UNIVERSITY OF
ILLINOIS LIBRARY
AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
ILLINOIS HISTORICAL 8VBV1SY
THf
:
RECOLLECTIONS
OF
Pioneer and Army Life
BY
MATTHEW H. JAMISON,
Lieutenant E Company, Tenth Regiment, Illinois Veteran
Volunteer Infantry;
Assigned Commander of F Company on the Hood Chase and on
the March to the Sea ;
Assigned Commander of G Company on the Campaign through
the Carolines under General Wm. Tecumseu ShermaL.
Peace.- is the dream of the wise; war is the history of man. %Youth
listens without attention to those who seek to lead it by the paths of
reason to happiness, and rushes with irresistible violence into the arms <>f
the phantom which lures it by the light of glory to destruction. — Srgur.
TO HARRY F. McALLISTER:
THIS IS MY CONTRIBUTION TO THE "DERISIVE SILENCE
OF THE CENTURIES/' AND MY TESTIMONIAL,
TO YOUR EVER FAITHFUL FRIENDSHIP
THESE FORTY-FIVE YEARS.
PREFATORY.
Gone are they all! The tints of youth; the tumult of
battle; the old and worn and tattered banners; the neighing
horses; the broken caissons; the prisoners of war; the Mis-
sissippi flotilla ; the defiant rebel yell on the midnight departure
from Corinth ; Bragg's broken columns on the shifting field of
Mission Ridge ; the bloody repulse of Kenesaw and Marietta ;
the discomfiture of Hood before Atlanta; the exultant March
to the Sea ; the advance in storm and flood through the Caro-
linas; the bloody hour before Bentonville; the Surrender of
Johnson at Raleigh ; and the pageant on Pennsylvania Avenue
following the funeral car of President Lincoln. Gone are they
all; and I too am soon gone! In the fleeting moment the
aging veteran, hat in hand, waves a salute to the oncoming
youth, bearing full high advanced the colors of his country to
undreamed-of triumphs: for this is our warfare; no battle;
no crown of Victory!
M. H. J.
October i, 1911.
Battle Mountain Sanitarium,
Hot Springs, South Dakota.
£818 10
CONTENTS
Pa«e.
CHAPTER I.
Our Family in the Early History of the Government .... 7
CHAPTER II.
My Earliest Days Continued 13
CHAPTER III.
My Mother 18
CHAPTER IV.
Rachel T. Nicol 23
CHAPTER V.
The South Henderson Church 30
CHAPTER VI.
Off for Oregon. Frontier Life in the Early Forties 36
CHAPTER VII.
The Illusions of Childhood 40
CHAPTER VIII.
The Family Removes to the Yellow Banks 44
CHAPTER IX.
My Boyhood at the Yellow Banks 50
CHAPTER X.
Temptations of the Great River 56
CHAPTER XI.
The Yellow Banks 61
CHAPTER XII.
"Gold ! Gold ! from Sacramento River" !. 66
CHAPTER XIII.
The Village Bakery 70
CHAPTER XIV.
The Presbyterian Chapel and Its Memories 75
CHAPTER XV.
The Ghost and the Fink & Walker Stage Coach 80
CHAPTER XVI.
The School-teacher Descended from the Pilgrim Fathers, 87
CHAPTER XVII.
The Menace of the Great River 92
ii Contents.
Page
CHAPTER XVIII.
A Ride with One of the Cloth 96
CHAPTER XIX.
The Bloomer Costume, the Crinoline Disturbance, and
Other Matters 100
CHAPTER XX
The Mysterious Stranger 104
CHAPTER XXI.
The Ghost 112
CHAPTER XXII.
Overland to Fountain Green 115
CHAPTER XXIII.
A Glimpse of Horace Greeley 119
CHAPTER XXIV.
Lincoln and Douglas 124
CHAPTER XXV.
My School -days at Monmouth and the Crozier-Fleming
Tragedy 1 30
CHAPTER XXVI.
"To Pike's Peak or Bust" 135
CHAPTER XXVII.
Homeward Bound 1 45
CHAPTER XXVIII.
A Volunteer at the Fall of Ft. Sumter 149
CHAPTER XXIX.
To Washington and Through New England 156
CHAPTER XXX.
Re-enlisted for Three Years 1 63
CHAPTER XXXI.
Our First Encounter with a Contraband 171
CHAPTER XXXII.
The Capture of Island No. 10 and New Madrid 175
CHAPTER XXXIII.
From Shiloh to Corinth under Halleck 183
CHAPTER XXXIV.
The March to Tuscumbia and Nashville 188
CHAPTER XXXV.
Isolated at Nashville 1 92
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Bridgeport to Chattanooga ; 197
Contents. iii
Page.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Good-bye, Braxton Bragg 201
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Relief of Knoxville 205
CHAPTER XL.
On Veteran Furlough 211
CHAPTER XLI.
The Knights of the Golden Circle 215
CHAPTER XIJI.
The Confederate Campaign in Henderson County 219
The Atlanta Campaign, or the Hundred Days Battle. ... 220
Battle at Rocky Face 233-4
Battle of Resaca 235
Adjutant Rice Wounded 236
Capture of Rome 237
The Fight at Dallas 239
Preliminary Fighting at Kenesaw Mountain 245
The Charge of Our Division at Marietta 247
Fighting at the Rifle-Pits and on the Picket- Ivine 250-1
Peach-Tree Creek. Major Wilson and Captain Munson
Wounded 254-5
Battle of July 22 nd. Death of Gen. McPherson 255
Our Division, the Victim of a Shameful Miscarriage on
July 28th 257
Our Regiment Exchanges the "Acorn" for the "Arrow," 264
Resignation of Commissioned Officers 267
Assigned to the Command of Company F 268
The Hood Chase 268-9
Death of Gen. Ransom 2 74
The March to the Sea 278
Tear Up, Burn and Twist 284
Prisoners from Fort McCallister 288
On the Gulf Railroad 289
The City of Savannah 290
On Ocean Transports to Beaufort, S. C 293
Campaign Through the Carolinas 296
Fighting at the Crossing of the Salkahatchie 300
Assigned to the Command of Company G. Capt. Wilson
of "G" Wounded 302
Midnight Crossing of the Edisto 304
Passing Through Orangeburg 306
On the Saluda, Opposite Columbia 308
The Burning of the Capitol of South Carolina 309
iv Contents.
Page.
At Winsboro 311
Capture of Cheraw 314
Arrival of the Army at Fayetteville, N. C 318
Our Division at Bentonville 321
Our Arrival at Goldsboro 323
Grant Has Taken Richmond 325
Dispatch that Lee Has Surrendered 326
Arrival of Sherman's Army at Raleigh 326-7
Assassination of President Lincoln 327
1 7th A. C. Reviewed by Gen. Grant, Sherman and Other
Distinguished Officers 328
Interview with Mrs. Stewart 329
Homeward Bound via Richmond and Washington 330
In Old Virginia, Petersburg 332
"On to Richmond," Libby Prison and Belle Isle 333
Richmond to Washington. Scene of Sheridan's Cavalry
Engagements 334
Ride Over Spottsylvania Battle-Ground ...» 335
Ride with Surgeon Ritchey and Acting Q. M. Hughes to
Mt. Vernon 337
President Johnson at the Entrance to the White House . . . 338
Letter from Mary F. Hamilton of the Treasury De-
partment 339
By Rail to Parkersburg — Down the Ohio River to Louis-
ville 340
On Fu lough. Ride v\ith Gen Morgan on Front Platform
of Cars from 4 p. M. until Midnight 342
Home ! 343
APPENDIX.
I7th A. C. Badge 344
Congratulatory Dispatch from Governor Low, of Cali-
fornia « 345
The Pot -Trammels of 1690 346
Patriotism of Illinois — Joe Hooker and John Pope 347
Heroes Given to Strong Drink 348
The Rebel Paper's Libel 349
Capt. David R. Water's Explanation of the Movement
of Our Division on July 28th, 1864 352
The National Tribune's Tabular Statement of the Union
Soldiers' Services 354
Henry Watterson's Tribute to Lincoln 356
Copyright 1911,
By MATTHEW H. JAklSON,
Kansas City, Mo.
CHAPTER I.
OUR FAMILY IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE
GOVERNMENT.
To bear willing testimony to the virtues of my honored
parents, whose memory I hold in unfeigned love and rever-
ence, is my first duty as well as my chiefest pleasure in the
preparation of these pages. My father, William Rollin Jami-
son, was born in Grayson County, Kentucky, in 1808, the
year in which the Congressional Act was passed prohibiting
the slave trade, and in which Aaron Burr, after his trial at
Richmond, left his country for Europe, an outcast, to wander
a discredited man. My father's long and useful life compassed
three-quarters of a century. My immediate forebears and
myself were born on our American frontier. Some branches
of our family were represented in the army under Washing-
ton, one of them a quartermaster, and others were usefully
employed in different branches of the military service. One
of these, a young man of eighteen years, left his widowed
mother in the north of Ireland and escaped to this country as
a stowaway, and under an old law or custom of the time, dis-
charged his obligation to the master of the vessel by enlisting
in the patriot army. A grand-uncle was a merchant high in
repute and of considerable wealth in the city of Baltimore dur-
ing the first third of the nineteenth century, and his descend-
ants are now citizens of Maryland. My great-grandfather.
John Jamison, from across the water in the north of Ireland,
settled in Lancaster County. Pennsylvania, the richest agricult-
ural part of the State, in the first quarter of the eighteenth
century. He it was who named the township "Little Britain" ;
8 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
and my grandfather, Samuel Jamison, moved from thence to
Kentucky at the beginning of the century, where my father was
born as aforesaid. The axe, the plow and the rifle were the im-
plements used by the three generations of my ancestors to sub-
due the wilderness. They chose the route into the Mississippi
Valley taken by the Lincolns — namely, from Pennsylvania and
Virginia into Kentucky, thence across the Ohio River into
Southern Indiana, and from thence directly to the Father of
Waters. These migrations consumed the first quarter of the
century. Clearings were made and homes established in the
wilds of Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. In Perry County,
Indiana, my grandfather built a comfortable frame dwelling,
the frame of oak, direct from the trees, the siding, sash and
doors of walnut. Here my father was advancing in his teens
and was the main dependence of the family in the care of such
machinery as the> had, such as horse-power for grinding corn,
the fanning-mill for cleaning wheat, and possibly the crude
cylinder threshing machine, although the ox and the horse
were still in use in my childhood for treading out, the grain.
My father was twice married. His first wife, Marth.i
Finley, who died of cholera in 1832, was the daughter of i
soldier of the Revolution, who fought under Washington at
Monmouth and on the Brandywine. He had just attained his
majority on the arrival of the family in Henderson (then
Warren) County, in 1829. He was a man of strong will, per-
sistent energy of purpose, and in his old age, leaning on his
staff, might well have said, "These hands have ministered to
my necessities." His hands were large and well-shaped, with
the broad curved thumb, the sure sign of a man well endowed.
He taught school on his arrival in Henderson County; could
survey his own lands ; was skillful in the budding and grafting
of fruit trees, and practiced the art more or less all his life —
extending this work to his wild orange groves in Florida. All
his farm work was done with the crude implements and tools
used in the period following the Colonial era. At the time of
Recollections of Pioneer and .Inny Life. 9
my birth, some (a few) of the better helps were coming into
use, such as the cast-iron plow, the then (not always) reliable
steel plow. 1 recall my father in my earliest years, dragging
in his small grain with a well-distributed tree-top, and he did
a good job. The small grain was cut with a cradle, and his
sickle, with its serrated edge (an implement of a former gen-
eration, with which "the mower no longer filleth his hand,
nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom"), was an object of in-
terest to me, and coveted, but denied to me as a plaything.
The trace-chain, the flat wooden hames tied with a leather
thong, the harness made of broad, flat strips of leather cut
directly from the hide, the wide-track linch-pin wagon with
its small fore wheels and extra large hind ones, the tar-bucket
swinging under the hind axle, was the fashion on the public
highways. A wagon of this description, usually drawn by oxen
and scantily daubed with tar on the thimbles, warned the coun-
try round of its approach long before coming into view by its
agonizing shriek ' The late John Bruen, one of the wealthy
live-stock men of the county, began life with such a wagon. I
remember him well, swinging his ox-goad over his shoulder, a
nut-brown, good-natured fellow, hesitating in his speech. The
late David Rankin, another man of the same class, a reputed
millionaire, started on a successful career with such an outfit.
My father had the mechanic's eye, and knew at a glance
whether a line was straight or not. He had the charge, when
under age, of the machinery or tools requiring special care,
for my grandfather had little aptitude for such work. When
doing work which required some skill, his usual comment upon
his awkward sons or others assisting in the labor was, "He
hasn't half an eye!" He "found" himself, and "came to" him-
self, in his own way. He had considerable education: but
gathered it as every pioneer did, by hook and by crook, no
one can tell just how, for he was a man of few words and only
briefly and casually reminiscent.
For a rail-splitter, inured to the toil of building homes in
lo Recollections of Pioneer a)td Army Life.
the wilderness, he wrote a good hand, and spelled correctly,
an accomplishment marked by the breach rather than the ob-
servance by alleged educated people. He never talked about
it; but I think he must at one time have had an ambition be-
yond the commonplace, for he always had useful books in his
possession, and one in particular (an Ains worth's Latin diction-
ary) which he seems to have put to considerable use. During
the winter evenings, when he was not otherwise engaged, he
busied himself making split-bottom chairs for his children and
larger ones for the family. He was skillful at any kind of re-
pair work and owned a kit of shoemaker's tools, with which he
kept the footwear of the family in good shape. These home-
ly labors are best appreciated when those of us who are old
enough can recall families where the stupidity was so dense,
or indolence so extreme, that even in severe weather little ef-
fort was made in pioneer homes to provide these comforts.
He was diligent in his business, intent on his purpose,
concentrated, and cheerful, whistling in a peculiar minor key
as he went about his farm work. I recall him, as he appeared
to me in my earliest years, wearing a broad-brimmed home-
made straw hat and linsey-woolsey waistcoat. Usually the
farmer of those days wore a red waumus of home-woven ma-
terial, the same as the mother and daughters wore, except that
the linsey-woolsey for the latter came from the loom in stiipes.
The elder Hanna presided at an old-fashioned Independence
Day celebration at Centre Grove as late as 1853 in every-day
attire — namely, in an old waumus, with the corners drawn to
the front and tied in a knot.
In pioneer days my father was a sort of referee in local
legal matters; that is to say, his neighbors made him "Squire"
by regular commission, and by this official title he was always
addressed by his friends. And too, he was available when his
neighbors were ailing, for, while he made no pretensions to
the healing art, his judgment was relied upon with great con-
fidence by his neighbors. Blood-letting was still in vogue for
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. n
many diseases, and as a child 1 used to look upon his keen
lance, with its tortoise-shell handle, with a kind of horror, and
1 never failed to lapse into a condition akin to nervous pros-
tration whenever he bled my mother for sick headache. In
this connection poor Josh Darnell comes into view. He was
an epileptic, seven or eight years of age possibly. His parents,
not knowing what better to do, brought him to father to be
bled, which was done.
One day at school I came very near being the victim of
one of Josh's spells. Mary Ann Bigelow, an estimable young
woman, was the teacher at the old Davenport school-house,
and I and my younger brother, Ewell, were sent to her to ex-
plore the mysteries of the alphabet. We were among the small-
est urchins and sat with our bare legs hanging over the first
low bench at the front. Behind us rose a higher bench and a
writing desk or board running along the wall. Here the larger
scholars sat. Josh was seated right behind me, and without
warning the poor lad was suddenly taken with a "fit." His
face flushed purple and he was caught by the teacher in the
act of striking me a terrific blow from behind The teacher
was as much afraid of him as the scholars were and the school
was in a fright; but, after a struggle, the boy lapsed into a
stupor, and in an hour or so was about as well as usual.
The only event that arose to disturb the even tenor of
Miss Bigelow's school was her method of getting even with
the refractory boys. A feature of her academy was an im-
provised gallows, from which was suspended a piece of woolen
yarn. The criminal was brought out upon the, floor and placed
on the trap. The rope was adjusted so that the transgressor
stood on his toes, and if he acted as his own executioner, and
sprung the trap — that is to say, settled down on his heels and
broke the rope, he either got a "licken" or had to be hung over
again. In the pursuit of learning the two children were sent
to Aunt Tabitha Stice, who opened a competing university in
a log cabin which stood on the site of my brother Francis
12 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
Marion's home. At this time, throughout all the region round
about, there was a great scare over the mad dog that bit Brad-
bury. The good mothers were particularly concerned at the
risk taken in sending the children a mile or two to school while
this dog was still at large. As a precaution Aunt Tabitha took
the door of the cabin, which was off its hinges, if it ever had
any, and laid it down on its edge across the doorway, which
would let in the light and keep out the dog, as she supposed.
The dog never came our way, however, and for a break in the
monotony we had to fall back on our own resources. As for
myself, I found a good subject in Will Graham,, who had not
as yet learned the art of blowing his nose. Being his next
neighbor, I introduced some bits of vaudeville which proved
a side-splitting success. At every joke sent as a surprise from
behind my spelling-book there was a cataclysm — Will snick-
ered— and the sheep-legs hung suspended at great length. Up
to this time handkerchiefs had not been discovered, and the
helpless boy could do nothing less than wind up his suspen-
sories, until he must have had a coil in his head as big as -\
pound pippin.
CHAPTER II.
MY EARLIEST DAYS CONTINUED.
