire. AVe only heard the music of the bands, which then seemed a call to battle, — almost as much so as the terri- ble bugles that nearly all of us were destined yet to hear. At last the suspense was ended. The first signal gun sent its sharp echo to the neighboring hills, — ' Ready to give way 1'

30 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER,

Every oar quivered in Its place. A second gun, whose echoes we did not hear, — ' Give way all! ' — and we were off.

" In twenty minutes, the first day's race was over. All the colle2:e-boatin2 world knows we were beaten in it, and that at evening, Harvard bore into Worcester, with songs and shouting, the colors that pertained to victory. We shook hands all round, — the two crews, — and tried to appear to take it easy on both sides, though it was not, of course, exactly in the same mood that we returned to our quarters, and our friends to theirs. But Yale was used to it, and so was Har- vard. It was the old thing over again : the Fortune that prospers oars was too coy to be propitiated by us. Yet we had hoped for a change : undoubtedly we had expected it. Then was Henry Camp a refreshment to us. He had done his best, he was disappointed ; but he radiated a quiet resig- nation that was coutaojious. It was a comfort to talk with No. 3 that night.

" The next day there was to be another regatta given by the city of Worcester, open to all comers. The Harvard men had signified their willinfjness to try it afjain with us : but we were not immediately of one mind, and did not jump at the offer. Worthy as our rivals were, it was not pleasant being beaten by them ; nor was the desperate work of a three- mile race, at mid-day, in July, to be coveted for itself: yet it gave us and Alma Mater one more chance, and that was not lightly to be thrown away. Camp's counsel was unhesitat- ing and spirited. He was for re-entering the lists from the first instant it was proposed ; and so it came to pass, that we

THE RACE. 31

took heart of grace : and noon of the morrow found us a<xaln on the lake, grasping our oars and waiting the signal.

" This time there was no boat against us but the ' Harvard.' An accident early in the first race had disabled the representa- tive of Brown, and she was withdrawn, not to appear again. The same fair multitude, shining in bright summer attire, was gathered to witnesss the scene. Signs of the previous day's event were not wanting. On land and water, the Harvard head was high, as was not unmeet ; but our fellows among the crowd observed a modest demeanor, and we in the boat were not disposed to vaunt ourselves. We hoped, however, to make at least a closer affair of it than the other was.

" Once more we were off with a mighty clamor from the shore, each boat strugglluor for the lead. 'Yale' won it. None but a boating man knows the glorious excitement — excitement without wildness — that then leaped through our arms into the oars. Henry Camp himself afterward said that his first battle did not surpass it. Every thing went well with us, and we reached the mile-and-a-half goal, four good lengths ahead ; but the ' Harvard' made a splendid turn, and we darted away on the home stretch, almost bow and bow. The fortune of the day trembled in even balances : less than ten minutes would decide it. ' Pull ! ' cried our cockswain, as if for his life ; and we heard the Harvard stroke inspiring his fellows with brave words. Then came the hot, momentous work, — the literal agony. Those twelve men will never forget it, though it is doubtful if any can or could recall it in detail, minute by minute, short as it was. There

32 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

is an indistinctness about it in my memory at least ; and the last half-mile is especially cloudy. It would not be easy to describe it. Most accounts of boat-races, like that in ' Tom Brown at Oxford,' are from the standpoint of a looker-on, rather than an actor. The real tragedy is in the boat.

" The near neighborhood of the other contestant, not so much seen as felt ; the occasional sidewise gleam of red from the handkerchiefs the Harvard men wore about their heads ; the burning exhortations of the cockswain, gradually rising in pitch of intensity, and setting at last upon the for- mula, ' Pull, if you die ! ' the pain of continued utmost exer- tion ; the various mental phenomena, some of which were strange enough ; and, as we neared the goal, the vociferous greetings of the first little groups of spectators, — a vague sound in the ears, we scarcely thought what it was, except a sweet token of the end at hand ; then, a little further on, the cry of the great multitude, neutralized as a distraction by the cockswain's deepening passion ; the order to quicken the stroke, the final ' Spur ! ' — all these remain indelible im- pressions of that fragment of an hour in 1859 ; but, like the impressions that survive a stormy dream, they are not orderly or clear.

"I doubt if any one remembers the command to stop. For a minute or two, there was utter collapse. Each bowed upon his oar, with every sense suspended through exhaus- tion : but, thanks to the training, one after another revived, and sat upright, and blessed himself; for all knew, though rather confusedly, that we had done well in entering that race. To our looks of inquiry, the cockswain, whose thun-

THE VICTORY. 33

der-bolts had suddenly dissolved in sunshine, made this suffi- cient reply, ' We've got 'em ! ' It had come at last ! Hurrah, hurrah for Yale ! We wanted the voice of ten thousand wherewith to vent our hearts, and the shore supplied it. We looked around: the 'Harvard' was slowlv makinjr for the land. To us it was permitted by custom to go before the specta- tors, and receive their congratulations. As, with easy oar, we pulled our proud boat along either border of the lake, the applause that rose in a great wave to meet us was prob- ably the sweetest taste of glory our lives will have af- forded. In our young eyes, nothing could be more magnifi- cent than our victory ; and it seemed like an old Olympic triumph.

" When we landed, the Cambridge crew, though their phi- losophy was much more grievously taxed than was ours the day before, gave us honest hands, and made us handsome speeches, to which we properly responded, or at least wished we could. Altogether, they took defeat in such a manly way, that we felt very anxious to refrain from all victorious airs in their presence, and to conduct ourselves with the ut- most magnanimity.

" The telegraph soon sent the news home to Alma Mater ^ and that night there was jubilee in New Haven ; but all of us, save the cockswain, abode in Worcester till the next morn- ing. Then the Harvard men went north, and the Yale men south, and fair Quinsigamond was vacant of college keels for another year. It was commencement day ; and, returning crowned, we were welcomed under the elms in a manner peculiar to collegians : but from that hour our close alliance

3

34 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

was broken. Two or three went down to put up the boat ; but the six never sat together again.

" It is pleasant now to see, that through those youthful rival- ries, useful as they were in themselves, God was raising up strength for nobler work than we proposed or could imagine. As Ave stretched away at our practice down the Bay, we never thought of war, or battle, or the great service of liberty that would soon call for thews of hardy men. Looking back to those warm afternoons when we used to disembark for a respite, and sit upon the ruined wall of old Fort Hale, and wonder how it seemed In those early days when Yalensians were called out from college halls to fight in the field, I cannot realize that then and now are less than six years apart.

" Strange things have happened since. The voice of the

cockswain has been heard at the head of his regiment on

many a bloody field. The stroke has followed the flag ever

since the fall of Sumter, and came very near death on the

Peninsula. The iron right arm of No. 2 is maimed for life

by a shot through the elbow. No. 5 will likewise carry to

his grave the weakness of a wound. But No. 3 fell, and lay

dead. Can it be ? can It be ? This Is strangest of all. Yet

it is not, perhaps, altogether strange that a sacrifice so fair

and so truly consecrated should prove acceptable to God, and

be consumed. There is comfort for our grief.

* Our Knights are dust ; Their good swords rust; Their souls are with the saints, we trust. ' "

Henry Camp thoroughly enjoyed college life. He did

COLLEGE AFFECTION. 35

not sever connection with old Yale at bis graduation, in July, 1860. He loved always to tell of, and to think over, his experiences there ; and he watched with hearty in- terest the subsequent career of his classmates. Most warmly he greeted any of these whom he encountered in army service ; and, even while a captive within the enemy's lines, be acknowledged an existing bond between himself and each son of his Alma Mater. But a few months be- fore his death, he remarked, that the only public sentiment to which he was ever keenly sensitive was that of college. His intense modesty prevented his ever dreaming how highly he was esteemed, and how warmly he was beloved, by his fellow-students.

The valedictorian of his class writes of him : —

" I had profound respect and admiration for him as a class- mate. He was frank, wise, clear and pure minded, change- less in friendship. We his classmates feel deeply the diminution of mental and moral power suffered in his loss. The sum total of the class is less by a vast amount. As a positive power, as a man, as a friend, we esteemed him highly. I almost envy you the task of delineating the character of one so pure, noble, and manly. It is a priceless remembrance, the friendship of such a man."

Says another classmate : —

" A character so noble, a life so pure, a heart so warm with kind impulses, and a manner replete with the gentle

36 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

courtesies of fricudslilp, could not fail to win the love and esteem of us all."

Yet another, who knew him well, adds : —

" I dare say he had faults ; but I never saw them. I know of nothing in his life I would correct."

'O

As showing the power of his Christian example during his college course, one who sat by his side in the chapel and at recitation gives this narration : —

" On entering college, I was wholly without hope and with- out God in the world. I was beyond the reach of any power except the power of Jesus. I do not know whether I believed the Bible or not. I did not hesitate to ridicule such parts of it as my inclinations, urged on by such a state, prompted. I could sit in a prayer-meeting in the revival of '58, when nearly all my classmates were giving testimony of the power of God to send hope and peace to despairing souls, wholly unmoved. I could even smile at the emotions there ex- pressed. Camp was my companion through college more than any other member of the class. He was by my side at reci- tation and in the chapel during the entire four years. I saw in him a character and a life I had never seen before. By his life I was forced to admit that his profession was per se no libel on the Master in whose service he was.

" I do not recollect what part of our college life It was when he first spoke to me on the subject of my soul's salvation. It was not, however, till after his upright and godly life had forced from me the most profound respect for him and the

RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE. 37

Saviour to "wliom he prayed. He said very little ; but he said enough to lead me to think over my past life, and to cast a glance at the future. I shall never forget the impression that first conversation had upon my mind. It was not so much what he said, as the way he said it. He believed he was setting forth God's truth, and spoke as if he knew it was so. I believe that he knew it was true, though unable to ex- plain how he became conscious of it. This I pondered, and felt that he had evidences that had been withheld from me. He spoke with me only a few times on this wise, but every time with telHng efiect. I could not help thinking of it ; and after we were parted, and I had lost his companion- ship, I made his thoughts the companions of my lonely hours. I began to love him more than ever, and with love for him grew the love of the same Lord whom he loved and served. The conflict to me was a severe one, and how I longed to meet him, and converse with him !

"Passing through New Haven when first on his way to his regiment, he left on my table a line to this effect : —

' Dear B. :

Sorry to have missed seeing you.

Good-by, God bless you !

Henry W. Camp.'

" I would have given a fortune to have seen him for an hour ! I had not at that time revealed my feelings to any one, and felt that he alone was fit to receive them. I wrote to him, and his letters supplied in part the loss I felt. Not a

38 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

day since we parted, I venture to say, has he not been in my mind. I cannot but feel tliat he was the instrument cho- sen of God to unveil the darkness that shut out the liixht from my soul. I fear that, had I never known him, I had never known the love of God, nor welcomed the glad enjoy- ment of a Christian experience."

His classmate Holden thus sums up the college estimate of Camp : —

" Those who were members of the class which graduated at Yale college, in the year 1860, can bear ample testimony to that earnest Christian manhood, that sincere and faithful performance of every duty, that quiet, simple, childlike asser- tion of purity of mind, that magnanimity and generosity, and that courtesy of manner, which made Henry Camp a hero at every period and in every position of his life.

" The influence which he exerted in the class by this moral force was most wonderful, and none the less so bcicause he was totally unconscious of its existence. He wielded his scep- tre without displaying it, and (except that he knew on general principles that sincerity of purpose always asserts its preroo-- atives) without knowing that he held the sceptre. He was not, at least until his senior year, what is called a ' popular ' man. While invariably and impulsively a gentleman, and demonstratively kind in his demeanor toward every person he had to do with, his intimacies were few. Not only were his natural sensitiveness and retiring disposition an obstacle to a free general acquaintance, but his intensity of feeling was

SCnOLABSHJP. 39

doubtless gratified by concentrating his friendship on a few chosen companions. And yet without exertion, and by the unpretending grandeur of his character, he won not only the respect, but the profound love, of his classmates to an extent of which he had no idea. His conscientiousness was never intrusive. No one dreamed of his being a paragon, any more than they dreamed of his being inconsistent, not with his professions (for he never made any), but with his former invariable practice. ' To know him once and under any cir- cumstances,' says an intimate friend, ' was to know him always ; for he was always the same.'

" He was not a pretentious scholar. His recitations were not characterized by a flashing repetition of the text, per- haps not always by a quick perception of the meaning, but invariably by a quiet self-possession that was evidently founded on a thorough, profound, and solid comprehension of what he had been studying, whether It had been acquired by an intuitive knowledge, or by close and energetic appli- cation. Although occupying a fine position on the list of honors, he mi"i;ht have stood much higher had he not deliber- ately chosen partially to devote himself to other things which he deemed equally useful. Books outside of the prescribed course of study, chess, the gymnasium, and boating, occupied a part of his time and attention. Into all these exercises he threw that same earnest, hearty, untiring energy which he gave to every thing else. Whether In laying his plans for an inevitable check-mate upon his antagonist, or whether labor- ing at his oar after the hope of ti'Iumph had vanished, he dis- played the same Indomitable and persistent courage with

40 THE KXIGHTLY SOLDIER.

■which he performed every act in life as soon as he had de- termined that it was right in itself and a part of his duty. Possessing a sj)Iendid, athletic body, he seemed as much in earnest in developing it by physical exercises as in conning Greek or obeying a college law, and awakened by his hearti- ness the enthusiasm of those around him in gymnastic sports or the contest of shell-boats.

" Prominent among his traits was his absolute, unqualified, and unmistakable hatred of every thing mean. He could be silent under an act of injustice, of injury, even of insult, when he beheved it to be the result of thoughtlessness or ig- norance ; but his detestation of meanness begotten of deliber- ate malice or of littleness of soul was inexpressively withering. * I never saw him angry on any other account,' writes a class- mate who knew him well : ' but a mean act would make his eyes flash fire ; and his words on such occasions, though few were emphatic' He seemed almost to have belonged to an order of Christian Knighthood whose mission might be to ex- terminate dastardly and premeditated wickedness. Alas ! that his sword should have dropped so soon from his hand !

" His inflexible resolution always to act with a full under- standing of his duty, preliminary to an equally inflexible de- termination to perform it, cannot perhaps be better illustrated than by his course relative to his acquiring the elective fran- chise, which occurred while he was in college. He carefully made the Constitution of the United States a subject of close and reflective study, not merely as an intellectual exercise, but for the purpose of becoming thoroughly acquainted with the nature of the instrument to which he was about to swear

CHRISTIAN CHARACTEB. 41

allegiance. One or two of its provisions were the source of protracted deliberation and discussion, until, in fact, his doubts were removed.

" Of his Christian character in college, little can be said that is not true of it in every situation. His modesty did not ob- scure it ; but it did prevent any ostentatious display of it. A college friend on terms of closest intimacy writes as follows : ' Those who saAV his heart in this respect will cherish the rev- elations made to them as something sacred. I know one who was brought to Christ, who, had it not been for him, for his Christian character as revealed in his conversation, and for the sincerity and whole-heartedness of his trust in Christ, would not, as far as I can see, have ever been a Christian. Others I know who were influenced by him, whom he did not know or dream of, — whom he knows

" Undoubtedly there is a cloud of witnesses to the sublimity of that faith, and the simplicity of that piety, which made their lasting impression upon otherwise heedless souls. To those acquainted with or superficially knowing Henry Camp, this sketch may seem only a fulsome panegyric ; but it is true (and it can be said of very few men) that no word of praise could be erased without doing him injustice. Indeed, words are worth very little to those who knew him thoroughly. They may perhaps suggest tender memories that will come thronging back, laden with renewed love and respect for him who commanded by his intrinsic worth so much of affec- tion and so much of reverence.

" ' No man despised his youth ; ' for he was ' an example of

42 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.'

" The poet of his class, in his valedictory poem, described, as beautifully as he did correctly, such a character as Camp's, in the following verses : —

" Living' well is not mere living"

In the cultured taste of schools : 'Tis not in the knack of business,

Or the hoarded gold of fools ;

But an earnest life's deep passion

Beating in a kingly heart, With the gentle grace of goodness

Glorifying every part."

