Saturday Story, Zach Higgenbottom in the Civil War - week 3

 SATURDAY, JUNE 24, 2023 - ZACH HIGGENBOTTOM - EPISODE #3

I’m writing a historical novel this time - of Zach Higgenbottom of Litchfield Connecticut who joined the 12th Connecticut Regiment of the Union Army for the Civil War.  Zach is finding that he objected to the war in that he just couldn’t shoot another human being.

*****

The 12th Connecticut Regiment was by late April 1862, an “experienced” group.  They were one of the first groups to come to Ship Island.  They’ve been in a few battles, they had lost about ten of their original 128 men.  They’ve helped build additional barracks, training facilities and munition storage.  Charles Williams had completed a non-commissioned-officer program (NCO) and was one of the leaders on Ship Island.  Zach Higgenbottom was doing a great job working on the building group and was an assistant construction foreman.  Henry Miller, and Benjamin Smith, the last two of the “Farming Four” were platoon leaders.

*****

Zach got mail pretty much every time a ship arrived.  His mother wrote at least one a week.  His father wrote one or two sentences on the bottom of his mother’s letters. Once a month his second oldest sister, Beth, wrote.  And Esther Gladfellow, his ‘kind of’ girlfriend white maybe twice a month.  

He did get birthday cards for his 18th birthday in March.  His kind of girlfriend, Esther is working as a seamstress in Litchfield - making army uniforms with several other women.  Reading between the lines, Esther told of this girlfriend of hers or that girlfriend and how they are getting engaged and married. While it wasn’t quite “Hurry home and marry me”, it was more like “I don’t want to be an old spinstress like my aunt Tillie”.  

The family seemed just fine without him.  The crops were growing, the farm was doing well.  The community was doing well - blah, blah, blah.  His mother did say that everybody missed him, but Zach got the idea that being out of sight was also out of mind.  

His mother also told of young men from Litchfield who were joining the Union Army.  She wondered if they might be going to Ship Island.

The mail also brought news of the war.  Things weren’t going as easily as the Union Army had expected.  The eastern battles had had some significant losses.  If the southern effort could cut the Confederate nation into two parts - east and west divided on the Mississippi River, it would weaken the rebels.  

*****

With the spying trip of Lieutenant Daniel Wheeler, an assault was planned on New Orleans.  General Frank Henry Peck, amassed as many steamships as he could and moved up the Mississippi River.  

Meanwhile, the “Farming Four” had advanced into the city.  A steamship got them as Belle Chasse, about 8 miles south of the city about 7 pm.  Lieutenant Daniel Wheeler had mapped out a route for the four from his spying mission.  They wore old clothes, dirty and tattered.  It was almost a moonless night and there shouldn’t be many people to see them slip into the city. 

“Just be casual, like a set of four friends strolling around” was Lieutenant Wheeler’s comment.  “There will be cannon fire to the north of you on the river.  That should be enough of a diversion.”

Generally, Zach walked with Charles Williams ahead of Henry Miller and Benjamin Smith by about ten paces.  Sometimes Zach and Charles would be on the left side of the road and the other two on the right, sometimes they both would be on the same side of the road, and sometimes Zach and Charles would be on the right side, and Henry and Benjamin on the left.  They kept their heads down and didn’t talk much.  

Lieutenant Wheeler joked with the four “If you talk too much, they will know you are Yankees by your accents”.

While they didn’t have much in terms of the Ketchum Grenades, each of the four men carried six of the devices.  During the early morning hours of April 25, 1862, the four attacked the munitions depot in New Orleans.  Charles and Zach lobbed two grenades against the eastern doors (away from the river).  Then Henry and Benjamin lobbed two more in about the same spot. The first few grenades blew down a wall, and then the next grenades blew up the munitions in the building.  KAPOW!! The fire was seen all over the city.

Up the Mississippi River, the Union forces were shooting cannons  approaching with cannons on the bows of their ships.  The Mississippi River was higher in late April (from the snow and ice melt of the northern reaches), and the Union forces on the river were actually higher than the city.  One cannon round breached a levee in the Lower Ninth Ward, flooding the area with three feet of water.  

The Confederate Army outnumbered and outflanked, surrendered and other than the blowing up of the munitions depot, there was little actual fighting. The city was in chaos - the Union forces had blown the munitions depot, the rebel army had surrendered, and the Union forces set up headquarters in the French Quarter.  

The “Farming Four” with a couple dozen grenades changed the tide of the Civil War in New Orleans. 

******

Zach Higgenbottom was happy. He had helped and didn’t have to shoot at anybody!!

*****

But, the war was far from over.  In the east, General Robert E. Lee from the Confederate States was besting the Union army.  The Union had more soldiers and although Union losses were higher in terms of deaths, they had more men to use.

