Palo'mine (Hawkes)/Chapter 9
THREE days of leisurely riding brought Halsey and Palo'mine to the training camp in Ohio which had been their destination. Here they were at once enrolled with a thousand other raw recruits who were being moulded into cavalry men.
Almost the first thing that Halsey learned on coming into camp was the fact that he was no longer to be a free agent. No longer was his own personality to be dominant, but henceforth he would be a unit, a cog in a mighty machine. He was just one of a long line of waiting men, where no favors were granted, and none asked; where there was to be no favorites, and no partiality.
The fact that this aggregate of men, each different in his looks and manner of speech and ways of thinking, were all to be one was brought home to Halsey the first morning after he arrived in camp.
He was standing with some recruits watching some perfected troops who were marching away that morning to the front. One minute they had been a conglomerate mass; just horses and men stretching away as far as the eye could reach. Then came a clear bugle call and the meaningless mass changed in a twinkling into the serried formation of the cavalry. Each man stood by the side of his horse with his hand resting on the bridle rein. Then came another clear call from the bugle and as one man the regiment rose to the saddle. There they sat like marble men each at attention, looking straight ahead, between his horse's ears.
The horses stood almost as motionless as the men. Occasionally a horse's ear could be seen to flick when a fly lit upon it, that was all.
For at least a minute they sat thus; a long line of equestrian statues, with no indication of the mighty force they represented. Then came another imperative call from the bugler and the regiment started. Troop A first, and then each successive troop swinging into line and following on just as though the whole had been not a disjointed mass of separate aggregations, but just one machine, as indeed it was.
It was splendid. It was superb, and the watching recruits swung their caps and shouted.
When Halsey had ridden away from Eaton Manor on that summer morning he had never imagined that he would have to be told how to put a blanket on a horse, or how to bridle and saddle a horse. He had thought that the life of a cavalryman would be like the pictures he had seen,—men in bright uniforms riding prancing horses to the sound of martial music. But of the endless detail of training he had not even dreamed.
Of course he knew a great deal about horses, much more in fact than the corporal who each morning ordered him about. But many of the men did not know, so the training had to be for all. It was right that the training should begin with the rudiments of horsemanship. It irked Halsey to have a sergeant watch him while he groomed Palo'mine, but the sergeant soon saw that he was onto his job and let him do as he would.
In pictures which Halsey had seen of cavalry men they had been dashing upon the enemy with flashing sabres and there had been no indication of what went to make a trooper. But he very soon found out. He had never imagined that on a long march he would have to walk twenty-five percent, of the way to rest his horse. He had not thought that each rod of the way a certain course of action would be prescribed, canter ten minutes, trot ten minutes and then rest ten minutes.
In such a matter as marching he had imagined the troopers would be left to themselves. But not so. Everything was prescribed. All these things had been worked out scientifically and the best way discovered. So the rule and the method were always enforced.
Then there were the endless drills, such grilling work as Halsey had never experienced. From the moment in the morning just at sunrise when the bugle blew the staccato notes of reveille, till evening when the sad sweet strains of taps sent the tired men to their tents, it was work, work, work.
There was a jolly little refrain which the men said reveille call stood for and it always seemed to Halsey that the bugler was sounding these words, "Trata, tarata! I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up in the mo-or-ning!"
In the evening after supper the men would lie around the pleasant campfires, singing old songs, telling stories and jokes, or playing cards and other games.
Sometimes Halsey joined these merry parties, but often he would steal away to the stable as it was called, to be alone with Palo'mine. He always told him of the day's fortunes and the fine horse kept Halsey from being too lonesome so far from his beloved Blue Grass country.
Halsey and the other would-be troopers were not only taught the complicated cavalry drill, but also the manual of arms and likewise put through the setting-up exercises each day, so there was no end of work.
But it was chiefly as cavalry men that they were drilled. They were taught to attack infantry, artillery and also other cavalry. For convenience in illustrating these different maneuvers, they were drilled in connection with the other two branches of the army, other camps nearby furnishing the infantry troops and the batteries of artillery. They were taught to attack at a walk, a trot, and a gallop. To attack infantry when each man was kneeling, with the butt of his musket on the ground and the point of his bayonet sticking up to receive the trooper's horse. They were taught to ride down the gunners at their guns in the artillery, and to cut them down with their sabres. The attacks and sham battles which they fought with other cavalry were most exciting.
It was anything but fun to be aroused in the middle of the night to make an attack upon infantry which had stolen away at dusk and was now concealed in a distant woods. But all this hard training was in preparation for the real fighting which they would have to do later, so the men went willingly on with it.
For three months they went through the most intensive training, and became tanned and muscle-hardened soldiers inured to almost anything. But they were soon to learn this had been but child's play compared to the real war game.
When Halsey and Palo'mine had first come to camp they had taken part in some of the running races which the soldiers had staged during the evenings after supper. In these races Palo'mine easily distinguished himself and his young master, for he could easily distance any horse in the cavalry. But Halsey soon discovered that it was not well to attract too much attention with Palo'mine, as every officer in camp became covetous of the wonderful Kentucky thoroughbred and Halsey continually trembled in his shoes for fear that they would take Palo'mine away from him for some high officer's use, and give him an inferior horse. So he finally contented himself by teaching Palo'mine many new tricks. Among other things he taught him to kneel down at command, so that a wounded man could crawl upon his back without using his legs. When one of the soldiers questioned him as to why he taught him that accomplishment, Halsey had replied that it might be useful to him some day. One never could tell what would happen and it was well to be ready. This trick of Palo'mine's did afterwards stand Halsey in good stead.
