A Horse of Many Colors

In one of my early Blogs, I discussed some of the unpublished writing that I’ve done over the years. This is one of the interesting stories that came from the Regimental History of the Second Wisconsin Veteran Volunteer Cavalry, “Washburn’s Own”. I’ve rewritten the story as a piece of historical fiction for my readers. The story is based on an account written by Corporal Sam Grigsby and from a family story passed down through the generations from my Great-great-great Grandfather, Calvin S. Russell, a trooper in the Regiment.

 Calvin Russell was a Trooper in the Second Wisconsin, Veteran Volunteer Cavalry during the Civil War. He enlisted for the bounty in January 1864 rather than waiting to get drafted. Calvin was from the small town of Ellenboro in Grant County, Wisconsin not too far from the Mississippi River. His mother was a widow who had inherited a farm, and the family needed the money.

If Calvin enlisted, he could get the normal $300.00 enlistment bonus, and the county kicked in and additional $250.00 for any man in the county that enlisted so that they could avoid the potential of being forced to draft a man from the county. The Ellenboro town council also guaranteed every wife or widow of a soldier from the county a stipend of $25.00 a month for the duration of their man’s enlistment.

When Captain LaGrange came to Lancaster looking for recruits Calvin’s mother convinced him that he should enlist.

“Cal, you’re good with horses and these here cavalry boys are right up your alley.  This Captain LaGrange was talkin’ to the ladies at church last Sunday and he was tellin’ us that the Second Wisconsin is a good regiment. They’re settled down near some big town in the South called Vicksburg and they’re not really involved much in the fightin’. According to the captain it’s a good regiment and they’ve got good officers in charge. It’s such a good outfit that most of the boys reenlisted for another hitch. He told us that because of that they could call themselves a Veteran Volunteer regiment and even put it on their flag.

Cal, I think you need to go and talk to this captain and see if this is a good unit for you to join. You can’t wait around much longer their gonna draft soldiers again and if you wait to get drafted, we won’t get any of this bonus money that they are offering if you enlist.”

“Well, Ma, I was kinda hopin’ just to sit this one out and hope that it would end real soon. I really don’t want to be a soldier. But, with this draft breathing down my neck I probably need to go over to Lancaster and see this Captain LaGrange and talk to him about joinin’ up. I know that we could really use the money. I was hopin’ to hold out until spring and the planting season. But with that bounty money you could hire someone to help out around the farm.

We got a little bit of money left from my brother Runion, money that he brought back from the California gold fields when he and Pa went out there in ’49. Too bad he died of the fever right after he got home a couple of years ago. We were able to put the gold money to good use around the farm.

But if I could get into the cavalry, it probably would be a lot better than getting drafted and havin’ to go into the infantry. I’ve been around horses most of my life and I could probably do a lot better there than tryin’ to do all that marchin’ and drillin’.”

The next morning after his chores were completed twenty-year-old Calvin Russell saddled his horse and rode the twelve miles into town. He asked where Captain LaGrange was setting up his recruiting office; he was told that he needed to go to the courthouse, there he’d find the captain with Doctor Simpson the town’s doctor.

“Captain LaGrange, I’m Calvin S. Russell and I’d like to be considering joinin’ your soldiers. I live in Ellenboro, and I’ve come here to enlist if you’ll take me.”

“Well, Mr. Russell,” and he started asking him a number of questions.

“How old are you? What’s your occupation? Can you read and write? Why do you want to join the cavalry? What’s your experience with horses?”

Calvin answered all of the captain’s questions and when the captain was satisfied with his answers he called for Doctor Simpson to give him a physical evaluation.

After the doctor finished poking and prodding and inspecting Calvin, he reported to the captain that he was a fine specimen. He was physically fit and capable of enlisting in the US Army as a volunteer.

Calvin was 6’1-1’2 inches tall, he weighed about 180 pounds, had brown hair and no physical recognizable birthmarks or scars. His teeth were in good order and his eyesight and hearing were excepted. He seemed to be of sound mind. The doctor was convinced that he’d make a good soldier.