During my father's laudable effort to help poor Josh Dar-
nell, I find that I have escaped into this world unbeknownst,
as it were, and got as far as Aunt Tabitha's school before be-
ing discovered, and if my patient reader please, we will trace
the fugitive back to his entrance. I was born on the loth day
of September, 1840, on the ancient hunting-ground of the
Sacs and Foxes — two of the many collateral tribes of the great
Algonquin race; within a few yards of an old stockade,
pierced for musketry, erected at the opening of the Black
Hawk War on my father's homestead, situated in the angle
formed by the branches of the Henderson River, close to its
junction with the Mississippi, and within five miles of the Yel-
low Banks, where I grew to manhood. My half-brothers, John
C. (October 15, 1830) and Francis Marion (October i, 1832),
were born in that stockade, while the children of the second
marriage, myself included, were born in a log cabin on the
same ground. There was no booming of cannon on my ad-
vent into this world; but the Whigs throughout the country
were on their sailor's legs through the inoidinate consumption
of hard cider. Does my reader remember the campaign song
of 1840?
"Farewell, old Van;
You 're a used-up man.
To guard our ship
We '11 try old Tip.
With Tip and Tyler
We '11 burst Van's biler I"
13
14 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
In the "Military Tract' the supporters of "Tippecanoe and
Tyler too" were short on the prescribed refreshment of the
campaign. They were strong on coonskins and log cabins, but
were in a strait for hard cider, and I suspect that my elders
were compelled to work up enthusiasm for the ticket on the
standard stimulant.
My father explored Fulton and Henderson Counties in
1829, and in 1830 my grandfather, Samuel Jamison, and my
uncles James, John Calvin, Harvey and Nathan, my aunt
Elizabeth, a grand-uncle, John Jamison, and a grand aunt,
Sally Jamison, all settled in the immediate neighborhood known
for three-quarters of a century as the "Jamison Settlement" ;
^11 of them within four and five miles of the Yellow Banks.
I recall all the original cabins built by the heads of the differ-
ent branches of the family — the cabin in the woods where my
grandfather died ; for some reason he was not at home, in his
own good frame dwelling close by. I was a small child at play
around the cabin when he breathed his last He died before
his time, at the age of sixty-eight, having torn his thumb on
a splinter as he climbed over the rail fence. The wound re-
sulted in time in blood-poisoning. He used to ride over to my
father's on his old saddle-horse, "Jawl," and show my mother
his wounded thumb, and when he held it out, by rising on my
toes I could get a glimpse of it. Uncle James' rude cabin
stood for some years close to the frame dwelling, which was
not completed at his death. I stood in recent years at the door
of the log cabin and looked in at the same four-square room
where my Uncle Calvin and Aunt Sarah began housekeeping.
Everything comes back to me now : the giant oak and hickory
trees that cast their shadow over the cabin, the long winter
evenings, the shell-bark hickory nuts and the hearthstone where
they were cracked in the light of the blaze while the apples
sputtered in a row and the corn pone slowly ripened in the lit-
tle oven. The current literature was Horace Greeley's Tribune.
The Jamisons all set out a fruit tree first and built their cabins
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 15
afterwards. Uncle Calvin was a clean, wholesome man ; a good
neighbor, without pretensions of any kind; blessed with com-
mon sense in a large measure, a sound judgment, and a proper
pride in his own personality. He suffered much sickness in
his family in the early days of his married life, which kept
him back; but in later years he came grandly forward, and
died with a good estate, rejoicing in having seen his great-
grandchild !
The first built of the frame homes (those of my grand-
father and Uncle James, the first about seventy years old and
the latter sixty or more) are in a good state of preservation,
promising to last to shelter still other generations. My grand-
father's homestead, as cared for by Uncle Harvey in the old
days, was especially beautiful, with its large mulberry tree on
the lawn, the picketed garden-plot on the north, the wide-
spreading pasture land, in which stood the spacious barn, and
the orchard and noble grove of primeval forest for a back-
ground. Now, however, with the passing years the savage
greed of the alien has made havoc in the forest, run the plow-
share almost into the doorway, and threatens to make a manure-
heap of the private burial-ground. I have always been af-
fected in a peculiar way by this venerated spot. Across the
vista of my earliest recollection passes a group of mourners
bearing the remains of my grandmother from the ancestral
home (a short way) to the private burial-plot. My mother
led me by the hand, and I was awed and did not understand ;
but the cloth-covered casket borne solemnly along made an
impression that time alone can not efface. My Uncle Nathan
at his death was an octogenarian, and the last survivor of the
ancient race whose members settled in Henderson County early
in the first third of the nineteenth century. His relict, Aunt
Sophronia, is living at an advanced age, richly blessed in her
children.
It is the happy lot of the child born on the frontier to be
oblivious to the sturdy blows of the axe at the root of the tree
1 6 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
— the patient accumulation of years by which the young mar-
ried couple surround themselves with the comforts of home;
the comfortable cabin itself ; the necessary outbuildings ; the
conveniences of interior lanes and gates and bars ; the well
safely curbed against the feet of tottering childhood, the old
oaken bucket ; the lowing herds and flocks ; my. mother's old-
style poppies and pinks in the garden; father's amber grapes
and damson plums, and his stalwart orchard, the first and the
best in the State (so the State Historical Society says), with
its stout apple trees heavy laden ; the cherry trees, in whose
tops the birds were wont to compete with the boys for the ripe
clusters ; the pears, the peaches — in perfection all, untenanted
by worm and unstung by fly ! All this seems commonplace :
but when I recall the aged couple whose ashes rest in Florida —
"in their sepulchre there by the sea" — who supplied my earli-
est youth with such lavish abundance, the tears come welling
up. Nor is this picture shown in its best light save by contrast.
When I was a lad, I could look across our great prairies and
not see in those wide open spaces a single farm-house, and
fruit in the thinly settled country was almost unknown. My
father brought his fruit scions (poor dried -up little roots,
which could not possibly live, he thought) in a wagon from
Kentucky ! I believe that my father wa -5 the best farmer and
the best all-around man in his neighborhood. He had a roomy
two-story log barn and comfortable cattle sheds when the most
of his neighbors had little or no sheltei for their stock, or
turned it out in the arctic cold. He always had a small drove
of young cattle coming on, and as children we took great de-
light in attending upon the sheep-shearing at the sheep-house
down in the pasture. The threshing scenes at the barn were a
great wonder, where the oxen or the horses went round and
round treading out the grain, and where the fanning-mill stood
for cleaning it. The wheat bins were sections of great hollow
sycamore or cottonwood trees which had been further perfect-
ed for use by burning out. He raised more timothy and clover
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 17
hay than anyone that 1 can remember, which seems odd enough
in a new country where the great prairies were still unoccupied
and wild hay could be had for the cutting. He raised flax also
in small quantities to supply my mother's little spinning-wheel,
on which she made hei thread. The old hackle for cleaning
the flax lay around the house for years after it had fallen into
"innocuous desuetude."
CHAPTER III.
MY MOTHER.
My mother, Margaret Mcllvain Giles, was born in Abbey-
ville Parish, South Carolina, the birthplace and home of John
C. Calhonn. One of her earliest recollections, at three years
of age, was of being carried on the shoulder of her uncle.
Andy Giles, in subsequent years a wealthy slaveholder, in full
dress, including his cavalry boots, from the tops of which hung
pendent a tassel after the style of the Revolutionary period.
Her people were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who emigrated
during the first quarter of the nineteenth century with a con-
siderable body of these sectaries into Preble County, Ohio,
where they had an established church under the ministry of
Doctor Porter, the father of the well-known first pastor of the
Ce.dar Creek church in Warren County, Illinois. One of the
brighest pictures of my childhood is the Sabbath scene at this
country church on the occasion of one of our semi-annual visits
to our numerous relatives in the vicinity : the warm sunlight of
ai perfect summer day ; the noble forest ; the interest of innum-
erable strange faces ; the neighing of horses as of an army with
banners ; the groups of worshipers in the light and shade of
the trees, held together by the living meshes of demure yet
happy children ; and the coming and going through the throng,
with nimble tread, of a pet deer or two, with a tinkling bell
under its throat. The pastor, a typical preacher of pioneer
days, was marked by the romanticism of the mighty hunter.
Woodcraft and the hunting of large game was second nature
to him. He had, too, the wit, tact, and flavor peculiar to
his class. Of no mean education, he lived a rude life, spend-
18
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 19
ing more time in the woods with his rifle than in the prepara-
tion of his sermons, which lacked nothing essential, however,
to the homilies of the John Knox cult.
My mother was the idol of her household of boys — indulg-
ent, gentle, affectionate. One of my earliest recollections is
of standing at her knee Sunday afternoons repeating after her
the Child's Catechism : "Who made you ? God. Who re-
deemed you ? Christ. Who sanctified you ? The Holy Ghost.
Of what were you made? Of the dust of the earth," etc.
These great mysteries were doubly mysterious to me, and I
could get no hold on them until my mother declared, with the
Catechism to back her, that I was made of the dust of the
earth ! I recall perfectly how I pricked up my ears at the
thought of being made out of the dust of the earth. I looked
up into her face more questioningly than before ; but it was
serenely grave as usual ; and withal I know all about the dust,
for my younger brother, Ewell, and I did nothing else the long
summer day than run up and down the lane, stopping at inter-
vals to make of the dust foothouses, of which we had whole
villages ! My mind rested on the announcement that I was
made of dust, and whatever else in the Catechism I may have
forgotten, this great revelation remains as fresh in my memory
as ever. When my father was absent from home, she took
the book. and led in worship. If Aunt Polly McKinney came
over from Uncle James', close by, she sat in the kitchen and
visited while mother walked back and forth whirling her spin-
ning-wheel. I think she must have experimented with almost
everything that was good for the table, for among my earliest
recollections is seeing her trimming home-made cheeses, and
pressing out the juice of blackberries for wine, and I am sure
her delicately browned puddings served with a sauce two-
thirds of a century ago were as nice as any we have in the
wonderful Now ! She was among the first to make fruit jel-
lies when they were first introduced, and she made them beau-
tifully. Her success was the despair of Mrs. Robert Ross,
20 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
her pastor's wife, of a later time, whom she was fond of hav-
ing at her table for tea or an elaborate dinner. They were a
newly married couple, and the wife, being ambitious to learn,
got her first points, after some failures in jellies, from my
mother. The cabin where I was born, afterward weather-
boarded over, had a fireplace, where the cooking was done in
the beginning of her married life ; but she was among the first,
if not the very first, in our neighborhood to have a cooking-
stove, which was like the two steps of a stairway, the firebox
the first step and the rising step the oven back of it. It was a
simple affair, but effective as far as it went, for it was only
an adjunct to the fireplace. The big corn pone, seasoned with
small bits of fat pork scattered through it, continued to be
baked on the hearth, in the Dutch oven, with coals and hot
ashes on top and underneath. Thar old birthplace is still in
use — by the alien. The ancient hearth is still there, in the
room where I slept in my trundle-bed, where the fire blazed
over the back-log, and scorched my face, while I tried to
whittle with the first dog-knife on the Christmas day it was
presented to me. The walnut doors, plain as a pikestaff, and
the little old-style latches, which look like they had been beaten
out on the smithy's anvil, are there, and it is a long time now
since I had to stand tip-toe and make a struggle to raise the
latch to compel the "open door" which John Hay, poor fel-
low ! clamored for in the Orient so loudly.
She had small, beautifully shaped hands — the thumbs
cunning little half-circles, full of character; and when they
rested in persuasive admonition on my head, I felt the strength
of that maternal love which is the most potent guiding force
known to our race. When she was left alone, without com-
pany except her small children, and any unusual noise occurred
at night outside, she would get up from her bed and go out
around the house to find the cause. This is a pioneer home,
where help was not at hand, during the years when the Mor-
mons occupied Nauvoo. My father's horses were stolen by
Recollections of Pioneer and Army 'Life. 21
Mormon thieves at this time. He recovered two in place of
them, but did not get his own. One day an insane man passed
through the country. He came down the lane past the house,
hurling stones and clubs as he went. My father was away
from home and my mother stood on the porch with her small
brood around her, full of apprehension, relieved somewhat as
she saw our neighbor, Sam Lynn, and others, riding hastily
from the north, watchful of the man until he had passed our
place and no harm could come to us. This kindness on the part
of Lynn was always referred to gratefully by her, although
he was a man w*ho, his life long, kept a liquor-joint on his
place and with whom our family could not fraternize.
I was a reckless rover about four years of age when my
mother ventured one Sunday morning to leave me at home
while she and my father went to church. Some older children
(my cousins probably, or my half-brothers) had charge of me.
Without announcing the fact, I concluded to look the premises
over, and wandered off down into the barn lot, where I found
a span of horses lying at their ease only a few feet apart ; one
of these a young gelding which my father had received from
the Mormons in lieu of one their people had stolen from him.
This animal was wild and unbroken. I went up to it, and in
the most social way attempted to draw it into conversation.
I laid my hand on it, or tried to. It did not wait to get up.
It flashed, and gave me a kick that laid me out good and quiet
in another part of the barnyard. I can barely remember that
they came and carried me into the house, for my thigh felt
like it had been crushed, and I could not walk. When my
mother came home and opened my clothing and found the
print of the horse's hoof on the soft flesh, my elders were
brought to account, and there were a number of points in the
cross-exmination which have not been cleared up to this day.
Some time afterward I saw a young fellow trying to break that
horse ; and the last view I had of him he was going head first
over the horse's ears in ;i way well devised to break his neck.
22 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
i tried to trudge over to Uncle Calvin's one day and had
got out on Sam Lynn's unbroken "quarter" — a piece of first-
class land still untouched by the plow — when 1 was discovered
by a drove of cattle grazing some distance ahead of me. I
was advancing towards them with the utmost confidence in
their good intentions when suddenly the leader bowed low his
wide-spreading horns and began waving his tail aloft and
throwing dirt in the same direction with his alternating fore
feet. I stopped a moment to survey the enemy. Then the
fellow with the big horns and another fellow with short horns
and wrinkled countenance (as though the troubles of this world
were proving too much for him) lifted their heads way up —
very much higher than there was any warrant for, I thought;
then they would trot around a little and paw the dirt some
more, and by this time the whole drove was honoring the small
object with two short legs standing in the grass gun-shot away
with the deepest interest. Then the leader sent me another
challenge, and the whole herd moved in my direction. I lost
all interest in my visit to Uncle Calvin's. I thought he could
wait a week or so, and those legs of mine, such as I had, went
through the grass like buggy spokes in the wake of a two-
minute nag. I didn't wait to climb Uncle James' fence — I just
touched it lightly and passed over the top rail like a partridge
on poised wings, and landed— I landed in the rotten cornstalks
and dirt with a thump that disabled everything inside of me,
while the cattle, having lost sight of me, rounded the corner
and went down the lane toward the old church, looking for
the fugitive, bellowing, and raising so much dust that I
thought as I crouched out of sight in the weeds that I should
never want to go visiting again.
CHAPTER IV.
RACHEL T. NICOL.
Some of my mother's forebears and many of her relatives
rest in the churchyard adjoining the Cedar Creek church; and
if my reader should ever visit the lonely spot (not so bright
and fair as in the days long gone, for the meeting-house has
been removed to conform to the public highway on the section
line), on the center pathway he will find the grave of Rachel
Nicol, a blood relative, the daughter of my aunt Susan Giles
Nicol, and that of her brother David, a mere youth, shot from
ambush by guerrillas while scouting with his company under
the command of Captain John Gamble, on the public highway,
near Fort Donelson, Tennessee, during the Civil War. This
ambitious young woman was not favored by Nature in all
which young women born into this world are fairly entitled
to — comeliness of form and feature. She was plain, but she
had redeeming gifts ; she plodded, but the tortoise reached the
goal. Her classmates were comparatively handsome — some
of them distinctly so. Rachel's was a reserved, kindly, well-
poised personality, manifesting a certain mental solidity and
strength of character, rather than brilliance, and a uniformly
neat person. She was fearless, and when others shrank from
the scourge, she nursed the cholera victims. She was grad-
uated by Monmouth College with high averages. When her
class dissolved on Commencement day, some to idleness, some
to fashion, others to work and still others to marriage, she
went on with her studies — completed the course and received
the degree of M.D. from a medical school in Philadelphia ;
then entered the New England Hospital, in Boston, where she
24 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
had the advantages of hospital practice, and nothing daunted,
crossed the Atlantic and entered the University of Zurich.
Switzerland, to further advance her studies in medicine and
surgery. Here she was. taken ill, it is believed, with pneumonia.
In that hour which must come to all, the nurse bent over her
and asked her if she knew that she could not get well; then
• for the first time the face of the brave girl showed emotion ;
the chin trembled, and the tears came ! In due course her re-
mains went by rail to the seaboard, then across the solemn
main homeward bound, and by rail once more, a long journey,
to trie lonely churchyard on the hill, on Cedar Creek.
From a voluminous correspondence I select a few of the
letters of Miss Nicol to her life-long friend, Mrs. Emma Kil-
gore, the accomplished wife of the late Doctor Kilgore, of
Monmouth, which will aid those who treasure her memory
with miser care to trace her preparations for a professional
career.
To Mrs. Kilgore.
"New England Hospital, Boston, Mass.
"May 1 6, 1879.
EMMA. — As you see, 1 am 'swinging around the
circle,' arid now find myself at the 'Hub,' where 1 expect to
tarry for a year. The New England Hospital is delightfully
located in Boston Highlands, on an eminence, from which the
city and its numerous suburbs can be viewed. I have seen
very little of the city yet, have been out but twice since I came,
which I do not consider a great cross, as I did not come on a
visit. The hospital is net connected with any medical school,
nor is it a charity hospital— except a few endowed beds which
may be occupied by free patients; hence the class of people
with which we work is quite different from that ordinarily met
in hospital work. I am to spend my first four months in the
surgical wards and have already become deeply interested in
my patients. Each doctor is expected to visit the patients under
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 25
her care before breakfast, dinner and supper, also again in the
forenoon with the chief of the hospital. After supper each
one reports to the chief physician the condition of her patients.
