Part 1

# Adventures and Reminiscences of a Volunteer; Or, A Drummer Boy from Maine ### By Ulmer, George T.

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[Illustration: Resp'ct Yours

Geo. T. Ulmer

Feb. 1892]

Adventures and Reminiscences of a Volunteer,

or A Drummer Boy from Maine

BY GEO. T. ULMER, COMPANY H, 8TH MAINE VOLUNTEERS.

Dedicated to the Grand Army Republic.

Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1892, by GEO. T. ULMER, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington D. C.

PREFACE.

In submitting this little book the author does not attempt to edit a history of the rebellion, nor does he assume to be correct in the date of events to a day. He does not hope or expect to make a hero of himself by writing it, for he was far from doing anything heroic, believing, as he does, that most of the heroes of the war were killed. Perhaps the WRITING of this book may stamp him a hero, and for his audacity in so doing some one may kill him. But he intends to clothe his little work in homely, rugged, commonplace language. Not striving to make it a work of literary merit, only a truthful account of an unimportant career and experience in the army. It may, perhaps, be interesting to some of his comrades, who recollect the incidents or recall similar events that happened to themselves, and thereby serve the purpose of introducing one of the youngest soldiers and a comrade of that greatest and most noble of all organizations, the Grand Army of the Republic.

Respectfully,

GEORGE T. ULMER.

[Illustration: _The Memorable Bombardment of Fort Sumter._]

Bombardment of Fort Sumter. This was the beginning and the first sound of actual war which inspired me, and kindled the fire of patriotism in my youthful breast. The little spark lay smoldering for two long years, 'till at last it burst forth into a full blaze. When Fort Sumter was bombarded, I was a midget of a boy; a barefooted, ragged newsboy in the city of New York. The bombardment was threatened for several weeks before it actually occurred; and many nights I would have been bankrupted, but that everyone was on the "qui vive" for the event, and I got myself into lots of trouble by shouting occasionally, "Fort Sumter Bombarded!" I needed money; it sold my papers, and I forgave myself. When the authentic news did come, I think it stirred up within me as big a piece of fighting desire as it did in larger and older people. I mourned the fact that I was then too small to fight, but lived in hopes that the war would last until I should grow. If I could have gone south, I felt that I could have conquered the rebellious faction alone, so confident was I of my fighting abilities.

In the fall of '61 my dear mother died, and my father who had a great desire to make possibilities out of improbabilities, and believing a farm the proper place to bring up a family of boys, bought one away in the interior of Maine. The farm was very hilly, covered with huge pines and liberally planted with granite ledges. I used to think God wanted to be generous to this state and gave it so much land it had to be stood up edgeways. Picture to yourself, dear reader, four boys taken from the busy life of a great city, place them in the wilderness of Maine, where they had to make a winrow of the forest to secure a garden spot for the house, pry out the stumps and blast the ledges to sow the seed, then ask yourself what should the harvest be?

Father's business required all of his time in New York City, and we were left with two hired men to develop the farm, our brains and muscles, but mine didn't seem to develop worth a cent. I didn't care for the farmer's life. The plow and scythe had no charms for me. My horny, hardened little hand itched and longed to beat the drums that would marshall men to arms.