With the doctor’s report in hand Captain LaGrange asked Calvin to fill out some paperwork for the Army and to sign the forms indicating that he was volunteering to join the Second Wisconsin Veteran Volunteer Cavalry. He made sure that he understood that he was going to enlist for three years or the duration of the war.

Calvin asked about the various bonuses that he was enlisting for and the captain made him sign some additional papers ensuring that he’d get $300.00 from the federal government, an additional $300.00 from the State of Wisconsin and that his mother would receive an additional $25.00 every month from Grant County. He acknowledged that he’d get $100.00 federal bonus and $100.00 state bonus as soon as he signed his enlistment papers. The rest of the bonus money would be paid on the anniversary of his enlistment over the next three years. The county money would be sent to his mother on the tenth day of every month that he was in the service.

With the doctor’s report, his bonus information signed and witnessed by the county clerk the only thing that was left was for Calvin to be sworn into the US Army.

Judge Washington, the circuit court judge was asked to come over to Captain LaGrange’s office and swear in the ten recruits that he had convinced to enlist into Squadron “G” of the Second Wisconsin Cavalry.

The Judge ordered the men to raise their right hand as he administered the oath:

“I Calvin S. Russell, do solemnly swear that I will bear true allegiance to the United States of America; that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all enemies or opposers whatsoever; that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and of the other officers appointed over me, according to the rules of the armies of the United States, so help me God.”

With that Calvin was given five days to settle his business affairs at home before reporting to Lancaster to board the train for Madison and Camp Randle. It was a short trip. He was accompanied by ten other recruits as well as a corporal by the name of Sam Grigsby who had accompanied Captain LaGrange on recruiting duty. Corporal Grigsby would stay with the men through their initial mustering into the US Army as well as assisting in their basic training.

Sam Grigsby was a young soldier. He had enlisted illegally at the age of sixteen and so far, he hadn’t been found out. He was a “veteran”, and it was his responsibility to give these new men some tips that might keep them alive. Their real training would begin when they arrived at a place called Red Bone Church a few miles south of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

When they arrived at Camp Randall, they found that some larger units were already there training before they were shipped ‘to the seat of war’. Calvin and his comrades were housed in one of the large barracks buildings. There were long rows of bunk beds three beds high in the building. Calvin and his friends were housed at the far end of one of the barracks away from some of the men who had enlisted or gotten drafted to serve in one of the Infantry Regiments that was forming up at the camp.

When they arrived, they were marched to the mess hall where they had their first taste of Army chow. Their lunch consisted of loaves of stale bread; a soup made with salted beef and plate-loads of army beans. There were large containers of weak coffee served at the end of each table.

After their lunch they were marched to a large building where they were issued their first military uniform. Each man drew a set of underclothes, two pair of socks, a pair of blue woolen pants, leather ‘brogans’, a haversack, a heavy blue wool coat, belts, suspenders, shirts, and a wool blanket. The Quartermaster Sergeant made them sign a voucher for their uniforms and warned them that if they lost anything that they would have to come back in, and he’d reissue the lost item but that the cost would be deducted from their next paycheck.

Corporal Grigsby got the men settled into their bunks and once they were settled, he began instructing them in military drill. Over and over again for almost an hour they learned how to come to the position of attention. Grigsby would give the command and then observe and correct every soldier until they understood exactly how to perform the movement. He would allow them to relax momentarily and then call ATTENTION and watch each man as he performed the movement. He would make corrections and physically move hands, heads and shoulder so that each man could perform exactly as they had been trained.

He taught them how to form into a basic formation. He would give them the command “FALL IN” and expect them to align themselves in two rows, five men in a row. For the next hour they would practice ‘falling in’ and coming immediately to the position of Attention. Grigsby would go down the line and move them into the proper position with the proper distances. It was demeaning drudgery for these new recruits.

Every time that someone would complain, Corporal Grigsby would threaten them with some exotic form of disciplinary action. If a man tried to leave the ranks during drill, he’d threaten them with court-martial and time in the stockade. Drill was unceasing for almost four hours.