" If ever there was ' a voice from the tomb sweeter than song, and a recollection of the dead to which we turn, even from the charms of the living,' it is when such Christian bravery as his achieves its crowning victory over the grave, and when the homage we pay to his intellectual nobility is sanctified by the blessed memory of those virtues which are ' the native growth of noble mind.' "

<^^m^ '-

CHAPTER III.

TEACHER, LAW STUDENT, SOLDIEE.

N September, after leaving college, Camp took charge of the high school at East Hartford, and remained as its principal about six months. He became warmly attached to some who were his pupils there ; but teaching was tame business to him, especially in the stirring times then opening before the nation.

Accepting the responsibilities of the elective franchise after his careful study of the Constitution, he cast his first vote, in the spring of 1860, for good Governor Bucking- ham. In the Presidential election of the November fol- lowing, he voted for Abraham Lincoln. Of the possible consequences of this vote he was not unmindful, yet he had no hesitation in casting it. Doing what he believed to be right, he was never anxious as to the result. He did not desire war. Brought up in the strictest nonresistaiit school, he was emphatically a lover of peace. Of gentle, retii'ing nature, he shrunk instinctively from unpleasant collision with any. He never quarrelled. Up to this time he had never lifted a hand in anger, or even struck

43

44 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

a blow in self-defense. He was ready to yield whatever was properly at his disposal, for the good of others, or for the sake of harmony. But, though never obstinate, he was ever firm. He could not concede an iota of principle. It seemed an impossibility for him to swerve a hair, on any inducement, from the path of duty as he saw it. Nothing but a clear change of conviction ever changed a position which he assumed on a moral question. War or no war, he would vote and act as he believed to be rio-ht.

In the early spring of 1861, a letter received from a resident of the South, formerly his playfellow and school- mate, while it grieved him by its unprovoked harshness of spirit, aroused his sense of manliness by its contemptuous flinQ:s at Northerners, and its defiant threats of resistance to Federal rule. He replied to the letter in calm dignity, avoiding every issue but the simple one of duty to a Gov- ernment whose beneficent rule its bitterest opposers could not gainsay, while he held to account for all consequences those who arrayed themselves against just authority. In concluding, he said : —

" Should you resist, as you threaten, upon your heads, and yours alone, will rest the fearful responsibility of com- mencing a civil war. We have planted ourselves upon the foundation of the Constitution and the laws : from it, we shall neither advance to aggression, nor retreat one hair's breadth in concession. Conscious that we have done all in our power for the maintenance of peace and harmo-

A LAW STUDENT. 45

ny, loth to encounter in arms those whom we have been wont to greet as brothers, we shall yet meet unflinchingly whatever issue may be forced upon us, urged on, not by impulse or passion, but by a solemn sense of the duty which we owe to our country. Nor will the men of New Eng- land, sons of those who fought at Bunker Hill and Sara- toga, who defended for the South the soil which her Tories would not and her patriots could not defend for them- selves, be found wanting in the hour of trial. Side by side with the brave men of the West, we will stand to the last for the Union, the Constitution, and the Laws, — and may God defend the right ! "

After leaving his charge in East Hartford, Camp com- menced the study of law in the office of John Hooker, Eeq., reporter of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. What capa- bilities he showed in the pursuit of this science, his appreci- ative instructor states in a letter at the close of this volume.

The opening of the war found him thus engaged ; and, during the first seven months of its progress, he remained a law student, — yet by no means contentedly.

Had he followed his impulses, he would have sprung forward at the first call of the President for troops ; for he was already prepared for the issue, and he was never a laggard in duty. But there were considerations that held him back for a time. Those whose judgment he had ever deferred to, and whom above all others he loved to please, while as warmly patriotic as himself, were so imbued with

46 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

tlic gentle spirit of Christian charity, of love to all, that they could not, at first, see the justification of war, even under any pressure of wrong from others. They were un- wiHino; that the son of their hearts should be euo;ao;ed in a work of blood, not because he might lose his own life, but lest he should take the life of others.

If the need of men to defend the Government, had, at that tune, been greater, the issue might have been raised, in Camp's mind, between filial and patriotic obligations ; but just then more men were offering themselves than could be accepted, and it was rather as a privilege than a duty that any entered the army. Hence, Henry Camp denied himself, and stayed at home ; and no sacrifice which he ever made cost him more, or was more purely an act of generous self-abnegation, than to sit down in ease at the North durins; the earlier months of the nation's strus;- gle for life. But, although at home, he was making ready for the service in which he was yet to bear a part. Join- ing in April the Hartford City Guard, a fine organization of citizen soldiery, he acquired proficiency in the details of drill and company movements, while making army tactics more or less his study, Sept. 5, 18G1, he accompa- nied, as a member of the City Guard, doing escort duty, the remains of Gen. Lyon to their resting-place in East- ford ; and the impressions of that occasion only added fer- vor to his strong desire to have a part in the contest in which the hero, then buried, had fallen.

ENTERS SERVICE. 47

His opportunity came at length. In November, a com- mission was tendered him in the 10th A^olunteer Regiment of Connecticut infantry, then at the Annapohs rendezvous of Gen. Burnside's Coast Division. The proffered posi- tion was unsought and unexpected. The call to it en- abled him to urge anew upon his parents the claims of country on his personal service, and the fresh indication of his duty furnished by this seeming providential sum- mons. While the subject was under deliberatfon, he prayerfully sought God's counsel, and earnestly searched the Scriptures, as often before, for direction as to the path of right. The consent of his parents was obtained. The way was then clear before him. He signified his readiness to accept an appointment, and received a commission as second lieutenant, dated December 5, 1861. He was commissioned by Gov. Bucliingham on the nomination of Col. Charles L. Russell, the gallant and experienced com- mander of the 10th, whose desire of increasing the num- ber of good officers in the regiment induced him to seek the best material from without to take the place of that sifted out in the process of organization.

Camp entered joyfully upon his new sphere of action. Those who saw and heard him at the Asylum Hill Sabbath school, where he was a faithful and beloved teacher, on the Sabbath before his departure for the army, will not soon forget the impressions of that occasion. Just before the close of the session, the superintendent called the attention

48 TUE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

of the school to the fact, that another of its valued teachers was to leave for the army in the course of the week, and added, that it would be gratifying to all to listen to his parting words. Thus called upon. Camp rose at his seat, in a far corner of the room, and, modestly declining to step forward to a more prominent place, said in substance, in his quiet, unassuming, yet dignified and impressive man- ner, "My friends, I have no farewell speech to make to- day, nor would it be becoming in me to attempt one. I am only one more going out to the war, as many, who will be more missed than I shall be, have gone before. Why should this call for special notice? Although I love my home, and love this old school, I can not say that I am sorry I am going away. I can not even say that I leave you all because I deem it my duty to go. I rejoice rather, that, at length, I am to have the part I have longed for, but which has been denied me until now, in defending my Gov- ernment and in serving my country. I go because I want to go; and I give God thanks for the privilege of going." And it was thus that Henry Camp went to war.

Hastening to Annapolis, he joined his regiment, and en- tered on the performance of a soldier's duty, and the study of his new profession. He was among strangers, and in a strange work. Few men ever left a pleasanter home, or more entirely changed their associates, habits, and sur- roundings on joining the army, than did Henry Camp. It was impossible that he should feel entirely at ease, and

AmiY PRAYER-MEETING. 49

have no yearnings for the delights he had left behind. Yet he did not repent his decision. Writing home on his fii'st sabbath evening in camp, he said, —

" I have just been to a prayer-meeting, and it really seems good, after such a busy, working week. I shall prize these services, and, I think, enjoy them a great deal better than I did at home. They are held nearly every evening ; but our officers' school interferes with my attend- ing them, except on Sunday. To-night, a great fire was built at the foot of one of the company streets, and we gathered around it, standing, of course. There are several Greenwich men here, who have come to see how their boys are getting along, — men who have already done a great deal, and are ready to do more ; and one of them spoke very earnestly. Chaplain Hall said a few words : the rest consisted about equally of prayers and singing.

"The only trouble about these meetings is, that they seem so homelike and pleasant, that I believe a few more would make me homesick. I suspect I should be very soon, if every day was Sunday, and I had leisure to write to you, and think about you : yet I have no doubt that it is a Jmn- dred times better for me to be here ; and I cm very glad that I came. I enjoy the idea that I am really at work, thougli I can't tell yet how much my work will accomplish : something, I beheve, for myself, if for nobody else."

Then, in full appreciation of the novelties and incongru- ities of life in camp, he added : — 4

50 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER^

" There are all sorts of things going on here at once. Anybody that can't suit himself somewhere must be hard to suit. Prayer-meetings at one end of an avenue ; a group swearing till they make every thing blue, at the other ; one set singing, ' Down in Alabam ; ' another, hymns ; some reading in their tents ; some chasing each other round, or wrestling ; bands playing or drums beating some- where almost all the time ; sentinels calling for the cor- poral of the guard, and passing the word along the lines ; a little, or rather a good deal, of every thing, — it isn't much like a home Sunday, unless you happen to get into the right spot, and then it is."

He had not been Ions; in the reo-iment, before he learned that a prejudice existed against himself, and the newly appointed officers who came with him from Connecticut, because they were commissioned from without, and now filled places aspired to by non-commissioned officers, who were in the regiment at its organization. The discovery of this fact gave Camp scarcely any annoyance. He merely mentions it incidentally in a home letter. It does not seem to have caused him an hour's discomfort. He had not sought the commission : it had been tendered him by those who had the right to give it, and who, being competent judges, and having the interests of the regiment at heart, had thought it best to secure his services. He had come, not to obtain popularity or advancement, but to serve his country, and perform the duties of his sphere. What

SAILS FOR HATTER AS. 51

others thought of hira, while his conscience was clear, was not a point about which he was anxious. With all his modesty, he had the intuitive consciousness that time would right him as it did most gloriously. Meantime he moved on in the calm dignity of his nobleness, respected ever by all, — as well by those who envied him, and had jealousy of his position, as by those who admii-ed him and were always glad he had entered the regiment.

The 10th was in the brigade of Gen. John G. Foster, which included also the 23d, 24th, 25th, and 27th Massa- chusetts regiments, — all New-England troops of the very choicest material. The time passed at Annapolis was every hour improved in the perfecting of drill and discipline, and in other preparations for the somewhat delayed move of the expedition.

In a home letter, Camp sent, as a Christmas token of affec- tion, a good sketch, in pencil, of his regimental camp at An- napolis ; an engraving from which is on the opposite page.

About the first of January, 1862, orders were received for the embarkation of the troops of the expedition ; but a delay of several days occurred ere all was ready, and the fleet left Annapolis. Eight companies of the 10th were on the steamer " New Brunswick." Two companies, I and B, were on the schooner " E. W. Farrington." Lieut. Camp was of Co. I. The fleet rendezvoused at Fort Monroe, thence sailed for Hatteras. On his first sabbath at sea, Camp wrote : —

52 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER^

" It hasn't seemed much like sabbath to me. Every thing on shipboard must of course go on as usual, and read- ing tlie ' Independent ' is almost the only thing that reminds me of home, — by association I mean : there is plenty to do it by contrast. How little I thought a few sabbaths ago, that I should be on the Atlantic to-day, bound for Hatteras, in a little schooner full of soldiers on their way to the battlefield, — and I one of them ! tJiafs the stran- gest of it ! I can't realize it yet any better than I could at first. I have to stop once in a while, and take a good look at myself, — and that doesn't do much toward it either ; and then go back to the time I left home, and think it all over from the beginning, before I can be quite sure that this fellow here isn't somebody else, and that / am not back in Hartford, studying law and teaching Sunday school, and living a good-for-nothing lazy life of it gener- ally."

He lived no "good-for-nothing lazy life" in army ser- vice. Wliile on the transport, his opportunities to exert himself for others were as few as they could be anywhere ; yet even there he proved how ready he was to do his utmost in his sjihere. Stormy weather delayed the progress of the fleet. Some of the vessels drew more water than had been agreed upon, and could not pass the shoal across Hatteras Inlet, known as the " Swash." Weeks instead of days went by before all were fairly inside. The quarters of the men were cramped, close, and uncleanly. The drinking

PURE EXAMPLE. 53

water had all been put in filthy casks. Commissary stores were of the poorest kind. Army contractors had proved a curse to the entire expedition. The health and the spirits of officers and men suffered greatly. Drill was out of the question. Discipline could be but partial, at the best. Everything tended to laxness and demoralization.

Under these circumstances, the pure example of Lieut. Camp was most effective for good. A brother officer tells of sitting by a table with him, in the saloon of the " New Bmnswick," one evening, playing chess, when an officer near them indulged in impure language. Camp, he says, fairly blushed like a maiden ; and then, as the same style of remark was repeated, he rose from his seat, saying, ** Let us find another place, the air is very foul here." Another officer, who was his companion on the " Farring- ton," says, that during all those weeks of wearisomeness, with the entire lack of home restraints, with the stern temp- tation to idle talk, and with the example of so many in coarseness or profanity, no one ever heard Camp utter a single word that might not properly have been spoken in his parlor before his mother and sisters.

Before he had been many days on shipboard, he had an opportunity of proving conspicuously his courage and gal- lantry. The steamer "City of New York ' ' was wrecked just outside the bar, after the " Farrington " had passed within. The captain of the schooner determined to attempt the res- cue of those on the wreck by putting off in his yawl in the

54 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

severe storm then raging. Lieut. Camp proposed to ac- company him ; but the old skipper " disdained him, for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance." "You! " he cried in a contemptuous tone, "why, you couldn't handle one of those big oars ! " On Camp's assur- ing him that he had had some experience in rowing, and thought he could get along, the captain hesitatingly accept- ed his services, taking an extra man in the boat in view of the lieutenant's probable failure.

The storm was fearful. The little boat which put off for the wreck was a mere play tiling in the boiling surge, tossed hither and thither by the lashing waves and the driving gale, shipping more than one sea that seemed sure to swamp it, and being kept on its way only by the stout- est hearts, the strongest arms, and the steadiest nerves. The attempt to reach the steamer proved vain. Human strength was helpless against the combined power of the enrao-ed elements. One after another of the boat's crew gave up in despair, until only a single sailor remained with Lieut. Camp, self-possessed and undaunted. The order was given to return to the transport. When again on his own dock, the captain, whose distrust of the fair-faced young officer had given place to admiration for the brave- hearted, unflinching, skilful oarsman, declared, that " Lieut. Camp was game, and the pluckiest fellow he ever saw : if he had had a boat's crew like him he could have gone through to the wreck." Others who watched the scene

COURAGE.

55

were equally impressed in the lieutenant's favor. Said one, "Lieut. Camp would never have given the word to turn back, for fear was no part of his composition." The story of this exploit was often repeated in his praise among the men of his company and throughout the regiment.

CHAPTER IV.

ROANOKE AND NEWBERNE.

T lengtli there was a break in the long storm. The vessels of the fleet were either over the *' Swash," or their troops and freight were trans- ferred to other craft. Early in February, there was an advance up Pamlico Sound toward Roanoke Island.

" It was something of a sight," wrote Camp, " to see so many vessels under headway at once ; gunboats leading oS, steamers and sailing vessels in tow of them, following on in a procession some four or five miles long, while little tugs and fast propellers dodged about among them in all directions. Gen. Burnside passed us soon after we started, standing on the hurricane-deck of a small steamer, and compelled to keep his head uncovered half the time in ac- knowledgment of the cheers which went up from every vessel as he came opposite. He and Foster are both of them magnificent-looking men, tall, of commanding pres- ence, and generally quite the article one reads of."

Of his personal feelings on the approach of the battle, Camp wrote, the evening before the landing : —

*' I can't realize that I am to have my first experience 66

READY FOR BATTLE. 57

of battle to-morrow, — perhaps my last ; not fully, at least. I believe that something so entirely out of the range of all one's previous experience needs to be once seen be- fore it can be brought by any effort fairly into the scope of thought. I suppose that is one reason why it affects me so little. I expected to be at least somewhat excited beforehand ; but I have been ten times more so the evening before a boat-race. I shall sleep to-night like a top, and don't believe I shall dream about it. I wish I could feel so when the time comes. I shall be excited enough then, I'll venture. If I can keep cool enough to behave myself, it's all I expect."