Each puts up her own remedies also. Tuesdays and Fridays
are set apart for surgical operations, so you have a synopsis of
our work, except that I did not say that we are expected to
write the histories of all our cases."
A Premonition of Her Fate.
"33 Warrenton St., Boston, Mass.
"Dec. 30, 1879.
"DEAR EMMA. — I think you might have made a further
sacrifice in order to make me a visit and see Boston, whose
wonders I would only be too glad to visit with you ; then you
know such a thing might happen as that I could not visit you
for a long, long time, maybe never, and then — no, no, I will
not try to work upon your feelings in such a way as to unfit
you for responding to the demands of the present ; but then,
after a while — not now, but far away in the future, the burden
of years or some such inconvenience may possibly interfere
with the realization of anticipated enjoyments ; only a bare pos-
sibility you understand, of course. You ask how I like my
profession. My reply is, the more I know of the principles
upon which its practice is founded the deeper becomes my in-
terest in and the greater my admiration for it. My great
lamentation is that I did not begin the study ten years sooner
than I did. I am, and have been, in the dispensary connected
with the N. E. Hospital. We have clinics every forenoon and
while away our afternoons, and alas ! too many of our nights,
visiting patients at their homes. It is especially interesting to
be called up at I or 2 in the night when the horse-cars are not
running and find a walk of from i to 3 miles before you with
the inspiration of a pouring rain or a terrific snow-storm to
spur you on."
20 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
From Germany to Mrs. Kilgore.
"Hotel de la Rose, Wiesbaden.
"June 9, 1880.
"DEAR EMMA. — I postponed answering your letter until
I could decide what disposition I would make of myself. I
left N. Y. on the nth day of May, then undecided whether I
should remain tnere tor any lengtn of time, or come here. 1
spent the ten days in X. Y., and in company with two friends
from Philadelphia, who met me there, did the city quite thor-
oughly. During this time I also made up my mind to come
here, and in accordance with that conclusion sailed at 3:15
p. M. in the 'Maas,' one of' the Xetherland-American S. S.
Co.'s vessels, sailing between X. Y. and Rotterdam. The
time in which this steamer usually makes the trip is thirteen
days, but owing to head winds, which prevailed all the time
except the first three days, and the roughness of the German
Ocean, the voyage was prolonged to fifteen days, lacking three
hours. As regarded roughness of sea, we were told our trip
was an unusually favorable one, .even for this season, with the
exception of twenty-four hours on the German Ocean, which
was somewhat boisterous, but not alarmingly so. Notwith-
standing the smooth sea, which was like a mirror most of the
time. I was sea-sick eleven days of the fifteen ; not very sick
any of the time, but so dizzy I could not stand on my feet, and
rather than substitute my head for these ordinarily useful mem-
bers, assumed the recumbent position on deck sixteen hours out
of the twenty-four, the remaining eight in my berth and in go-
ing to and from it. I am convinced that I might have escaped
the sea-sickness entirely had I gone on shipboard in good con-
dition, which I did not ; the ten days' dissipation in XT. Y. hav-
ing had the opposite effect. But I will be wiser next titrie!
The remaining five days T enjoyed very. much. I will take this
opportunity of commending our ship's officers for their thought-
ful attention and gentlemanly bearing, which in no small de-
gree aided in the mitigation of the wretchedness attendant
upon sea-sickness. When you are ready to take a sea voyage,
you can not do better than to patronize some of the steamers
of this line. We arrived at Rotterdam at n A. M. June i6th,
where I remained until 10:30 A. M. next day; then took an
express train, which brought me here at 10:30 P. M. of the
same day. I did not make the famous trip along the Rhine in
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 27
•
a boat, as it was raining that morning when 1 started and con-
tinued to do so all day. The trip requires two days by boat,
while I came by rail in twelve hours and saw beautiful scenery
for one day. It is truly magnificent — yes, glorious ! The rail-
road track winds along the river just far enough from the
edge of the water for a drive and walk, and upon the opposite
side of the track, upon its very edge almost, rise abruptly the
hills covered with grape vines which seems> to be growing from
a stone pavement as seen from the car window — not a speck
of soil could be seen.
"The journey through Holland I enjoyed as much. It is
like a fairy land. I could scarcely realize that I was not
dreaming. It is a land of beautiful gardens. They grow some
grain and grass, but always in small plots, edged by grass of
a different tint, closely cut, serving as an ornamental border.
Then surrounding this a wide ditch or small canal, these aver-
aging about ten feet in width and serving the purpose of drains
as well as means of connection between different localities.
Of public highways as we understand that term there are very
few in Holland, travel being effected in small boats on the
canals, which I should judge use up fully one-sixth of the sur-
face of the country. What few roads there are have on either
side a row of immense trees carefully trimmed and whose
branches meet overhead, adding greatly to the beauty of the
landscapes, and no doubt contributing to the com.fort of the
travelers.
"I had quite an amusing experience at one of the railway
stations in Holland. No one could speak or understand Eng-
lish and I could not understand Dutch. One fellow seemed to
have a sort of vague idea of the signification of the words
'ticket' and 'luggage.' which he continued to repeat in very
much the same tone and manner of the faithful on their
Ave Marias, as if by so doing he hoped to receive inspiration
sufficient to make victors of him and myself both. It was ex-
ceedingly amusing, but, as the inspiration was not forthcoming
and everything around seemed to point to the early departure
of the waiting train for somewhere. I determined to exercise
my faith in a more energetic manner, and with an incredible
amount of gesticulation performed during the few minutes left
before leaving of the train, succeeded in getting aboard, bag
and baggage. T leaned back and drew a long breath, feeling
quite sure of being on the verge of departure for somewhere.
just where was sufficiently mysterious to keep my interest in
26 Recollections of Pioneer and .Irmy Life.
the journey from flagging until about i p. M. of the same day
(the hour of starting was 10:30 A. M.), when the train stopped
and everybody got out and I could see they were unloading the
baggage, and yet there seemed to be no station, only a single
large uuilding. Suddenly it began to dawn upon me that we
had reached the boundary between Holland and Germany and
here we were to have our baggage examined by Custom House
officers. I sat in the car, knowing that if my surmise proved
correct, the day's mystery would soon be solved. In a few
minutes one of the uniformed guards appeared at the door of
the car and addressed yours truly as follows, 'Haben Sie bag-
gage?' to which I replied in the affirmative and immediately
clambered out, went into the Custom House, opened one of
my trunks, into which the officers cast an indifferent glance,
and at once marked them both free from duty. Being now
among Germans, whose language I could speak and understand
to some extent, I learned that 1 was on the right track. I then
took my seat in the car and in a few minutes we had resumed
our journey, reaching Wiesbaden at the hour previously stated.
I shall probably remain here two months, then go to Zurich or
Berne, which I can not yet say.
"With kind regards to all my friends and love to yourself,
I am as ever,
"Your sincere friend, R. J. NICOL."
From Switzerland to Mrs. Kilgorc.
"Zurich, Dec. n, 1880.
"DEAR EMMA. — You evidently think crossing the ocean
an extraordinary affair, yet you think nothing of making a
long journey by rail every few months which is attended with
many more inconveniences than traveling by water. I admit
sea-sickness is not the most agreeable sensation imaginable, yet
believe it can be to a great extent avoided by going on ship-
board in good condition and exercising a little common sense
the first few days of the voyage.
"As to your question, 'Am I attending the University?'
Yes, I am attending two lectures daily and the remainder of the
time devoting to the clinics and the hospitals ; am also having
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. .29
practice work in the pathological laboratory three hours every
Friday. * * * * Would be glad to take you the satin and silk
dresses were I going in your direction, and what you want will
be sent as soon as possible. If there is any other article which
the second cousin of the President-elect of the U. S. wishes,
I would be most happy to lend my aid in procuring the same.
One can buy the best quality of kid gloves — four buttons — for
four and a half francs. They can be sent by mail for 12 cents
per pair.
"Sincerely yours, etc., R. J. N."
Miss Nicol was my mother's favorite niece, and although
widely sundered, the two loving friends made the journey to
other worlds than ours nearly together.
CHAPTER V.
THE SOUTH HENDERSON CHURCH.
The South Henderson Associate Reformed Congregation
was organized by the Rev. Alexander Blakie on July 4, 1835,
with a membership of fifty-nine. My father and John Giles
were elected elders. Four sermons were preached in my fath-
er's barn prior to the organization, two by Rev. Jeremiah Mor-
row in 1834, and two by Rev. Thomas Turner in 1835. The
first meeting-house, a frame structure, was built in 1837; the
second, of stone, in 1855.
The frame meeting-house was the one familiar to me in
my childhood. Here the honest yeomanry of the new country
met in reverential worship. Here the local workmen put to-
gether their share of the moral framework of the political
structure which forms the commonwealth of Illinois. The in-
teresting spot, hallowed by association with so many good and
useful lives, became a notable landmark in the county and a
modest force and center in our Western civilization. Our fath-
ers did a crude and imperfect work possibly, but it was done
in sincerity and there is none to gainsay it to this day. The
open, original forest (the heavy undergrowth has since ob-
scured the view) permitted us to see the meeting-house one-
third of a mile away from my father's doorstep, and we had
a private pathway through the woods by which we attended
the services. Here the old-style preachers of the ancient
Scotch faith made the spot lurid with the fires that are never
quenched and made the prayers hold out better than the legs
of those who stood to hear them. At unanticipated intervals
we had a supply direct from Scotland. They were of the
30
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 31
straight John Knox brand — very raw. The}' employed the
method direct. They handed out the prescription. If the
flock would not take the dose, because it was "too strong,"
then the devil would be to pay. and his terms were hard to
meet.
I am glad I did not hear everything the preacher said.
While he breathed threatenings. and warned the good people
of an impending smash-up, I leaned my weary head the long,
hot summer day on my dear mother's arm, oblivious of it all,
and I think she was as glad as I was to get out of the stifling
close room into the fresh air, where we could eat cookies, pie
and chicken, and talk with the neighbors during "intermission."
I am happy to say, there was a constant aspiration toward bet-
ter things, both as to forms and doctrine — a permanent revolt
among the less hide-bound members against the absurdities of
Rouse's version and allied straight- jacket methods of script-
ural construction. The old church cracked the whip over its
poor slaves who would not — many of them — so much as look
up and claim an inheritance here, much less a rest with the
people of God hereafter. Derision in the seat of the scornful,
and ridicule in the church itself, drove Rouse back to his native
highlands, and opened the hearts and minds of men and wo-
men nursed in the ironclad forms of an ignorant and brutish
age to the light and warmth of the truth as it is in Jesus —
and America !
The indulgence in strong drink, a convivial weakness not
uncommon among the members and not wholly unknown
among the clergy, was esteemed a trivial offense compared to
a little sanity in the ritual. I can speak by the card, for my
mother declared that the old preacher who baptised me had a
preternatural affection for his toddy and was crazy withal !
Almost without exception, all the old-time clergy were grovel-
ing tobacco-chewers. There were some odd specimens among
the early pastors of the South Henderson church. Father
Friedley wis one of these. He had a very priestly air when
harnessed for service, and he was an honest little man. but he
T,2 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
couldn't preach worth shucks. His best point was an unfail-
ing good nature, and his worst an incorrigible laziness thai
must have reached back lineally through seventeen generations,
it was so thoroughly bred up. His morning service was sched-
uled for 1 1 o'clock A. M. ; he did nobly, for him, if he hove in
sight of his flock at i o'clock p. M., and the apprehension the
poor man felt, that under the circumstances the "session"
would have a rather chilly reception planned for him, did not
add to his peace of mind ! Later on he taught the Brokelbank
"Academy," and still later the public school in the court-room
at the Yellow Banks, where I took advantage of his kindness,
and along with two other boys got leave to study in the shade
of the black-jacks outside ! Why our elders put us to study-
ing Latin when as yet we knew nothing about our own tongue
is one of the mysteries not pertinent to this narrative. There
was blue-grass in the bushy groves in those days, big bull
snakes, strawberries and flocks of quail. My companions,
John Brook and Jim Pollock, were very good in the Latin
grammar and in reading "Historian Sacrae," but a large portion
of our time was spent in gathering violets and fighting 'em as
Johnny Jump-ups. I remember well, at a point not over fifty
yards from the court-house, catching over a dozen quail in my
trap and losing half as many more in my efforts to hold them
all in one hand while I reached under and pulled them out by
twos and threes with the other. The sandy level extending
back from the river to main Henderson was heavily wooded
and the soil fertile, the result of decades of rotted leaves. In
places the ground was heavily carpeted with blue-grass, and
the whole of it so covered, but in places thinly. When the
original forest of large oak trees was cut away and the fierce
heat of mid-summer fell unbroken upon the sandy loam, the
strength thereof disappeared like snow in May. The forests in
the great economy of Nature are ranked by the Psalmist with
the seas and the mountain ranges, and the mental feather-
weight who will invade their ranks for indiscriminate slaughter
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 33
should be indicted for the murder of earth's chiefest conserv-
ing glory.
To gather up the threads of my discourse : Dominie Fried-
ley I believe really preferred teaching to roasting such an
immense majority of the human race in the flames of the pit.
He did not take kindly to the business of a stoker. The dear,
kind, patient old man ! He will get his share of the good
things coming I verily believe, whatever becomes of the rest
of us!
As a class the old-style preachers knew no other way than
to strike terror into our guilty souls — to scare us into the king-
dom. The Sunday aspect at South Henderson was rather
grim. The sermons were wrathful. Robert Ross, who was
a comparatively modern preacher there, had but one burden —
the wrath to come ! His favorite phrase, which he never omit-
ted, regardless of the text, was "the weeping and wailing and
gnashing of teeth" as the seething masses of humanity, like
maggots in a dunghill, crawled over each other in their efforts
to get out of the flames. One impression only was indelibly
stamped upon my youthful mind by these sermons — that of
terror, and the nightmare follows me like a shadow to this
day! And yet to my immature understanding there was the
suggestion that my elders took these anathemas with some
grains of salt ; that, after all, it may not be as rough sledding
in the great hereafter as the picture drawn would seem to
imply. My father, contemplative and discerning, did much
thinking on religious subjects on his own account. He was an
inquirer, and welcomed the light which shone from his varied
reading. He was a great admirer of Dr. N. L. Rice and he
never failed, when opportunity offered, to hear that eminent
man in his own pulpit in St. Louis. On these occasions he
was fed on manna not so severely roasted as that to which he
was accustomed at home.
An interesting old couple in regular attendance upon the
services were the aged Mr. and Mrs. Davis — coming and going
in their well-remembered "one-horse shay." Mr. Davis was
34 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
a figure sure to attract attention from any boy. His age (he
must have been a veteran of 1812), his erect carriage; and his
queer, drab-felt great-coat coming down to his heels, and its
series of ever-enlarging capes, beginning with a small one at
the throat and increasing in size down to the point of the
shoulders, and the fastening at the collar (a twisted brass
chain and hook) — the whole giving one a good idea of the
appearance of historical figures of the past.
The fathers of South Henderson were of that grain that
if a prejudice once found lodgment therein, it was like a four-
pronged, hard-and-fast molar tooth — one must break the jaw
to get it out; but with all their shortcomings, of whatever
nature, which they shared in common with their fellow-men,
they were, as a rule, clean as a new silver dollar, as welcome,
and would pass the solid globe around. The congregation was
about equally divided between* immigrants from the North and
South — members from Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana had
their equivalents from Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee,
and some of these latter who had withdrawn from the South
were so poisoned by the virus of slavery that they continued
to vote for the oppressor as before; but while the elder gen-
erations have passed away, I remain steadfast in the hope and
belief that some time or other, in the future ages, their de-
scendants will cease to vote the Democratic ticket.
And now as to King David : he was a musician — the chief
musician and composer of his time, the leader of a choir; the
companion, friend, and patron of choristers. His psalms, or
songs, were all addressed to some one of the chief musicians,
by name, his contemporaries. It was his business and chief
delight to "sing a new song" unto the Lord, with "the harp,
with trumpets, and the sound of cornet, with the timbrel, and
with stringed instruments" and "organs," with the "loud," the
"high-sounding cymbals." He was the inspired composer of
Israel as Mozart and Mendelssohn and their compeers were
the inspired children of song of a later time. Our dear old
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 35
fathers affected to admire David's songs above all other men,
and in the same breath to despise his orchestra. How could
that be? But his orchestra, as we have seen in the passing
years, is a monster which the old Church, with all its qualms,
"endured, then pitied, then embraced." I salute them most
heartily in their emergence from the thralldom of Rouse and
all the bigotry of centuries. May their choirs, their organs,
and their "gospel songs" prevail and spread till they fill the
whole earth ! And I lament and mourn with them that one of
their immature preachers, in a public assembly, in the year
1905, should make such an ass of himself as to attempt to
cover with opprobrium the inspired song "Lead, Kindly Light."
The Church will purge herself of all such indigestible matter
in due time.
CHAPTER VI.
OFF FOR OREGON. FRONTIER LIFE IN THE EARLY
FORTIES.
In the year 1845 some of our kin and acquaintances — a
part of that restless, migratory advance guard of the race —
anticipating a lack of elbow-room on the fertile soil of Illinois,
gathered up their small effects and struck out with their ox-
teams and prairie schooners for Oregon ! Think of all that
has happened on the "plains" since that year! Around Forts
Bridger, Snelling and Kearney ; Zack Taylor and his little army
on the Rio Grande ; the expeditions along the Santa F6 trail ;
John C. Fremont and Kit Carson and their alleged explora-
tions ; Albert Sidney Johnston and his army menacing the Mor-
mons in Utah ; the Argonauts in search of the golden fleece ;
the dramatic scenes in the Lava Beds and the bloody vengeance
taken on the pale-face; the score of Indian campaigns marked
by the bloody reprisals and heroic deaths since these emigrants
made their peaceful journey to the Willamette valley !
