Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

South Texas, 1864–1867 435
water while steaming into the mouth of the Mississippi, below the city. Whatever the
difficulties of life afloat, few men died during the voyage—only eight in the entire 1st
Division, the commanding general reported: “No more than might have been expected
had we remained in camp.” Those who died on board ship were buried at sea. 26
However diligent medical authorities had been in providing antiscorbutics for
the voyage, the Quartermaster Department did not take equal care when it hired
transport ships. While no mishaps occurred during the trip, the oceangoing vessels
that brought two brigades of the XXV Corps to Indianola had hulls too deep to pass
over a seven-foot bar that kept them out of the harbor. They remained there, pitching
in a high sea for six days before steaming back to New Orleans for more coal
and water. By the time they returned, the weather had calmed and the troops were
able to land in light-draft vessels; but the pickles, sauerkraut, and dried apples had
long since run out, and signs of scurvy had begun to appear. 27
Once ashore, the troops at Indianola found themselves in a populated region
and were able to supplement their rations with local produce. Those who
landed at Brazos Santiago, nearly two hundred miles to the south, had no such
luck, but they were able to disembark more promptly than the other force and so
postponed the threat of scurvy for a little while. On Brazos Santiago, “as far as
the eye can reach nothing but sand is seen,” Chaplain Thomas S. Johnson of the
127th USCI wrote. “There is not a spear of vegetation growing within sight of
my tent,” 1st Lt. Oliver W. Norton told his sister. The sole water condenser on the
island had a capacity of six thousand gallons a day. It provided only three pints
per man, “boiling hot,” Pvt. Samuel H. Smothers of the 45th USCI told readers
of the Christian Recorder. Another contributor to the paper, who signed his letter
“M. R. Williams” and claimed to belong to the 41st USCI, alleged that the
water ration was one cup per day and that men had to pay one dollar for a piece
of hardtack. An investigation of the complaint revealed that there was no man
by that name on the rolls of the regiment. The lack of water necessitated moving
the regiments inland to Brownsville as quickly as possible. This meant, in the
words of one of General Weitzel’s aides, “as soon as the condition of the roads
will permit.” 28
The same foul weather that had met the transports at Indianola had turned
the road from Brazos Santiago to Brownsville into “a dozen miles of swamp,”
as Surgeon Charles G. G. Merrill of the 22d USCI called it. It was Merrill’s job
26 Col M. R. Morgan to Capt C. Wheaton Jr., 21 May 1865, Entry 518, XXV Corps, Misc Ltrs,
Orders, and Rpts Recd, pt. 2, Polyonymous Successions of Cmds, RG 393, NA. Maj Gen G. A. Smith
to Lt Col D. D. Wheeler, 24 Jul 1865 (“No more”); Col J. C. Moon to Maj A. Ware, 19 Jul 1865;
Col T. D. Sedgwick to Maj A. Ware, 20 Jul 1865; Col S. B. Yeoman to Maj A. Ware, 21 Jul 1865;
all in Entry 525, XXV Corps, LR Relating to Troop Movements, pt. 2, RG 393, NA. J. O. Moore to
My Dearest Wife, 9 Jul 1865 (“fairly stunk”), J. O. Moore Papers, Duke University, Durham, N.C.;
W. Goodale to Dear Children, 8 June 1865, W. Goodale Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society,
Boston. For burials at sea, see J. M. Califf Diary, 6 and 14 Jun 1865, Historians files, U.S. Army
Center of Military History; Oliver W. Norton, Army Letters, 1861–1865 (Chicago: privately printed,
1903), p. 266.
27 Col J. Shaw to Maj E. B. Parsons, 20 Jun 1865, and to Capt R. C. Shannon, 8 Jul 1865, both
in Entry 533, XXV Corps, LR by Divs, pt. 2, RG 393, NA; Califf Diary, 13–17 and 25 Jun 1865.
28 Maj J. F. Lacey to Maj Gen G. Weitzel, 26 Jun 1865, Entry 533; Col J. Shaw to Capt R. C.
Shannon, 8 Jul 1865, Entry 518; Maj Gen F. Steele to Maj Gen P. H. Sheridan, 15 Jun 1865, Entry
2063, U.S. Forces on Rio Grande, Letters Sent (LS); all in pt. 2, RG 393, NA. T. S. Johnson to Dear