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Train Anecdotes
Three stories concerning the use of trains by the 34th Mass. while enroute to and at Harpers Ferry from:
Lincoln, William S., Life with the Thirty-Fourth Mass. Infantry in the War of the Rebellion., Worchester, MA: Press of Noyes. Snow & Company, 1879.
July 9, 1863-11: PM
"It was past eleven P. M. when the long train of cars moved out from the station, in the direction of Baltimore. We left behind Lieut. Elwell, charged with the proper disposition of our own and the Government property, and first Asst. Surgeon Thorndike in charge of the hospital, its sick and supplies. The Relay House was not reached till after sunrise the next morning, and our stay there was long. At length we started: our running was slow. Many of the men had clambered upon the roofs of the box cars, there being no provision made for them to sit down inside. As we neared Ellicott’s Mills, we were all startled by a cry that a man had fallen from the train. It was Fitzgerald, one of F;s best men. His body, horribly mangled, was left in charge of a brother soldier from his own company, who was directed to see to its proper burial; and, saddened by the occurrence, our route was resumed. It was evening when we reached Frederic Junction. Crossing the Monocacy on a frail wooden bridge, in place of the splendid iron one destroyed by the rebels last December, and rolling along through a most lovely valley, the train came to a stand at “Sandy Hook” about 9 P.M. Disembarking, the regiment threaded its way through almost countless trains of cars, and army wagons. Thick, heavy clouds obscured the moon, and, in almost Egyptian darkness, we felt our way. Our route lay along a narrow road between the canal, on our left, and Maryland Heights, which towered to a great height, on our right. In the darkness one man fell into the canal, but was rescued with the loss of his musket only."
July 23rd, 1863
"Two companies, "C" and "E," A.D. Pratt commanding, in answer to orders, garrisoned three "monitor cars" each armed with two howitzers, and loop holed for musketry, for a trip to the front, on the Winchester Railroad. The condition of the road was such as to render an advance impossible, and after proceeding about three miles, the expedition was abandonned."
August 3rd, Sunday (1863)
"Post General Order forbids the moving of Government trains on Sundays. "what's to be done?" asked the Commissary; "we've no bread!" It's "roothog, or die." Trains to be used in spite of the order, or the boys to go hungry! So the trains were ordered to "Sandy Hook" for rations; and Capt. Blakely of the Cavalry, being without forage, took courage from our action, and despatched his wagons for hay."
Three stories concerning the use of trains by the 34th Mass. while enroute to and at Harpers Ferry from:
Lincoln, William S., Life with the Thirty-Fourth Mass. Infantry in the War of the Rebellion., Worchester, MA: Press of Noyes. Snow & Company, 1879.
July 9, 1863-11: PM
"It was past eleven P. M. when the long train of cars moved out from the station, in the direction of Baltimore. We left behind Lieut. Elwell, charged with the proper disposition of our own and the Government property, and first Asst. Surgeon Thorndike in charge of the hospital, its sick and supplies. The Relay House was not reached till after sunrise the next morning, and our stay there was long. At length we started: our running was slow. Many of the men had clambered upon the roofs of the box cars, there being no provision made for them to sit down inside. As we neared Ellicott’s Mills, we were all startled by a cry that a man had fallen from the train. It was Fitzgerald, one of F;s best men. His body, horribly mangled, was left in charge of a brother soldier from his own company, who was directed to see to its proper burial; and, saddened by the occurrence, our route was resumed. It was evening when we reached Frederic Junction. Crossing the Monocacy on a frail wooden bridge, in place of the splendid iron one destroyed by the rebels last December, and rolling along through a most lovely valley, the train came to a stand at “Sandy Hook” about 9 P.M. Disembarking, the regiment threaded its way through almost countless trains of cars, and army wagons. Thick, heavy clouds obscured the moon, and, in almost Egyptian darkness, we felt our way. Our route lay along a narrow road between the canal, on our left, and Maryland Heights, which towered to a great height, on our right. In the darkness one man fell into the canal, but was rescued with the loss of his musket only."
July 23rd, 1863
"Two companies, "C" and "E," A.D. Pratt commanding, in answer to orders, garrisoned three "monitor cars" each armed with two howitzers, and loop holed for musketry, for a trip to the front, on the Winchester Railroad. The condition of the road was such as to render an advance impossible, and after proceeding about three miles, the expedition was abandonned."
August 3rd, Sunday (1863)
"Post General Order forbids the moving of Government trains on Sundays. "what's to be done?" asked the Commissary; "we've no bread!" It's "roothog, or die." Trains to be used in spite of the order, or the boys to go hungry! So the trains were ordered to "Sandy Hook" for rations; and Capt. Blakely of the Cavalry, being without forage, took courage from our action, and despatched his wagons for hay."
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