His farewell letter written on that night of eventful an- ticipation, to be delivered to his home friends in case of his fall, was touchingly beautiful, so full of tenderness for those whom he addressed, so firm in its assurance of satisfaction with his lot in such a cause, so clear in its expression of faith in Jesus as his sufficient Saviour. It was never for- warded, but destroyed by him long after, when it had been read to the friend in whom he, later, confided so fully.

In the afternoon of February 7 th, the troops landed on E-oanoke Island under cover of the gunboats' fire. There was a dismal night in a pitiless storm, without shelter for the poor men, who were as yet nnused to the exposures of active campaigning. The following morning was the day of battle. To his disappointment and regret. Camp was prevented sharing in all the excitements of the contest by

58 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

being ordered to tbe landing on special duty, just as his regiment was taking position on the field. His hurried letter of the following day told the story briefly : —

"I suppose you will hear of the fight, and be anxious. I am safe and well, — wasii't in the action, I'm sorry to say ; not through any fault of mine, though. Just before our regiment was ordered to the front, I was sent, by Gen- eral Foster's orders, on detached service. Ammunition was needed; and I was directed to take a steamer, get 140,000 rounds from a vessel that lay two or three miles oflf shore, and use my discretion as to the means of bringing it for- ward as rapidly as possible. I used all speed ; but the aflfair was over before I could rejoin the regiment. It was a hard fight, and a splendid victory. If I only could have been there ! To think that the regiment has been in such a glorious affair, and I have no part in it ! It was hai-d to be the one sent away."

In a subsequent letter, he described vividly the advance of his regiment to the battle, and the incidents of the opening fight. Although not actually under fire, he passed through all the tedious preliminaries of the action, which every old soldier knows constitute the most trying, even if not the most perilous, part of such an engagement. It was of the early morning of February 8th, that he wrote : —

" The men fell in promptly and coolly, and stood awaiting orders, — eating their breakfasts, many of them,

THE ADVANCE. 59

in the mean time. The reoiments on the ri^ht of the brigade took up the march first, the others following in brigade order (we came third), marching in column, four abreast, along a narrow road with dense underbrush on either side ; making it very difficult for the skii'mishers on the flanks to advance, and furnishing every advantage for an enterprising enemy to annoy us. They didn't, however.

" As we advanced, we could hear the frequent reports of muskets, and the occasional crack of a rifle, sounding some half a mile ahead. It was evident that the sknmishers were at it. Not far beyond the brook, we passed the 21st Mass., who had been at the outposts during the night, — some in line along the roadside, some around fires a little farther in the woods, — a fine-looking set of fellows, who exchanged jokes and gi-eetings with us as we went by. The farther we went, the sharper the firing became ; and soon we had to make way for four men who came carrying a litter, heavy, with a blanket thrown over what lay upon it. Men looked at each other, and grew sober. Presently a couple more came with one between them : no wound was visible ; but he was ghastly pale, and could scarcely walk with their support. Then we came upon another, lying quite still by the roadside ; he had been brought s? far and left, the wounded needed attention more than he. There was no blood, or almost none, upon any of them. I looked to see the wounds, and wondered that thero

60 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

seemed to be none, until I remembered that gimsbot injuries seldom cause any flow of blood which would soak through the clothing. Another passed, with one on each side to help him : he groaned heavily; and his left arm, what there was of it, hung in rags from its bloody stump : it had been shattered by the premature discharge of one of our own field-pieces.

" These things are so different to see and to read about, it strikes one like a new idea to have the sight actually before his eyes, just as if he hadn't expected that very thing. I can't exactly describe the sensation it gave me. I sha'n't pretend to say that I wasn't at all affected by it ; indeed, of all the men whom I have heard speak about it since the time, there was only one who did pretend so, — ■ he may, perhaps, have told the truth.

"Our march was obstructed by water and thickets; sometimes we halted to allow those behind to come up, then started off at double-quick to gain lost distance. The discharge of cannon and musketry grew constantly louder and more frequent, until there was an almost uninterrupted rattle, evidently quite near, but more apparently to the left than in front. At length we halted, and the men rested for a few moments to give the regiment before us time to get into position before we advanced to ours. The wounded were being brought by at short intervals, and we had nothing to do but watch them as they passed.

THE SURRENDER. 61

" It was curious to notice tbe different effect which the first true idea of what battle is produced on different men. I looked at various faces. Some were perfectly natural ; a few bright; a large majority exceedingly sober; more than one a little pale. I was wondering whether I looked pale, when Major Pettibone came up and ordered me to the head of the column to tell Colonel Russell that the general's orders were to advance. I delivered the message, and received for reply that General Foster was himself there and in command. So I reported to the major, and took my place again."

It was just then that Lieutenant Camp was ordered back for the ammunition. The task assigned him was a tedious one ; and when it was at length accomplished, his regiment, having changed position, was not easily found by him. Although he strained every nerve to be speedily ao-ain at the front, it was evenino- before he was once more with his command.

"Late in the afternoon," he continued, "after I had given up all hopes of rejoining the regiment in season to take any part in the action. General Foster, with a couple of his aides, came riding along. He stopped and told us the news himself. 'They have surrendered! — 2,000 prisoners ! They asked what terms I would give them : I said an unconditional surrender, and they accepted ! ' The men didn't give him time to finish. Up went the caps, and up went the cheers, and up went the men

62 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

bodily ; their loads didn't weigh a feather. He inquired about the ammunition, and passed on."

The part of the Tenth in the engagement had been prominent and honorable, and its losses severe. Gallant Colonel Kussell had been killed early in the action. Other brave officers and good men had given the testimony of blood to their patriotism. To one who had so longed for the privilege of an active part in the nation's life-struggle as Henry Camp, the disappointment of being separated from his regiment, at the decisive hour of such a contest, was bitter and enduring. The thrilling narrative of the excitements and perils of the day, to which he listened with profoundest interest by the bivouac fire on the stormy night succeeding, and every repetition of its noteworthy incidents, from brother-officers, on subsequent occasions, only intensified his regret, and deepened his sense of per- sonal loss.

" The more I think of my own absence," he wrote a few days later, "the more it provokes me. Not that I, or any one else, feel as if I was at all to blame for it ; but it has drawn a sort of line between me and all the rest. They shared the danger, and, of course, share the exultation of the battle. I can only rejoice as I would over any other victory. They have all been tested, and stood the test. I am still untried. They, in short, arc the victors in one of the most glorious battles — perhaps the very most so — that have yet been fought. I had nothing to do with it :

NOT IN THE BATTLE. 63

even my wretched ammunition wasn't needed or used. It's very doubtful whether our regiment has another chance. Even if there is another fie;ht at Newberne, the second brigade will probably claim and receive the advance. At the best, I shall always be one behind the rest, — have one less deed to remember and be proud of.

" I don't Hke to think of all my friends who know that the Tenth Connecticut distinguished itself, inquiring where I was, and what I was about ; and what will provoke me most of all will be the attempt I know some of them will make to persuade me they think it was just as well, all the same thing, and all that humbug. Any thing but that ! If the war should come to an end, as I suppose I ought to hope it will, without my having been in battle, I shall never want to show my face again at home ; not that I shall have any thing to be ashamed of, but that I sha'n't have any thing else. There's enough of grumbling ! — it's babyish, and does no good : but that's just the way I feel about it; and now that I've cried my cry out, I'll stop."

The troops remained but a few days on shore at Roanoke Island. Re-embarking, they made several demonstrations up Pamlico Sound; but the advance to Newberne was delayed until the following month. During the weeks of waiting on shipboard, before and after the first landing, Camp's home letters were full and varied, showing him in his true light as the man of cheerfulness, of honor, of

64 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIEIi.

courage, of patriotism, of purity, of poetry, and of Chris- tian faith.

" I have just been hearing," he wrote, " part of a letter from the 'New -York Times,' about this expedition, written at Hatteras ; very accurate in its statements ; but I really hadn't realized before what a hard time we have had of it. It sounds quite formidable, all boiled down and concentrated into the space of one newspaper column ; but taken in small doses, as we have had it, at considera- ble intervals, it hasn't seemed to amount to so much. We have concluded, since reading it, to set up for martyrs : the idea hadn't occurred to us before.

" These things are not half as hard as they sound ; they are just what we anticipate, and go prepared for ; very diflferent fi"om what they would be to one fresh from home, without the hardening process which we have already undergone in camp."

It was thus that he souoht to encourao;e his friends at home as to his personal trials and privations on the close, cramped, and filthy transport. If he mentioned these at all, it was in a burlesque strain that hardly made an appeal for pitying sympathy. Thus from the " Swash : " —

"The poor fellows down in the hold would be glad to stretch their legs ashore, I know. They are terribly crowded. They are packed so close at night, that, when they have lain long enough on one side, somebody sings out, ' Haixl-a-lee,' and over they all go together, just as we

ON THE TB AN SPORT. 65

used to hoist the signal, ' Leg over,' in the recitation-room at college, and astonish the tutors with a simultaneous whisk from one side to the other. This is a little more practical.

..." All our water is brought from Baltimore : it costs seven cents a gallon, delivered at Annapolis. It isn't first-rate, though the barrel we are now on answers well enough. The flavor depends on what the barrel held before. This was a whiskey barrel : those we have had — kerosene and turpentine — were not so good. . . .

" I'll venture to say that there's no spot in the United States where there are more men, boys, negroes, and cockroaches, to the square foot, than in the cabin of the * E. W. Farrington.' The first three I'm used to, — can stand being crowded by them ; but this having cockroaches bold a door when one tries to open it, and pull his blankets off from him at night, is something new. We have held our own pretty well ; but they are gradually getting the upper hand of us : infantry are no match for them, and we talk of getting a few artillerymen, with their guns, from Fort Hatteras. I thought of putting a few specimens into the box of curiosities I .send home, makino; a reonilar infernal machine of it ; but, reflecting that you have no arms but the old Revolutionary sword, concluded to wait."

Of the national situation just then, before the brilliant

victories on the Western waters had re-assured confidence in

the Federal cause, and while enemies at the North were 5

66 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

co-operating with enemies beyond tbc seas to give encour- agement and aid to treason and to traitors, he spoke with firmness and courage.

" Things abroad do look pretty dark for us, don't they? if foreign newspapers at all reflect the feelings of their governments. It is a hard fight now : European interven- tion would make it well-nigh desperate. I Jiope that our Government will stand firm at all hazards, and that the North will sustain such a policy until the last dollar is gone, the last village burned to the ground, and the last able-bodied man has fallen on the battle-field ; but I'm afraid they haven't the resolution and the self-denial to hold out to the end. I am afraid that dano;er and disaster will develop cowardice, as they always do, and we shall be left to the fate we shall then deserve. I haven't really looked upon such a thing as possible, hitherto : it need not be now, if the nation will only put forth its strength ; but will it? That's the question. I don't see how any man, who can do any thing, can be inactive now, when every day of his life is worth a century."

Referring to the advance of the troops up Roanoke Island after the battle, and their visits to the camps and homes of the enemy, he gave expression to his refined sense of honor as a truly chivalrous soldier.

' ' Besides many other articles taken from the field or from houses, a number of letters were found, curious specimens enough, some of them, in point both of manner

POETIC MUSINGS. 67

and matter, — on all subjects, from love to slioe-pegs. I was almost ashamed of myself for listening while some of them were being read. I don't know what title a victory gives one to pry into other men's private matters in this way, those at least of a domestic or social natm'e ; and it really seems too bad. This letter business strikes me as a very different thing from the transfer of ordinary property, according to the rule which every one recognizes, that to the victors belong the spoils."

Surely a college-mate esteemed him rightly who wrote, on hearing of his death, " I can conceive nothing knightlier than Henry Camp, the soldier. All the graces of valor, loyalty, and generosity must have sat upon him, and made him the very flower of our heroic youth. Great-Heart is the name that became him. Like Bunyan's knight, he has overcome, and passed on and up before us to the better country."

A few nights before the battle of Newberne, he wrote : — " It has been a beautiful day, and the fleet was a fine sight, at noon, as it stretched in long line from east to west, moving steadily, and with a look of poioer that was magnificent. No land in sight, except a few blue lines at intervals along the horizon ; and again at sunset, when the sun, which had been for some hours clouded, came out and lit the whole scene most gorgeously. I climbed the shrouds, and stayed aloft until it began to grow dark. It isn't often, in an ordinary lifetime, that one sees a sight

68 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

better worth looking at than that was. It's very true that soldiering isn't all poetry, according to some ; but neither is it all prose, according to others.

" I wish I was good at description. I'd like to paint you a scene occasionally, so that you could see it as you can Scott's or Longfellow's. And that /, of all men, who have never pictured to myself, even in imagination, any but the most commonplace, dog- trot sort of a life, should be in the midst of what seems to me, even now, more like romance than fact, — I can't realize it more than half the time."

It was after such an evening of poetic musing that he wrote the following lines, — as stately and as gi-aceful as Lis own manly form, and as warm as his own loving heart. They shortly after appeared anonymously in the ' ' Hartford Evening Press : " —

BETWEEN ROANOKE AND NEWBERNE.

The swift-winged Northern breezes are blowing fair and free : I pace by night the spray-wet deck, and watch the rushing sea; The whistling of the shrill-voiced wind is full of speech to me : It stretches taut the swelling sail, it crests the wave with foam : I drink its bracing frashness ; it is the breath of home.

From hoary monarch mountains, whose giant cliffs, piled high, Lift up their snow-crowned foreheads against the clear, cold sky, — From forests dark with shadow, where pine and cedar fling Music and fragrance mingled upon the zephyr's wing, — From leaping white-maned torrents, that thunder on their way, Cleaving a path of madness through splintered granite gray, —

A NIGHT BIVOUAC. 69

From every hill and valley, — from every rock and tree, —

New England sends a deep-drawn breath, far o'er the Southern sea.

Slowly the anxious hours passed on in dark suspense

With breathing hushed to silence, and nerve and heartstring tense:

Now swells from heaving bosom the sigh of deep relief,

Too sad for shout of triumph, too proud for sob of grief, —

The banners of our victory wave o'er a fallen chief. *

Yet welcome, at whatever price, the Nation's leap to life: Eather than deathly stupor, hail to the deadly strife ! From East to West, the solid tramp of armies shakes the ground; The vibrant clang of ringing steel fills all the air with sound; The sword, so long uplifted, sweeps down in sudden wrath: Eight through the hosts of treason, it hews its crimson path.

Before its edge of terror, shrinks back the rebel foe. As leaves that curl before the breath of Etna's fiery flow; Again is bared the red right arm another blow to smite ; Already blaze the signals that tell of coming fight, — To-morrow's sun shall set in blood, — Amen ! — God speed the right !

On the loth of March, the troops landed at Slocum's Creek, about fifteen miles below Newberne, and marched some ten miles in a drenching rain toward the city. There was another night of bivouac in a pelting storm, as at Koanoke, to the sore discomfort of all.

"I stood before the fire," wrote Camp, cheerfully, of that night, " until I was tolerably dry ; took my blankets, which the india-rubber had kept in good order, for a seat ;

* Colonel Russell of the Tenth.

70 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

leaned my back against a stack of rifles, and slept three or four hours quite comfortably. I believe, with a little practice, I could sleep standing on one foot or on my head : it's all habit, and I'm cjuite getting over the foolish preju- dice in favor of lying down, — especially on any thing soft."

An early start was made on the morning of the 14th, and an advance toward the enemy's intrenched position. It was not long before Camp had the desired opportunity to test himself in battle.