For the next two weeks the recruits would be rousted out of bed at 5 am. It was pitch black in the barracks, but they would have to make their beds, go to the toilet as a group where they would wash and shave in cold water. They would be given the order to fall in and marched to the mess hall for breakfast served from large steaming pots of mush and oatmeal along a line of cooks and servers. Occasionally, if they were lucky, they’d find uncooked salted bacon or salt pork on the serving line.  After breakfast they would have a few minutes before being ordered to fall in for another three hours of drill. Each day they would learn a new movement and then practice all of the movements they had learned so far over and over again.

After lunch it was more drill for another three hours, then back to the mess hall for supper and if Grigsby felt up to it an additional period of drill before dark.

It was January in Wisconsin, and their barracks were heated by two large coal burning potbellied stoves one at each end of the building. Each night two soldiers were put on interior guard. Their main function was to keep the stoves fired up so that the men could sleep in some degree of comfort. They were also responsible for alerting everyone if a fire started in the barracks.

When it was too cold to drill they would be herded back into the barracks where they learned other basic soldier skills. They had to learn how to identify the various military ranks, how to prepare their own food in the field, and all about the intricacies of military discipline.

Two weeks into their training they boarded trains and left for Benton Barracks in St. Louis. Here they learned the skills needed to be a cavalryman. They learned how to ride, how to care for their animals, saber and pistol drill and a variety of other important skills needed for their new assignment. By early March they were marched to a steamer and taken down the Mississippi River to Vicksburg.

Sam Grigsby, their corporal, turned out to be a pretty nice feller. Sam was just a kid like the rest of them, but he’d already been in the army for over two years. He joined the Second Wisconsin Cavalry in 1861, and he’d gone through all the training in Wisconsin and in Saint Louis with the regiment. He’d been with them when they marched through Missouri and Arkansas, and he’d survived the dying phase in Helena. He said the regiment lost hundreds of men to bad water down there. Seems that they thought they were drinking water out of an nice clear spring, but what they didn’t know was that the rebels had used that area to corral their horses before the Union boys got there. As a result, the water was contaminated.

Sam told them that he was lucky; he told them that he’d spent most of the time out on the Mississippi River on guard duty, and they were drinking the muddy water from the Mississippi River. While it tasted terrible for some reason none of his boys got sick.

He taught them the skills they needed to learn about being a cavalryman. He showed them how to sharpen their sabers and during Saber drill made sure they understood that you slashed with the saber and didn’t try to stab with it. He taught them how to make sure that their gunpowder and their pistols stayed dry and how to quickly reload when they ran out of ammunition.

Sam had a crazy part of him as well. When the riverboat landed in Helena on their way to Vicksburg, for a little bit of time he took them over to a barn where Sam knew there to be a still and a willing owner who would sell them hard liquor. Caleb Kingston got so drunk that they had to carry him back to the boat to make sure that he didn’t end up being absent without official leave.

But Sam could also have a mean streak when he wanted to. He got into it with a couple of boys from Illinois. The next thing you knew there was a major brawl on board ship. Seems that some of the infantry boys were making fun of the cavalrymen. They said that they were weak and not able to walk very far. They also claimed that they all smelled like a horse’s arse all the time. The last comment is what got Sam’s dander up. The next thing you know, everybody was throwing fists.

A Lieutenant from one of the Ohio units came by, saw what was going on and said if they didn’t break it up, he was going to court martial all of them. That stopped the fighting. But then there were a lot of boys that were taking care of bruises and cuts and scrapes that resulted from the fight. The Illinois boys tried to blame Sam for starting the fight, but the Lieutenant, who is a cavalryman himself knew how the infantry liked to prod and poke the men who rode horses for a living.

When they finally arrived at Vicksburg, they got off the boat and walked to the headquarters where they reported in. Sam made sure that his guys got listed into the official records and put up for a couple of nights in downtown. They ended up in an old hotel. One of the few in town that hadn’t been badly damaged during the siege. That’s when Clem and Calvin decided that they were going to go out on the town and find some liquor on their own. Neither one of them were used to any heavy drinking. They had never been allowed to do that at home. As a result, the two of them were found by the Provost Marshall and dragged to the Vicksburg jail; charged with drunk and disorderly conduct.