They pulled up at my father's gate to say farewell, and
they might well do so, for it was the final separation of old
friends. They had gotten a mile distant on their journey to
the Pacific when we discovered that they had forgotten a rifle
(an important part of their equipment, as regarding game
and defense), and my young cousin Mary, always quick to
act, picked up the gun and ran across lots, through an eighty-
acre field, and intercepted them ; I, doing my best to keep up
writh her, got lost in the weeds. During these years my
young cousins, older than I, Sarah Ann, Mary and Ellen,
daughters of my uncle James Jamison, took care of me and
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 37
younger brother when our parents were absent from home.
Mary was a fearless, enterprising girl, and was wont to take
me down to the sheep pasture, along the little spring-fed
"branch," among the crawfish-holes, in search of adventure.
Here she found a garter snake or two one day, and stunning
them by a stroke with a stick, would lay them on a stump and
cut them in two with an axe she held in her hand. I stood
by in consternation, looking at the pieces wriggle !
My uncle James and aunt Polly McKinney died at thirty-
five years of age, or thereabouts, leaving behind them these
young cousins and their brothers, Samuel R. and George Mc-
Kinney, all of whom lived to old age and have been blessed
in their day and generation. The three daughters made their
home under my father's roof at intervals while they were
growing up, and all of them were married under it. Sarah
Ann was my mother's right hand for some years, and much
endeared to us by her faithful services in the household. My
uncle James was the eldest son in my grandfather's family,
an honor to his race, as indeed were all my uncles, his broth-
ers. He was a member of the Presbyterian congregation at
the Yellow Banks, and after the pioneer method, he went to
the woods and cut out and delivered the timbers for the frame
of the church, which is still in use in an almost perfect state
of preservation. The brothers, James, William R. (my fath-
er), John Calvin, Harvey and Nathan H., were home-builders,
as were their forebears. They founded Christian homes and
surrounded them with peace and plenty. They were all lovers
of choice fruits, and literally rested under the trees which
bore twelve manner of fruits in this world, as they had a well-
founded hope should be their lot in the world to come. And
now, when I recall them in their old age, their bent forms and
their blameless lives, I feel that just pride in an honorable
ancestry which should be the inheritance of all.
It was during the, winter of the deep snow (1845-46) that
my father would bundle us all into the two-horse sled and
drive by moonlight to the Davenport school-house, where the
38 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
singing-school, under the training of Mr. Joseph Chickering,
was held. The patrons were David and Aleck Finley and
their sisters, Sarah and Eliza, and the young people of their
generation. The school was very small in numbers and the
income slight for the young Yankee singing-master. What-
ever it may have been, it was subsidiary to the old gray mare
and the big undulatory driving-wheel of the turning-lathe at
the furniture factory, which would be under full swing the
next morning at the Yellow Banks. There must be some of
Mr. Chickering's kitchen and rocking-chairs, bedsteads, etc.,
in use in Henderson and Warren counties to this day. If
none can be found in use, but a piece of one of them can be
recovered from the weeds back of the stable, I hope it will
be placed in a glass case for preservation, for I know of no
man's handiwork better worth recovery from the "tooth of
time and razure of oblivion."
One of the figures that interested me in my childhood was
old Mr. Lusk, the deer-hunter. He was a dilapidated-looking
old sheik, with a glittering eye. He rode a horse whose sur-
name might have been "The Ancient of Days," and it had a
movement like the planets ; that is to say, if you had the neces-
sary instruments and were versed in astronomical calculations,
you might determine the progress of that horse. It was be-
yond the scope of plain mathematics. It was a special Provi-
dence in behalf of the old hunter, having been designed from
the foundation of the world for stalking big game. Mounted,
you could not tell where the man left off and the horse began,
the two were so essentially one. Moving like Fate through
the open forest in the early, frosty morning, the old hunter
of sixty years ago rode imperceptibly along with his long rifle
on his shoulder, a tinkling bell hanging under the horse's
throat and a bit of bright red flannel conspicuously in view.
He never pursued his quarry; the agile, sinewy pride of the
forest heard the soft, scarcely audible notes of the bell long
before it came into view. Its well-known curiosity was in-
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. • 39
stantly aroused and it strode inquiringly, in its clean-cut beau-
ty, directly toward the hunter, whose searching eye took in the
slightest movement in the wide forest around. The instant the
stag came into view, and stood like a statue with uplifted muz-
zle, the report of the rifle was heard, and the game was there
to take home !
CHAPTER VII.
THE ILLUSIONS OF CHILDHOOD.
Every child has its share of illusions, acquired in part
from the conversation of his elders, which he misconstrues.
On a journey into Rock Island County with my parents to
visit my aunt Susan Nicol, I was queerly impressed by an
old bachelor who lived alone in a cabin on the roadside. He
believed in witches, and would not sleep on the first floor of
his cabin, but in the loft, to which he ascended by a ladder,
which he drew up after him ! The lower floor was covered
with a jumble of trumpery, including buffalo robes, and so
forth. I tried to catch the meaning of the conversation be-
tween my father and mother concerning this man and the
witches which were his unwelcome visitors. I was curious to
know the dimensions and appearance of a witch. At the edge
of the grove near his cabin were some singular bits of handi-
work made of split hoop-poles the size and length of wagon-
bows. These were bent and the sharpened ends stuck in the
ground ; they were in pairs, the one bent over the other at
right angles. I wondered what these were for. Did the
witches live in those wicker houses? My father was not com-
municative on the question of hobgoblins, and I did not feel
at liberty to push my inquiries.
When a small lad, I was playing near my father's store
when a wraith came out of the invisible and disappeared be-
fore my affrighted gaze in the same direction. Out of the
viewless air came he and went in the same way — like a flash.
It was the figure of a man in a devil of a hurry, carrying
something. It might have been the devil himself, who had
captured a small boy and was making off with him ! He made
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 41
the dust fly as he sped away into the unknown. He made an
impression on me at the moment which slowly faded away as
the years passed on. He never came back and I am glad of it.
I was standing under a certain tree with another boy in
the deep woods of the Henderson River bottoms when a cer-
tain warning sound seemed to come from the tree and we
thought it trembled. We left the spot without so much as
saying "Good day" to the man up-a-tree, or whatever it may
have been. Possibly it was one of those lofty elms the poet
refers to, which "murmur sometimes overhead and sometimes
underground." I was taken to Burlington when the town was
known as the "Flint Hills," and as we sat in the wagon waiting
for the ferry-boat I was fascinated with the scene across the
river, which I was looking at for the first time. The hills across
the broad stretch of water looked like mountains, and at their
base along the river shore a number of men were busy wash-
ing lumber in the cribs and piling it on the bank. They looked
like Lilliputians a finger-length in height, and the boards they
handled like toothpicks ! I seemed to be looking at them
through the wrong end of a telescope, and my eyes were
riveted upon them in mute astonishment. There was nothing
illusory about the ferry-boat, which was a flat-bottomed scow
propelled by horse-power connected to paddle-wheels, and
would carry two teams at a crossing. It was steered with a
big oar like a raft of lumber.
I made the acquaintance of Elijah the Tishbite early in
life. In one of my father's old books there was a picture of
Elijah seated in an automobile borne up on a billow of fire.
He had lost his hat and his bald head stood forth, the long,
thin, gray hair on the back of his scalp streaming in the wind.
His foot was on the brake, and he was holding on for dear
life. His Mobler seemed easily dirigible, notwithstanding the
horses on the front. They were there for effect! They had
no pull, for they had no harness on! But they were beauti-
fully rampant and I could see that Lije was stuck on his team.
They had no use for harness in the country he was going to.
4? Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
and he gave his set to Elisha along with his old clothes. He
was two miles up when I first noticed him, going lickety-
brindle, no open bridges to engulf him, no traction cars cross-
ing just a hair ahead of him, no woman frozen stiff with fright
on his beat. I never saw a man enjoy a ride so much. No
wonder Elisha tore his coat from tail to collar when he found
he could not go along ! I got nervous for fear one or more of
those horses would plunge off the billow of fire and break his
neck. I watched that Mobler spin away, up, up, and away, till
night came on; then Lije sheered up to the door and asked
the man in the moon for the loan of an overcoat. He ex-
plained that he didn't think it was so far ; wanted to kick him-
self for throwing his own coat out at Lish's head as his chariot
responded to the throttle and_lit out. As he sped away for
the Big Bear in the polar zenith overhead he confessed to him-
self that the climate was different from what he expected;
then he began to wonder if the contents of the storage-tank
would last the trip out, and if he could buy a bearskin cap
with eartips anywhere on the route. The next station was
Mars, and he made as if to stop a few minutes and aid the
constable by an inquiry as to whether Rockefeller had been
seen anywhere around; and too, Lije had another motive up
his sleeve: if, in aiding the officer to serve his subpoena, he
might in the same motion persuade Rock to refill his storage-
tank; but Mars was not to be caught napping. He mistook
the Mobler for an English fishing-smack and let go a broad-
side with his quick-firing guns. That settled it for Lije. He
bore away limping, but not completely disabled. I watched
him as he mounted into the inaccessible verge of planetary
life. I felt bad for Lije, to think he would go on such a fool
trip. The billow of fire was dying out ; it was dull red, almost
cold ; the storage-tank had collapsed, the punctured wheels
shriveled up. and the skeleton of the venerable chauffeur
sprawled over the disjointed chariot, the grinning skull and its
streaming hair crowning the wreck — drifting, drifting, to
shores where all is dumb !
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 43
Most dreams are of the earth earthy — in line with the cur-
rent of our lives; but some of our visions are separate and
apart; flashed upon the penumbra of our slumber world for
a definite purpose ; prophetic they are, and savor of admonition,
instruction, inspiration, or all together. Most men affect to
laugh at them, but all men believe — reticently and reluctantly
perhaps, but they believe. No intelligent man questions the
visions that crossed the disk of Abraham Lincoln's slumbers —
that wonderful, startling portent of tremendous events. Ten
years before the Civil War a marching column of troops inter-
cepted my progress in the slumber world, led by cavalry, fol-
lowed by infantry, artillery and trains — a formidable array
that threatened to trample me like a leaf under the horses'
hoofs; unlike anything I had ever seen in reality or on can-
vas, but familiar to me during the Civil War. I have for-
gotten a thousand of my idle dreams as completely as though
they had* never been. Not so this one — the token of a com-
ing day !
CHAPTER VIII.
THE; FAMILY REMOVES TO THE YELLOW BANKS.
In the year 1847 my father rented his homestead, which
had cost him so much labor, and removed to the Yellow Banks,
to become a merchant, for which he was well fitted ; that is to
say, for general merchandising, which was the vogue in his
day. He was a skillful and experienced trader, and his enter-
prises included investments in the Northern pineries, the sale
of lumber from the mills on Black River in Wisconsin, and the
buying and shipping of grain, which involved long credits to
the farmers and the maximum of bookkeeping. The transfer
to the county seat was easily made, for he owned a good resi-
dence and half a block of ground in the residence district, a
combined storeroom and warehouse on Market Square, and
a separate grain warehouse ready to hand. For many years
he was highly prosperous — down to the time foreseen by
sagacious business men, when the channels of trade and com-
merce underwent a radical change — from the river south to
New York and Boston via the steel rail. In the palmy days
there was an immense river tonnage and the number of
steamers in commission in surprising contrast to the slight
carrying trade on the river in 1911. This pioneer county seat,
known to the Indians as the Yellow Banks, has a site favor-
able to the eye, if broken to the hope. The traveler on the
deck of the steamer approaching the town from the south,
looking up-stream over two miles of the channel, is apt to in-
quire with an awakened interest the name of the metropolis
where the landing is about to be made. The town is now un-
dergoing a renaissance : the residences of yesterday are beau-
44
Recollections of Pioneer avid Army Life. 45
tiful, and as the years file away it will become more and more
a desirable place of residence. The public schools are good,
the locality extremely healthful, and markedly picturesque, in
the combination of bluffs and flowing water. There are strong-
flowing mineral springs (the Rezner and MeKemson) in the
hills, within an hour's drive of the landing, which would be
an attraction to visitors if properly exploited. I hope to see
these springs, and others in my native county, surrounded by
cottages, and the Mississippi bridged at the Yellow Banks for
a traction system, supplying direct communication with Mt.
Pleasant and other prosperous towns west of the river.
My earliest familiarity with the river, at seven years of
age, afforded glimpses of the old slavery days, at the Yellow
Banks, outside of the slaveholders' jurisdiction. With his
usual arrogance, he did not scruple to violate a constitution of
whose provisions he considered himself the heaven-ordained
custodian. Some of these gentlemen, residents of St. Louis,
were not cotton- nor tobacco-growers, nor tillers of the soil
by slave labor in any sense. They were gentlemen of leisure,
who sold the labor of their slaves to the officers or owners of
steamboats, where it was employed on the deck. All grain was
sacked for shipment, and I have a vivid recollection of the
loading of large steamers, winged with great barges, one on
each side of her. On a hot summer day, or in the early fall,
the warehouse was set wide open, revealing the sacked grain
in tiers piled to the roof ; wheat in cotton sacks ; corn in bur-
laps or "gunnies." Double stages reached from the ground
to, the deck of the steamer and also to the warehouse's double-
entrance, affording room for a long file of deck-hands (black
as the ace of spades most of them) to file down on one side,
each with a bag of grain on his shoulder, and a similar file to
return empty on the other side, an endless chain. These deck-
hands (some of them, at times the majority of them, slaves)
went at a trot, hatless, with an empty bag drawn like a priest's
caul over the head. The ideal mate (there were two of them,
first and second) wa.s a survival of the fittest, and was chosen
46 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
for that reason — because he was a brute, big and burly, with
a voice like a fog horn, and who would not hesitate to take
a stick of cord-wood and brain the wretch that crossed him.
There was often great rivalry between these freighters. As
fully as possible the steamer going up engaged the cargo for
the trip down, but there were odd lots of freight to be picked
up in considerable quantity and the passenger traffic to look
after, and the boat that could lead her rival by a few hours
or a day was in luck. Under the circumstances, the brutality
of the mate was apt to come into full play. I have seen him
with the "big stick" driving his herd of slaves at top speed,
the perspiration dripping from their faces. Before we had
steel-rail connections with New York a large foreign immigra-
tion landed at New Orleans, and came north along the Mis-
sissippi— the Germans dropping out all along the way, in large
numbers at St. Louis and in constantly lessening numbers as
they advanced northward ; the Scandinavians doling them-
selves out scantily until they reached the upper river, discharg-
ing en masse upon the soil of Wisconsin and Minnesota. The
arrival at our landing of one of the Northern-line packets of
the largest size with double barges loaded to the guards with
immigrants and merchandise was a scene to rivet the atten-
tion of the small boy no less than that of his elders. From
the water-line to the pilot-house she swarmed with life. Sharp
eyes caught her large size two miles down stream and when
her whistle called the citizens of the landing to attention, an
imposing body of merchants, idlers and small boys, under the
leadership of Jo Hand, the steamboat agent, went down onto
the wharf to receive the new arrival. She overwhelms us with
interest as she advances, floating in majesty, and with a sense
of power. A railroad train strikes to the heart of the town,
or through it like a' dirk ; but the steamer comes before you
with grace, full of color, like milady within the charmed cir-
cle of foot-lights. The bell sounds and the captain from his
coign of vantage on the hurricane deck gives a quick signal
over the shoulder to the pilot in his handsome conservatory so
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 47
high and lifted up, and which the small boy on the landing
imagines must be a very heaven indeed. The engine bells
jingle and talk back to the pilot, and the great paddle-wheels
reverse, and Leviathan lays his nose gently upon the rocks to
doze and sleep while the cargo is carried ashore, preceded by
the clerk of the steamer. He is a distinguished personage.
He is in his shirt-sleeves. His linen is three X fine. From
time immemorial it has been correct form for a Mississippi
River steamboat clerk to flash upon the landing in his shirt-
sleeves, never otherwise ; but those sleeves ! And the fullness
of the garment of which they were a part ! Only the angels
would feel unabashed in its presence. On this spotless front
glittered Kohinoor, the possession only of kings and emperors
and steamboat clerks. He has under his arm the book of
records whose contents correspond to the bills of lading. The
small boy notes the fine long pencil behind his ear, which is
there for ornament only, as he has another for use in his
jeweled hand. He exhales the aroma of Ind as he settles
with metaphorical outspread wings on earth before the steam-
boat agent, to whom he offers the latest St. Louis papers (a
week old) and the vouchers according to which the freight is
checked off Close at hi3 heels, on the run; comes a caravan
of deck-hands bearing boxes and bags and rolling barrels and
hogsheads of brown sugar — two men, sometimes four, to each
of them. He has a large cargo to discharge, for in addition
to the quotas for our own merchants, there are tons of grocer-
ies, hardware, wooden and willow ware, crates of crockery,
dry goods, what not. for the country stores in Monmouth,
Greenbush, Berwick. Ellison and Stringtown. He plats the
space along the wharf for each of these consignments and long
before he has exhausted his tally he is crowded for room.
The small boy is awed at the excellence of things around him.
His senses are keenly alive to the odors of sweet and precious
things that rise like incense from the heavy-laden steamer.
The round globe has contributed to the happiness of the Yel-
low "Ranks. The subtle pungent barks and seeds from the
48 Recollections of Pioneer and Anny Life.
spicy isles, the oranges and limes from the languorous South,
nuts from Brazil, sugars from "Belcher's sugar-house" and
"New Orleans" molasses from Louisiana — and the "Tiger"
State, with its slaves and sugar plantations, seemed more re-
mote to the small boy than Spain or Italy, both of which were
well represented in the cargo. Think of the anguish he endured
when the figs from Smyrna and the fine layer raisins from
Catalonia were laid down on the wharf — so near, and yet so
far ! He has his revenge. He got all the boys he could and
all the shingles he could, broke the latter into long narrow
scalpels and ran them into the knot-holes in the ends of the
hogsheads of sugar and brought forth nectar for the gods !
lie ate sugar till he should have died if he didn't. Afar off,
piled from the "Texas" to the limit of the hurricane deck, the
light, bulky freight, such as furniture, rose in pyramids, and
at the fore, suspended by block and tackle, hung the new
family carriage, or a farmer's wagon bright from the shop.