"I was afraid," he wrote, "we shouldn't reach the front before the affair was over ; but very soon the order came to turn aside from the road, and march through the fields to a position further to the left. We took an oblique direction, and hadn't gone a hundred rods when a loud, swift whiz went through the air, soundhig as if some one had torn a thousand yards of canvas from one end to the other at a single pull. Almost everybody involuntarily looked up (I did), as if we could have seen it pass, when it was far beyond us when the sound first struck our ears. Some stooped, — one or two crouching close to the earth, and hardly ready to rise until they wore sharply started. A few yards further, and there was another, — this time apparently passing but a little above our heads ; then another, and still more ; some further, and some nearer, — every one causing more or less dodging, and an occasional irregularity in the ranks, promptly checked, as far as possible, by the ofiicers. We passed obliquely into

FIGHTING. 71

the woods, and were ordered to lie down just behind the crest of a slightly inclining slo}De. The men were behaving well enough ; but they didn't wait to hear the order twice. I never saw a crowd drop c[uite so suddenly as they did. As we lay on the marshy ground, bullets flew thick ; some seeming to pass only two or three feet over us : one entered the ground just at the elbow of one of the men. Occasion- ally there would be none heard for some little time, then a perfect shower would hiss along, with a sharp ' thud ' now and then as one struck a tree close by. Grape rattled tkrough once or twice, generally passing high ; though I saw the water dashed up by it, from a pool a little to the right. We had been in this position perhaps twenty or thirty minutes, when an order came for us to march to the front, and open fire immediately. ' Now,' said I, ' it's coming : in about three minutes we shall see who's who, and what's what.' The fire of the enemy, at this time, seemed to be directed elsewhere. We advanced to the edge of the woods, formed line of battle, and prepared to fii^e, without, I think, their having observed us at all.

" We knew that, as soon as we discovered our situation by firing, we should be answered ; but, in the mean time, we had opportunity to form and dress the line without disturbance. It had scarcely l^een done, when our right opened fire ; and it passed rapidly down the line toward us. The men were, for the moment, wild with excitement, and waited for no orders, but raised their pieces and fired, —

72 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

half of them without takinc; aim. I checked those who were near me. But soon the order was given, and at it they went again, — loading and fii-ing just as rapidly as they could handle their pieces.

' ' We could see the puflfs of smoke rise from the breast- works in front of us, and once or twice a momentary slack- ening of our own volleys allowed us to hear the whistle of bullets. It didn't need that to make the reports of artillery, and roar of solid shot through the ah", audible ; but it was some little time before I saw any effects of their reply to us. I had been moving from one to another, rectifying the aim of some who fired high, and seeing to it, that they understood what they were about, when I saw a man who had been lying on the ground a few yards to the left, roll suddenly over. I turned toward him ; but some one was already supporting his head, as the blood gushed over his face from a hideous wound : a bullet had entered his eye, and lodged in the lower part of his head. Several of the men gathered around ; but I sent them back to their places, and they went without a word. Most of them behaved excellently throughout, listening to orders, and obeying them promptly, after the wild excitement of the first few rounds was over.

*' We were still firing rapidly, when cheering rose loud in front ; and, in a moment more, our flag appeared, waving from the parapet of the breastwork. They cheered on the right, and they cheered on the left, and they cheered

UNDER FIBE. 73

before us, and we cheered ; and had hardly finished cheering when the order came to resume our march. The battle was over, and we had only to take possession of Newbcrne."

Camp had passed bravely the ordeal of battle. So cool was he, seemingly unmoved when the fight was hottest, and those about him most excited, that the men of his company called him their Iron Man, and told how efficient he was, in directing the fire of some, in giving assistance to others whose pieces were out of order, and in speaking encouraging words to all, ever with ' ' the same pleasant look in his face."

" As to my own feelings," he said, in his home letter, *'I can't describe them anymore than I could when I tried before. They were much the same, only less in degree, as when we were marching into action at Roanoke. I was thoroughly excited internally, and every nerve was tense ; but I can't accuse myself of any tendency to avoid the danger I felt, or even of dodging bullets, as I have heard that most men involuntarily do when they are first under fire. This excitement of nerves continued until the action fairly commenced, and then seemed to wear off rapidly, until, after we had been engaged a few minutes. I felt as cool, and, I thought then, as natural as ever. It couldn't have been natural though ; for I have been shocked since to think how little I cared for the poor fellows that were wounded. The reason, I suppose, that the danger

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ceased to affect me was, tbat I had something more impor- tant to occupy ray mind. I thought of it, of course, but was too busy to pay any attention to it."

Id another letter, describing the battle to his fi-iend Owen, he said , —

" The sensation of coming under fire is, to me, very much like that I used to feel in boat-racing, — exceedingly nervous business waiting for the signal to give way, but comfortable enough as soon as there is an opportunity to work off the surplus excitement. How a bayonet charge or a repulse of cavalry might seem, I can not tell ; but there has been nothing in such work as has fallen to us hitherto, more exciting than there was for the oarsmen in one of our grand boat-races between Harvard and Yale."

The bridge across the Trent being burned by the rebels, there was a delay of some hours in transporting the troops of Foster's brigade, on gunboats, to the city bank of the river. Late in the afternoon, the 10th marched through the streets of Newberne to the old Fair Grounds, and, taking possession of the just deserted camp of the Thirty- third North-Carolina Regiment, made ready for a night of rest. Not many officers would speak as cheerfully of a detail for guard-duty, under such circumstances, as did Lieutenant Camp when called upon that evening.

"I was too tired," ho said, "to spend much time looking about me, — was reflecting how nicely I should feel inside my blankets in about five minutes (it was now

KINDIfESS TO SOLDIEBS. 75

two or three hours after dark) , and had just pulled off my boots for the first time since I left the vessel, when the adjutant came in. 'You'll have to put them on again,' said he. ' You are detailed, with thirty men from your company, to do provost guard-duty. Can you stand it 'i ' It was rather tough after two such days ; but I was less tued than most of the rest. I find that my endurance is greater than that of men who consider themselves tough. My old training stands me in good stead, and especially my habits of walking. I haven't yet been so tired by any march as not to feel equal to ten miles more, though I mightn't have been anxious to carry my overcoat and equipments along. But the men, — I really hated to call out some of them, poor fellows, hardly able to drag one foot after the other."

This considerate regard for the men who were under him, showed itself in all his home-letters, and also — to those who knew him well — in his conversation and actions. His quiet, undemonstrative ways prevented its being fully understood by all. His calm dignity of demeanor was not unfrequently deemed an indication of coldness or hauteur. Never a greater mistake. His heart was far warmer, and his feelings kindlier, than could be judged from his modest reticence and his shrinking reserve of manner.

At Newberne there was a long season of comparative quiet. As the spring months passed away, Camp grew restive.

76 THE KNIGHTLY mLDIEE.

" Save me," he wrote, " from a summer in Newberne, or any other one place. Our life, except when in active service, is mere machine-work, at best; endurable, even enjoyable, by way of preparation for something better, but, as a 'regular beverage,' altogether insipid and flat. Our wits grow rusty in this tread-mill business, — that's the worst of it. I was beginning a while ago [on the transport] to fear that the result of our campaigning would be in having more brains softened from within than perforated from without."

Yet Newberne life was not without its activities. Picket- ing in the face of the enemy was something new to the soldiers of the Tenth ; and there was an occasional alarm or skirmish on the outer lines, that gave zest to the service. Of the first march to the picket front, Camp wrote : —

*' All the nef>;ro huts in the outskirts sent out larsje delegations to the gates to watch us go by, evidently enjoying the sight hugely. One old woman stood in her doorway, beaming upon us most graciously, and addressing us as we came opposite, ' I hopes you is all well, genlin,' getting a volley of answers from our men."

It was on one of the earlier tours of picket-duty, that Camp's coolness and courage stood out prominently in an emergency. Another lieutenant had taken out a scouting- party of a dozen men, beyond the lines, to obtain informa- tion, and, if possible, to pick up a prisoner or two ; having been told by the negroes that small squads of the enemy

A PICKET ALARM. 77

sometimes came clown to within a short distance of the Union position. While this party was out, Captain Otis and Lieutenant Camp were eating dinner in a cabin near the picket-reserve, "when suddenly," as Camp described it, " while we were enjoying our hoe-cake and bacon, two or three of the negi'oes in the cabin exclaimed in a low tone, ' De Southerners comin' ! de Southerners comin' ! ' "We seized our swords, which we had laid aside so as to eat with more comfort, and stepped to the door just as one of the cavalrymen dismounted from a horse, panting and covered with sweat. * Every one of your men,' said he, * is killed or taken prisoner ! ' A glance showed that he did not refer, as one would naturally tliink, to our reserve across the way ; and we knew he must be speaking of the scouting-party. ' The affiiir had taken place, he said, a few minutes before, at a distance of two or three miles. The enemy were still advancing, — a large force of cavalry. He and two others had put their horses to speed, and escaped; but all those on foot, and one or two of the mounted men, were either shot or taken. By this time, the other two came in sight, their horses on the full run. I half expected to see the rebels on their heels; but they drew rein, and came up to report. Their story was less alarming than that of the fii-st, — who was, I think, the most frightened fellow I ever saw. They said our men had been surprised by a party of cavalry, and had taken to the woods. They had seen none killed or taken,

78 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

tboiigh several volleys were fired, — couldn't be sure, how- ever, being bard pressed themselves, and only saved by the speed of then* horses and the poor ami of the enemy. We saw tliat we ourselves were in no danger ; and the reserve, which had been called to arms, was dismissed. '*

It was no slight evidence of character, for a young lieutenant, inexperienced in border warfare, to rise at once above the influences of a picket alarm, at that stage of the war, and propose to go out, in the face of the enemy, to the rescue of his endangered comrades. Lieutenant Camp's impulse prompted him to an instant suggestion of this kind.

" I thought," he wrote, " that a party ought to be sent out immediately to find our men, who were probably in the woods, not daring to retake the road until they were certain that the enemy had retired. Captain Otis finally said, that, if the men chose to volunteer, he wouldn't object."

Volunteers beins: called for, eio-ht men of the Tenth came promptly forward. Besides these, four of the horse- men— artillerymen acting as cavalry — were induced to go along as advance skirmishers ; and Camp started at once on his scout. His cavalry did not please him. " Their fajling, certainly, wasn't lack of vigilance. They walked their horses, with revolvers drawn, and one eye cocked over the shoulder, ready to run. My men," he added, with pride in the brave fellows, "would have

HOME THOUGHTS. 79

marched straight upon Goldsborough, if I had only asked them to." The enterprise was entirely successful. The scattered party were found, a few at a time, until there was but one missing and unaccounted for. "As there then was no more than time to go back before sunset, it seemed unwise to wait any longer; and we returned, having at length accomplished what we went out for. It was dark when we reached the reserve ; and they had begun to grow anxious about us, having expected us back hours before. The other man came in the next morning, having spent the night in the woods. The whole thing ended much better than any of us anticipated."

In the full and free sketches of such exploits as this, in his home-letters, never a boastful word is found of his own performance, although praise is given heartily to all who were with him, and did well. His modesty equaled his courao;e and his nobleness.

Each new call upon his energies seemed to give Camp fresh satisfaction in his work. "I am contented now," he wrote, "for the first time in three years. It doesn't seem as if the old fret ever need come back, — perhaps it will." Then, as showing that his heart was in no degree weaned from the loved ones at home, he added, " I never realized before, as I do now, the difference between a dear old New-England home and the rest of the world. I lono; to see you all, — you know how, — but not enough to wish to leave unfinished that which we came to do. I want to

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see a workmanlike job made of it, — no botch-work. I want to help put in the last touches, and then won't we all be glad to come back ? You know how I felt about it when I left home : I feel just so now. I have always been glad that I came, and think, whether I return or not, that I always shall be."

In response to the suggestion from home, that he ought to be satisfied with going into danger when he was ordered there, he wrote : —

"As to volunteering, its being my duty simply to obey orders, &c., — I am sure, when you think of it, that you would have me do as much, not as little, as possible. I certainly won't run any unnecessary risks, — risks which it is not necessary that somebody should run ; but, when there is work to be done, I want to do it. That, you know, was the idea with which I started, and the more opportunity I have to carry it into practice, the more I shall feel as though I were accomplishing my object. If men are sent where they should not be, the more need they have of officers to lead them through with as little loss as possible, and neutralize a blunder, if it is a blunder, by all the means which can be used. For my own sake, as well as for yours, — and that I may accomplish the more, — I intend to be prudent, and do nothing fool-hardy, or that my calm judgment doesn't approve. What it does, I know you would not have me avoid."

Henry Camp wished to live to a purpose, and if he

IMPATIENCE AT INACTION. 81

must die, to die to a purpose. His desire was to be where he could aceomphsh most for the cause that had his heart. He did not seek his own advancement. He did not crave a place of danger. But he was never content, except at the post of duty; and he longed for that to be just where his every blow would be most effective for the rio-ht. Referring to unimportant scouts from Newberne, and to trifling engagements on the picket-line, he said, —

" There would be no satisfaction at all in being shot or captured in one of these miserable little skirmishes where neither side could possibly gain any thing worth a single life, — a very different thing from falhng in battle."

Ao;ain he wrote : —

"I should like to have a share in the grand blows of the Army of the East. Our out-of-the-way performances, down here, don't seem to amount to much by themselves ; and yet we've had sharp work, — it's no exaggeration to say so. The list of casualities looks small alongside of what you read of in the great battles of the West ; yet, when you come to compare the numbers engaged, we lost as many in four hours at Newberne as they did in two days at Pittsburg Landing, or in three at Fort Donelson, — as large a percentage, I mean, of course."

Later, when the Peninsular campaign was at its hight, he wrote in the same strain : —

" We groan in spnit at having to stay here idle while

the fight at Richmond is so fierce, every man needed, — 6

82 THE ENIGHTLY SOLDIER.

every man there worth a hundred elsewhere. Nothing else that the war can bring forth will furnish cause for so proud a satisfaction as to have thrown one's weight into the scale while the balance yet trembled. What is left to do will be boy's play in comparison, — as has been all before on this side the Alleo-hanies. When the race is won, there's nothing like feeling that you pulled a good oar on the home stretch." Then, as showino- his real interest in hard service, he added, "I don't want to fight for the sake of fighting, but for the sake of accomplishing something that will tell upon the grand result." For that grand result, he was ready to toil or to suffer, or willing, if need be, to wait. "I have chosen," he said, "the sphere in which I think I can work most efiiciently for God and my country; and, if we have thirty-years' war instead of three, I expect to see it through, — or as much of it as comes in my lifetime."

CHAPTER Y.

CAINIP LIFE AND CAMPAIGNING.

OME of Camp's experiences with the liberated slaves in Newberne were recounted by him in an interesting manner : — '' Did I tell you," he wrote home, ''about the family of fugitives that came in while we were out on picket ? I was on duty at the time. One of the men called me, saying that some one wished to pass our lines. I came to the post where they had been stopped, and there were two negro women with a swarm of little things, — one or two in their arms ; one or two, hardly big enough to walk, carrying others. They had come five miles that night; their masters intended to send them up country the next day ; they had got wind of it, and seized the only chance of escape. I asked how many children they had. 'She have four head, and I four.' (So m^in j head, — that's the way these darkies talk.) I don't see how they could have done it; little barefooted toddlers! — some of them, trotting along in their nightgowns as if they had just come out of a warm bed, instead of having tramped

83

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five miles in the cold and dark ; but there wasn't one of them whimpering, or making the least fuss about it, — poor little things ! I didn't keep them long with questions, — passed them, of course; but advised them, now that they were safe within our lines, to spend the rest of the night in a deserted house near by, and so they did. Their mistress, a widow of strong secesh sympathies, came into town next day. ' She wanted to see General Foster.' I don't know what was the object or result of the inter- view ; but I think it safe to say, she didn't get back the runaways."

Another of his stories concerning this class of people was published at the time in the "Hartford Press," and copied widely : —

" I was in a negro house yesterday, and had some con- versation with the inmates. I asked one gray-headed old negress if she had ever had children sold away from her. ' Sold ! dey all sold ! chil'en an' grau'chiFen an' great gran'chil'en, — dey sell ebry one ! ' She clasped her bony hands over her head, and looked up at me as she spoke, * Dere was one — de lass one — de on'y gran'chile I did hab lef. He neber knowed his mammy. I took him when he dat little. I bringed him up to massa, an' I say, " Massa, dis my little gran'chile : may I keep him 'bout heah ? " An' he say, " I don' care what you do wid him." So I take him ; he dat little. Den one mornin', when he all rolled up in blanket 'tween my knees, Massa Green

SLAVERY. 85

com'cl in, an' say, " Dis boy sold; " and dey take him ''way! 0 Lord Jesus, help me pray ! '

" I can't begin to do justice to the way in which she told me this, nor describe the earnestness of voice and gesture, which made it impressive. I wish some of our Northern editors, who cringe just as abjectly as ever before their old masters, and howl in such consternation whenever it seems likely that the war may interfere, directly or indirectly, with their pet deviltry, — I wish some of them could have heard and seen her.