They stayed in jail until Sam finally figured out where they were and he came and took them and hauled all of the men back to the hotel where he sobered them up. The next morning, he took all ten of them down to the street where they were picked up in a wagon and taken down to Red Bone Church. Sam and Caleb were court martialed, and Lieutenant Colonel Eastman fined them two months’ pay and put both of them at hard labor for three days bringing in firewood to the camp.

Over the next couple of weeks, the new Wisconsin Boys were filtered into the squadrons, and they began doing what all cavalrymen do. Bitch, complain, and take care of their horses. They drilled at least two or three times a day. Three hours in the morning and then again, the afternoon for about three hours at a time. It was drill, drill, and more drill, something none of these new Wisconsin boys ever thought about. They came down to fight the war and they found themselves doing guard duty, drilling and caring for their horses.

A couple of weeks later Sam was ordered to form up an escort and take some soldiers with him to pick up some cotton that Colonel Eastman had bought from one of the local plantation owners. Sam, Caleb and Calvin and two other boys were selected to ride on their first patrol together. At first, the men were excited, they were finally going to get out to the ‘seat of war’, finally get out to where the action was at. Maybe even they were going to kill a couple of rebels.

When they got to the farm Sam had them all dismount, take the saddles off their horses and tie their mounts behind the wagons carrying the cotton. Sam went into the plantation and had himself a fine lunch, while the boys ate hardtack and drank coffee. On the ride down here, Sam told them that he didn’t expect that they’d see a single rebel on the way back.

“Sam, I thought we were down here to kill rebels, not just stealing some cotton from this farmer and taking it back to Vicksburg? How’s that going to help us win the war?”

“George, I’m a corporal, you’re a private; do what you’re told! That’s the Army way. If you’re lucky, you’ll get each of us $5.00 for bringing in this load of cotton to Colonel Eastman. You see, the Colonel has a deal with the quartermaster. Depending on the size of the bale he gets $50 to $60.00 for every bale of cotton that he sells to the quartermaster. He gives us a little bit of money as well for helping him out.

Hell, George, you should be happy. We’ve had some guys get killed sometimes by the plantation owner and his slaves, or by Wirt Adams men. On this trip, none of us got hurt, and I got a nice lunch. So, stop your belly aching and hitch your horse to the wagons so we can get out of here.”

Sure, enough once they got back to Red Bone Church a couple of days later Sam came over and gave each one of them $5. For Calvin and Caleb that was the first real money that they had seen in a while. You see they only got paid every two months, and it was $13 a month. They had another month to go to get paid but with the fine from their court martial neither one of them were going to get any money. At that point they talk to Sam to see if they could go out on another raid.

But that had to be delayed for a while. The troopers got called out to patrol the Black River. They were trying to make sure that old ‘Uncle’ Joe Johnston didn’t try to sneak his troops back across the Black River and attack Vicksburg and try to trap General Grant there. They patrolled down the river and set up camp for the night living on hardtack and boiled beans and anything else they could scrounge off the countryside. But there wasn’t much to forage. Along the river both of the armies had stripped everything that was edible. But they did find that they could catch frogs and crayfish or crawdads as they call them in the South. But they managed to catch some fish, and it gave them an opportunity to get away from some of the strict discipline that Lieutenant Colonel Eastman forced on them back at Redbone Church.

It was on one of these patrols that they had a fortunate piece of good luck. They were hiding along the road, just sort of minding their own business, when they saw this reb coming across the river. He was riding a beautiful white horse. They hadn’t seen a horse that was as well-groomed and as valuable as the one that this rebel was riding.

It seemed that the rebel knew where he was going, but he didn’t know that Sam and his men we’re just waiting for him to get across the river. He must have known the location of a secret ford, a place where a sand bar lay connecting the two shores at a relatively shallow point. Perhaps there was an ancient log that lay buried in the river bottom that collected the hardened silt forming a natural passageway across the river; a crossing point known only to a local who lived somewhere along the river.