After eight months of hard work we had cleared up quite a respectable little farm, an oasis in that forest of pines. A new house and barn had been built, also new fences and stone walls, but not much credit for this belonged to me. Soon after, we received a letter from father stating that he would be with us in a short time and bring us a new mother and a little step-sister. This was joyous news, the anticipation of a new mother, and above all a step-sister, inspired us with new ambition. The fences and barn received a coat of whitewash, the stones were picked out of the road in front of the house, the wood-pile was repiled and everything put into apple-pie order. We did not know what day they would arrive. So each day about the time the stage coach from Belfast should pass the corners, we would perch ourselves on the fence in front of the house to watch for it, and when it did come in sight, wonder if the folks were in it; if they were, it would turn at the corners and come toward our house. Day after day passed, and they did not come, and we had kind of forgotten about it. Finally one day while we were all busy burning brush, brother Charlie came rushing towards us shouting, "The stage coach is coming! The stage is coming!" Well, such a scampering for the house! We didn't have time to wash or fix up, and our appearance would certainly not inspire our city visitors with much paternal pride or affection; we looked like charcoal burners. Our faces, hands and clothes were black and begrimed from the burning brush, but we couldn't help it; we were obliged to receive and welcome them as we were. I pulled up a handful of grass and tried to wipe my face, but the grass being wet, it left streaks all over it, and I looked more like a bogie man than anything else. We all struggled to brush up and smooth our hair, but it was no use, the stage coach was upon us, the door opened, father jumped out, and as we crowded around him, he looked at us in perfect amazement and with a kind of humiliated expression behind a pleasant fatherly smile he exclaimed, "Well, well, you are a nice dirty looking lot of boys. Lizzie," addressing his wife and helping her to alight, "This is our family, a little smoky; I can't tell which is which, so we'll have to wait till they get their faces washed to introduce them by their names." But our new mother was equal to the occasion for coming to each of us, and taking our dirty faces in her hands, kissed us, saying at the same time, "Philip, don't you mind, they are all nice, honest, hard-working boys, and I know I shall like them, even if this country air has turned their skins black." At this moment a tiny voice called, "Please help me out." All the boys started with a rush, each eager to embrace the little step-sister. I was there first, and in an instant, in spite of my dirty appearance, she sprang from the coach right into my arms; my brothers struggled to take her from me, but she tightened her little arms about my neck and clung to me as if I was her only protector. I started and ran with her, my brothers in full chase, down the road, over the stone walls, across the field, around the stumps with my prize, the brothers keeping up the chase till we were all completely tired out, and father compelled us to stop and bring the child to the house. Afterward we took our turns at caressing and admiring her; finally we apologized for our behavior and dirty faces, listened to father's and mother's congratulations, concluded father's choice for a wife was a good one, and that our little step-sister was just exactly as we wanted her to be, and the prospect of a bright, new and happy home seemed to be already realized.

A home is all right With father and brother, But darker than night Without sister and mother.

* * * * *

The war grew more and more serious. Newspapers were eagerly sought; and every word about the struggle was read over and over again. A new call for troops was made, another and still another, and I was all the time fretting and chafing in the corn or potato field, because I was so young and small. I could not work; the fire of patriotism was burning me up. My eldest brother had arrived at the age and required size to fit him for the service; he enlisted and went to the front. This added new fuel to the flame already within me, and one day I threw down the hoe and declared that I would go to the war! I would join my brother at all hazards. My folks laughed at me and tried to dissuade me from so unwise a step, but my mind was made up, and I was bound to enlist. Enlist I did, when I was only fourteen years of age and extremely small for my years, but I thought I would answer for a drummer boy if nothing else. I found that up hill work, however, but I was bound to "get there," and--I did.

It was easy enough to enlist, but to get mustered into the service was a different thing. I tried for eight long weeks. I enlisted in my own town, but was rejected. I enlisted in an adjoining town--rejected, and so on for weeks and weeks. But I did not give up. I owned at the time a little old gray horse and a two-wheeled jumper or "gig," which I had bought with my savings from the sale of "hoop poles," which are small birch and alder trees that grow in the swamps, and used for hoops on lime casks; at this time they were worth a half a cent a piece delivered. I would work cutting these poles at times when I could do nothing else, pack them on my back to the road, pile them up, till I had a quantity to sell. At length I concluded I had enough to buy me a horse and cart; the pile seemed as big as a house to me, but when the man came along to buy them, he counted out six thousand good ones and rejected nine thousand that were bad. "Too small!" he said.

"Too small?" I exclaimed, "why there is hardly any difference in them!" But he was buying, I was selling, and under the influence of a boy's anxiety, he paid me thirty dollars, which I counted over and over again, and at every count the dollars seemed to murmer, "A horse, a horse!--war! war! to the front! be a soldier!" I could picture nothing but a soldier's life; I could almost hear the sounds of the drums, and almost see the long rows of blue-coated soldiers marching in glorious array with steady step to the music of the band. "Thirty! thirty!" I would repeat to myself, but finally concluded thirty wouldn't buy much of a horse, but my heart was set upon it, and nothing remained for me to do but cut more "poles." One day when I arrived at the road with a bundle of them, a farmer happened to be passing, driving a yoke of oxen as I tumbled my hoop-poles over the fence on to the pile.

"Heow be yer?" Addressing me in a high, nasal twang peculiar to the yeomanry of Maine, and then calling to his oxen without a change of tone, he drawled, "Whoa! back! Whoa you, Turk! Whoa, Bright!" at the same time hitting the oxen over their noses with his goad-stick, and resting on the yoke, he asked, "What yer goin' ter dew with them poles?"