" I made fui'ther inquiries about the old woman's grand" child. He is now, it seems, somewhere near Ealeigh. She seemed wonderfully comforted when I told her that we meant to go up there by and by, and I hoped we should find him. She seemed to take it in the light of a promise ; and I heard her, just before I went out, saying to herself, ' Bress de Lord ! — bress de Lord ! I shall see my gran'chile again ! ' Poor old creature ! I hope she won't be disappointed."

Then, as expressive of his own views of the " pet deviltry " of the South, he added : —

"It canH he but that this war will kill slavery; and if it does, cost what it will of our blood, and your tears, and every man's money, it won't be too much. Don't you think so ? I hnoiu you do. Not that I've changed my ideas as to the ultimate object of the war ; but I am more firmly convinced than ever that the destruc-

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tion of slavery is one of the means indispensable to the end.'^

His "ideas as to the ultimate ohject of the war" were fully set forth on a later occasion. He longed and hoped and prayed for the end of slavery. He fought for govern- ment as a divinely ordained power. His sympathies were with the cause of universal freedom. His work of war was for the maintenance of law and order. " Work," he said, * ' which I am as sure that God approves as I am sure that he designs to have order and law prevail throughout the universe over chaos and anarchy.

" What on earth have I said to give you the idea that I am fighting, not for the Government, but the abolition of slavery ? Exactly the reverse. It is the maintenance of the Government that I consider the object, and the only object of the war; abolition, one of the means, but no more. I think as ill of slavery as you do : I believe, with you, that it is the cause of the Kebellion, and that it must be crushed wherever rebellion exists; but I fight for the preservation of the republic, not for the abolition of slavery, because I consider the former the nobler and more important object, — the object for which the latter is but a means. Strike at the root, you say. Yes ; but why? Because the poisonous growth is killing that which it is my highest aim to keep alive and flourishing. It is not always the cause of an evil that must be made the great object of an attack in remedying its effects.

PRINCIPLES OF ACTION. , 87

" Government is the human embodiment of law, and law is the central idea of the universe. ' Liberty for ever and for all,' is a taking watchword; and a thousand will catch it up as the expression of their highest aim, where one will adopt the far higher and nobler one of universal law. Among free moral agents, perfect liberty involves inevitable abuse, incalculable sin and suffering. Perfect law would be the acquiescence of all in God's plans, — the unquestioned supremacy of his will. Of the two abstractions, therefore, I choose the latter ; and, when they become embodied in material forms for which a man can fight, I will fight for the republic — which is the concrete expression, however imperfect, of the higher — rather than for the emancipation of four million negroes, which is the corresponding outgrowth of the lower.

" As to the soundness or unsoundness of the Adminis- tration, my action is independent of it. Government and the ideas behind it, — the nation and its republican institu- tions, — are what I fight for, not Abraham Lincoln or his advisers. There's nobody that I dislike more than a young old fogy. I don't think I'm in any danger of being gen- erally so considered ; but, if public opinion does run wild, I shan't try to keep up with it. It will settle back again by and by. We shall see whether I am behind it ten years from now."

Writing, after one of the many changes of camp at New- berne, of the absolute necessity of one's looking out for

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himself in army life, especially at a time of breaking camp, or otherwise changing quarters, Camp said, jocosely, " The only way to get what belongs to you, down here, is to tahe it, and put in a claim to half your neighbor's property to balance what he demands of yours. When everybody is at hand to do then' own fighting and stealing, the system works very fairly : nobody suffers, unless it is some modest, honest greenhorn, who deserves it for not learning, when he is at the South, to do as the Southerners do; but, when two or three are absent, the rest of the rogues make short work with their share of the plunder." In pleasant irony, he added, in comment on the grasping spirit he had seen displayed, "But it takes time to learn to steal as well as to acquire any other useful art, — especially when one's early education has been neglected. Can't you find somebody like Fagin to apprentice Charley to ? You've no idea how much it will be worth to him if we happen to get into war with England or France by and by, when he is old enough to have a finger and thumb in the pie."

It was during the spring and summer in Newberne, that Camp wrote most of those letters to his college classmate, which are referred to, in the earlier pages of this volume, as being so richly blessed to their recipient. There is, perhaps, nothing remaining of his writings, more clearly expressive of his religious views and convictions than the subjoined extracts from those letters : —

"I am glad to hear from you, which is the next best

RELIGIOUS COUNSEL. 89

thing to seeing you," he wrote, in his first of the series, " and still more glad to hear that your interest in religious subjects still continues. You know I never could say what I wanted to say. I am afraid I shall find it even more difiicult to write what I want to write. I am rejoiced that you find yourself making progress, — that you have conquered the theoretical difficulties which formerly troubled you; and yet, I can not but fear, from what you say, that you have paused before still more seri- ous obstacles. As far as intellectual conviction of the tnith and excellence of Christianity goes, a man can carry himself, — though I think I can see the hand of God leading you, unconsciously, perhaps, to yourself, even there ; but, beyond that, comes a barrier which can not be passed without one's earnest call for, and acceptance of, help from above, voluntarily sought, and freely given.

"I think I know exactly what you mean when you say you have not interest enough in the matter to pray. I used to feel the same. I do still, far oftener than I ought, or wish to ; but there are other times when I wonder at myself, when I seem to realize, in some faint degree, the real and infinite importance of these things, and when it seems to me strange that I can take any interest, com- paratively, in other matters. I wish I knew how to present the motives to a Christian life as they appear to me then. Passing by, for the present, those of reward and punish- ment, considered merely as such, let us look for a moment

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at another, — one which has often struck me with great force, and must, I think, have weight with a mind consti- tuted like your own.

" We are just at the commencement of a hfe with which this one compares only as time compares with eternity; whose interests are to those of the present as the infinite to the finite. Admitting the truth of the Christian religion, its hearty and thorough acceptance is the only preparation we can now make for this future ; and the entrance upon a real Christian life is the entrance upon the first stage of progress toward all that is worthy to be made an end to a reasoning and immortal being, —all, in short, that is worthy of a man. It is at this point that we must, at some time, start, if we are ever to take up earnestly the pursuit of the highest good, if we are ever to enter upon the life of truest manliness. Until we have reached this, we are living to no real purpose ; we have not commenced the work which is to be the work of our existence. Is it worth while to live for any thing less ? Are not our energies, in effect, wasted, unless we devote them, not only to that which is noble and excellent, but to that which is noblest and most excellent ? And is not every day lost until we begin to act up to this belief?

" Surely there is no ideal which one can set before him- self higher than that of a life whose mainspring is duty, — with all that seems hard and cold in that word softened and warmed by a love that turns trial and difficulty into

RELIGIOUS COUNSEL. 91

joy : the same feeling which makes pleasant a service rendered to a dear earthly friend intensified, as is fitting, toward him who has done and suffered more for us than we can ever comprehend, until we see him face to face and know hira even as we are known. Is there not some- thins; in this to rouse an earnest man to viwrous effort ? something worth striving for with the whole soul ? Then, why wait for feeling ? It will not come at the bidding of the will. Why not enter at once upon the course which understanding and conscience approve ? Why not obey them in this, as you would in any thing else ?

" Just here comes a difficulty . He who resolves to do this just as he may have resolved to carry out former pur- poses, — by the force of his own determination, relying upon that and that alone, — inevitably fails. He may live a moral life, a philanthropic life, one which gains for him the highest respect and esteem of his fellow-men ; but when he comes to compare it with the strict requirements of God's law, he finds the standard too high, hopelessly beyond his reach, though he spends life in the efforts to attain it. The longer he tries in this way, the lower he falls. There is nothine; left but an utter abandonment of trust in one's own exertions, and a simjole leaning on Christ for his support, his aid in living a life of obedience to his will, and his pardon for all its thousand imperfections. He stands ready ; only ' knock, and it shall be opened unto you.'

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" I thiuk you strike the key-note of your difficulties, when you say, ' I have hitherto rehed solely upon myself.' That is what keeps you at a stand-still, the effort ' to solve the problem ' for yourself. It is hard to give it up, — hard to bend one's pride to the acknowledgment of weak- ness and dependence. The way is narrow; but unless we become as little children in our humility, there is no entrance for us into the kingdom of heaven. So far from being really a degradation, it is the highest test of true nobility of soul, that it should be willing to take the place which God created it for, — the highest privilege to come into harmony with his great system, to enjoy his direct and conscious personal influence, to feel the joy of his approval.

*'I am afraid I have preached you more of a sermon than you will care to read ; but I have spoken plainly and earnestly, because it is to a dear friend. How I should rejoice to know that you had at length found what you have sought and your friends have sought for you ! It is now some years that I have remembered you in my prayers ; with such encouragement, I certainly shall not now forget you : but do pray for yourself. Don't fall into the mistake of thinking that you must wait for a cer- tain degree o^ feeling. If you feel that you need God's help, and are willing to ask for it, that is enough. He is more willing to give than you to receive, if you will only be persuaded to prove for yourself the truth of all these things."

RELIGIOUS COUNSEL. 93

Again Camp wrote: "It is encouraging to know that you feel a growth in your moral nature, come in what shape it will ; but I can not judge from what you say whether you have reached, or are still on this side of, the point which must be passed before any radical and permanent change for the better can fairly commence. One may stroll for ever on the ground outside the narrow gate, — receding or advancing, — even till his hand is upon the latch ; but, until he enters, his journey along the true path is yet to begin.

"I want to believe that your decision has been made, not merely to experiment a while, but, relying upon God's help, to make your life henceforth no longer your own, but his. Then, however feeble your faith, it will increase ; however slowly you move, it will be in the right direction. Love, as you say, will grow with time and the experience of God's goodness ; culture will produce its effects. I do hope that it is so with you ; and that the doubts and misgivings of which you speak will vanish with the steady increase of light in your soul. But don't think, though you should remain stationary, or even go backward, that you have proved whether there is ' any thing in it.' Be sure that the difficulty is in yourself, and that it is as impossible that God should refuse to hear and help one who comes to him in sincerity and humility, as that he should cease to exist. The universe shall sink into annihilation before his word shall fail."

94 THE KJVIGHTLY SOLDIER.

When, at length, came a letter giving full assurance of faith, on the part of the one in whom he had been so deeply interested. Camp replied : —

" So you have finally entered upon a Christian life. You do not know, my dear fellow, how glad I am to hear it, both on your own account, and my own, if I have been, in any degree, of assistance to you. You will know, I hope, some time, when one for whom you have so sincere a friendship takes the same step which you have taken, — one which I am sure you will rejoice in, more and more, the longer you live."

It is noteworthy evidence of his rarest humility and modesty, that Camp, in writing to his home of the coming to Christ of this friend whom he had been leadins; with such fidelity and prayerfulness, mentions several who might have had an influence for good over his classmate, without saying a word of his own agency in the matter ; but the record is on high, and all the world shall know it, *' when the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books are opened."

Exposure, on guard and picket, to the malarial atmos- phere of the North Carolina nights brought Camp down with chills and fever during the summer months; and again an attack of jaundice confined liim in the hospital. His sole anxiety seems then to have been lest he should miss some active service with his regiment, or disturb his friends at home by fears as to his condition. "I went

I2i THE HOSPITAL. 95

clown to the hospital," he wrote, " partly to consult Dr. Douglass, and partly to see if they had any cherries left, — no more idea of staying there than of cutting up any other foolish caper; but once there, and they had me. Dr. Douglass said stay, and stay it was. So I am luxu- riating again on a mattress, between cotton sheets. I tell you about my playing sick, because I suppose I must, to fulfil literally my part of our compact ; but you mustn't suppose there is any thing to speak of the matter with me, because there isn't."

His stay in hospital was, however, for several weeks, and the confinement was ii-ksome to him. "It is quiet enough, up at camp," he said ; " but you know that, there, there are drills, though you may not go out to them ; and there are forty little things to discuss, — whether the colonel was exactly right in the order he gave, and whose fault this or that blunder was, and how this or that little matter of company business is to be settled. Here it is, ' How do you feel this morning ? ' ' Anybody die last night ? ' ' Doctor been around yet ? ' And after he has, and prescribed the dose for the day, that is about all, until nio;ht, when bedtime comes."

Speaking of reported orders for a move of the regiment, he added, " Wouldn't I be provoked to have to stay here, and have them leave me? It would be worse than Roanoke." To his bitter sorrow, the orders came; and the surgeon positively forbade his accompanying the expe-

96 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

clition, telling him be could not go five miles before he would have to be brought back. In his disappointment, he said, " Here I have been impatient to get away, and do something, fretting at long idleness, ready for a start any day until now; and now the time comes, the move is made, and I am fast. If I was really sick, down with a fever, laid up with a broken leg, or any thing of that sort, there would be some satisfaction in it : I should know I was helpless, and make up my mind to it. But to be tied down by this miserable little bilious difficulty, — to be upset by such a thing as this, — I feel like some gTcat lubber who has been thrashed by a youngster half his size, and sneaks off into a corner to hide himself. It s more of a disappointment to me than you will probably imagine."

But the orders for his regiment were countermanded. General Burnside left for the Army of the Potomac, taking with him Generals Bake and Beno, and their commands, constituting the newly-formed Ninth Army Corps; while General Foster remained in command of the district of North Carolina, retaining his old brigade, with some addi- tions to it. In the re-organization of the troops, the Tenth was brigaded with the 24th Massachusetts, the 9th New Jersey, and the 5th Bhode Island regiments, under gallant Colonel (afterwards General) Stevenson, of the 24th Massachusetts.

In one of Camp's letters from the hospital is a para- graph worthy of special note in this jMemoir, prepared by

FRIENDSHIPS. 97

one subsequently intimate with bim, but not bis army comrade until some months later. " I have been readins: Captain Vickars's Life this afternoon, for the first time. He was the right man in the right place, — just such a one as one or two whom I know could be, and only one or two. Memoirs like his, and others of his stamp, don't affect me as they ought to. Such men are too far out of common sight : I am wretchedly uncomfortable when I read of them, — that is all. I wish I could get hold of a life of some fellow like myself, if there ever was one, — which I honestly don't believe, — and see how he turned out. But no, — catch any such memoir as that being given to the public !

'' One of the chief, perhaps the chief, privations of being away from home, is the having no intimate friend, — no one with whom to talk freely; being shut up within one's self. There are few who would allow themselves to be so, but you know I have no social qualities about me. I am very particular : there are only one or two in a hundred whom I would have for friends anyhow, and those one or two I haven't the faculty of gaining ; and the result is that I am as solitary as the sphynx. How I should enjoy the right fellow for a chum ! " Why this connection of thought ? Did he know instinctively, that, if he had an intimate friend who should outlive him, that friend would give his memoir to the public ?

In July, 1862, Camp was advanced to a first lieutenancy, 7

98 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

and put in command of Company D, which he gready improved by his firm and judicious discipline, during tlie few weeks he had charge of it, August 5, he was pro- moted to the adjutancy of the regiment ; a position more congenial to his tastes and acquirements than that of sub- altern in the line. His first experience with a consolidated report will be appreciated by any one who has had the responsibility of such a mass of perplexing figures : —

" I finished a copy of the consolidated monthly return, — the principal one, — Tuesday afternoon, and carried it down to headquarters, immensely rejoiced to have it done with. About an hour afterward, up came an orderly to my tent, ' Adjutant Camp's report is respGctfully returned for correction.' I was thunderstruck, to speak moderately. Hadn't I added those figures lengthwise and crosswise, vertically, horizontally, diagonally, spherically, and miscel- laneously ? — got 'em at length so that it would have done old Daboll o-ood to look over the columns ? I thouoht so : but, come to examine the work again, there were two mis- takes for Avhich the serjeant-raajor, at whose dictation I had copied, was responsible, and one of my own. It didn't take fifteen minutes to straighten them out ; but I was vexed to think that my first performance should have been a lioo-o-je. However, it did me o;ood to find out that the adjutants of the 25th and 27th, both old hands at the business, had blundered in theirs too ; so I wasn't alone, I don't intend to be caught again, though."