In the evenings while the other men were playing games, talking and singing songs, Halsey often took the time to write home. He and Peggy exchanged three letters each week, so he was kept in touch with Eaton Manor. Uncle Hillery had written for several weeks, but finally his letters ceased and Peggy wrote Halsey that he had joined the Confederate army. So it was to be as Colonel Eaton had said. He was to fight for one side while his nephew fought for the other.
Then Halsey remembered uncle's parting injunction, "whichever side you fight for, be a good soldier. That is the principal thing." Halsey meant to be that and with Palo'mine to help he could hardly fail.
Finally there came that eventful day when Halsey's own regiment marched away to join Grant's army, which was about to begin the first great campaign of the war.
There had been little fighting during the summer of 1861. Outside of the disaster to the Union army at Bull Run the only important battle had been that of Wilson Creek, Missouri, on August 10. In this Missouri battle General Lyons had formed his men in battle line and then cried, "Forward men, I will lead you." Twenty minutes later he was lying dead upon the field. But he had set a noble example to the Federal officers for all time and the battle had broken the Confederate hold upon Missouri, so his great sacrifice had not been made in vain.
Early in the summer of '61, the Confederates had stretched line fortifications from Cumberland Gap in the southeastern corner of Kentucky, to Columbus on the Mississippi River in Tennessee. This chain of forts curved down into Tennessee, with Ports Henry and Donelson in the middle as the key stones. It was against these forts that Grant had marched over land, while he sent the gun boats down the Tennessee river to coöperate with him.
It was early winter and the mud and snow were equally divided. It was hard work hauling artillery over the muddy roads. Many of the streams were at flood tide and all conditions were of the very worst.
When they arrived within striking distance of the line of forts very rigorous winter conditions set in, so that some of the men were frozen in their tents.
Halsey's own regiment had been designated as a raiding column which was to do all the damage it could to the enemy without engaging in any decisive battle. So the regiment early gained the name of the Buckeye Raiders, which it kept all through the war. Sometimes the men went in force, but more often in a squadron, or even in a single troop. Their work was to cross into Tennessee between forts and cut railway connections, to tear up tracks, burn bridges, capture provision trains, and do all the damage to the Confederate cause they could. So they were here today and tomorrow somewhere else. They went like the wind and struck like lightning. They carried little baggage and lived off the country, which meant that they frequently went hungry. Often they slept in the snow with no tent over them, while their horses browsed like deer.
At first Halsey had thought the work very cruel, destructive and inhuman. His first battle which was little more than a skirmish, made a great impression on him. He and Palo'mine were taken prisoners and but for the lucky termination of the affair their usefulness to Uncle Sam might have ended then and there.
The Buckeye Raiders had surprised a large wagon train of provisions for the Confederate army about fifty miles south of the Confederate lines. This train was guarded by two companies of infantry.
The Raiders consisted of a squadron of cavalry. This was three troops. The cavalry men had at once charged the infantry, which had knelt down, each man with the butt of his musket resting on the ground and with both hands on the barrel of the gun, and the bayonet sticking up to receive the horse. When Palo'mine had come within jumping distance of the line of kneeling men, either his fence jumping instinct had suddenly asserted itself, or Halsey had unconsciously given him the signal to jump, for he had cleared the line of kneeling men just as though they had been a seven foot fence. The soldiers were so astonished that they had not had presence of mind enough to thrust at him with their bayonets as he passed. So Halsey had suddenly found himself within the hollow square of Confederates with two clutching at his bridle rein.
It was useless to fight under these conditions, so he had quickly dismounted and given up his sabre and his carbine. He and Palo'mine had then retired fifty or a hundred feet behind the gray line and watched the battle, the rest of his comrades having fallen back.
But they charged again and the bullets from the carbines were soon spitting all about Halsey and Palo'mine.
To Halsey standing behind his horse the skirmish seemed the most terrible thing he had ever witnessed. To see his own comrades reel in their saddles and fall while their horses went galloping madly away, made him sick at heart. Then to see the horses madly plunging upon the bayonets made him faint, not to mention the dead and dying gray soldiers all about him. The third charge was successful and the troopers rode over the infantry and took most of them prisoners, and he and Palo'mine were again free. The wagons were also taken and the whole train was soon making its way towards Grant's army, although they finally had to destroy the supplies and flee themselves to escape a larger force of Confederate cavalry.
Finally on February 16, 1862, came the glorious news that Forts Henry and Donelson had surrendered and this was soon followed by the tidings of the capture of Island Number Ten on April 7. The Confederates then moved their lines southwards with the center at Jackson, the left at New Madrid, and the right at Murfreesboro, so that most of Tennessee was again under the Union troops. Grant followed the Confederate lines southward, and was soon in position to fight the great battle of Shiloh. Halsey and Palo'mine went with them, although they still did raiding and patrol duty. This kept them ever on the move, with long forced marches. It was still their function to strike like lightning and then disappear before they could be punished.
Finally Halsey and Palo'mine were given special scouting in the Tennessee mountains. It was desperate work, with danger on every hand.
Again and again, Palo mine's speed and Halsey's daredevil riding saved their lives and brought them renown as the best scout and the best horse in the Union cavalry, and the pride of the Buckeye Raiders.