*****

In the Union Army of the South, they had taken New Orleans, but they needed to control the entire Mississippi River.  The Union controlled the Mississippi as far south as where the Ohio River joined in.  There were two major towns that needed to be under Union control - Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Memphis, Tennessee.  

*****

The Union Army pressed north after defeating the Confederates at New Orleans.  Then to Baton Rouge. 

Baton Rouge was the capital city of Louisiana.  The city was largely deserted and the Louisiana Confederate Government was meeting in Lafayette - about 50 miles to the west. The Union forces arrived and with five cannonballs burying themselves into buildings along the river the city gave up without a fight.

Meanwhile farther up the Mississippi River, the Union forces took a major city on the river by taking Memphis.  Thus the Mississippi River was mostly controlled by the Union Forces - except for the strategic city of Vicksburg Mississippi.

*****

The Army did leave the river and attacked Jackson Mississippi.

Lieutenant Daniel Wheeler watched as the dead and injured soldiers were taken away from the battle field.  There just weren’t enough medical staff to handle the injured soldiers.  All of a sudden, he thought of that soldier from Litchfield who didn’t want to shoot at another human - yeah - Zach Higgenbottom.  Could Zach be made into a medic - maybe not a doctor but an aide or nurse of some kind.  Daniel remembered that Zach had been on the building crew at Ship Island and had done bricklaying.  Yes, Zach could carry and help with the medics.  

Zach Higgenbottom was ordered to attack Jackson with the 12th Connecticut Regiment.  He had his gun.  He managed to hang out in the rear of the advance and didn’t have to shoot - and didn’t get shot at.  There were about 400 Union deaths and 500 Confederate deaths in this battle.  After the battle, Zach’s patrol was to round up Union dead soldiers for sending them back to their families.  Within five minutes of coming on to the first Union body, Zach vomited, and by the fourth body, he had the dry heaves as he had lost all of the contents of his stomach.  He was relieved from his duties. 

*****

The next day at morning reveille, there were the daily announcements and Zach wasn’t paying much attention until the commander said “Zach Higgenbottom, report to the medical tent at 0800.  

Zach didn’t understand.  He wasn’t sick - why was he called to the medical tent.

*****

Ship Island when the 12th Connecticut Regiment arrived in March 1862 was about 3,000 men.  But within a month, there were about 7,500 men on Ship island and it seemed as if more were arriving daily.  “War Fever” had caused patriotic families to encourage their sons to join the military to fight the evils of slavery and to keep the Union united.  

The Southern Union Army was having successes - capturing the ports of New Orleans and Mobile and advancing up the Mississippi River.  And the Union forces were coming down the Mississippi with success at Memphis.

But even successes in battles resulted in injuries and deaths.  Medics couldn’t do much with deaths.  The protocol was to embalm the bodies (if there was enough to embalm) and ship them home.  Generally, officers were embalmed with some arsenic compounds which served as an antibacterial and shipped home.  For Ship Island, the ships that brought supplies and soldiers generally returned with injured (but amiable) soldiers and pine boxes with bodies.  The Northern Union Army shipped dead soldiers with supply wagons and trains - when possible.  

*****

Lieutenant Daniel Wheeler had asked the medic group if they could use a non-medical soldier to help with the embalming process.  Major Elijah Morris, a physician from Boston, agreed to try a non-medical soldier to help.  As Major Morris said “The soldier is already dead, what is the worst that a non-trained medic could do?”.

So, Zach Higgenbottom became a member of the embalming core.  After his viewing of the gore on the battlefield, Zach thought maybe he would vomit again as he helped embalm, but in the embalming tent, it wasn’t gory.  The deceased soldier couldn’t talk back or cry out in the anguish of death.

George Tinder was the head embalmer for the Southern Army forces advancing up the Mississippi River  He took Zach in as a student embalmer and Zach carried on.  

Depending on the body and what shape it was in, Zach was shown how to bleed out the fallen soldier, and how to insert the embalming fluid into the veins. For the first week that was his primary function.  He watched as George Tinder put embalming fluid into the organs.  By the end of his first week, Zach also put the embalming fluid into the organs under George Tinder’s direction.  

After the main embalming, an artist applied make-up and prepared the final body preparations to be shipped back to the soldier’s home.  

After battles, George, Zach and the others in the embalming tent were busy.  But on days (or weeks) when there weren’t deaths, they prepared wooden boxes - or caskets - for shipping.  Good days were when they had a town nearby that was now under Union control, and the embalmers would tear down buildings and use the lumber for the caskets.  On other days, the crew would cut down pine trees and make the boards for the boxes. 

It wasn’t an exciting job, but it did keep Zach out of the battlefield.  Other soldiers brought the bodies to the makeshift morgue - so that kept Zach from seeing the gore and mayhem.  