CHAPLAIN TRUjIBULL. 90

A week after Camp was appointed atljutant, Chaplain Hall — his friend and college classmate — resigned, and left the regiment. It was thus that Camp wrote home of Hall's successor : —

"I wonder if you know, by this time, whom we are probably going to have as chaplain. If you don't, you'll be very glad to hear it, though you'd never guess in the world, — Henry Clay Trumbull. I can't think of any man I ever knew, whom I should be so well pleased to have accept it. . . . I am selfish about it, too : the chap- lain and I, both being members of the staff, will see a great deal of each other, and be thrown much together."

Chaplain Trumbull, whose coming was so pleasantly anticipated by Adjutant Camp, reached the regiment early in October. The two comrades, ordinary friends before, were speedily drawn into closest intimacy. Away from home, they craved personal sympathy. Their tastes were similar. Their characters were sufficiently unlike to be in harmony. The training of each was such that he possessed what the other deemed his lack. One had a finely cultured, richly stored mind ; the other a fund of personal experience. The opinions of the one were all formed from the study of underlying principles ; the judgments of the other were based upon practical observations. Their regimental duties kept them near each other. Their home friends being side by side, they were linked in every interest.

It was after a sacred communion service in the Presby-

100 THE KNIGHTLY SOLBIEB.

terian Churcli at Newbcrne, at wbicli Adjutant Camp was the only officer present with the chaplain from their regi- ment, that, in a midnight talk, they opened their hearts to each other, and entered upon that life of peculiar oneness which was so marked to all who, thenceforward, saw them together. Like Jonathan and David, when they "had made an end of speaking," at that time, "the soul of the one was knit with the soul of the other." They "made a covenant, because each loved the other as his own soul."

During the month of October, 1862, General Foster was largely reinforced by nine-months' regiments from Massachusetts. Of these, the 44th was added to Colonel Stevenson's brigade, and soon became a favorite with the old troops of the command. It was composed of choice material, including many students from Harvard. Pleasant acquaintances were made among the officers and men of the newly associated battalions.

October 30th, Stevenson's brigade left Newberne on transports for Little Washington, the 10th accompany- ing General Foster, on his own boat, the "Pilot Boy." At the same time, a column moved overland to Wash- ington, whence an expedition set out for Tarborough on Sunday morning, November 2, the 10th leading, for the day, the intlmtry advance. Before night had foirly shut in, the enemy was found posted in the woods, just beyond a troublesome ford at Little Creek, a short distance

IN ACTION. 101

below Williamston, opeuing fire on tlie approaching skirmishers of the 10th. The latter, reinforced by a portion of the 44th, charged across the stream, and drove out the rebels, capturing several prisoners of the 26th North Carolina Regiment, of which Governor Yance was the first colonel.

This was the first engagement in which Camp had acted as adjutant, and thus been brought into prominence before all the regiment. His courao-eous bearino; won warm praise from the men, as, by the side of brave Colonel Pettibone, he pressed forward in the charge over the crock, through the shower of bullets and the sweep of grape from the foe of unknown strength in the thiclcet beyond. "I never knew what Adjutant Camp was until that night," said a sergeant, long afterward. " I saw his face was pale, as if he understood the danger" (the soldier knows the difference between the bloodless cheek of deter- mination antl the pallor of cowardice); "and he looked just as if he tvas i^eachj to go anywhere, as he ran along on that log foot-bridge, and cheered on the men, while they splashed through the water, with the bullets all about them. I always liked him after that."

The enemy was pursued rapidly to Rawl's Mills, where, at midnight, General Foster brought up heavy batteries of artillery to a commanding hill-crest, and rained shot and shell upon the retreating column. After an exhausting

102 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

day of twenty-two hours of activity, the troops bivouackea that night in the clear moonlight, on the soft clay of the captured line of works. The next morning, Williamston was entered without opposition, the enemy having evacu- ated it durina; the nis^ht, and most of the citizens havins: fled, terror-stricken, from their homes. As the head of the incoming column reached a principal street-corner of the well-nigh deserted town, a party of Jack-tars from the Union gunboats which had just ascended the Koanoke Kiver gave an unexpected greeting to the army, by singing the stirring song, "We'll rally round the flag, boys!" and roused the enthusiasm of the soldiers to the highest pitch. During the halt of several hours in the village, there was, in spite of every effort to prevent it, much of reckless pillaging and wanton destruction of private property by the troops. Every thing eatable was, of course, seized at once ; and at each street-corner, and in each back- yard, pork, poultry, and beef were being cooked in the most primitive style, at fires kindled from the convenient fence-palings, or articles of household furniture. The few families who remained seemed doubtful if even their lives were to be spared by the bloodthirsty and relentless Yankees; and it was with difficulty that some, whose homes were, from the first, specially guarded against intrusion, could be induced to refrain from loud shrieks for mercy, or made to believe that no harm was intended

MARcnmo. 103

them, or injury to be done tlieii' property. The empty cradle from which a sick child had been hurried away at the risk of its life, and the cot from which a consumptive patient had been borne out beyond the limits of the town, in the cold night air, at his own earnest request, as pointed out by those who knew the story of both, touched tlio hearts of the Union officers, and showed to all how thor- oughly misunderstood in the Southern community was the purpose of the Federal army.

Passing on from Williamston, the column rested for the nio'ht in an extensive cornfield of hundreds of broad acres, presenting a scene of peculiar picturesqueuess, — a fire- lit bivouac of thousands of armed men, with no seeming limit to the stretch of blazing piles and clustered groups and flashing weapons and moving forms, all overhung by the illumined smoke-clouds, with the glimmering stars beyond.

The next day, the column pressed on to Rainbow Fort, a strong; work on a hio;h bluff above Hoanoke Eiver, and flanked the position, so that it was evacuated in hot haste. Thence to Hamilton, and across the country to Tar River, to the suburbs of Tarborough. Returning to Hamilton, and again to Wilhamston, it moved down to Janesville, and on to Plymouth, where it took transports to Newbcrne ; reach- ing its old base after an absence of two weeks, having marched more than one hundred miles, and moved more than four hundred by water.

104 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

In illustration of the trutb, familiar to every soldier, that inaction causes far more complaint and discontent than the severest service in campaigning, Camp wrote, in one of his letters from Little Washington, on this expe- dition, —

"We are all enjoying the return to active service. Officers and men alike are more cheerful than for a long time past. More enthusiasm has lain concealed beneath a crust of grumbling complaints and talk of resignation than I had any idea of We need work, — that's all, — to keep us good-natured. Ice freezes thick over most men's patriotism when it is dammed up, so that it seems to have utterly vanished. Only open the sluiceways once in a while, and the current, deep as ever, sweeps it away in a twinkling, and again runs free and strong."

The expedition to Tarborough was novel in its nature, partaking, in many features, of the general character of Sherman's grand march through Georgia. There was the same cutting loose from the base of supplies, the depend- ing on the surrounding country for subsistence, the moving through a tract hitherto unreached by the devastations of war, the entering one town after another and quartering, on its inhabitants, the visiting and emptying of richly stored plantations and elegantly furnished private dwellings, the seizure of horses and cattle for Government use, and the gathering of slaves to give them freedom in a new home. And there was the same inevitable lawlessness

FORAGING. 105

among the men having part in such a work. Passing a farm-house, they would dart from the ranks to seize a fowl or to gather a cap full of eggs, to bring back a pail of sugar or of the demoralizing apple-brandy, or to bear off a well-filled hive, with "two bees to one honey," as they facetiously expressed it; and in a twinkling they would ransack the dwelling from garret to cellar, making as great havoc with those things utterly useless to themselves as with that which their appetites or personal comfort de- manded.

Camp entered heartily into all the legitimate excitements and enjoyments of the expedition. No one was more ready than he to have a run for live pork or poultry for the field and staff mess, or for company cooks, while all were dependent on what could thus be secured ; and no one took more delight than he in all that was picturesque or delightful in the surrounding country.

But he never forgot the dictates of honor or humanity. He aided in soothing alarmed households ; he spoke kind words to the sorrowing; and, on one occasion, when he saw officers making sport of neatly-tied locks of hair and other mementoes of the loved ones of a scattered family, preserved in a quarto dictionary, he watched his oppor- tunity, and, securing the volume with its precious contents, hid it in a remote cupboard of the house, where probably it would not again be seen until the proper inmates returned to then- home.

106 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

The experiences of the expedition were widely varied, — in weatlier, foee of country, and duties of tlie hour. There were fair, bright days, and days and nights of cheer- less storm, cold drenching rain, and even frost and a fall of snow. There were the low sand plains of the Southern coast, and, inland, hills almost like New England, and dense woods, and fertile l&elds, and even clear purling brooks, as well as chocolate-colored rivers ; then there were North-Carolina swamps. Who, that has ever passed through one of these, will fail to recognize the truthfulness of Camp's description of it? —

" Perhaps mother knows what a Southern swamp is. I am sure the rest of you don't. You'll find a better description of it in ' Dred,' than I can give you ; but you can't realize the dismal abominations of it until you see them. For all that, it is pleasant enough to ride through them on a bright, cool morning There is something grand in the dark impenetrability, and the huge pines that lift themselves out of it and seem as if they could look down into all manner of inaccessible recesses and secret hiding places, open only toward the sky. There is a great deal that is beautiful, even in the midst of the swamp. Trees have a luxuriance of growth, and density of cool, fleshy, solid foliage, that you don't see at home. Even the same varieties have a larger leaf and thicker twigs, so that at first one hardly recognizes them. There are thousands of unfamiliar vegetable shapes, — vines, and

A LANDSCAPE. 107

shrubs, and bushes, with odd and beautiful leaves and flowers. I think, if I were a botanist (or still more, if I were an entomologist, though I haven't enlarged upon that subject), I shouldn't ask for any thing more than a square rod of Southern swamp, to give me occupation for a year."

One sunny morning, the road traveled by the column wound down a hill, through the woods, across a wide brook spanned by a rustic bridge. An old mill showed itself among the trees at the left. A gum-canoe floated near the bridge. The morning light struggled down through the branches of pine and cypress and moss-hung oaks. The bracing air of the morning was very exhilarating to the refreshed soldiers. The unusual beauty of the spot and the influences of the hour impressed every beholder ; and, as the head of the first brigade reached the bridge, a Massachusetts reojiment started the "John Brown" chorus. The next regiment at once caught up the strain, and it passed rapidly along the column, until the rich melody rolled up from thousands of glad voices, far up and down the winding road, thrilling the nerves and stirring the soul of every participant and listener. Beyond the woods the country opened into immense plains, showing the yellow corn, the rank sorghum, and the snow-flecked cotton-fields ; while the plantation-house was in view, with its broad piazzas, its rear rows of negro shanties, its cotton- press and gin-house. At this point there was a halt ; and

108 TUE KNIGHTLY SOLDIEn.

the joyous singing was cLauged to no less universal and hearty cheering, as Major-General Foster, — the admired and beloved commander, — with his staff, rode through the open ranks to the extreme front.

Camp enjoyed such an hour as that, as he did, also, the hour of social worship, when, around the blazing fire, officers and men of the regiment gathered at evening in the open field to sing and to pray, and to listen to God's word. One evening, at a bivouac near Plymouth, when the chaplain missed the adjutant for an hour, he ascertained that the latter, in crossing the field, had found a prayer- meeting of another regiment, and had stopped to enjoy its privileges and be refreshed by its influence. And at many a point, the quiet woods could tell how earnestly he pleaded with God in the morning and evening houi' of private devotion.

On the return of the troops from the Tarborough Scout, Colonel Pettibone resigned command of the 10th, and left for the North, Adjutant Camp accompanying him on a brief leave of absence. The delights of that first visit home, after a year of separation, could not be better described than in the few telling lines which he wrote concerning it to his friend in camp : —

" Once on the train which was to carry me straight home, steam seemed very slow. There was a constantly growing thrill of excitement, pleasant, yet with a dash of anxious pain. If then I were to meet or find any thing

THE GOLDSBOROUGH RAID. 109

amiss ! I was driven from the depot as near the house as I ventured to allow a carriage, lest its sound should betray my coming ; walked softly, with feet that hardly felt the gi-ound, past the cheerfully shining windows, to the rear entrance ; noiselessly stepped along to the library door, and threw it open. There they were ! What was said or done I hardly know. Oh, the joy of that evening, and of every moment since ! I wonder if you have ever been long enough away from those you loved to know it thoroughly."

It was while Camp was at home at this time that General Foster made his celel)rated Goldsborough Raid from Newberne, in conjunction with Burnside's advance on Fredericksburg, fighting the battles of South-west Creek, Kinston, Whitehall, and Goldsborough. On this expe- dition, the 10th Regiment performed hard service, and won dearly bought distinction, losing in twenty minutes more than one hundred men, with some of its best and bravest officers, in the fight at Kinston.

Again Camp was deeply grieved at his loss of a share in the work of his regiment. Nothing had seemed more unlikely than such an expedition, at the time he went North; and his surprise was as great as his disappointment, on returnino; to Newberne, to find that his regiment had been some ten days away. He was at once in the saddle and on his way to overtake his command ; but the column was already returning, and he met it but a few miles from the city.

110 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

" So I am about a week too late," he wrote. " I would give more than that of life to have been in that bayonet charge. IMy absence from it, like that from the battle of Roanoke, — much more, even, — will be a life-long disap- pointment and regret. When the war is over, what shall /have done? It is hard. . . . I have nothing to reproacA myself with, only I feel like a man who has unfortunately lost a magnificent opportunity."

So keenly did he feel this disappointment, that when, shortly after, unusual promotion was tendered him, he positively refused it, preferring that it should advantage some one who had shared the perils of the recent expe- dition.

Burnside's Fredericksburg defeat depressed many m the army, as out of it ; but Henry Camp never despaired of the cause which had his heart ; nor did he admit the possibihty of any course but one for Government or people.

"Has the North pluck enough to try it once more?" he wrote after his return to Newberne. " Now is the time to try men. I am astonished at the way some of them talk. A man can not help it if things look dark to him, — they do to me ; but he can help slackening effort, or talking in a way to slacken others. • If every man would set his teeth, and walk straight up to meet the ruin which he sees coming, it would vanish before he came within

TRUE PATRIOTISM.

Ill

striking distance ; and, let worst come to worst, the nation could at least die with ail its wounds in front. Better so than to sneak into its grave a few years later with scars on its back."

CHAPTER VI.

THE FIRST CHARLESTON EXPEDITION.

NEW expedition was talked of. Troops were comino; from Suffolk to Newberne, and a naval fleet was gathering at Beaufort. Wilmington was aimed at. The division to which the 10th belonged was to remain behind. Adjutant Camp was so anxious to atone for what he deemed his recent loss of service, that he proposed to accompany the expedition on the staff of a commander of another division. But, at the last hour, the 10th was ordered to move also, and Camp gladly remained with his regiment.

The 10th left Newberne by railroad for Morehead City, Monday, Jan. 26, 18G3, and went on board a trans- port in Beaufort Harbor the same day. The expedition planned for Wilmington was, on account of the loss of the orio-inal "Monitor" and from other causes, turned to the department of the South. Its destination was known only to the commanding general, until the sailing orders were opened, after leaving the harbor, Saturday the 31st. The trip to Port Royal was quickly and pleasantly made.

112

ST. HELENA ISLAND. 113

The satisfaction on finding that Charleston was the point aimed at was general among the troops of the expedition ; and Camp expressed his unfeigned delight at the prospect of immediate , participation in a movement against the nursery of treason.