"Sell them," I replied.

"What dew yer want for 'em?" taking in the height and width of the pile with a calculating eye.

"Fifty cents a hundred," I said, with some trepidation.

"Don't want nothin', dew yer," coming over and picking out the smallest pole in the pile; "Pooty durned small, been't they? What'll yer take fur the hull lot?"

"Twenty dollars," I said.

"Twenty dollars! Whew!" Emitting a whistle that would have done credit to a locomotive exhausting steam. "Why, thar been't more'n a thousan' thar, be thar?"

"Oh yes, I guess there are over four thousand."

"Say!" sticking his hands in either breeches pocket and taking me in from head to foot with a comprehensive glance, "What might yer name be?"

"Ulmer," I said.

"No? You been't Phil's son, be yer?"

"Yes, sir."

"Yer don't tell me! Wall, by gosh! I like Phil, he's a durned smart 'un. I'll tell yer what, I'd like ter see him and Jimmie Blaine a settin' up in them gol-durn presidential cheers; why, by gosh, they'd jist open the hull durned treasury bildin' an let all ther gor-ramed gold an' silver role right out inter the streets, by gosh, they would." Having delivered himself of this panegyric, together with an accumulated quantity of saliva resulting from the constant mastication of a large tobacco quid, he again turned his attention to the pile of poles and said, "How much did yer say fur the lot?"

"Twenty dollars."

"Twenty!" Drawing the corners of his mouth down and stroking his chin, then turning to me, "Wall, more I look at yer, by gosh, yer do look like Phil. Wall, I'd like purty well ter have them poles, but--," as if a sudden idea had struck him,--"Don't want ter trade fur a horse, dew yer?"

"What kind of a horse?"

"Wall, a pooty durned good 'un. I hain't druve him much lately, but he yused ter go like smoke; he's a leetle old but, will prick up his ears like a colt when he's a mind ter."

"Well, I do want a horse, if I can trade for one," I said, trying not to show anxiety.

"Say, got time ter get on' ter the waggin an go over to my farm and see him, take dinner with me? Guess, the old woman'll have enough for both."

Being anxious, I accepted the invitation, and was soon on the way. He pestered me with all kinds of questions; asked all about my family affairs and told me all of his and every other family for miles about. Finally we reached his house, one of those old-fashioned farm houses with several old tumble-down sheds and out-buildings attached, near by an old barn that was once painted red, the shingles had rotted and blown off here and there, so you could see daylight from any portion inside. Scattered about were old wagon boxes, odd wheels, old toothless harrows, plows, a wheelbarrow upside down with the wheel gone, part of an old harness lying across it; bits of harness were hanging on pegs in the barn. Geese, turkeys and chickens were numerous and clucked about as if they were really pleased to see us, and in fact, I discounted or anticipated the looks of the house from the careless dilapidated appearance of every thing around and about the old man's farm.

[Illustration]

He finally unyoked his oxen, dropped the yoke right where he took it off and turned his cattle into the yard. "Now then, we'll get a bite to eat, and I'll show you two horses, and durn me if I won't give you your choice and a good trade." "Martha-Ann," he called, "Martha-Ann!"

In a moment a little, bright, bustling old woman came to the door and shading her eyes with her apron, called back: "What is it, Dan'l? Did you bring the merlasses, and candles, and the broom?"

"Yes," he answered back.

"And the salt?"

"Yes."

"And the rennet for the cheese, and the salt-pork?"

"Yes, yes, yes," he answered, "and I've brought a young man, Phil. Ulmer's son; goin to trade him 'Dick.'"

"What?" said she, coming out to where we were. "Now, Dan'l, you are not going to do anything of the kind."

"Yes, I be," he said.

"You shan't, I won't have my horse sold; you know he is the only one I can drive, and he is so kind and gentle, and the only good horse you have; you shan't sell him." And then she sat down on the cart-tongue and cried as if her heart would break, and I began to think I was going to really get a splendid horse at a bargain.

All through the dinner she sobbed, and when she would pass me bread or anything, it was with a heartbroken sigh, and I began to want that horse.

Finally dinner finished, he took me to the barn. There were two horses together standing on the barn-floor eating corn-husk. They both looked as if they never had eaten anything else. One was a bay, and the other a grey; they were so poor that you could mistake either for a barrel with half the staves fallen in.