The interesting part of the cargo now unloading at the
Yellow Banks is the immigrants and the cabin passengers.
The steamer is crowded with both classes. The old country
people, in wooden shoes and queer headgear, swarming over
the steerage and barges with their hard- wood, iron-bound
trunks built during the reigns of the Great Frederick or
Gustavus Adolphus, and which can now be found in use all
through Wisconsin and Minnesota as shed kitchens and silos.
There was an interchange of curiosity and comment between
the loungers on the wharf and the cabin passengers, noticeably
between the young bloods of the town and the fair travelers
clustered along the railing of the ladies' cabin. As the delay
promised to be considerable, many of these came ashore and
studied the architecture of our temple of Justice, with its Cor-
inthian columns, which aspired to rank with the fallen glory of
Baalbec. Some of them were tempted to see Moir Brothers
manufacturing high wines, and found their way with diffi-
culty among the saw-mills, and the lumber piled high around,
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 49
and celebrated their return to the steamer by regaling them-
selves with confections from Chickering's "Yankee Notions."
I have spoken of Belshazzar's feast elsewhere, but the real
thing was served a la carte at 12 o'clock noon of each day on
board these great steamers in the good old days. None of
your pale Pecksniffian coffee, but the stout black Turk, and
plenty of it; meats and roasted birds and puddings — but I do
not care to be set down as lax in strict veracity. Solomon had
wives enough to turn out a fair quality of hash and enough to
go around, but he 'd pale his ineffectual kitchen fires, once he
got a glimpse of the saloon of a Mississippi steamer in white
and gold, the glittering chandeliers, and the colored waiters
and the swell people on the right and left of the captain at the
dinner hour!
CHAPTER IX.
MY BOYHOOD AT THE YELLOW BANKS.
Idle "skiffs" were plentiful along the river shore, some of
them fastened with lock and key, others drawn half length
ashore and not tied. One day Will Henderson ( a lad of my
own age, long dead, poor fellow!) and I got hold of one of
these free-for-all row-boats, and by dint of a long struggle got
it launched. There were no oars and we could not have used
them if there had been. After a search, I found some pieces
of rotten string on the wharf, with which I tied the boat~tol a
stake. Will sat in the stern and occupied himself as first
cabin passenger. The string would allow the boat to float
out a few feet into the current, and with a stick I propelled our
craft from the shore to the limit of the string a number of
times. Each successful trip made the navigator more bold and
stirred him to greater enterprises, and the last passage out I
gave her a shove that broke the string and sent her out into
the stream, and in mv fright I jumped, landing knee-deep in
the water, and that sent the boat far out on the current! Will,
in his excitement, got to the bow and clambered over, clinging
to the gunwale, his body suspended in the water. I was in
momentary expectation that he would let go and drown. Ev-
ery moment the current was carrying him farther out and
down stream. He had drifted a hundred yards from the start-
ing-point before some workmen along the shore discovered
him. and soon there was a half-dozen men calling to the boy
to hold on. and it took a very few minutes only to get another
boat and bring him ashore. T thought I would be punished
for this affair, but I heard no more about it. Poor Will. T
fear, did not fare so well. The boys learned to swim at a
50
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 51
tender age by playing hookey to get into the water, and I
learned the manly art by getting into a hole one day, and I
was so frightened because I could not touch bottom that I
struck out and landed without difficulty. Ever afterward for
me to swim was no trick at all.
I grieve to add that I went to war almost at daybreak.
There are few boys that escape it. There wrere the King boys
— the blacksmith's sons. They dug a hole in the ground for
a play-house, a fireplace therein, and a cupboard — dishes and
so forth disposed around. I made a friendly call ; but they had
just set up housekeeping that morning, and were not "at home"
to their friends, nor to their enemies either, and proceeded to
prove it by both of them jumping onto me. I was surprised
at their lack of hospitality, and I rose up something like Samp-
son when he grasped the pillars of the temple and brought it
down, roof and all, upon the heads of his persecutors, and the
dishes flew like the sparks from a Fourth of July whirligig,
the cupboard turned a handspring, and the house caved ir». I
don't know whether anybody got licked or not. To the best
of my recollection, I got out whole ; but Mrs. Carmichael, who
was passing at the moment, had a good' laugh at us.
Coming home from school one day at noon. I met my foe
in the alley. We were of the same age and size. I do not
remember what it was about ; anyway, at the first cross-fire
we grappled. He had long hair, which was a decided advan-
tage to me. In the struggle I got two full hands in the wool
and I was slowly pulling his head down into chancery when
his father came yelling at the top of his voice, as I supposed
to jump onto me, and I cleared that battle-field at a bound !
I met the gladiator often afterward, but he seemed not to want
any more of it and I was content to let him alone.
At the old Fryrear house we had a circus. Charley
Cowan, Jr., was the general manager and clown. He appoint-
ed me ring-master and gave me a small cowhide riding-whip
with which to encourage the "horses" and performers. The
grand entry had been made and the three-ringed show was in
52 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
full swing, with the clown winning bursts of applause by his
acrobatic feats and Shakespearean jests. Now this star pro-
tege of Dan Rice was clothed in delicate gingham knicker-
bockers, and at a moment when the beauty and fashion on
the upper tiers were in a cataclysm of delight over his jokes,
he stooped, with his head down and his hands on the floor,
and the ring-master, quick to see his opportunity, came down
on the clown's ''full moon" with a thwack of that raw-hide
that made the veteran of the sawdust ring jump about ten
feet and flush painfully in the presence of the ladies. I fear
but for the presence of our sweethearts on that occasion the
ring-master would have suffered affliction, for the noble jester
was much the older and stronger of the two. These were the
days when Uncle Sam was waging war with Mexico and the
boys' sports all took the military form. Through the sandburrs
and stinkweeds of the suburbs our campaigns were conducted.
The forces were divided as nearly equal as possible into two
armies. One of these had its headquarters at the Fryrear
house aforesaid and the other in the unfinished brick school-
house not far away. The armies met in battle's stern array
on the sandy plain between. We secured a modern equip-
ment of arms at the lumber-yards, where the bunches of lath
and shingles suffered marked depletion on account of our re-
quisitions. From this raw material we constructed muskets,
swords, and some of the most savage-looking dagers known
to warfare. At a given signal the armies emerged from their
fortifications — the captains, the horses and the banners ! Con-
trary to ordinary usage, the captains did not loaf in the rear,
under a tree, smoking a cheroot, while the trash mixed for
victory or death. They went to the front, and with a drawn
dagger, four feet long, dared Alexander the Great to come on !
The result was that in a cloud of dust or sand that obscured
the battle-field there was a sort of military dissolving view in
which the non-combatant could get a glimpse at times of a
mass of bare heels in the air and noses in the sand, with guns
and swords and bayonets writhing and squirming to secure a
Recollections of Pioneer and .Inny Life. 53
decisive stroke. At times it would appear that twenty-seven
veterans were heaped upon one poor fellow, who still had life
in him and was yelling defiance and striking fiercely at his
foes with a deadly weapon in each hand. As a rule, both arm-
ies were slaughtered to a man ; the field being strewn with the
slain, who rose up at dinner-time, when they proved that the
next best thing to fighting was to devour the rations.
At the close of the Mexican War I found that I was a
radical, if not an offensive, partisan. General Zack Taylor
was my father's candidate for President. Forthwith I dis-
covered that I was a Free-soiler — whatever that was, and had
never been anything else, and when election day came, I ran
barefooted around and around the old temple of Justice where
the ballots were being deposited, yelling myself hoarse for old
Zack, and singing the campaign couplet :
"And he had an old 'Whitey' and he rode him very fast,
Because he was a ten-mile nag ;
And he answered back to Van Buren and Cass,
'A little more grape, Captain Bragg !' "
When President Taylor died, all of "us Free-soilers" nearly
died too, for we loved that old man !
I was pleased to accompany my father in his drives, on
mingled business and pleasure: out to the farm, over to
Uncle Calvin's, and on to Uncle John's — a grand-uncle, who
differed from all of the Jamisons whom I have ever seen. He
was trimmer built and finer boned; a handsome man, I am
sure, when he went "sparking" among the belles of Kentucky;
full of the milk of human kindness and in his old age childlike
in his fondness for his kin. Like the folks at Grigsby's Station,
he was "so happy and so poor," for he was no money-maker ;
and when we drove up to his doorway, enclosed by a two- or
three-rail fence, like himself decrepit with age, he would lead
us around and point out along the distant groves the spots
where all the kin lived, with the simplicity and eagerness of
one showing something new. Poor old man ! with his shaggy
54 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
eyebrows white as wool; he has gone where the mists of the
morning have gone — swallowed up by the universal light in
which we shall all be merged at last. He lived the typical
simple life of the pioneer, in marked contrast to my father,
who at that time was in his prime, restless and ambitious. In
a sense they were far apart, yet full of that love for each other
which had run in commingled blood for generations.
•And then again we were driving along Cedar Creek, where
herds of deer would cross the road ahead of us, single file,
and hop leisurely over a low rail fence into a corn-field. The
dense woods along this stream was a favorite haunt of wild
turkeys and "varmints" of different kinds. At a turn in the
road an opossum exploited his tail and his person along a limb
overhanging the water. This gave my father his opportunity.
He asked me to spell 'possum. I spelled it correctly as he
pronounced it; but he declined the civility. I noticed at an
early stage in this mortal life that if one confidently (a good
deal depends upon the amount of "bluff" you put into it)
raises a doubt, it will almost certainly breed another ; so I fol-
lowed up my stunt by omitting one J — "posum" ; but I felt
right away that this was a reflection on the gentleman with
the elongated tail out on the limb on our left. All I knew
about him I had picked up in conversation and I spelled by
sound, for I had not as yet met with an account of him in my
speller and reader at school. Albeit I found I was sinking in
the syllabic mire, but before I stuck in the muddy bottom I
returned to the double s. "No, sir!" came more emphatically
than before. I was not aware that his Prehensile Excellency
had his origin in Ireland and I expired without an O !
Frontier life in Henderson County was marked by all the
characteristics common to newly organized communities. The
Methodist camp-meeting was one of the diversions peculiar to
the time. "The groves were God's first temples." Under every
green tree and on every mountain-top the pagan worshiped
his idols before the Christian era. The worship of the true
God followed under like conditions and the camp-meeting was
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 55
the final development of outdoor devotion. The saints took
these meetings seriously ; pitched the tabernacle in the wilder-
ness; erected booths; provided rations; and made a direct as-
sault on the world, the flesh and the devil. His majesty never
shirked the challenge, but met Gideon and his band boldly, and
it took more than a ram's horn and a perforated tin lantern
to scare him off ! At the first blare of the preacher's horn, the
foe tapped a whiskey-barrel under the guise of cider and sup-
plied the scoffers who mingled with the crowd; the livery-
stables established quick round trips and did a land office bus-
iness, and there were other traffickers with an eye to the main
chance. Once in a while a brand was snatched from the burn-
ing, and he was wept and exulted over alternately ; and Fash-
ion came as in later times and hung on the outskirts of the
crowd to display her millinery. The camp-meeting at Ryer-
son's, in the old Sugar Camp, at the foot of the bluff two miles
from the Yellow Banks, is the one I remember best. A copious
spring flowed out from the rock to quench the thirst of the
multitude. Interest centered in the mourners' bench. Here
the pentitent in deep abasement grovelled in sack-cloth and
ashes until the preacher, in Stentorian tones, declared him ab-
solved from any further allegiance to Satan, or the attendant
saint whispered in his ear the supreme deliverance from the
thralldom of sin. There was jubilation. The bold, bad sin-
ner, having regained his freedom, vented his joy in war-whoops
or wept on his marrow-bones, and the ransomed sisters went
off in a trance or figured in the green-corn dance. Old-timers
recall one of the WycKoffs (a hulking country bumpkin) who
on a time got religion at Ryerson's, and in a paroxysm of pious
frenzy and self-importance exclaimed : "Nobody knows how
much I knows !"
CHAPTER X.
TEMPTATIONS OF THE GREAT RIVER.
The river steamers had a bar, which shone with the efful-
gence characteristic of Satan's favorite decoy, the cut-glass
service of high rank, as becomes the plate in use by "gentle-
men.'' The iced cocktails were a temptation to over-smart
clerks at the landings, who were disposed to "take something"
and pay for it with coin filched from the employer's till, for
I am pained to say that graft was noticeable at times "before
the war," where the salary was incommensurate with the vault-
ing appetite! and there were other temptations. The great
river gave the Yellow Banks connection with the world-wide
commercial ganglia, and stirred the imaginations of youth on
its shores to a strong desire to penetrate the Utopia that lay
beyond their own immediate region. Ed Knowles was the
first of our enterprising lads to make the venture. He would
throw the "old man" off the trail by placing a suit of clothes
— hat and all — on the raft anchored to the shore. "When the
Judge discovers these," Ed argued to himself, "and cannot lo-
cate the owner thereof, he will infer that his unfortunate off-
spring had made his accustomed plunge from the spring-board
to rise no more !" But the father was a discerning man, and
upon examination he found that the young man had left home
in his best clothes, and the noble father ceased to mourn. In
a few brief disastrous moons afterward, Ed was discovered
in an unwashed, famished condition, sneaking in at his moth-
er's back door.
John McKinncy, Jr., a youth of the town, verging on
manhood, felt that he could improve on Ed Knowles' romance.
He had given the matter profound thought and assurer! him-
56
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 57
self that he could not only surprise the old 'Squire, but give
the town the worst jolt in its history. Captain James Findley,
an old-time steamboat pilot. \vho had a long and distinguished
career in the wheel-house on the lower Mississippi, was the
hero who stirred the youth of the town to emulation. They
observed the marked respect with which he was welcomed
when he returned to his estate near the Yellow Banks for a
brief respite from his labors. They were speechless at the
scintillations of the gem on his fourth finger; the gold wheel
on his shirt-front, the emblem of his guild; his air of a man
of the world. In this renowned Presence all the glittering
baubles of this present evil world were as nothing. John cut
his bridges behind him. He went by night to the 'Squire's
strong box and fortified his purse with a roll of the "shin-
plasters" of the period, charged himself with the amount, and
took French leave on the night boat going down. He would
a pilot be. He had not explored the great world further than
Burlington, but felt in his heart that St. Louis and New Or-
leans were cities of mosques and minarets whose foundations
were jasper and whose walls were sapphire. On the landing at
the Yellow Banks he had often studied the pilot at the wheel,
pulling the signal-cords and whirling the helm around and
back, and resting his foot upon it when the noble craft stood
to sea to suit him. He marked the smiling, vivacious daugh-
ters of the South at his side, up from the ladies' cabin, to look
the Northland over from the pilot's coign of vantage. Ah !
what would the youth not give to be the cynosure of such a
group as that? He could and he would be! Right now; at
once ! He would enter the lower river trade ; experience and
training and a close study of the treacherous currents would
be superfluous labor for a youth from the Yellow Banks who
had spent his whole mortal existence rowing over the Father
of Waters. He knew all about it. Owners of steamboats
would trample on each other in their scramble to obtain his
services. He would secure a five-years contract to begin with,
provided the salary met his expectations. He would be wary
5» Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
as to salary and stern-wheel steamboats. "Nothing but the
best," he said. "There is room at the top," he quoted. St.
Louis was something of a disappointment to him. There was
a mile of steamboats at the wharf, mostly stern-wheelers, with
here and there a three-decker, cotton craft, the most of them
rather uninviting. As he stood on the levee a friendless youth
— a mere speck of aimless humanity in the midst of drays,
pounding over the rocks with their immense loads, the odor
of perspiring negro deck-hands, the grime of world-wide traffic
in the ponderous, pungent things of commerce, like barreled
salt, old-time heavy sugars in hogsheads, tierces of rice, slabs
of greasy pork in ton lots, molasses, oakum, tar, pitch and
what not, his elusive dream slipped from him like a soap-
bubble in the hand of a child, and without warning he stood
face to face with a giant mate of a Northern-line packet, di-
recting a file of deck-hands bearing the heavy cable to make
fast. Taking John by the shoulder, the brute growled, "Git
out o' yer !" and the young man slunk hurriedly away, when
another file of deck-hands from the opposite way corralled him
with another cable, which tripped him in his headlong flight
and sent him sprawling into the smear and smell of the slop-
ing, smooth- worn wharf. He went down to the water and
washed his hands and face and sought the sidewalk, obstructed
with freight along the front of the seamy, stained, age-worn
warehouses. Disenchanted and not "knowing what better to
do, he went down and boarded a swift New Orleans packet.
Having ascended to the clerk's office and registered for his des-
tination, he began to slip bank-notes from the diminishing roll
of shinplasters. "Bank of Nemaha," said the clerk ; "we don't
take that — it ain't worth a d ." "Farmers' and Traders'
Bank of St. Joseph," and the clerk turned to his broad-leaved,
thumb-worn "detector," and ran his finger down the column
of suspicious fiat money, not unlike a row of condemned crim-
inals, the forehead of each branded with the number of years
discounted from a checkered career. The logarithm "20" was
in the margin. "Yes," said the clerk, "it is twenty off1, but
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 59
that ten-dollar note is a good ways from home, and I '11 allow
you fifty cents on the dollar for it." John weakened at every
bluff. He despised figures anyway, and the clerk settled the
account on his own terms Then he entered the number of the
berth, perched right over the wheelhouse, and known in the
parlance of old river men as the sanitarium of diseased livers.
