Army Life: From a Soldier's Journal

XXV. FIRST MARCH IN TEXAS

CHAPTER XXV. FIRST MARCH IN TEXAS. The southern or southwestern end of St. Joseph’s Island, where we landed, consists mainly of rough ridges of sand.1 While the rough, wild scenery could hardly be called beautiful, still it was quite interesting to us who were not accustomed to see the moving hills of drifting sand. When I looked upon the white sand rolling and drifting up into huge piles I thought of the grand old times we used to sometimes have in our Northern clime as we went dancing with the merry bells over the huge drifts and through the flying snow. Sweet remembrances of the past! When will those happy times be ours again? There is some level land on the island, upon which considerable wild grass grows. Although the soil is light, some of it might repay cultivation. It is evidently better adapted for grazing purposes than any other. The coast along the gulf is very rough. The breakers run very high with a never-ending roar, sounding , sounding, day after day and night after night as though old ocean was determined at all hours to remind us of his unbounded power. It would be madness to attempt to land anywhere upon the gulf shore. The only way is to sail up some channel or inlet before attempting to land. The large bay between the island and the main land furnishes a safe harbor for any number of vessels. The only difficulty is in reaching it. The channel running from the gulf to the bay is narrow and its water shallow. It is not deep enough to admit large gulf steamers. Sunday, November twenty-second, was fully occupied by the balance of our troops in landing on St. Joseph’s Island. By Monday morning we were in marching and fighting condition. The entire command were safely on shore. Our artillery and every thing had been landed in good shape. More ammunition was issued so that each soldier now had eighty rounds. Three days’ rations of hard tack and coffee were issued. This was all the rations we had on shore. Having no transportation we will have to carry every thing and thus march heavily loaded. The water of the bay is warm and the bathing splendid. At our Northern homes we would look for ice instead of outdoor bathing at this season of the year. - In Texas. 205 At Monday noon the order to “Fall in” was given and we at once started for the northern end of the island. We kept along the gulf shore all day. Upon the beach were many rare and curious shells. The boys would pick them up, admire them and then throw them away again. Cartridges instead of things of mere beauty are carried by soldiers in time of war, with an armed enemy near at hand. By keeping upon the wet sand near the water of the gulf, we had a smooth, hard and splendid road the entire distance. We reached the northern end of the island at a late hour of the night, pretty well tired out by our heavy loads and rapid marching. When our advance first reached the extreme end of the island they overtook a band of Confederates who were rapidly crossing the channel over to Matagorda Island.2 A slight skirmish ensued but the enemy soon passed out of range of our guns upon the other shore. One rebel officer was shot. None of our men were hit. A chain of islands ran along the entire gulf coast of this part of Texas. Evidently the gulf shore was, ages ago, along what is now the mainland. Some sudden convulsion of nature probably produced such an effect that the subsequent accretions of sand and earth washed up was deposited along the shore some distance in the gulf from the former water-line. These accretions in time formed into solid land, leaving a space for water, between it and the former shore. At different points the action of the waves and water has kept a channel open through the later-formed land. This leaves the new land in the form of long islands, running parallel with the mainland, from which they are separated by the water lying between them. Thus there is a chain of long islands running along the shore and a chain of bays running along between the islands and the mainland. These inland waters are convenient to the light boats that run through them...