“He called up the shade of the sword of that mighty warrior Joshua, which purified a polluted land with libations of blood, and made it fit for the heritage of God’s people; the sword of David, that established the kingdom of Israel; the sword of that resistless conqueror, Alexander, that pierced the heart of the Orient; the Roman short sword, the terrible gladius, that carved out for the Caesars the sovereignty of the world; the sword of Charlemagne, writing its master’s glorious deeds in mingling chapters of fable and history; the sword of Gustavus Adolphus, smiting the battalions of the puissant Wallenstein with defeat and overthrow even when its master lay dead on the field of Lutzen; the sword of Washington, drawn for human freedom and sheathed in peace, honor, and victory; then he bade the sword remember all it had done in shaping the destinies of men and nations; how it had written on the tablets of history in letters red and lurid, the drama of the ages; closing, he called upon it now, in the battle for the Union, to strike hard and strike home for freedom, for justice, in the name of God and the Right; to fail not in the work to which it was called until every shackle in the land was broken, every bondman free, and every foul stain of dishonor cleaned from the flag.”

CHAPTER IX

IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT

Company F at Newberne, N.C.  The Fight at Batchelor’s Creek.  The Goldsboro Expedition.  The Battle of Kingston.  The Gum Swamp Expedition.

Breaking camp, the 46th left the beautiful, placid scenery about Springfield, its silver river, its silent mountains, for Boston, where they embarked for North Carolina, November 5th, 1862.  They sailed out of Boston Harbor in the teeth of a winter gale which increased so in fury that the boat was compelled to put back.  When they finally did leave, the sea was still very rough and they had a slow, stormy passage.

It goes without saying that many of the men were ill.  The boat was crowded, the accommodations insufficient, and numbers of the Mountain Boys had never been on the water before.  To the confusion of handling such a body of men was added inexperience in such work.  The members of Company F would have fared badly had it not been for the forethought of their boy captain.  It seemed as if he had passed beforehand in mental review, the experiences of these weeks and anticipated their needs.  Out of his own funds, he laid in a stock of medicines and delicacies for the sick.  Indeed, those who know, say that he expended all of his pay in sutler’s stores and various things to make his men more comfortable.  Night and day, he was with those who suffered, cheering, sympathizing, nursing.  He was the life of the ship.  His men saw that his kindness and comradeship were not of the superficial order, but genuine, sincere, a part of his very self and they became, if possible, more passionately attached to him than ever.