The boy, having no baggage, was now relieved of every care
and took a seat with the other passengers, on the focs'l along
the railing, and looked out over the crowded, boisterous wharf
and the steady stream of deck-hands going and coming. He
was ill at ease. There was an undefined brooding at the heart ;
a sense of helpless drifting to sea, without compass, hope or
haven. He thought of home, and the picture of the old 'Squire
and his rod, and the short shrift he used to get, gave him
tranquil pause now that he was beyond the sweep of the
paternal arm. At this thought a joy unknown before elbowed
the mulligrubs off his perturbed spirit and he came to him-
self. He took heart ; he was bound for the land of eternal
summer ! He rejoiced at the prospect of seeing Natchez-under-
the-hill, that ancient cavern of gamblers. He would revel in
the glances of the French Creoles in the Crescent City. Under
a spell of returning lunacy in due time he was landed in the
great sugar and cotton mart of Louisiana, and a brief season
of shinning along the back-doors of the tuppenny restaurants
in the French quarter, where silver coin was the recognized
medium of exchange, chilled the ardor of the youth with his
few remaining discredited shinplasters. He was treading no\*
a precarious path. Silver and gold he had none. He could
not feed the swine, for the slave did every menial service. He
could not earn a wage in the counting-room, for he scorned
the schoolmaster at the Yellow Banks, and all his works.
Ignorance is not bliss. Hunger was on his right hand ; the
police station on his left. With a feeling of deep contrition,
he said : "I will arise and go to my father." He went to the
captain of a steamer, who by good fortune had served in the
up-river trade, and knew all the shippers at the Yellow Banks.
60 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
Questioning the Prodigal, he said to him: ''What is your
weight?" "One hundred and twenty pounds," said John.
"Charles," said the captain, addressing the clerk, busy cast-
ing his accounts, "make out a bill of lading for this young
man at live-stock rates, consignee John McKinney, Sr., Yellow
Banks." "You will be transferred," continued the captain, "to
a Northern-line packet at St. Louis, and may the Lord have
mercy on you !"
John McKinney, Jr., was a creditable soldier during the
Civil War ; the captain of a company in the 94th Ills. Infantry.
As a private citizen he had many friends. He was rated as
a skillful politician, and no blemish attaches to his memory.
CHAPTER XL
THE YELLOW BANKS.
The years 18401856, inclusive, the Yellow Banks was one
of the important markets and chief distributing points on the
upper Mississippi. As a lumber market it was second to none
of the up-river landings. My father exchanged merchandise
for grain, pork and other farm produce from points as remote
as fifty miles, and the widely separated settlers in the area
came here for lumber and repairs at the wagon shops. The
country stores in the interior received their stocks of goods
at this landing. Rankin, of Monmouth, delivered his barreled
pork here for shipment, and the travel from the East came to
this point on the river by stage-coach via Peoria, Galesburg
and Monmouth. A very considerable part of the population
of the town came from New England. The old Middle West
contributed its share — Ohio chiefly; and South Carolina,
Georgia and Tennessee contributed heavily of Scotch-Irish
Presbyterians to the country surrounding. The intelligence at
the county seat was above the average for a frontier town, and
the public schools were well supported. It was the center of
amusements, such as large singing-school classes, the cotillion,
the circus, the concert troupes and the vaudeville. Dan Rice
was here in the early forties ; the Hutchinson family of con-
cert singers, the Peck family of Swiss bell-ringers, and the
Lombards, who came down to and included the Civil War.
The old Pioneer House was the scene of many elaborate and
liberally patronized social events, and the fashions of the pe-
riod were promptly displayed on the streets.
One of the characters about town in the days of the
62 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
steamboats "Clermont," "Iron City" and "Uncle Toby" was Al
Eames, who had the genius to make something out of nothing.
His first venture was to saw a canoe in twain, lengthwise, and
utilize the halves for the sides of the flat-bottomed hull of his
first steamboat, a small affair, not much more than a toy, with
a steam escape-pipe not much larger than a broomstick. Back
from the shore two or three rods the boat was hardly visible
to the pedestrian, but one could hear its feeble, asthmatic
cough as it shunned the strong current and hugged the shore.
He completed the engine for it from scraps picked out 01 the
junk-pile. It was a stern-wheeler of approved pattern. After-
ward he built a larger boat with a double hull, equipped with
an engine of the same sort as the first, but the paddle-wheel
worked on a shaft between the hulls, and not at the stern as
usual. His third effort was the construction of what was
known as the "Tow-String" saw-mill. It was a creditable
work — a practical mill of its kind, that turned out thousands
of feet of lumber, and turned in good revenue to its owners,
and the digestive apparatus, as heretofore was pieced up from
the scrap-pile — castaway pieces of machinery and engines which
men of less skill counted as worthless. It was said that when
he lacked necessary connecting links of metal, he used a tow-
string to supply the want. Strong drink was poor old Al's
besetting sin, but he came in time into the possession of a good
steamboat and made considerable money towing rafts through
Lake Pepin. which was a profitable business in the old days.
Some of the illustrious and not a few of the infamous
men of the nineteenth century have walked the streets of the
Yellow Banks. April 27, 1832, four companies of miltia, en-
listed for the Black Hawk War. began the overland march
from Beardstown for the Yellow Banks. A part of them were
organized at Quincy and formed a junction with the main
body near Rushville. O H. Browning, later United States
senator, and later Secretary of the Interior under Andrew
Johnson, was a private in the Quincy company, and squealed
like a pig under a gate at being exposed in camp for one night
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 63
away from the timber and water. Abraham Lincoln com-
manded one of the companies, and in referring to this fact
many years afterward said: "I cannot tell you how much it
pleased me to be elected captain of that company." The troops
followed a trail which led them past the site of Stronghurst,
Olena and Gladstone. The spot where they crossed the Hen-
derson River, is not known, but it was probably below the con-
fluence of the two branches, near the railroad bridge, where
they improvised a bridge by felling trees into the stream. Here
they lost one or two horses in the swollen river. Not lacking
in the picturesque, this body of frontiersmen trailing north
along the sand-ridge to the landing, under the leadership of
the great Emancipator! They were detained in camp at the
Yellow Banks for four days, awaiting supplies by boat from
Rock Island, and it is certain that Abraham Lincoln was a
compulsory citizen of the town for that length of time. Their
camp was located by a bayonet found years afterward sticking
in the ground with a piece of candle in the shank ! This
"candlestick" I used as a plaything, and it lay around my
father's house for many years. The battalion of mounted
men marched from this point to Dixon. The presence of
Abraham Lincoln at the head of his company in camp at the
Yellow Banks on this occasion confers a distinction upon the
town which should be acknowledged by the citizens with a
suitable memorial erected on the spot where the troopers
camped. A "lost rock" (a granite boulder of the glacial period)
with a suitable inscription, secured from desecration and or-
namented by shade trees, should be provided. Now, even
now, when such a memorial can be placed at small expense,
is the time to act ; for in the coming days of a new and ever-
enlarging growth avarice will pay little heed to "the better
angels of our nature."
During the Indian campaign the following historical char-
acters, then young men, officers of the line in the regular Army,
appeared at this landing, ami doubtless were ashore more or
less during the discharge of cargo: Jefferson Davis, General
64 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
Harney, David K. Twiggs, Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert
Anderson (of Fort Sumter fame), General Joe Johnston, and
many others.
Some of the celebrities of the campaigns of the Mexican
War enjoyed the hospitality of our citizens. Among them,
I have special reasons for recalling General James Shields,
who was billed to fight a duel with Abraham Lincoln. My
playmates had their views of all the incidents of the Mexican
War. We got these from the veterans of the service or by
reading them in Colonel Patterson's Spectator. In talking
them over we drew wrong inferences from some statements
and unconsciously embellished others. As a matter of fact,
we knew that General Shields had been shot through the
breast, and in some way we got the impression that as the
combat deepened the doughty warrior disdained to have his
wound dressed, but stopped long enough in the saddle to draw
a silk handkerchief through his body along the channel of the
wound and kept right on carving "Greasers" right and left
with his reeking sabre ! When we discovered that General
Shields in his own proper and distinguished person had ar-
rived at the Yellow Banks, our imaginations glowed like a
prairie fire. We resolved to feast our eyes upon him as upon the
supernatural ! We believed with gospel sincerity that the silk
handkerchief (the big red bandanna was the vogue in those
days) still illuminated his mortal remains, that the flow of
blood was still unquenched, and we were determined to see a
real soldier in that condition. The great man, fresh from the
field of his fame, was announced to address the citizens in the
court-room on a given evening, and this was the opportunity
for the bare-footed boy. The general had already entered
upon his address to a full house when I ran up the stairway
and stuck my head in at the door to see the wonderful, soul-
harrowing sight! I suppose the English language never was
more impotently inadequate to the portrayal of a boy's amaze-
ment and disappointment than at this precise moment. I
craned my neck around the door-jamb, and there stood a plain
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 65
little man in perfect health and a swallow-tail coat, talking to
the crowd ! 1 pulled my head back out of sight a moment and
took a gulp or two at my Adam's apple, feeling awful cheap.
However, as no one seemed to be aware of the contretemps, I
made bold and took a back seat to hear something about the
Constitution, the enlargement of our national boundary, our
glorious free institutions, and other stereotyped matters of the
kind.
CHAPTER XII.
"GOLD! GOLD! I/ROM SACRAMENTO RIVER!"
The Argonauts of 1849 followed hard upon the election
of Taylor to the Presidency. The gold fever affected multi-
plied thousands and sent its lessening warmth to the uttermost
corners of the earth. The Yellow Banks was the center of
preparation for a wide region. Impecunious men foresaw an
opportunity to get rich quick. The conservative element in
the community smiled at the ebullition around them and kept
on plodding, content with small but steady gains. Attractive
nuggets had already found their way from "the diggin's" to
the Yellow Banks. I have a distinct recollection of some of
these, displayed in my father's store. They showed plainly
that they had once been in the molten state; of the valiK of
$20.00, some of them — enough indeed to fire the imaginations
of men ! Interested parties who could not go sent proxies ;
that is to say, provided a young man of brawn with a grub-
stake and sent him forth to try his luck. Men gambled on the
discovery in all sorts of ways, and took all the desperate
chances, as men have done and will ever do — all for gold !
That magic word has thrown a glamour over the State of
California that has lured scores of men to a tragic fate, and
many thousands to disapnointment.
Mr. Hart's blacksmith-shop was the headquarters for
shoeing the animals for the overland trip. It was equipped
with gearing for shoeing the ox-teams and the work went
merrily on. George Muck's wagon shop, George Sloan's and
Blackhart's were all busy in the repair or construction of
wagons and in shoeing the animals. At the warehouses the
wagons were loaded with provisions. At Blackhart's shop I
66
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 67
was a curious observer of Aleck Henderson's vehicle, with
which he was to make the long journey across the mountain
ranges to the Pacific Coast. It was not larger than an ordi-
nary grocer's delivery-wagon and seemed to my boyish eyes
a very frail craft, by comparison, for such a trip, which in-
deed it was. I can see them now, more than sixty years after
the event, bringing the lines taut over the horse teams and
swinging the gad over the oxen as they pulled out upon the
street to take the trail, marked all the way along by sickness,
hunger and death. Some got away furtively, feeling that they
had undertaken a big job! I recall perfectly a modest train
passing along the street bound for the new Eldorado: Mr.
Roberts, the principal, following along behind, his poor wife
in tears, trailing after her husband, unwilling to part with
him! The children in the street — the neighbors all — were in
deep sympathy with her But after all. there was a strong
hope and a just in the hearts of these men. There was no
doubt no longer as to the precious metal being there in quanti-
ties. The tide westward had already set in and was irresist-
ible. There was Sammy Snook, the hunchback liquor-dealer
on Water Street. His neighbors lifted their brows in amaze-
ment when it was told around town that Sam was going to
"the diggin's." If he was stopped in the street, taken to one
side, and cross-questioned on the momentous theme by one of
his confidential friends. Sam would smile blandly in the face
of his interlocutor and reply with the couplet on the lips of
all the boys on the street in those days:
"It rained all night the day I left,
The weather it was dry ;
The sun so hot I froze to death.
Susanna, don't you cry!"
On the journey out Sam was in hard luck, but he got
safely through, and the next year, on the Isthmus, on his way
home, he was much "jollied" by Wils. Graham on his success
in making the round trip. Glancing out of the corner of his
68 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
eye, Sam would answer with the gag which had been a by-
word with him all his life: "Catch a weasel asleep, will ye?"
All the phases of human nature shone forth in sharp con-
trast on the journey. Personal and property disputes arose
with aggravating frequency, and when the parties were in the
neighborhood of a military post the matters in controversy
were submitted to the officers in command, whose award \\as
accepted with more or less grace. Footsore animals crippled
the trains and added to the emergency problems to be solved.
A crisis arose wrhen life-long neighbors quarreled, and a solu-
tion in equity was arrived at by sawing the vehicle in twain
and dividing the provisions and draft animals, one party driv-
ing off with the fore-wheels of the wagon, the other with the
hind-wheels. In desert lands the ox and other teams gave out,
the provisions were piled upon the desolate trail and the men
with grub on their backs pushed on for succor, and if Fortune
favored, returned and gathered up what they had left behind.
Some of our Henderson County men, reduced to the last ex-
tremity, made up the remaining moiety of Hour into biscuits,
gave each man his share (a beggarly portion) and climbed
the icy altitudes of the Sierra Nevada Range in hunger and
privation. Rumors of these hardships drifted back home, and
the boys of my own ago had a tale which passed current in
our school circle of Sammy Snook, who in a strait betwixt
two, out on the Snake River, took refuge in the carcass of a
disemboweled mule, where he lived comfortably and regaled
himself as he had need with steaks of imitatior> mutton at his
hand !
Captain John McGaw, Alex. P. Nelson, and Sam Plum-
mer were among the adventurous spirits who participated in
this forlorn hope. They were typical men of our American
frontier, descendants of the hardy pioneers of our earlier his-
tory. Nelson's father was one of Ihe American volunteers sur-
rendered by Hull to the British on Lake Erie in 1812. The
trio named stood together on some of the immemorial height*
of the Civil War. Sam Plummer fa jovial, sincere, honest
Recollections of Pioneer ati4 Army Life. 69
man) fell in the bloody encounter on Stone River. The other
two were with the beaten right wing of Rosecrans' army at
Chickamauga. Captain McGaw survived many notable engage-
ments in defense of the Union, and in the great festivals and
solemn assemblies of the people of my native county these
American volunteers will be held in gratful remembrance.
All of our Henderson County men made money enough
to get home on, which ir- about all that can be said for their
trip to the California gold-field. Porter Nelson boasted of
having a "quarter" left ! On a sailing vessel bound for New
York from the Isthmus. Captain McGaw, later of the 84th
Ills. Vols., suffered shipwreck. In the fierce gale that was
blowing, a friendly vessel stood in the offing to help them, and
was in the act of sending the life-boat to take the passengers
off. High seas were breaking over the wreck, which was hard
fast on the rocks, and no time was to be lost. The officers of
the endangered vessel had prepared numbered slips of paper
and distributed them among the passengers, who were to form
in line and enter the life-boat, at each successive trip, accord-
ing to their number. Captain McGaw for a minute or two did
not look at his slip, for fear it was a large number; but he
found on examination (lucky man) that he held preferred
stock in Fortune's bank. He was one in the only boat-load that
was saved !
By and by a day came, as still such days will come, to
call "doggery "-keepers, as well as sober people, "home."
Sammy Snook died, and his friends on Water Street said he
must have a funeral, and they invited Dr. Campbell, of the
Cumberland church, to make a few remarks at the private
obsequies. The kind old doctor responded favorably, and dis-
charged the obligations implied in the emergency act to the
satisfaction of all concerned ; but, to the amazement of some of
the hide-bound burghers, the solid globe on which we live did
not collapse on account of the observance of this Christian
duty.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE VILLAGE BAKERY
Deacon Banner's bake-shop was the fond attraction of the
small boy. It had a flavor of its own which affected me mncn
as the smell of grog undermines the equilibrium of the toper.
The odor of the gingerbread was demoralizing. Under its
spell I was drawn irresistibly to the door to gaze in helpless
rapture on the squares of sweet bread when I had not a cent
in my pocket and no expectation of ever having one. Right
there in full view the good deacon had a heaven, whose bliss,
for the lack of a penny, was as remote and inaccessible to me
as the real thing may prove, alas! for many of .is in the great
day later on. I was in despair. At this time Jamison &
Moir were at the southwest corner of Market Square in line
with a row of grain warehouses. In the same row, north,
stood the deacon's bakery and lunch counter aforesaid, and
on further north, along Water Street, on both sides, were
the "doggeries," the principal one and the most celebrated
Sam Snook's, the hunchback. At the extreme north end, fac-
ing east, stood the principal business house of the town in
the earliest time, that of the Phelps Brothers. McKinney &
Adams had a general merchandise store on the then business
outskirts — on Schuyler Street as it existed, mostly on the town
plat. Trian & Day had a similar store on the corner of Schuy-
ler Street and Market Square. There were other minor places
of business, clustered around Colonel Patterson's printing of-
fice, the brick addition to which stands a disfigured relic of
the past. Deacon Benner's little bake-shop was of the humblest
origin, but there was a man behind it ! In the northwest cor-
70
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 71
ner of the small business room, behind a bit of counter, rested
a keg of spruce beer and the display of gingerbread. On the
main counter and shelves were luncheon goods with such un-
usual neighbors as two or three styles of plain ribbon, one or
more patterns of calico, and a suspicion possibly of millinery;
but of this latter I cannot make oath — whatever there was, it
was the promise of things not seen. The family occupied the
back rooms. The daughters, of whom there were three, were
the main attractions, and no inconsiderable ones either! The
family was of German descent, dexterous in the use of English,
but with a noticeable lisp. They were "Pennsylvania Dutch"
probably, or Hessian. They were Baptists, and the good dea-
con, stood by his colors nobly. It may seem a bit odd even for
that day that the bake-shop should include haberdashery among
the articles for sale; but thereby hangs a tale. The deacon
was a born gentleman. The rogues like Ed Ray and Brent
Jones made a butt of him ; the Yellow Banks "Four Hundred"
winked at their jokes, and the bad boys were none too decent
in their deportment toward the girls, who were regularly at
school up to their majority, or nearly so. The current fun of
a frontier town is of the broad stripe; the kind that takes sc
many risks that it sometimes drops its molasses jug, to use a
phrase stolen from Uncle Remus. Deacort Benner had just
enough of the German lisp in his speech to make him an in-
teresting character when allied to other peculiarities which
lent themselves to the picturesque. The two practical jokers
aforesaid fastened on him at once. Always treating him
courteously, or seemingly so; but ever with a card up the
sleeve. Brent Jones was a printer, and it was no surprise
when the town woke up one morning and found itself in the
possession of this bit of verse :
72 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
"Old Deacon Benner of our town
Is now a man of great renown;
He left the East in an angry mood —
He left it for his country s good !
