Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Three).djvu/138

 from his position in that army, on the ground of the indignities he had to suffer in the distribution of commands among the various major generals; and thus he disappeared from the scene at a time when he might still have rendered much good service. But his character made his comrades decidedly disinclined to serve under, or even with him.

My encounter with General Hooker, although very satisfactory to me in some respects, and very much enjoyed by other officers, who keenly relished the moral drubbing Hooker had received, after all had serious consequences to me as to my position in the army. It was quite clear that thenceforth I could not again serve under the orders of General Hooker in any campaign, and that, on the other hand, he would not wish to have me among his subordinate commanders. I did not ask to be relieved or transferred at once, because that would have looked like a moral retreat. Besides, I had some hope that in the reorganization of the army preparatory to the Atlanta campaign, some way might be found to obviate the difficulty. I neglected, or, rather, I deemed it improper to urge or even express my personal wishes, and quietly went about the duties assigned to my command, which, during the winter and early spring, consisted in guarding and keeping in repair the so-called “cracker-line,” which supplied the army camped at Chattanooga and vicinity with its necessaries; an office which the very long, one-track railroad, exposed to guerrilla attacks and the like, did not always satisfactorily perform—for I remember weeks during which salt was lacking and we used gunpowder instead, and forage was so scarce that many horses, among them two of my own, died of actual want of food. At last I was advised that in the work of reorganization the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps had been consolidated under the name of the Twentieth Corps, that the Twentieth Corps was to be