Book Description

Excerpt from Four Years of Camp, March and Battle Detailed by proper authority to recount to this Post of the Grand Army of the Republic my own army experience, I am here in obedience to the order, and will give you, as briefly as I may, a sketch of those events, "all of which I saw, and part of which I was." The dullest and most irksome period of a soldier's life is the time spent in the first camp of the regiment. Camps of rendezvous are regarded as necessary evils, to be just tolerated until the first "marching orders" come. The departure is a day of rejoicing. The incessant "Left," "Left," gives place to the hurry of preparation. Shouts of joy are heard, and mirth and jollity reign in every row of barracks. The 48th Ind. Vols. was no exception to the rule. There was an excellent drill-ground in Camp Ellis, where the regiment was organized, and very faithfully were its advantages improved. Week in, week out, from four to six hours a day, Sundays-excepted, it was one unvarying succession of squad, company, and battalion drill - a service which the soldier seldom fully appreciates until the battle-field shows him its utility. The men took hold of the work with considerable alacrity, but after awhile they began to clamor for a sight of the enemy. Our colors came from Indianapolis. They were greeted with hearty cheers, as in those days the flag always was, for we had learned to love it then as we never did before. The guns of Sumter gave the Stars and Stripes a meaning and a beauty which it had not before entered into our hearts to conceive. Thus these new colors under which we were to right, and many were to die, that were to lead the regiment in the stern trials of the battle, oh! how beautiful they were! Then the war fever grew apace. Only to drill was too tame. Sterner work was needed; and we were the boys to do it. At last, the welcome orders came, and when our gallant colonel inquired, "Forty-eighth, are you ready?" the Hoosier shout that went up in answer was not mere bravado, but indicated stern determination. It was a noble regiment that marched out of Camp Ellis on the 7th day of February, 1862. Fathers, and sons, and husbands were there, all animated, filled, and sublimed with the one great purpose to snatch the nation from the grasp of traitors. For this they were ready to risk life itself. For this many of them did give up their lives, dying that the nation might live. We reached Cairo on tin evening of the 8th of February, and that night received rations of "hard tack" for the first time. Few of us had ever seen that article; but then, as through all the war, we found it very good to remove hunger, and sometimes teeth. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.