He landed here with a picayune,
But soon he sang the temperance tune;
He made a barrel of ginger beer, —
If you 'd mention rum, he 'd shed a tear!
He put on a religious face,
And they made him deacon of the place ;
But every Sabbath he is found
Selling beer on the old camp-ground !
The 'Suckers' suck his ginger pop,
But they find it all molasses slop.
His ginger beer and ginger cake
Give the 'Suckers' the bellyache !"
I have no doubt the rhymester reported the Deacon's
financial condition correctly on the day he landed, but Brent
maintained a familiar intercourse with Water Street — where
water was the only refreshment unobtainable — and it is pos-
sible that he was overseas when he made the claim that the
Deacon sold pop on the Sabbath ; that the brand was not the
best known to the trade, conducive to abdominal calm and a
better grade of morals than pertained to hilarious printers.
If the Deacon landed with a picayune, he quit the town with
a barrel of 'em, and that is where he had the advantage of the
jokers, for if the assets of the nondescripts of the town had
been pooled, the Deacon might easily have bought them in
with his small change. Business at the bake-shop prospered;
the pop and ginger cake were in time let out, the luncheon
trade was abandoned, and the Deacon and family (for each
member contributed to the success of the business in a direct
way) became the leading venders of millinery, not to men-
tion dry goods, of which he came eventually to carry a large
stock. The town did not continue to thrive like the trade-
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 73
centers in the interior on the railroads, and Deacon Benner
removed his business to Galesburg, where he prospered and
died in the possession of a very considerable estate, having
realty holdings in some of the growing cities in the West.
It was not so disreputable to sell and drink whiskey in
those days as it is now, although it was felt by many to be an
unqualified curse. Legal enactments were not as yet leveled
at it, but self-respect compelled many to shrink from its asso-
ciations. The town was well equipped for the display of the
business in its most degrading aspects, and could turn out a
grist on short notice. I recall passing in the early morning the
window of a grog-shop kept, I am sorry to say, by so good
a man as Obadiah Eames, and discovering the floor covered
with men who had fallen in a drunken stupor and gone to
sleep at the close of an all-night carousal.
For some years after my father left the farm the family
continued to attend the services on the Sabbath at South Hen-
derson, and it was a common thing, as we drove along, to see
drunken men lying at the roadside, sound asleep, their bloated
faces upturned to the burning sun, their clothing saturated
with the premature disgorgement of an overcharged stomach
—their saddle-horses grazing close by.
Among the vicious class it was supposed to be a mark of
genius for a lawyer or doctor to be drunk when off duty, and
if he succeeded in making a good plea or prescription when
drunk, it was a miracle to be noised to the ends of the earth.
Old Doc Hulbert, of Rozetta, was one of these miraculously
endowed physicians. In the opinion of many people, the
drunker he was the greater his skill in the practice of his pro-
fession. He was a good doctor and would, of course, have
been a better one of it had been possible for him to have lived
a sober life. It came to be a street scene to occasion little
notice when this unfortunate man, obliviously drunk, seated
in his old buggy, his trusty horse carefully picking its way
along the road, from which it would not depart until the old
74 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
master had been safely landed at his own gate some miles
away.
Firewater is not a good protection from cold, but on a
day the late Charles M. Harris (distinguished lawyer and one-
term member of Congress) ran this gauntlet without injury.
He was a three-hundred-pounder, and on a trip to Keithsburg
in an open vehicle with some boon companions, in the dead
of winter and against a fierce north wind, he was seen with his
shirt-front wide open, in the full enjoyment of the supremt
luxury of a drunken stupor.
CHAFER XI V.
THK PRESBYTERIAN CHAPEL AND ITS MEMORIES.
My uncle James Jamison went to the woods and cut
down, hewed out and delivered the oak logs for the frame-
work of the Presbyterian church in the village, and it is as
neat a pioneer chapel as can be found in the State. I can
hear the tolling of the bell in the cupola this moment as in the
far-away years, when each stroke counted one for every year
of him who was being borne over to his last rest in the village
cemetery. I was at the burial, when a lad, of a brother of
Judge William C. Rice. As the scene closed the Judge said
to a friend, "This is the last of earth !" How a few words
like these will stick in the memory ! It so happened that, after
an absence of many years from the State. I was within call
when T heard that the remains of two old friends, those of
Joseph Chickering and Mrs. John M. Fuller, the mother of
those gallant soldiers. Lieutenant Wm. H.. of the Signal Corps,
and Sergeant Andrew M. Fuller, would be buried in this con-
secrated ground the next day. I obeyed the promptings of
my heart and went to see the remains of so much that was
gord, and so closely associated with the early history of the
county, left to silence and the worm.
When T wish to recall the fair young faces and the grave
and reverend seigniors of the days of my youth, I am wont to
sumnn n a gathering at the crowded Presbyterian chapel on
a bright Sunday morning in June in the forties. Whoevrr
designed the little house of worship had a lot of good sense.
It possesses the beauty of true proportions, and escaped the
beggarly attempt at ornament so common in the structures
of its class in the new West. The interior was finished in
75
76 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
solid walnut, and the builder was not stingy in the use of the
raw material. Walnut lumber is so much prized now that the
quantity of it used in the construction of those pews would
start a man in business, The backs of the pews (since cut
down) were so high that T had to stand up and lengthen out
onto the ends of my toes to see what was going on at the front.
But we had a fine view of the preacher — of his head merely.
He was boxed in, far and away!
The pulpit was an architectural triumph. There were two
routes by which, if you were careful and observed all the
finger-boards of direction, you could find the good man when
seated and lost to the view of his flock. One could start on
either side where there was a broad and sure footing and be
gin the ascent of the ecclesiastical Matterhorn. A guide bear-
ing a banner with a device, as "Where he leads we will fol-
low," would have been a great convenience. By keeping one's
eye fixed on him and not permitting him to get too far ahead,
up the winding stairway, one might come at last upon the
object of his search. I have heard of preachers unused to
this sky-scraper pulpit getting lost, trying to find the "way" ;
but once in the box, they could look down and count the warts
on all the bald heads in attendance. The stranger was given
a seat right under the droppings of the sanctuary, where,
hearing a voice somewhere overhead, he uniformly suffered
dislocation of the neck trying to locate it. We faced about
to see the choir in the gallery, over the entrance. I suppose
the time never was when the choir (the organ-loft) was not
the favorite spot for the display of millinery. Not always, I
suppose (bless their honest hearts), was the vocalization of
the "old school" church in inverse proportion to the display
of head-gear. The young women in their flounces and fur-
belows and the young gentlemen in their soap-locks gave
prestige to the choir by their numbers, for there was a wide-
spread desire among the young folks to be of the elect coterie;
but as for their deliverance, they rested secure in the belief
that in Father Chickering and his violin, his fine baritone and
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 77
his accomplished leadership and the accompanying melodeon
they had a safe refuge from detection. There was a sensa-
tion among the young gentlemen when the soprano and her
convoying sisters filed in, enveloped in a distinct odor of the
perfumer's art — the seven angels with the seven vials filled
with seven kinds of bear's oil, from which I think the young
gentlemen helped themselves surreptitiously to more than their
share, since they smelt so loud.
In the depths of those high-backed pews I made one in
the row of the Sunday-school class, which sat under the minis-
trations of good old "Squire" Patterson, with his spectacles
hanging helplessly on his venerable nose. I maintained allegi-
ance to the "Squire" to secure the right to draw a book each
Sunday from that wonderful library consecrated to the spirit-
ual welfare of the on-coming citizens of our glorious country.
I acknowledge with some dismay the greed with which I
turned over the leaves of the different books to find the one
that had the "purtiest" pictures. Having come off victorious
in that reconnaissance, I carried it home in triumph to read
about Albert Toogood, who was so pious he always looked
down like Grief on a tombstone, who committed to memory a
chapter of the Bible every day of his precious life, who was
so patient and sweet when one of those old flinty sand-burrs
ran one of its spirited needles a stout half-inch into his heel.
Xo ; he never dropped one — not one of those pearly tears nor
bad words over so trifling a thing as that. I was satisfied
with one of those nice books. I got through with it in a
hurry. I felt so discouraged over Albert's superior goodness
that I wanted to drown myself. The quality had a rock-ribbed
pre-emption right to certain of the pews. These they furn-
ished with foot-stools and cushions, and there was no denying
the distinguished manners of gentlemen like the late William
Moir and the ladies of his family and the allied families, of
whom there were a number, who worshiped here. One of
these (the late Asa Smith's) had artistic talents of a high
order. One of my earliest recollections is of Mr. Smith's
78 Recollections of Pioneer and .Inny Life.
studio in a building which stood on the corner west of the old
Conger boarding-house, where portraits from life, in oil, hung
on the walls. There was slight patronage in the pioneer town
for one so regally endowed, but the wonderful discovery of
Daguerre made it possible for the humblest the world over
to possess the likenesses of those dear to them, and Mr. Smith
established a gallery and supplied the people far and near
with the pictures they so much prized. Many families still
have specimens of that art of surprising beauty and fidelity.
Then came in succession the ambrotype and finally the photo-
graph— all of which Mr. Smith successfully cultivated. I
recall an incident which illustrates his skill in drawing. His
neighbor, Mr. Blackheart (which indeed was not a name one
would choose for a good neighbor, but was the best the fore-
bears of the old, well-known blacksmith could do for him),
had lost his cow, and after some days he chanced to call at
Mr. Smith's book-store, where he found a pencil sketch of a
cow the artist had drawn from life as she stood under a tree
two miles north of the town. A peculiarity in the faithful
portraiture convinced the owner that here was a true picture
of the estray, and on going to the spot the animal was
recovered.
Chickering & Fanning's furniture factory came in time
to be an important enterprise in the industrial development
of the town. Both of these gentlemen were skilled mechanics,
and most of the burial caskets were made to order in their
shops, and Mr. Chickering was the familiar official at the ob-
sequies of his friends and neighbors. I shall never forget
my astonishment at being told one day that Johnny Roberts
was dead! He was of my own size and age. We were
classmates. He? Johnny? So blithe and gay — dead? I
was dumb. The next day Mr. Chickering's son Henry, also
my classmate, told me his father was making Johnny's coffin.
I made no reply, but we went down together to the factory to
see it. I stole softly into the room where the good man was
deftly putting in place the wrhite lining of Johnny's narrow
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 79
house. I was sober beyond words in going close to it. I did
not care to touch it, but I looked down into it, and my first
thought was, "It is so long! Johnny could not be so tall as
that !" Then Mr. Checkering explained to me why the foot of it
was made at an angle — that the pair of little feet themselves
came, as it were, to "attention," till the dissolving years made
them relent. It was all very wonderful, a part of the great
mystery, but I could not utter a word.
The pastor at the chapel at one time was Dr. King, a fiery,
impetuous spirit, who might have led a forlorn hope on
Marye's Hill at Fredericksburg. At a morning service he made
a characteristic parenthesis. He read the old familiar hymn
in which Dr. Watts sacrificed his orthodoxy to accomplish the
rhythm in the couplet which declares that
"While the lamp holds out to burn
The vilest sinner may return!"
In short, sharp staccato the doctor said : "The choir will please
omit the stanza [giving the number], for I believe it to be
wholly and essentially false!" Many a time and oft had I
heard the hymn used in the service, but this was the first time
I had ever heard it challenged.
CHAPTER XV.
THE GHOST AND THE FINK & WALKER STAGE-COACH.
My mother's relatives, the Giles, were the most friendly
people in the world, and when they came down from "Cedar"
to pay us a visit, there was a demonstration of "that fellow-
feeling which makes us wondrous kind" ; but I recall an in-
cident which occurred on an occasion of this kind which lefc
a different impression. My forebears were Scotch-Irish on
both sides, with a distinct vein (if only a vein) of the super-
stitions of the race, as this instance will show. My uncle Eli
Giles was paying my mother a visit, and the family had separ-
ated after supper and left my uncle and my mother in conver-
sation at the table, with myself as the third party. The con-
versation turned upon the subject of ghosts, in which Andy
Allen (another uncle) was a firm believer, according to the
representations of my uncle who led the conversation. Mv
elders had forgotten me, or were careless — certainly uncon-
scious of the effect of their narrations upon the nervous, diffi-
dent boy who was their only auditor. I was unused to ghost-
stories, and was startled from the first, and I followed the
tales with increasing alarm. My easily awakened imagination
magnified the incidents in the story of the dark woods, the
road running past the haunted house, where the man had been
murdered and from whence the belated traveler was inter
cepted by the ghost, etc., etc. These phases with their varia-
tions were related as facts, attested, they said, by my uncle
Andy, and I believed every word of the story. As I listened
my senses sank under the load of fright and I started up from
the table distraught! I looked at my mother. Her face had
changed. I knew her not. I remember distinctly these changes
80
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 81
in my senses, but I was powerless to recall them or to rid
myself of the spell. I was for the moment daft. I made no
outcry, and my mother, unconscious of my condition, continued
in an amused way to listen to the stupid outrage from which
1 suffered. 1 think it was her low. kind voice, reassuring, al-
though unconsciously so, which restored me. I seem never
to have gotten quite over the shock, but I said not a word to
my mother nor to others about it; and in this I was wiser
than I knew, for if I had confessed to my suffering, I would
have been quenched in the brutality of our human nature, for
the savage is so strong, in the young at least, that I would
have been laughed at.
The youngsters at the Yellow Banks were an enterpris-
ing lot. We had ambitions — assorted sizes and kinds. Our
thoughts rested heavily, like the weight of the globe on the
shoulders of Atlas, on two choice professions — namely, that
of the pirate and the stage-driver. We stood on the edge of
the water and saw through the fog, or thought we saw, a low
rakish craft steal from the shadows of the main shore over
to one of the islands. During the passage we spoke in whisp-
ers, and our eyes were as big as the ivory rings on the martin-
gales of Bill Van Pelt's livery nags. We exchanged comments
on the size of the scowl on the pirate captain's face and the
pike, as big as a fence-rail, with which he scuttled ships and
split the liver of his enemies. But the stage-driver was our
beau ideal. Him we worshiped. If he condescended to walk on
earth after the grand entry, we trailed after him (all the small
boys in town) like a brood of sucking pigs ! If he indulged
himself in a bit of humor to the effect that old Mathews, the
baker, filled his pies with stewed potato vines in lieu of ap-
ples, we snickered in the most truckling way. I can see him
now, seated on the box, over "the boot," high and lifted up,
armed with the long braided whip, with \vhich to touch the
leaders under the belly with that hawk-like circle and down-
ward swoop known only to stage-drivers of a generation now
extinct. As he descended upon the admiring town with break-
82 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
neck speed, he blew his horn. Ah ! was it not grand ! the tally-
ho, as it poised for a moment on the brow of old Schuyler
Street in the days before the hill was graded down ! And the
bare-legged, shirt-tailed boys swooped around the corner like
pigeons to take it all in ! How the old Fink & Walker stage-
coach rocked and plunged, and stood on her beam ends, as she
rounded the corner in a cloud of dust and landed before Col-
onel Patterson's post office, where the mail-bags were thrown
out and the passengers braced themselves for the role of dis-
tinguished arrivals to meet the expectations of the staring
crowd !
Colonel J. B. Patterson was hardly less distinguished in
the eyes of the small boy than the stage-driver himself. In
our minds he was intimately associated with that great rival.
He received the mail-bags from him, and the mail in our youth-
ful thought was an important matter. I supposed the Great
Father, who lived in some great temple of fame like unto that
which used to serve as a frontispiece for McGuffey's second
reader, wrote all the letters and sent them to everybody and
everybody sent him letters in return and paid Colonel Patter-
son for the privilege. And I used to look with an absorbing
interest on the little tray at the table open to all, where the
good Colonel kept the old-fashioned pennies, big as our "quar-
ters," the picayunes, the 12^2 cent "bits," the "smooth" quar-
ters with a cross on them which marked them as degenerate
and worth only 20 cents, all of which were used as legal tender
in the payment of postage, all the way from 6 to 25 cents per
letter, according to the distance.
One of the "lame ducks" in the early history of Hender-
son County was Watty Burnside. Watty was a patriot after his
kind. He was zealous in the matter of specie payments, and
in his role was a sort of financial prophet in the wilderness.
His contribution to the country's circulating medium was
home-made. His equipment consisted of a pair of molds, or
dies, and a melting-pot. In the latter he was wont to reduce
old pewter spoons ; lacking these, he challenged Fate and the
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 83
scrutiny of the public with plain, bare-faced bar lead. With
this material he "struck" half-dollars bearing the similitude
of the coin of the same denomination issued by Uncle Sam.