He was cautious as he approached the western bank of the river. He stopped a few times and scanned the far shore waiting and listening to see if he could observe or hear any enemy activity. Finally, he felt confident enough to proceed, right into the waiting arms of Sam and his boys.

As he was urging his mount to exit the stream up a steep embankment Sam yelled and startled the horse. The horse threw its rider into the river. Sam, Clem, and Calvin laughed as they saw the reb trying to swim to the far shore. Clem raised his carbine to shoot at the struggling confederate when Sam stopped him and said they had something more important to do – steal his horse!

Calvin grabbed the bridle and using a soothing voice calmed the mount. Once they had the horse under control, they managed to ease him up and over the riverbank.

He was a magnificent stallion; about seventeen hands high and as white as new fallen snow. Once he was settled, he was gentle and easily handled. They could tell that this horse was also attached to his rider. They noticed that the horse was constantly looking across the river to see what had happened to his owner. Occasionally he would whinny as if he was calling to him. He was a real prize, and Sam Grigsby knew exactly how valuable this horse was going to be, but he needed one more trooper in with him in the deal that was going to make them rich. That trooper was Tom Green.

Now Tom Green was a Corporal in the Quartermaster at the regimental headquarters. Tom was in charge of rewarding soldiers for turning in captured horses. He was a good friend with the regimental farrier, and he was about as conniving as Sam.

“Now look here Clem and Cal, we’ve got to hide this horse somewhere safe for a couple of days so that we can execute our plan. I’m going to assign the two of you to a vedette to hide our horse out here. Now the two of you are going to have to be careful. Watch out to make sure that that reb don’t come back across the river with some of his fellers to retrieve his horse. So, you’se got to be alert. But at the same time make sure that you’re deep enough in the canebrakes so that our officers don’t spot you as well. I’ll need a couple of days to get things organized back at Red Bone Church. But boys, you can’t let this horse either get recaptured or seen by anyone until things are all arranged. Got it? We’re in for some real money if we play our cards right!”

With that Sam went back to Red Bone Church to set his plan in motion.

That night Sam reported in and let his lieutenant know that he had left two troopers out along the Big Black to watch a crossing point that they had found. He explained that they had spotted a couple of reb trying to cross the river at what appeared to be a shallow crossing point and that he felt that it needed to be constantly observed. Of course, he gave the lieutenant the wrong location just in case he was going to go out and personally check on Calvin and Clem.

After dinner Sam looked up Tom Green and the two of them began plotting their larcenous endeavor.

“Tom, I found us a beauty, got him hidden down along the Black and I think we can make ourselves a killin’ on this beautiful animal. All we got to do is get him in and out of corral without the horse getting branded. You’re the guy who checks the horses in and gets the quartermaster to pay us. But in this case, we need to get that horse back out of the corral without being seen and hide him for a while. Think we can do it?”

“Sam, depends, what do you have?”

“Tom, it’s an all-white horse, at least seventeen hands high and a real beauty. Some officer will want to buy that horse from us outright, but I think we can do even better than that and still sell a beautiful animal to some officer when were done.”

“So, what’s your plan?”

“Well, what if we bring that white horse in and get our reward and then spirit it out of the corral and back down river to an abandoned barn that I found. We then change the color, you know darken it up just a bit and return it as a chestnut horse. I figure, if we can sneak that horse in and out, we can eventually sell it back to the quartermaster as an all-black animal when were done. Maybe sell the same horse five or six time before we can’t change the color anymore. What’s you think?”

“Well Sam the Quartermaster is payin’ soldiers $65.00 for every captured rebel horse that they bring in; you and me can split it fifty-fifty. I’m going’ to have to get ‘Short’ James involved cause he’s the one that records the captured horses and does the branding. Once that horse gets branded our gigs up. How many guys you got on your side?”

“Tom, just me and Calvin and Clem.”

“So that’s a five way split means about $13.00 for each of us but that’s just for one horse. If we can get the quartermaster to buy the same horse five or six times that’s a nice sum of money. Besides you and me we split fifty-fifty and each of us can figure out how much we want to pay our helpers, I’ve only got to pay ‘Shorty’, but you’ve got Clem and Cal to pay off.”

