A Stillness at Appomattox (161 page)

When
the
Irish
Brigade
found
itself
stationed
opposite
Ma-hone's
Confederate
division,
which
contained
many
Irish soldiers,
it
had
a
fine
time
and
its
historian
reported:
"The soldiers
on
both
sides
mingled
freely,
exchanged
newspapers, coffee,
tobacco
and
sometimes
whisky."
He
added
that
this did
not
mean
that
the
Rebels
were
losing
any
of
their
com
bativeness,
for
"when
it
came
to
actual
fighting,
they
fought like
bull-dogs."
¹¹

The
comment
was
characteristic.
The
queer,
upside-down comradeship
which
six
months
of
battle-front
intimacy
had
begun
to
create
between
the
armies
did
not
mean
that
anybody had
ceased
to
fight
hard.
Being
sensible
men,
the
soldiers tacitly
agreed
to
defang
the
day-to-day
picket-line
firing, which
would
not
affect
the
outcome
of
the
war
very
much
if it
went
on
for
a
century,
but
battles
were
going
to
be
as
grim and
deadly
as
ever.
A
Michigan
soldier
in
the
II
Corps
remembered
how
his
brigade
got
flanked
and
cut
to
pieces
during
a
brisk
little
fight
beyond
the
extreme
left,
late
in
October,
and
he
commented
drily:
"Of
course
it
would
not
be gallant
to
say
that
anybody
run,
but
if
there
was
any
tall walking
done
during
the
war,
we
did
it
crossing
that
field."
¹²

In
December,
Warren's
corps
and
some
cavalry
were
sent on
a
long
raid
aimed
at
Southern
railroad
lines
and
supply bases
near
the
Meherrin
River.
The
Weldon
Railroad,
which came
up
to
Petersburg
from
the
south,
had
long
since
been cut,
but
the
Confederates
were
bringing
up
supplies
on
it
to a
point
some
twenty
miles
from
Petersburg
and
then
hauling them
the
rest
of
the
way
by
wagon,
and
Grant
wanted
this traffic
broken
up.

It
began
like
an
enjoyable
diversion.
Once
out
of
the trenches,
the
soldiers
were
in
country
which,
at
least
by
contrast
with
what
they
had
been
looking
at,
seemed
untouched by
war.
It
was
nice
to
be
in
such
country,
even
though
a sleety
December
drizzle
had
set
in,
and
one
man
felt
that "the
lowing
of
the
cow
and
the
tinkling
of
sheep
bells
suggested
that
quieter
days
than
those
that
came
to
us
still dawned
upon
the
world."
As
a
more
tangible
boon,
there
was good
foraging,
and
the
men
ate
many
chickens
and
turkeys.
¹³
The
Atlanta
bishop
had
understood
the
matter:
the
Union soldier
saw
no
wrong
in
taking
chickens
and
turkeys
owned by
men
who
were
in
rebellion.

The
big
idea
of
this
raid
was
to
destroy
so
much
of
the railroad
that
it
would
no
longer
be
practical
for
Lee's
commissariat
to
run
a
wagon
line
to
the
end
of
the
track,
and once
the
infantry
got
into
position
the
work
of
destruction
began,
soldiers
working
for
miles
up
and
down
the
right
of
way. The
work
went
on
far
into
the
night,
and
a
rookie
in
the 198th
Pennsylvania
saw
it
as
strange
and
exciting:
"As
far as
the
eye
could
reach
were
seen
innumerable
glowing
fires, and
thousands
of
busy
blue
coats
tearing
up
the
rails
and piling
up
the
ties.
It
was
a
wild,
animated
scene,
and
the
fatigue
of
the
long
day's
march
was
forgotten."
¹⁴

It
was
not
all
pure
fun.
Rebel
cavalry
hung
around
the fringes
of
the
force,
and
irregular
troops
came
into
action
as well,
giving
the
V
Corps
a
taste
of
guerilla
warfare.
Stragglers
were
waylaid
and
killed,
and
as
the
troops
finished
their work
and
began
to
move
back
to
Petersburg
they
found stripped,
mutilated
bodies
of
their
comrades
lying
in
field and
road.
Just
how
many
cases
of
this
kind
there
actually were
is
not
clear,
nor
can
it
be
told
now
how
many
Union soldiers,
if
any,
looked
upon
mutilated
corpses
and
how
many merely
heard
about
them;
but
the
news
went
through
the army
fast,
and
it
raised
murderous
fury,
and
the
command became
a
destroying
host
as
it
moved
back
northward.
A man
in
the
9th
Massachusetts
battery
saw
many
buildings
on fire,
and
heard
that
every
building
in
sight
from
the
line of
march
was
destroyed.
"One
thing
is
certain
'
he
said. "The
burning
was
approved
by
the
commanders,
and
there was
cause
for
it;
probably
murders
were
the
cause
of
it.
We believed
it
at
the
time."
¹⁵