"Thar, sir, be two fine critters; you can have either; this grey one is Dick, the one the old woman is so sot on, but he's getting too frisky for her ter handle, he's the best dispositioned animal yer ever saw; yer do anything with him, he's always ready. Get him with 'tother on a load at the bottom of a big hill and he's thar every time; yer see, he's a leetle sprung in one knee thar, he done that by pulling; it don't hurt him a bit ter drive, and go! Why, do you know he's trotted in two minutes? You notice, one eye's bit off color! Blue? Wall sir, that was strained a leetle by watching over his blinder to see that no other hoss should pass or get near him when he were druve on the race track twelve years ago, but it don't hurt him now."

"You praise this horse," I remarked, "but don't say a word about the other."

"Oh, he don't need it," said the old man dryly.

I was so anxious to get a horse, I concluded to take Dick. I thought, he must be the best on Martha-Ann's account, and really there didn't seem much choice.

"You want a harness and waggin too, don't yer?"

"Yes," I replied, "I shall have to have something to drive him in."

"Wall, I guess I can fix you out with a full rig."

So after looking through the sheds, he pulled out an old gig with one shaft broken and without wheels. "Guess I'll find the wheels of this somewhar. Do you know this is the same gig that very Dick yused ter haul on the race track; he may remember it after yer hitch him into it. If he does, you want to look out for him, and here are the wheels."

He pulled them out of a pile of old lumber and rubbish, and fitted them on; one was badly dished in and was painted red, the other was as badly dished out and one day had been painted yellow; but I was anxious and didn't object; I wanted to get home.

So after getting the "gig" together, he patched a harness from the odd pieces he found, then fitted them on to the poor horse who looked as if he was sorry he was alive.

Finally we had everything all ready. I mounted the "gig." As I did so, I noticed it seemed one sided, and looking at the wheels, I found one was somewhat larger than the other, but said nothing. Taking up the lines made up my mind to get home and fix it there. I pulled on the reins and spoke to "Dick," but he didn't move. The old man took him by the bridle and led him to the road remarking at the same time, "Dick never did like to go away from home."

After we reached the road, the old man hit "Dick" with a hoe handle, and off he started. It was four miles from his house to ours, and I reached home NEXT DAY. Figured up what the whole thing cost me: The horse stood me $33.50, the "gig" $7.50, and the harness, (?) 75 cents. This was my outfit to make or break me. My brothers laughed at my trade, but I didn't care, I had a purpose, and I was bound to accomplish it.

When I wanted to use my "rig," to harness the horse, I was obliged to take a ladder to put his bridle on, lead him alongside of the steps to put the saddle and breeching on, and back him up to the well-curb to put his tail in the "crupper," and after he was hitched to the "gig," nine times out of ten he would wait till he was ready to go.

Some time after I learned that uncle "Dan'l" was a regular horse dealer and kept just such old plugs around him, and that they were always his wife's favorites when the old man wanted to get one off his hands. However, Dick and I became great friends. I fixed up the old "gig," and it answered my purpose. I got there with it.

It became a customary daily routine for me to harness this poor animal, start at sundown and drive all night. Where? Why to Augusta to try and get mustered in, but I would always ride back broken hearted and disappointed, my ardor, however, not dampened a bit. I became a guy to my brothers and neighbors. My father and step-sister indulged me in my fancy, helping me all they could--father by furnishing me with money, and step-sister by putting up little lunches for my pilgrimages during the night. They thought me partially insane, and judged it would be best to let me have my own idea, with the hope that it would soon wear off. But it didn't. I would not give up. The Yankee yearning for fight had possession of me, and I could neither eat, sleep nor work. I was bound to be a soldier. I prayed for it, and I sometimes thought, my prayers were answered; that the war should last 'till I was big enough to be one--for it did.

I had enlisted four times in different towns, and each time I went before a mustering officer, I was rejected. "Too small" I was every time pronounced, but I was not discouraged or dismayed--the indomitable pluck and energy of those downeast boys pervaded my system. I was bound to get there, for what I didn't know, I did not care or didn't stop to think. I only thought of the glory of being a soldier, little realizing what an absurd-looking one I would make; but the ambition was there, the pluck was there, and the patriotism of a man entered the breast of the wild dreamy boy. I wanted to go to the front--and I went.