AN ADDRESS
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
GEORGIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
MARCH 3, 1879.
BY COLONEL CHARLES H. OLMSTEAD.
SAVANNAH, GA.:
PRINTED AND PRESENTED BY J. H. ESTILL, PROPRIETOR MORNING NEWS,
1879.
In preparing the following paper, ithas been my desire only to record whatits title suggests—personal reminiscences.
Leaving to other and abler pens thetask of writing an accurate history ofthe scenes and events to which referenceis now about to be made, I shall confinemyself simply to the task of setting downsuch things as came under my personalobservation, or within the scope of myindividual knowledge.
I do this the more confidently, rememberingthe marked interest that invariablyattaches to the testimony of an eyewitness,and also bearing in mind (formy own comfort) that this interest willalways incline his hearers to leniency injudging literary demerits. It is probable,too, that some of my old comrades willbe pleased at this recurrence to an eventfulperiod in their lives, while a youngergeneration in the ranks may be glad tohave placed before them a record, not ofthe “pomp and circumstance of gloriouswar,” but of its privations, its hardships,its perils, and, it may be added, its lessonsof self-abnegation and of devotion toduty.
Early in the month of July, 1863,while stationed very comfortably at theIsle of Hope, a courier, “spurring in hothaste,” brought orders from Departmentheadquarters that set our camp at oncein a turmoil of eager and excited preparation.The 32d Georgia, Col. George P.Harrison, Jr., the 12th and 18th GeorgiaBattalions, Lieut.-Col. H. D. Capers andMajor W. S. Basinger, and a battalionfrom the First Volunteer Regiment ofGeorgia, were ordered to proceed withthe least possible delay to Savannah, thereto take cars for Charleston.
A private note at the same timebrought the intelligence that that city,so long threatened, and, indeed, once alreadyassailed by sea, was now to undergoa vigorous and combined attack fromboth land and naval forces. The daywas an eventful one to us without thisadditional stimulant. In the morningwe had received the sad news of the fallof Vicksburg and the consequent openingof the Mississippi river to the Federalfleet, from the mountains to the sea,a disaster that secured to the enemy thegrand object of his most strenuous exertions,while it severed the young Confederacyin twain and deprived our armieseast of the river of all the aid andcomfort in the way of material suppliesand gallant recruits, that had been so longand so freely drawn from the west bank.We had just learned, too, of the checkreceived by General Lee at the battle ofGettysburg, and now came the summonsto tell that our turn had come for a littlesqueeze in the folds of the traditional“Anaconda,” that the New York Heraldhad so graphically depicted as encirclingthe South.
The men received the orders with enthusiasm—indeed,when was it otherwisewith the Southern soldier.Thoroughly conversant, as they all were,with the details of the war, they couldnot but be depressed by the news of suchgrave reverses to