“True Tom, but I think the Quartermaster would look at me really particular if I was bringing in a captured horse too often, so using Cal and Clem and me to bring the horse back might seem a bit more convincing. So, are we on?”

Sam. I’ll get with ‘Shorty’ in the morning and see what we can work out.”

The following morning everyone was in agreement. Sam would bring in the white horse just about dinner time; most of the quartermaster officers would be heading to their mess to eat leaving only “Shorty” and Tom at the corral. “Shorty” would process the horse and issue a payment chit for the paymaster.

The payment chit would read: “One white horse captured by Sam Grigsby and presented to the Quartermaster on July 15, 1963. Pay to the soldier Sam Grigsby, Squadron “C”, Second West Virginia Cavalry a sum of $65.00 to be added to his next payment by the Paymaster, Signed Captain Randle Davis, Assistant Quartermaster.

Hopefully, Captain Davis would have no idea where the horse was corralled among the hundreds of horses in the possession of the regiment.

Once Tom had the voucher in hand, he’d turn the horse over to “Shorty”, who would then place the horse in one of the far back parts of the corral. “Shorty” would arrive at the corral early in the morning and move the horse out of the corral to the watering trough. In the morning when Sam arrived to draw his mount from the remuda Sam would pick out his horse, move back to the watering hole, pick up the white horse and lead it back to the shed where they were going to change the horse’s color.

The first morning it worked like a charm. Tom had already gotten the captain to sign the reward voucher for Sam, he sent it to the Paymaster like they had agreed to do. “Shorty” had done his part as well. The only glitch possible was that Sam might get stopped at the gate and challenged why he was taking two horses out of the camp. Of course he was challenged.

“Halt!” State your name rank and reason for leaving the camp, and why are you taking two horses out rather than just your own?” asked the guard on duty.”

“Corporal Sam Grigsby, Squadron “C”, I’m relieving three of my men on vedette along the river. I’m taking them their daily ration. One of their horses went lame and I’m leading a new horse down to them as a replacement.”

Sam kept the white horse as close to his mount as possible so that the guard couldn’t see that the horse hadn’t been branded. His charade worked and he was allowed to pass.

When he arrived at the shed Calvin and Clem had already prepared to change the color of the horse. They had mixed the yellow clay along the riverbank and created a light-yellow color. When Sam arrived, they used the lightly colored water to change the entire completion of the once white horse. It was now a yellowish colored animal. By early afternoon the color had dried, and the newly colored horse was ready to make the switch.

This time Clem led the horse back to the camp, reported to Tom and once again the ruse was repeated. Clem now had a voucher for $65.00 added to his paycheck the next time that they got paid. In the morning “Shorty” once again pulled the switch and once again Clem managed to remove the yellow horse from the watering hole, slip it past the guards and take it back to the shed for another recoloring job.

Calvin reported back in two days later leading a beautiful chestnut horse and the deception continued. The horse went from chestnut to a light brown, to a brown with white markings, to black with white markings and finally to jet black. Each time they managed to sell and resell the same horse to the Quartermaster. The managed to sell the same horse six times before they figured that the gig was up. Once Tom led the jet-black horse, dyed with coal oil, to the corral to be branded they had done all of the swindling that they could with the once pure white horse.

They had earned a regal sum of nearly $400.00 that was spilt five ways. The deception had worked and when the Paymaster finally arrived and the men were paid off, they pooled their extra pay and divided it equally amongst themselves. Each man got $80.00 for their efforts, and no one seemed to realize that they had pulled off a remarkable scam.

Each trooper was only paid $13.00 a month every other month. From that there were deductions for uniforms, lost equipment and other incidents that were taken from their pay. When the Paymaster arrived Calvin Russell found himself in possession of a princely sum of over one-hundred dollars. He sent his ill-gotten funds home to his mother and told her to hold on to them for him.

Calvin, Clem and Sam Grigsby worked a couple of other scams over the next few months, but none of them paid off as much as a beautiful white horse that kept changing color and rewarding them each time that it made it back to the corral!

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