Nothing is free, and while taxes were levied to fight the war, some unscrupulous private undertakers did charge for their services, and followed the battles from a safe distance.  But that wasn’t the case with the Southern Union Army with headquarters on Ship Island.  When the battles went up the Mississippi River farther, the morticians would load the pine boxes on ships that were returning down the river - and eventually the bodies arrived at Ship Island and were sorted out to go to locations near the soldier’s home town.

Zach was strong from his farming days and could carry most bodies the short distances from carts or wagons to the embalming tent.  

There wasn’t a uniform dog-tag system in the Union Army.  Some soldiers had cardboard name tags in an inside pocket of the uniform identifying the soldier.  Some groups, like the 12th Connecticut Regiment had metal identifiers around their necks.  But other groups didn’t always have identification.  

If there was no identification, but the soldier’s command was known, an officer from that squad would be asked to identify the body.  But in some severe cases, there was no identification.  Because of the number of deceased, those without identification were buried in unmarked (and often group) burial plots.  Thus, it was rare for Zach not to know at least the name of the deceased from one identifying label.  For expediency's sake, a non-identifiable body was not embalmed and not shipped home.

After a week doing embalming work, Zach had the body on his table that was part of the 34th Connecticut Regiment, and that body was from Chester, Connecticut.  Before he embalmed the body, Zach offered a prayer over the body.  George Tinder saw Zach praying over the deceased and asked if he would pray for all those being embalmed.  Zach at first didn’t think he could do it, he wasn’t a minister, but just a layman.  But George Tinder convinced him that a short prayer would be fitting.

So, Zach offered a short prayer like, “Heavenly Father, we commend our colleague John Doe from Chester Connecticut to you, to welcome him into your most holy heaven, receive him and give him a heavenly mansion.  Amen”.

After major battles, Zach’s first hour in the embalming tent was leading in prayer for the deceased as a group with all the embalmer assistants standing with bowed heads, and then praying for them individually.

*****

Zach did lose it one morning after a battle the previous day and night.  Henry Miller, one of his “Farming Four” buddies, was dead.  As he saw Henry’s body being placed on a table in the Embalming Tent, Zach turned white and asked George Tinder to be excused for a while.  George knew from Zach’s work that Zach was a sensitive young man and said that Zach could take all the time he needed.

Zach walked out of the embalming tent and into a grove of sycamore trees, and prayed. This hit him hard.  He and Henry had become good friends on the ship that brought them to Ship Island.  They had talked about life, family, love, and the future.  First he questioned God, “God why did you let Henry die?.  After walking for an hour, Zach sensed a peace - that was largely “God is in control.  Satan is behind this wickedness.”  He thought of a verse from 1 Corinthians 13 “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face”.  

He said to himself, “Damn this terrible evil war.”  And, he went back to the embalming tent.  Fortunately, another embalming assistant had done the work on Henry, but Zach did stop and pray over Henry’s body.  

Then later he watched the make-up artist prepare Henry’s body for shipping back to Cromwell, Connecticut.  The artist asked Zach why he was watching, and Zach’s answer was simple, “He was my friend”.

*****

But there weren’t deaths every day. They were ahead on making boxes for caskets.    On those days, Zach and most of the rest of the embalmers went to the regular medical tents.  

The medical tents did everything medical.  The staff did appendectomies, tooth extractions, bunions, sore muscles, and the rehabilitation of the soldiers who were injured.  

Zach had no idea what to do, what to help with.  He had learned enough about embalming to be competent, but sick and injured soldiers?  He served as an orderly - the term was good for him - somebody needed to order him around.  “Hey Soldier, could you get me some new towels; Could you get some fresh bed linens - these are soiled; Could you lift this patient into the bath”. 

Some of the more difficult tasks were when a doctor or staff said “Would you get me some Metzenbaum scissors”. 

Some days, Zach just became the gofer - go for some sandwiches, go for a cup of coffee, go get me something cold to drink (as if there was ever anything too cold to drink).

One morning, Zach and three other soldiers were helping  Dr. Peter Showalter, who was removing a lower leg shattered by a bullet.  Dr. Showalter was an arrogant ass from Johns Hopkins Hospital.  Zach brought the wrong tools for fitting an artificial leg to the soldier. Dr. Showalter yelled at Zach, “You idiotic ninny, get out of my operating room”.  So, Zach did get out.  

What could he do that would benefit the army, that could help the Union cause without killing other human beings?

*****

That night, Zach was dreaming about being back on the farm.  He dreamt about milking the cows, bedding down the horses, cleaning the plows and equipment.  It was a very real dream.