The unfortunate collision between Generals Hunter and Foster, resulting in the return of the latter to North Carolina without his troops, was a cause of sad disappoint- ment to those who were thus parted from the commander whom they loved and trusted without measure or doubt. The officers and men of the 10th were peculiarly tried ; for they had been ordered oflf only at the last moment, with the assurance that they were to be away from camp not more than ten days, or at the outside a fortnight. They had left behind all camp and garrison equipage, regimental and company papers, personal baggage beyond what was necessary for a short tour of field-service, and even those officers and men who were not strong enough for a march and an immediate fight. The order to land on St. Helena Island, opposite Hilton Head, and go into camp while thus circumstanced, was exceedingly unsatis- factory; and it was by no means easy for them to have a home feelinof, even as soldiers, while lackino; so much that they had hitherto deemed essential to enjoyable camp life. But they adapted themselves as best they could to their situation ; and with the shelter-tents, of which they then first had experience, supplemented by the broad leaves

114 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

of the palmetto, soon bad an attractive army settlement, with its embowered chapel, its hedged streets, and its neatly finished and ornamented quarters for officers and men.

The long delay in waiting, with anxious and often deferred hope for active operations in the department, was not lost time to the troops of the expedition. They improved the passing days in perfecting their drill and discipline. Indeed, the lOtb Kegiment never appeared better in drill, or on parade and review, than at St. Helena. It won the highest commendations from commanders who visited or reviewed it. Adjutant Camp did much, even in the subordinate position he then held, to maintain its character and advance its highest interests. Many who were there remember how he was called on by Lieutenant- Colonel Le2;ire(:t one afternoon to conduct the battalion- drill, and how he performed his task. He had never before taken the battalion in hand. He had not for weeks even attended drill, — his services not being essential there, and neither field nor staff having horses with them, — nor had he five minutes' notice that he was to be pressed into the service. He said aside to his friend that he should have liked ten minutes to refresli his mind as to a few move- ments ; but he made no excuse to his commander. Stepping out to the parade-ground, he relieved his seniors, the captains, and then for an hour and a half handled the regiment so easily and correctly, that the lieutenant-

SABBATH-SCHOOL EXPERIENCE. 115

colonel — enthusiastic and accomplished soldier as he was — said to him, in the presence of others that evening, that it was the finest battalion-drill that had been held on the island.

IMoreover, Camp was rarely absent from a religious service in the regiment ; and, although always loth at home to have his voice heard in public, he was now ready to share with the chaplain in the exercises of the camp prayer-meeting or sabbath school, and even to assume the conduct of either, in case of the illness of his friend, or when the latter was unavoidably kept away. His sabbath- school experiences, as he then described them, will not be deemed by all peculiar to himself alone : —

" I don't know how to interest a class. I have improved somewhat in the ability to talk against time, though it horrifies me sometimes to take out my watch and find that I've got to make two verses last twenty minutes. But when it comes to drawing out others, getting them to interest themselves and to talk themselves on the subject in question, I'm stumped."

Again he wrote, when called to act as both superinten- dent and teacher, —

"Sabbath school was in the morning instead of the afternoon. I had to take charo;e ao-ain. Teachers as well as scholars are irregular. To-day, after the opening exer- cises. Captain Atherton and I divided the school between us. I became thoroughly interested in the lesson before

116 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIEB.

we were throiigli, as I often do, and enjoyed it, but sha'n't dread it a particle less for next time,"

Those whom he taught would have a different story to tell of his ability to interest a class. Few of them imagined that he so dreaded the duty he performed so well.

Of the South-Carolina coast-scenery he wrote, after a visit to a neio;hboriuo; island to St. Helena, —

" I stood a few hundred yards from the beach, and looked seaward through a grove of palmetto-trees, with their tufted tops and strangely figured trunks. The sun beat down hot on the yellow sands ; there was a warm haze over the blue water, dimming the nearer shore, and hiding the dis- tant horizon ; and the scene was so thoroughly oriental, that I could as easily fancy myself on the shores of Pales- tine as realize that I was on those of Port Royal, and shouldn't have been at all surprised to see a camelopard stalk up, and commence browsing on the palm-shoots."

The intimacy of the adjutant and the chaplain grew closer day by day. After leaving Newberne they were seldom separated from each other for many minutes at a time. They had the same tent and blankets, and shared all their army possessions. They came to be known widely as "the twins," from being always seen together. Their free interchange of sentiment modified the views of each on many points concerning which his opinions had before been positive. Camp's calm, reliable judgment many times held in check the chaplain's nervous impulsiveness ; his

CA RD - PL A YING. 117

stores of information proved the other often in error as to facts bearing on a question at issue ; his uniform fairness liberaHzed some sentiments of his friend as to men and measures ; and his remarkable purity of mind and consis- tency of adherence to his conscientious views of right could not fail to be elevating and ennobling to one closely asso- ciated with him. On the other hand, Camp had been so accustomed to examine every question in its purely logical bearings, as sometimes to overlook its practical relations to every-day life in the world as it is. The chaplain's expe- rience among men furnished his friend with new elements of thought in some discussions, and those elements he always accepted at their fullest weight.

His change of sentiment as to the propriety of card- playing and wine-drinking should not be passed over without mention in the record of Camp's army-life. As neither of these practices was viewed by him as in the abstract sinful, he could not join in sweepingly condemning them. Although personally abstemious, he recognized no positive duty of abstinence, hence would not have hesitated to drink a glass of wine had he wished it, and as readily before others as by himself; for what he considered right in his practice he was willing to have as an example to those about him. Of card-playing, in the light in which he saw it, he said at one time that he should no more shrink from the thought of being killed while thus engaged than wliile reading the daily paper.

118 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

The abstinence question he discussed with his friend while they were making a passage on an army-transport. The two stood or sat together on the deck during nearly all of one night in the final argument. Camp's clear head made the discussion most searching and thorough ; and no reason that could be adduced in defense of alcohol as a beverage, or the propriety of its use by any, was over- looked. It was after mature deliberation upon the discus- sion of that night, that Camp expressed his conviction that total abstinence was a duty, in view of the evils of intem- perance, the weakness of tempted human nature, and the responsibility of every man for his personal example. Thenceforward, until the day of his death, only on one occasion, did a drop of alcoholic liquor pass his lips ; and that was during his week of escape from prison, after such a soaking in the cold river, on a wintry night, as required an iauuediate stimulant to arouse sufficient nervous action to sustain life. He more than once refused its use, even when advised as a medicine by the very friend whose words had led him to renounce it.

Of the other mooted theme, he wrote from St. Helena, —

"Last evening we discussed card-playing. You know how I have thought and talked on that subject for the last five or six years. Three-quarters of an hour brought me to his side of the question, — no point of abstract right or of absolute duty, but of practical expediency. That is

SEABED OK ISLAND. 119

what I have all my life neglected sufficiently to consider. I have failed both in theory and action to give it due weight. A thing of such universal application too ; there is no point which it doesn't touch. I am beginning to realize this as I never have before, and my views are being modified to an extent, that, if carried out in practice, will affect my life both for the present and the future."

Never afterward, even in all the lonely prison-hours at Charleston, Columbia, and Eichmond, where at times he was the only officer thus strict in his views, did he indulge in a single game of cards. Thus true was he ever to his convictions of duty, whether they coincided with popular opinion or were peculiarly his own.

General Stevenson's brigade left St. Helena IMarch 27, and the following day proceeded on transports to North Edisto Inlet, as the advance of Hunter and Dupont's expedition against Charleston ; having in view the occupa- tion of Seabrook Island to protect its harbor as a rendez- vous for the iron-clads and army-transports. That island was then in the enemy's possession, patroled by his cavalry. General Stevenson's command having reached the inlet soon after noon of the 28th, the 10th landed first, while the navy vigorously shelled the woods of the island. With the knowledge that resistance, if made at all, would most likely be offered while the troops were landing, the debarkation was exciting. Five huge launches, containing about one hundred men each, pushed off from the steamer

120 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

"■ Cabawba," which brought the 10th from Hilton Head, and were slowly pulled to the shore ; the men meantime singing cheerily the "John Brown" chorus. Soon as the first prow struck the beach, there was a scramble for the land, officers and men vying with each other in endeavors to be first on the island. Many plunged to their waists into water and mud in their haste to be foremost. Then, as Camp wrote, —

*' We formed line with all speed, ready to repel attack ; and when all had landed, and piled their knapsacks so as to march with ease and rapidity, started along a road which skirted the beach and led toward the upper end of the island, — Captains Goodyear and Atherton deploying skir- mishers in advance of the regiment. General Stevenson, Colonel Otis, Lieutenant-Colonel Leggett, Trumbull, and myself walked at the head of the column, within a few yards of Captain Goodyear's men. It was somewhat exciting to advance thus through an enemy's country, doubtful whether it was occupied by them at the time, and uncertain at what moment we might meet sudden opposition. T. and I enjoyed it exceedingly together."

Two miles up the island the regiment halted for the night, on the Seabrook Plantation, darkness having already shut in. The 24th Massachusetts and the 5Gth New- York State Volunteers were in close support of the 10th. Soon after the halt, the rebel cavalry made a dash upon the picket-reserves ; and, in the skirmish which

IN CAMP. 121

followed, a sergeant of the lOth was carried off a prisoner, mortally wounded. " He is the first man," wrote Camp, ' ' ever taken forcibly prisoner from the regiment. It would have been better to lose a dozen in action."

The following morning the 10th was relieved from picket, and returned in a drenching rain-storm to the lower end of the island to find itself quarters in a comfortless swamp.

*'It isn't particularly cheerful, after a stormy march," wrote Camp, "to halt in the midst of dripping trees and bushes, look about one, and consider that his home for the next few days is to be right there ; that he'll have just as much comfort as he can get out of those surroundings, and no more. Walk out to Talcott Mountain (though that is altogether too pleasant a place) next time there's a good heavy storm fairly in progress, and see how it seems."

The 10th was soon, in spite of this unpromising loca- tion, in a comfortable camp, from which it thenceforward alternated with the other regiments of the command in three-day tours of outpost duty, anticipating hopefully an order to advance to a more active part in the opening campaign. As the enemy held the upper part of Seabrook Island, and the opposing pickets were in sight of each other (the enemy often firing upon the ' ' intruding Yankees," or coming down in the night to feel their strength, and in the hope of capturing a few prisoners), outpost service was there sufiiciently exciting to render it attractive.

122 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

General Stevenson wishing to know more of the topog- raphy of the island, of its approaches from the main land, and of the location of the enemy's reserves, small scouting parties went out beyond his lines from time to time to obtain the desired information. Such undertakings were peculiarly in keeping with the tastes and impulses of Adjutant Camp. Rarely, if ever, did he fail to make one of the party so advancing ; and in more instances than one he and his friend were alone on such a scout. Describing some of these adventures in his home-letters, he said of his enjoyment in them, —

' ' The necessity of constant watchfulness, of having an eye for every sight and an ear for every sound ; the con- sciousness of what you are staking upon every movement you make, and the uncertainty, once advanced to a dan- gerous position, whether even the utmost prudence and courage may not fail to extricate you, bring into play every faculty a man possesses, and put a tension upon every nerve. The enjoyment is intense ; and I think any man who is thoroughly ennuye, and has worn out the round of civihzed amusements, would find there was one thrill of untried excitement and pleasure left for him if he would go with us on a little excursion outside the lines. Nothing but an actual brush with the enemy, which we are provoked to have missed after having once or twice offered them so fair an opportunity, has been wanting to make all complete.

ATTACK ON CHARLESTON. 123

Trumbull and I have been together each time, and enjoyed

*

each other's presence exceedingly."

When finally the navy was ready for a move, the troops on Seabrook Island found no part assigned them in a fur- ther advance. This was to Camp a sore disappointment. It was with longing eyes that he watched from a high sand-bluff, on the morning of Easter Sabbath, April 4th, the great fleet of iron-clads and wooden gunboats sail out of Edisto Inlet, and up toward Stono, to commence the attack. Two days later, wi'iting from his little "A" tent, at the picket reserve, he said, —

"As I write this, the thunder of heavy guns to the northward is almost incessant. The attack on Charleston has commenced. I counted ten reports in a minute a lit- tle while ago, and the fire seems to be growing hotter and hotter. We chafe and fret at our distance from the fio-ht : but there's nothing for us but a masterly inactivity. It is terribly provoking to sit here and listen, guarding a few miserable old schooners from an attack which would never be made in any event, — and to think that this is oui' share in the gi-eat Charleston expedition ! "

A few hours' cannonading ended the great enterprise, which had been so many weeks preparing. Camp listened in vain for a resumption of the attack after the first inter- mission in the firing ; and, as he listened, he wrote thus of his outpost-home with its attractions and annoyances : —

124 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

"I have hardly seen a prettier spot than this island since leaving home, Beaufort, perhaps, excepted. Our field and staff tents are by themselves in a quiet, shady spot, a little retired from the main road up the island. The high sand-bluff upon the beach, used as a lookout, is directly opposite us, — a quarter of a mile distant through the woods ; and we are lulled to sleep at night by the roar of the surf at its base. To-night, perhaps, it will be a sterner thunder than that of ocean storms; a fiercer crash than that of waves along the shore.

" But the gnats, and the ants, and the spiders, and the lizards, and the scorpions, and the moccasins, and the alli- gators, and the rebels (most harmless to us of any), are the slight drawbacks upon our enjoyment."

Of another drawback upon enjoyment on the Southern coast, he humorously added, in another letter, —

" When you hear of mosquitoes, you think of a small brown insect, don't you ? with legs and wings almost in- visible, and a hum audible some inches from the ear. I wish you could see the animal that goes by the same name here. When / speak of a mosquito, I mean something that stands a little less than fourteen hands high (can't give the weight, because we have no platform-scales) ; whose wings are like Apollyon's in the ' Pilgrim's Prog- ress ; ' whose muscular legs are horribly striped with black and white ; whose sting is like the dragon's which St. George slew, and whose voice is as the sound of many

SEABROOK ISLAND. 125

waters. I tliink of writing an article for the * New-Eng- lancler,' settling the question what beast Job described under the name of Behemoth, by demonstrating that it was a Carolina mosquito or a woodtick, — either of them would furnish a more plausible theory than some I have read."

The stay of the 10th at Seabrook Island was pro- longed ; and, in spite of the chafing desu-e to be in more active service, Camp enjoyed his life there. The island was a good specimen of the cotton-growing ones of the South-Carolma coast. There were rich plantation-plains, malaria-breeding marshes, "wild swamps, dense thickets of the tangled Southern undergrowth, lonely palmetto-jungles, and groves of low branching live-oaks, deeply fringed with long gray moss." Alligators moved lazily through the sluggish waters of the gloomy lagoon, and poisonous rep- tiles glided through the rank grass before the tread of the passing soldier. Game was plenty, — deer and raccoons and opossums in the forests, and wild fowl in the creeks and inlets, while the waters adjacent furnished a rich va- riety of fish, from the mammoth stui'geon to the small and palatable mullet.

Here is one of many incidents of army-life on the island : —

" Coming back just after dark from the picket-reserve to camp, we heard distant singing, which proved, as we came near, to be a group of the 97th Pennsylvania

126 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

singiug hymns. We stopped to listen ; and finally T. determined to say a few words to them, and did it as he knows how to do such a thing, interesting every man of them, from beo-innino; to end, and concludinof with prayer. I liked the men's appearance, — the way in which every cap came off when T. entered the group, and the respectful attention they paid. Their manners were real Western, — free and easy, without the slight- est intentional disrespect. The moment the meeting was over, they crowded ai-ound, asked T. if I was a Christian man ; and every one of them wanted to shake hands with us, and have a good sociable talk. Cor- dial, open-hearted fellows, — it was very pleasant, if not quite military. The last thing our men would think of would be offering to shake hands with an officer. The 97th have no chaplain ; but there is a strong religious element in the regiment, and quite a number they say have been converted since joining the army.

" Returning to picket at dusk that evening, the air was one blaze of fire-flies. I never saw any pyrotechny to equal it. There are many beautiful things at the South ; but nothing under heaven would ever tempt me to spend my life here. I should die for pure air and clear streams, and rocks and hills. I wouldn't exchange our home-lot for the whole State of South Carolina."

About the first of May, while the work of intrenching

SABBATH SCHOOL. 127

was going on at Seabrook Island, Chaplain Trumbull left for a brief visit to Newberne and the North, on business for the regiment. The parting of the two friends, intimate as they had become, and in view of the possibilities of war, was trying to both.

Writing to his friend, during that separation, of his loneliness, Camp expressively declared it to be "as if the air were deprived of one-half of its oxygen ; " and then added, —

" I used to think, a year ago, that a single wall-tent furnished very narrow accommodations for an officer, — mine was not large enough. But ours seems very lonely and empty this evening : there is a great vacancy here, and it remains unfilled, no matter how many come in. I could not fully realize, before we were separated, how thoroughly our lives had become blended, how sadly I should miss you every hour of the day, how anxiously I should await the time of your return. . . .

" There is a constant sense of want while you are absent, — not at all times making itself distinctly intelligible, but ever recurring and still unsatisfi,ed. Wherever I turn, there is a great vacuum before me. I want it filled. What do you suppose would do it? "

In the chaplain's absence, the adjutant assumed the con- duct of the regimental prayer-meetings and Sabbath school. He re-organized the latter, secured additional teachers, as- sembled them with their associates for an examination of

128 THE EXIGHTLY SOLDIER.

the lesson at his own tent on Saturday evenings, and can- vassed the regiment for scholars. In all respects, the school was better managed than while the chaplain was with it ; and the prayer-meetings of the regiment were nev- er warmer or seemingly more truly profitable than then. As in every thing else to which he set his hand and heart, he filled the place better than it could be filled by another.

Gen. Terry assumed command, in May, of the troops in North Edisto Inlet, including those on Seabrook and Bot- any Bay islands. Two members of his staff, Capt. Ives and Lieut. Johnson, were college comrades — the latter a fellow-oarsman in the Worcester regatta — of Henry Camp, who enjoyed having near him those with whom he had been before so pleasantly associated. Occasional excur- sions were made by officers and men of the 10th to neighboring islands patrolled by the enemy, to make ob- servations, and to obtain furniture and building-materials for their camp from deserted plantation-houses. Of an excursion to Edisto Island, with two companies as escort of the party of officers. Camp wrote, in description of the approach to the Seabrook place : —

" Beyond the bridge we moved with great caution ; the skirmishers widely deployed, and keenly observant of the house and shrubbery, from which, as we were now within rifle-range, we half expected to be fired upon. Standing still for a moment, Dr. Newton saw a crow perched upon the cupola of the house. ' All right ! ' he exclaimed :

SECURITY IN DANGER. 129

'there wouldn't be a crow there if there were fire-arms nearby.' That crow was worth to us, in the way of evi- dence, as much as a whole battalion of skirmishers. It was a very short time before we were in possession of the estab- lishment. . . .

*' It is strange what a tendency there is, after once taking possession of a place and becoming convinced that no ene- my is actually on the premises, to settle down into a feel- ing of security. No matter how nervously it may have been approached, perhaps all the more for the very reasons that the first apprehensions proved groundless, no matter how clear a knowledge of the danger still existing men may have^ — they will yet act as if there were none ; and it is often impossible, without a distinct eflfort of the reason, to realize it. Eveiy thing looks so peaceful and quiet, — and, then, there is the guard (seldom in fact adequate to cover half the approaches) , who would probably give the alarm in time enough, unless they were surprised. So, arras are stacked, and we wander over the estate as carelessly as if it was on the shores of Long-Island Sound, instead of Ed- isto Inlet. Still there is an almost unconscious watchful- ness of the senses, the ear is wide awake for the sound of a rifle-shot, no matter what the head may be thinking of ; the eye, when not otherwise employed, is very apt to sweep the circuit of surrounding woods, or glance down the road ; and the crash of a breaking window, the fall of a heavy

timber, or the sight of an animal moving among the distant 9

130 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

bushes, an'ests the blackberry half way between the vine and one's mouth, or saves the flower for which his hand was stretched out, and puts him in readiness, on the slight- est confirmation of his suspicion, to make quick time to the rendezvous. . . .

" The grounds about the place were very pleasant, only needing care. There were paths winding through dense shrubbery and passing by ornamental bridges over a little stream ; there were arbors and walks shaded by foliage too close and thick to give passage to a single ray of sunlight; there were enormous rose-trees lifting far above my head such masses of gold and crimson as I had never seen, — cloth-of-gold roses, do you know them ? — each as large as half a dozen of any ordinary variety, crowded with petals of golden velvet, so rich and thick, and of a color so soft, that you can compare them with nothing but bits of sunset cloud : a single one is a magnificent bouquet. There was a grove of orange-trees, some of them in blossom ; the pure white buds bursting out of glossy deep-green leaves, and filling all the air around with perfume almost too rich and overpowering. There were strange century-plants like mighty cactuses, and unfamiliar tropical-looking growths to which I could give no name. The luxuriance and full- ness of vegetation is wonderful : every plant seems to feel itself at home, and abandons itself to utter dissipation and wantonness of unrestrained development. A Southern April has more of glowing bloom, fierce intensity of color

A RECONNOISSANCE. 131

and brilliancy, in contrast with more of somber shade, den- sity of massive growth, and depth of green gloom beneath, than Northern midsummer. I have spoken of this before ; but it was peculiarly noticeable in this garden where culti- vation had done its utmost, and then left Nature to work its own will. . . .

** We marched back along the sea-beach, almost every man with some article of comfort or convenience for his tent, scarcely one without a huge bunch of these gorgeous flowers in the muzzle of his rifle or in his hand ; so that, marching at will, we looked more like a procession of Ital- ian peasants returning from a festival than a battalion of Connecticut Yankees coming back from a hazardous recon- noissance."

About the first of June, the chaplain returned to the regiment, and the friends were again as one. Not many days after their re-union, they accompanied Gren. Stevenson, with several companies of the 10th, beyond the picket-lines on a reconnoissance to the extreme upper end of the island to examine its approaches from John's Island. The rebel pickets fell back on the approach of the general's party, and retired over a broken causeway to a collection of build- ings, including an old sugar-house on the John's-Isl- and side of the little creek which bounded Seabrook Island in that direction. There were indications that they had a strong reserve in the rear of those buildings ; but, it not be- ing the general's purpose to go beyond the island, he or-

132 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

dercd a return by another patli tban that which had just been passed over. Up to this time, he had met with no resistance.

" E,etiring, the skirmishers, deployed in open h'ne, marched in the rear. Within a dozen paces were the general, with two or three of his friends, — Colonel Otis, Lieutenant-Colonel Leggett, Dr. Newion, T., and myself. Captain White, who commanded the skirmishers, was close by. We had gone some little distance, supposing that the affair was over, and half grumbling that it had amounted to no more, when we were startled by a report behind us, followed instantly by the sharp hiss of a bullet close past our heads. The skirmishers — to say nothing of any others — were a trifle surprised. Every man of them ducked his head ; and we found ourselves suddenly just about in line with them. Then another report and another bullet ; this time a few feet over us, and a little one side. Shot followed shot in quick succession ; now two or three almost together, then an interval of quiet.

"We walked slowly along, not altering our pace, — sometimes stooping at the sound of the explosion, and sometimes not. I was surprised to find that there was abundant time for this before the arrival of the bullet, — a distinct interval, — showing that its velocity and that of sound differ more than I had supposed. It must have been long range ; but the marksmanship was excellent. Bullets struck among us, passed over us, by us, between us,

UNDER FIRE. 133

everywhere but tbrougb ns. We were undoubtedly made special targets. The group walking together was an excellent mark, and the distance was short enough ; so that, with a glass at least, badges of rank must have been easily distinguishable. Dr. Newton had on a white Panama hat, — just the thing at which to aim. Colonel Leggett was just in front of T. and myself, a little one side. He looked around once, saw the smoke curl from the muzzle of a piece, and instinctively stepped to the left. In a second more the bullet whistled between us and him, passing directly where he had stood, and striking the ground within a few inches of his foot.

*' The difference in sound between different bullets was marked. Some had the fierce whizz of the spinning rifle- ball, some the sharp hiss of the smooth-bore missile, and some a fainter and less vicious ' whssh,' as if they were almost spent, and had lost half their venom. Some were more distant ; some seemed close to our ears : but there was hardly one ill aimed, and it was really strange — provi- dential, I should say — that none of us were hit. . . . The most tantalizing thing all this time was that the enemy kept closely under cover. We didn't catch sight of a man after fire was opened. Our men were told not to return it unless they could see their mark ; and the result was that not a shot was fired from our side. They did not keep it up long, — probably kept near the bridge, — and we were soon out of range."

134 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER,

The enemy seemed provoked at the escape of the ven- turesome party, and, soon after the latter had reached its former lines, came down with cavalry, artillery, and infantry, and opened with a section of a light battery from the front yard of the Seabrook House, on the woods which shielded the Union pickets. General Stevenson ordered up two guns to reply ; and a brisk artillery duel followed, with a few casualties on both sides. "We enjoyed intensely the exciting sport," wrote Camp to his home, in description of this afternoon's experiences : then, in defense of the sentiment thus expressed, he said in a subsequent letter, —

" No motive that is not positively wrong can, I think, be spared. There is lack, rather than excess, with most. Whatever may be the underlying principle of action which is really at the basis of all else, I am inclined to believe that that which is usually uppermost in the mind, as imme- diately affecting the conduct in time of danger and trial, is the excitement of the struggle, positively; negatively, the shame of misconduct or failure. As long as men are mere men, I don't see how it can be otherwise. If the higher inducements to duty were the only ones, I should fear for results. What will be the effect upon character, we can judge better, perhaps, when the war is over. It does not seem to me that they will be otherwise than beneficial; belief which is, of course, the necessary sequence of a belief

JUDGE ADVOCATE. 135

in the motives themselves as being — in ultimate subordi- nation to nobler ones — justifiable and right."

The fleet-captain of the iron-elads in the waters of Edisto was Commander George W. Rodgers of the " Cattskill," a Christian oflScer of rare worth and attainments, whom the two friends found congenial in tastes and sympathy. They visited him in his vessel, and he was frequently in their tent. It was Captain Kodgers's custom to conduct a religious service among his men each sabbath, and he was glad to have the chaplain preach for him occasionally; while he always came to the shore for the camp service on the sabbath, when he could do so. He greatly admired Adjutant Camp, saying to his friend that he deemed him the most attractive volunteer officer he had ever met.

The adjutant was detailed as judge-advocate of a general court-martial on Seabrook Island ; and although, with his accustomed distrust of himself and his relentless self- censure, he wrote, "I was careless and clumsy, made omissions and blunders, and did myself very little credit," he won warm praise from the officers composing the court ; and one of the most prominent of them remarked after- ward, that every member of it became attached to him, although but one or two had known him before.

The power of his personal presence was remarkable. Few ever saw him without being impressed with a sense

136

THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

of bis superiority. The impulse to lift a bat to bini, as a tribute to bis clio-nified manliness, was often manifested even by tbose above Mm in official rank. Said one wbo was always bis superior officer, " I was never very intimate witb Camp, for I always bad too mucb respect for bim." Tbe better be was known, tbe more be was esteemed and beloved.

CHAPTER YII.

JAMES ISLAND AND EORT WAGNER.

N the evening of jMonday, July 6, 1863, a pleasant party sat at dinner in the field and staff mess-tent of the 10th C. y. on Seabrook Island. An old- fashioned New-England chowder had been prepared, and General Stevenson and Commander Rodgers invited to share it. Besides their guests, there were present Colonel Otis, Lieutenant-Colonel Leggett, Major Greeley, Surgeon Newton, and Assistant-Surgeon Hart, together with the adjutant and the chaplain. While the dinner was in progress, and all were enjoying themselves, with hardly a thought of severe service as a possibility for the season, word came that a steamer was crossing the bar at the mouth of the inlet ; and at once the party was broken up, never to be re-united on earth. Within a fortnight from that evening, Adjutant Camp and his friend were prisoners in a Charleston jail. The brave Lieutenant-Colonel Leo-o-ett lost a leg in the trenches of Morris Island, and good Commander Eodgers yielded his life in the bombard- Later, gallant General Stevenson was

ment of Wagner

137

138 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

killed at Spottsylvania Court House, and Major Camp fell before E.ichmond ; while Colonel Otis and Surgeon Newton left the service, after prolonged and arduous cam- paigning. At the time of the writing of this memorial, only Major (now Colonel) Greeley, Surgeon Hart, and Chaplain Trumbull, remain in service of the nine who then arose from the table.

" Orders had come to go aboard the 'Ben de Ford' (a large ocean steamer) as soon as she arrived, which would be during the night. ' Light marching order, forty rounds of ammunition in the cartridge-boxes, ten days' rations, shelter-tents for the men.' I carried the order round to company commanders. It is curious to see how men will take a bit of news that has somewhat of the startling in it. I like to take one, and watch ; see with what an utterly matter-of-course air they listen ; ask a question that may be of life or death as unconcernedly as they would ask whether you liked your beefsteak rare or well done ; and see behind it all the intense interest and curiosity with which the smallest item of information in reference to the aflfair is caught at and treasured up. I was amused last night at a lieutenant, who heard what I had to say to him as quietly as if it hardly paid him for taking his eyes off his news- paper. I left the tent, but had occasion to repass it im- mediately. There he was, performing the wildest kind of a Pawnee war-dance ; just about half crazy with delight and excitement at the prospect of work ahead. News

AT JAMES ISLAND. 139

went before me as I passed down the line ; and, in ten minutes, preparations were under full headway."

Greneral Stevenson's troops, with the exception of enough for guard duty, left Seabrook Island on the early morning of July 7. Only the effective men of the command went along, and the oJBficers took merely such personal baggage as could be carried in a haversack or light valise. The understanding was that they were to return in a few days ; but, as in the leaving of Newberne, the event proved that they were not to go back. Sailing to Port-Royal Harbor, they waited the perfection of ar- rangements for General Gillmore's attack on Morris Island. The 56th New- York regiment, under Colonel Van Wyck, was with the 10th on the ' ' Ben de Ford. ' ' On the evening of the 9th, there was a delightfully impressive prayer-meeting on the after-deck of the steamer, attended largely by the officers and men of both regiments, which will not soon be forgotten by any who participated in it. Soldiers love to pray before they fight. Those who trust in Jesus draw closer to him then, and the roughest are reverent at such a time. The voices of prayer were subdued, yet earnest; and the songs of praise were mellow with deep feeling.

The morning of July 10 found the troops of General Terry — under whom General Stevenson was commanding his brigade — landing at the lower end of James Island, in conjunction with General Strong's advance from Folly

140 THE KNIGHTLY SOLDIER.

to IMorris Island. The former's move was unopposed, and he chose his first position a short distance up the island. From the roof of the River House, a full view was obtained of Charleston and its harbor ; and the friends watched with deepest interest the filing from Sumter and Moultrie and the Morris-Island batteries, and from the ii'on-clad fleet in the offing, and speculated on the progress and prospects of the battle as reports came over from the forces of General Gillmore in that direction.

On Saturday evening, just before sundown, a demon- stration was made toward the works at Sccessionville.

" The 24th Massachusetts, 97th Pennsylvania, and our- selves, advanced ; formed line of battle in a large open field, while the gunboats shelled the ground in front ; and at dusk we threw out pickets a few hundred yards, and bivouacked for the night. All our men, except one com- pany, were posted on picket, and covered a very long front. Henry went in one direction, and I in another, along the line, to carry orders. (Henry I always call him here; and I'm going to quit insulting him as 'T.' in my letters to you ; and here is a commencement.) Darkness coming on rapidly, I lost my way in endeavor- ing to gain the reserve. The field had been plowed in deep furrows; was overgrown with rank weeds, breast- high ; was broken up by thorny, impenetrable hedges, and miry, impassable ditches ; and was in all respects about as undesirable a place for an evening ramble as could be got

A NIGHT TRAMP. 141

up to order. Every other sfep among the irregular fur- rows pitched one unexpectedly forward, jarring every bone in his body, or brought him up standing against au ascending slope. Every few rods brought him to a chasm, invisible in the darkness, until his foot was on its edge. Every few hundred yards plunged him into briers and bushes, where he would do well if he could retrace his steps to the entrance with any considerable remnant of clothes or skin. Then there was the more than even chance of being shot by our own