Early the next morning, before reveille, he walked out to the stables where the horses were kept.  A soldier was already up and was saddling a horse for Major Fleit.  Zach struck up a conversation with the soldier, who was Hiram Winter from New London Connecticut.  Zach helped tighten the straps under the horse.

Zach knew horses, from the heavy Percherons that pulled the plows at the farm, to the faster quarter horses that pulled the family's carriage.  As he talked with Hiram Winter, he learned that there weren’t enough stable hands for all the horses.  Hiram told Zach to come back about mid-morning and talk to his commanding officer about transferring into the equestrian group. 

There were three bodies that needed embalming that morning, and Zach helped, but went about 10:00 to meet Captain Freewell of the equestrian group.  Captain Freewell was excited to have an experienced horse person join his group, and indicated he would contact Captain Morton of the 12th Connecticut Regiment to officially transfer Zach to his unit.  

*****

The army was preparing to attack the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River - Vicksburg Mississippi.  Maps were prepared, soldiers were allocated.

Captain Morton, knowing Vicksburg would be a bloody fight, was reluctant to allocate Zach to the equestrian unit.  He had worked with Lieutenant Wheeler on trying to assign non-combat duties to Zach.  Captain Morton had worked out a deal with Captain Freewell of the equestrian unit that Zach could be called back from the unit if the need arose in the embalming tent.

Captain Freewell agreed and Zach was on temporary assignment to the equestrian unit.

*****

Zach thought that there was just something special about walking into the stables.  Sure there was the aroma of horse manure, but that was a familiar odor to Zach.  There was the mucking out of the stalls, and taking care of the feeding of the horses.   Horses that had been idle for two days in a row were taken out and given a hard ride just to keep them ready.

Wagons for carrying the tents and supplies to the next battle needed to be checked and axle grease applied.  Saddles were inspected.  And, Zach loved being able to help.

*****

The days flew by. The Southern Union Army was generally having success and was in charge of the Mississippi River, except for Vicksburg.  They also had spread out and within three months, had subdued the states of Mississippi and Louisiana.   

1862 ended with the Union forces in charge of most of the Mississippi and Tennessee river basins.  But, the war in the East was not progressing well.  General Robert E. Lee seemed to be one step ahead of the Union Army in Virginia.

The Southern Union Army was putting a siege on the city of Vicksburg Mississippi.  Vicksburg was high on the eastern banks overlooking the Mississippi River.  The river made a “C” shape around Vicksburg. The Confederate Army was situated where it could shoot cannonballs at any ship on the river.  

The Southern Navy blockaded shipping from the south and the north.  Army troops marched up on the Louisiana side and established a line so no food, or other supplies could cross the Vicksburg bridge, and other units established a line on the Mississippi side so supplies and reinforcements couldn’t arrive from the east into the town.  For six weeks, the Army restricted all access to the town, and on July 4, 1863, the Confederate Army surrendered.  

But it was a bloody fight with about 10,000 Union Soldiers dying and 9,000 Confederate Soldiers.  When the Confederates surrendered, the embalming tent got busy with all the bodies.   

Zach was getting proficient in embalming and carrying for the horses, but this battle had gone deep into his anti-war sentiment again.  “Why are we fighting our brothers again, why are we shooting and killing soldiers?”.  

In this siege there were also other casualties.  Since no supplies could get in, hunger had become rampant.  The Southern Army had prepared a prisoner of war camp in Natchez Mississippi and wagon loads of food, water, and tents had been brought upriver from Ship Island.  The equestrian unit spent a week carting the supplies to the prisoner of war camp.  A building unit was constructing fences and making a somewhat permanent camp east of the Mississippi.  

The Union Forces had both hawks and doves when it came to prisoner of war camps.  The hawks would prefer to either shoot the prisoners or treat them like dirt, while the doves insisted on humane treatment of the captive soldiers.  They wanted to keep the prisoners from breaking out and going back to the Confederate army, but wanted to treat the prisoners as human beings.  

There were also efforts to bring food and supplies to the non-combatants - especially to the freed slaves. The army had two projects - a place for the non-combatants (or refugees), and a separate place for the freed black slaves.  

Zach was amazed at what all had to occur with a war.  The whole supply effort of food, clothing, tents, and medical supplies followed the army as it fought battles.  He kept remembering the statement “Armies march on their stomachs”.  The Union Forces did have adequate food supplies while he had heard that the Confederates were running low on food.

In one of his letters to his family in Litchfield, Zach asked if any of the local farms had made food contributions and Zach learned on a return letter that many of the farmers in the Litchfield County area had donated meat, eggs, oats, and other foodstuffs to the Union effort.

*****

There seemed to be hope within the Union ranks, so far as Zach could tell, that the tide was turning, the Confederacy was dying under some brutal assaults, and maybe the war would be over someday soon.

******

End of Zach Higgenbottom week 3