Watty was a dense old simpleton and thought he could ex
change the output of his mint for the common moonshine
whiskey of his time. But the boss of the Water Street grog-
shop was built on the same lines as his lineal descendant of to-
day— calculating and sober in handing out the drinks, and knew
the kind of money that would "pass" better than anybody. \
never heard of Sam Snook being drunk — -never! and when
Watty came along and threw down one of his galena half-
dollars to liquidate his bill for corn- juice, Sam (who had a
hammer and nails close at hand for such emergencies) took
the alleged coin and. with a deep and horrible oath, nailed it
to the counter. In this manner Watty left souvenirs of him-
self all over the country. And by and by the sheriff came
along and took him by the ear and locked him up, and at the
following session of the circuit court he was sent down to
Alton (the State's prison was at Alton in his day) to serve
time.
Mr. Joseph Chickering. the founder of the pioneer fur-
niture factory, was of Massachusetts origin, and the family
name adorns the history of the old Bay State. His forebears
were persons of culture, distinguished as clergymen, musicians,
and manufacturers of musical instruments of national celeb-
rity. He possessed in full measure the varied talents peculiar
to his ancient and honorable family, and it was a kind Provi-
dence that sent this good man, so useful in his day and genera-
tion, to the pioneer village so close on the heels of the depart-
ing red man. One needs to take a second thought to appre-
ciate this fact : to recall how barren the pioneer life was of all
that refines, softens and elevates the social scale at this period.
T remember well when T could not have been more than three
years of age awaking in the morning in my trundle-bed from
the child's all-night deep slumber and meeting (so unexpected-
ly) Mr. Chickering's cheerful greeting. T had already learned
84 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
that here was the kind, paternal face of the wonderful magi-
cian who carried in a curious oblong box a something I did
not know the name of, which he lovingly took up in such a
funny way and across it drew a polished little stick with a
pearl in the end of it, and forthwith came softly the sweetest
notes the child had ever heard, and which made him glide
sideways around and take refuge under his mother's arm.
"The stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times."
Mystery. Silence. The usual activities of the household sud-
denly ceased. The members were invisible. Myself and young
brother, Ewell (whom I dubbed the "Deacon/' after Deacon
Brown, the capitalist of Monmouth), were spirited away. I
cannot tell how nor where we were held in duress. We must
have been chloroformed, or captured by brigands and held for
ransom. I cannot say. Strategy. Women display unexpected
and wonderful skill in maneuvers. There are few of them
that do not excel Napoleon in the art of concealing the move-
ments in the campaign which they are directing. They were
supernatu rally smooth on this occasion, or there would have
been a big kick. The "Deacon" and I "got fooled oncet," as
the Dutchman says — and with all our wits so miraculously
sharpened ! Some hours passed. I do not know how it came
about, but my brother and I as by a flash regained our liberty
and our consciousness. We realized at once that our home
was in eclipse. Darkness reigned, and trouble. Cousin Sarah,
T think it was. came with an anxious face and took us by the
hand and led us up into mother's chamber. We were amazed
at the large group of sad faces, the physician in the midst, sur-
rounding mother's bed. The ominous fever had taken hold
of her, and they were in despair. Father hung over her pillow
the picture of suspense and apprehension. There lay the lov-
ing face — the one face in all the world ! She said some ten-
der words to her two small lads, which I cannot repeat here,
and we were taken away. The night came on — the night
which has steeped in forgetfulness so much of the sorrow of
the world. Out of childhood's long, dreamless slumber I
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 85
awoke the first of all. It was scarce day. I started from my
bed with all my senses in an agony of inquiry to know the
truth. In the death-like silence I stole out from my own room
and went half creeping, I knew not why, to my mother's room
and looked in. The watchers were asleep and the doctor and
the friends were gone. My mother's bed seemed so still and
large and white; it startled me to look at it, and she was lost
to sight in its folds. During the night hours the fever had
not at least increased and the sick one had fallen into deep
sleep, and the doctor and attendants had all agreed that she
would be well again and separated.
But think of the happiness of that mother ! She had lived
all her married life in a household of noisy, willful boys — •
young savages, that gave her little peace with the demands
made upon her time and patience. There, on her arm, she
had a pulsating life more fragile than a Sevres vase, more
precious than fine gold — a little daughter, to be the companion
of her old age, and in whose arms she was to die ! My moth-
er's face was very sad at times, and her thoughts seemed far
away. As she mused the fire burned and her lips moved as
if in prayer. I often wanted to go and put my arms around
her, but it seemed like a kind of sacrilege to disturb her at
such moments, and I refrained. What soul born into this
world hath not had such moments, when the pulse beats low
and the spirit seems aweary of time and sense? I was often
a truant boy, and this dear Christian mother would take me
into a room aside and close the door, and we would kneel
down, and she would offer that prayer for me which I hope
will avail when all other pleas are in abatement.
Two notable publications that appeared during my boy-
hood not only made a distinct impression on my own mind,
but stirred the anti-slavery sentiment of the country to its
profoundest depths — Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's
Cabin" and "My Bondage and My Freedom," by Frederick
Douglass. The first was read in the humblest homes in almost
every hamlet in the Northern States. My mother had a strong
86 Recollections of Pioneer and .Inny Life.
prejudice against fiction, but she read "Uncle Tom," and she
and my cousin Sarah Ann were amusingly agitated over the
incidents in the story. The reading of these books made a
dangerous fanatic of me. I was not noisy, but if "Osawat-
omie" Brown had marched by at the moment in the prosecu-
tion of any of the turbulent schemes of his career, I certainly
should have enlisted under his banner and got hung in my
zeal.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE SCHOOL-TEACHER DESCENDED FROM THE
PILGRIM FATHERS.
Brokelbank; do you remember him? Alexis Phelps was
living when I went to school to Brokelbank. James K. Polk
was President. Yes, that is quite a ways back ; sixty yean*
now and more. I would like to be a child again — a small boy ;
but not on the old terms ! Those were the good old days,
that is true; but "ye that say the former times are better than
these, ye inquire not wisely concerning these things." I would
like to be a small boy now and hold in my strong embrace "the
faces loved long since and lost awhile," and all the other pre-
cious things that I have garnered and that are the furniture
of the soul. Brokelbank must have been a Dutchman. Look
at his name ! A Hollander by blood descent, although I would
not needlessly hurt the feelings of the good young queen of
that country by saying so; nor would I cast a slur on the Pil-
grim Fathers, but I find the name among those folks who came
over in 16 — . He was not of the true Dutch type, to be sure.
He had not the rubicund face nor the jovial capacity for lager
beer commonly attributed to that ancient and honorable race.
In the last analysis Brokelbank was an attenuated Dutch Yan-
kee. He appeared on the streets of the Yellow Banks quite
unlocked for by the honest burghers. He said he was a school-
teacher. His accomplishments as such seemed to lie in the
direction of a strong aversion to earning his bread by the
sweat of his brow. He dropped in at Henderson & Graham's
store in the old Trian & Day building on a Saturday in the
year 1848. and after discussing the weather and the probable
87
38 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
success of General Zach Taylor in his race for the Presidency,
he was on the point of taking his leave; when, admonished
by the approach of winter that a pair of gloves would come
handy, he turned to the counter, on which lay a quantity of
the buckskin variety, which, along with buffalo-robes, were
the vogue of the period, and pulled on a pair, but declined to
purchase at the solicitation of Colonel Henderson, but he
-would see the Colonel later, he said, or words to that effect.
In relating this incident in his reminiscent hours the Colonel
used to say that it gave him a pang to recall that Brokelbank
did not keep his word, but that a hurried inventory taken on
the heels of his departure disclosed a shortage in the stock
of gloves by one pair !
I was a freshman at the seat of learning known as the
Brokelbank school-house, which stood across the street from
the grounds of Alexis Phelps. My time was occupied in
learning to spell "horse-back" and similar words in Webster's
old blue-back spelling-book, and in solving the conundrums in
McGuffey's second reader. The picture of Albert driving his
clog hitched to the victoria was the piece de resistance around
which my affections revolved. I quarreled with the order of
things every time I looked at that picture. I wanted a dog
like that, that would work anywhere you put him, single or
double, and a wagon like that one, in which I could rest at my
ease, whip in hand, and drive the dog and keep on driving him
forever. When my attention was withdrawn for the moment
from Albert and his dog, I was industriously engaged with a
Barlow knife, cutting my initials in the desk, which was a plain
slab already overloaded with the hieroglyphics of preceding
generations; and when this labor palled, my energies were
absorbed in writing love-letters for Bill Kelly. Bill couldn't
write, but he was moving heaven and earth trying to learn the
art, which seemed an up-hill business for him. I can see him
now, sprawled over the desk, his tongue squirming around in
his mouth like an imprisoned boa constrictor on the point of
breaking through, his cramped fingers bending desperately to
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 89
the task of making parallel lines, which was the first lesson
after the ancient method. I don't remember whether I acted
as Bill's stenographer and took the matter down at his dicta-
tion, or whether it was a scheme of my own to test the young
lady's affections by proxy. I don't know what came of it all ;
nothing in particular, I think, except the evidences, which were
plain enough, that Cupid's wings were short in his first flight.
The young lady was well worthy the amorous forays of the
most gallant knights. She was a pretty little body, the daugh-
ter of Dr. Clendenin. I wonder if any who read these pages
remember Dr. Clendenin? Whether they do or not, some of
the big boys, like Billy Wood and Homer Conger, locked oid
Brokelbank out of the school-house and nailed the windows
down ! Y'see it was this way : Christmas had come and Brokey
had failed to treat. The big boys determined to force the
issue, and they got a padlock and fastened the door solid, and
set two big forked posts in the ground in front of the door
and laid a rail from fork to fork, and this they called a "horse,"
on which they said they would ride Brokey if he should con-
clude not to "set 'em up." Then they got a stick and furled a
handkerchief upon it and set it a flying from the head of the
"horse," as a sort of challenge from which Brokey might take
warning at a distance that the boys were "onto him." Then
they took to the brush and watched to see what Brokey would
do. Well, he came along at 9 o'clock (the school hour), and
the horse was there to receive him, but never said a word,
nor Brokey a word to the horse. Then Brokey looked around,
raspy and hot, and found an old hammer lying on the ground,
with which the boys had nailed the windows down and had
forgotten.
Brokey did it with that hammer — he smashed that pad-
lock till it looked worse than one of those Russian battleships
in the Straits of Tsushima after Togo had gotten satisfaction
cut of it ; then he opened the academy on time, as usual. But
I want to say confidentially that Brokey rallied handsomely
and went down to Deacon I'enner's at noon and bought a
f o Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
bushel basket full of sweet-cakes, gingerbread and things, and
fed us like chickens at the coop.
Other shadows fell on the old school-house. The chil-
dren whispered to each other how bad some of their playmates
felt when a new report came from the sick-room across the
way. It was one of the palatial homes of a branch of an in-
fluential family engaged in the Indian and domestic trade of
the frontier. The loss of such a man would be severely felt
by the community. The children at school had some compre-
hension of this, and we were in deep sympathy when a young
girl came to the door and beckoned to her sisters in the school-
room. They went out in tears and we all knew that Alexis
Phelps was dying. The old school-house was affected by the
California gold fever with the rest of the town. Brokelbank
showed strong symptoms from the first. He was absent
minded in the conduct of the school. He was a diligent in-
quirer after the latest news. He would start up in his dreams
with a bag of gold as big as a beer-keg in each hand. He
early made up his mind to go. He went. But, like most of his
neighbors, he had difficulties to overcome. He was breasting
a financial shortage. He had not thought of California having
a gold eruption. He had been teaching geography for a num-
ber of years and California was "laid down" in the old Olney
school atlas sicklied o'er with the pale cast the few "Greasers"
and old Spanish missions could confer upon it, never once
suspected of the largess she held in store for the seekers after
the golden fleece. He must now make the best of it, and take
his chances. He elaborated plans which involved a wagon,
oxen, and provisions in quantity. He placed an order for a
wagon at one of the local shops, linchpins and all, and started
the men at work on it forthwith. The woodwork finished in
due time, it was up to Brokey to provide the iron for it. At
this point Brokey struck a sawyer. He was "busted" — to use
the vernacular of a frontier town in '49. On his pillow lie
thought it all over, and took heart in a wlay. I will explain if
my reader will forbear. He rose from his couch and shook
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 91
himself, to clear his wits — and disappeared in the darknes:-,
fired with an invincible resolution. If he weakened at any
moment, he recovered his courage at once as the gold mirage
flooded the dark offing of his mind with its glory. There was
something extraordinary in the buoyancy with which he slipped
through the inky night in the pursuit of his evil purpose. His
feet were shod with wool, and his long thin legs strode nimbly
and noiselessly down to Jamison & Moir's iron-house, which,
under the provision of honest merchants who believed in the
"open door," stood open all night. Here Brokey found bar
iron in quantity for all purposes. It nearly broke his back,
but he carried off iron enough and more to complete his wagon
in every detail. Years afterward the blacksmiths acknowl
edged that the scars were plain where Brokey did his best to
file away the shipping-mark "J & M" on the bar iron used on
that wagon, but they did not "give him away," because they
had money and labor tied up in it which they did not wish lo
compromise.
Brokey's weary wanderings out over the plains to Cali-
fornia are not of sufficient interest to justify rehearsal here,
but I will indicate in a word what became of him. Teaching,
and Nature's bias had unfitted him for delving in the bowels
of the earth. It made him tired to think of supporting the
frail tabernacle in that way, and in the hour when the owl is
abroad, the tempter came too, and said something to Brokey,
and he went and thrust his hand under the sleeping miner's
pallet and drew forth his buckskin bag, and the Vigilance
Committee took him — they took Brokey and hung him on the
limb of a tree !
CHAPTER XVII.
THE; MENACE OE THE GREAT REVER.
As the river was a fruitful source of apprehension to my
mother in the summer, it was none the less so in the winter
time. During Saturday holidays the boys were out on the frozen
river in crowds. Frequently dangerous air-holes were. in close
proximity to our skating-places. In addition to these, the noise
of the contracting ice, sounding like the sullen roar of distant
artillery as the mercury descended rapidly toward the bulb,
often filled her startled senses with foreboding. On a Saturday
night of a biting cold winter all her flock were safe in the
fold except her oldest boy, Porter. The short winter day haa
closed and no word of him. None of us had seen him since
the early morning. All that was known of him was that he
and George McKinney were seen skating on the river. At
the close of an hour after dark my mother sat down in tears
and would not be comforted. She had sent word to my father
at the store and he had consulted with uncle John McKinney
and the two had left town walking south along the river shore,
but my mother knew nothing of that. Another hour of sus-
pense and anguish wore on, at the end of which, dazed by
mental suffering, not knowing what she did, she drew a thin
shawl over her shoulders and went out on the porch, holding
byself and younger brother, Ewell, by the hand, and stojd
trembling and tearful, on the point of plunging into the dark-
ness and cold, she knew not whither — my cousin Sarah plead-
ing with and trying to comfort her. She was gotten back into
the house, where she sank down unconscious. The neighbors
surrounded her, and the doctor came in, and at length my fath-
92
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 93
er returned with the missing boy. The parents had gone on
down the river shore till they met the boys returning over the
ice on their skates from Burlington, twelve miles below.
This brother years ago followed his mother into the
great unknown. In a note bearing the date of April 29, 1881.
received by mail from his home in Minnesota, he says : "We
were sadly pained to receive the news of our own poor mother.
If there is any reward in the next world for a true and trust-
ing woman, she, I know, will receive it. I saw her a little over
a year ago and knew she could not last long."
Lying before me are two old letters and a lock of gray
hair. It startles me to look at the dates. Can it be that thirty
years have sped away since my mother's death? For sixty cent-
uries, more or less, man has been admonished that time is a
swift courser ; but, heedless and forgetful, we have to be cease-
lessly pricked by the arrows of the arch tnemy to keep us in
remembrance of the fact. Here is a letter written by an only
sister, who was my mother's companion foi so long a time and
almost her only solace in her last hours. Without doubt the re-
moval of my parents to Florida prolonged their lives, but it
was a great hardship for my mother to be removed so far
from her kindred and life-long associations. The obvious re
suit of this isolation was to bring mother and daughter closer
together, if possible, than ever before. Wheu the daughter
came, therefore, to have a home of her own, the mother was
left alone indeed! This my sister dutifully tried to remedy
by going back and forth from the city as often as possible.
She explains in the letter from which I quote: "I had been
staying with mother a few days and left on Tuesday after-
noon, and Wednesday night she was taken with a bad pain in
her side and could not lie down; had to sit up all night
Thursday morning father sent for me. I went to her as soon
as I could, and found her very sick. She could only lie down
a minute or two at a time, and father had arranged a sup-
port so she could rest as easily as possible in a sitting posture.
94 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
After dinner I went in to sit with lier, and father said he
would go out and see what the men were doing in the garden.
Mother said she would like to sit in the rocking-chair while
I arranged the bed for her. Having done this service for her,
she said she could not sit up any longer ; for me to lay her
down. I did so, and she closed her eyes and seemed to go to
sleep. I rested a little while and then walked quietly out on
the balcony so I should not waken her. Having put Roy to
sleep, I returned to mother and spoke to her; laid my hand
gently on her wasted form and felt her pulse, and found that
she had passed away. You can hardly understand my anguish
when I discovered the truth concerning her." My mother's
was the initial mound in the new city (Jacksonville, Fla.)
cemetery, around which a great company has since gathered.
Two years afterward, in his seventy-fifth year, my father died,
walking in the yard with his cane in his hand.
During the summer vacation when I was about twelve
years of age, I was hunting down at Grizzly Island, where my
father owned timber lands and had a woodyard and flatboat
and men employed, cutting cordwood. When an up-stream
steamer called, the flatboat (which was kept loaded) was loosed
from its mooring and taken in tow by the steamer, which trans-
ferred the wood to her own deck as she proceeded on her way.
When the transfer had been completed, the woodboat was cast
off and floated back to the landing to be reloaded for the next
steamer. By boarding the steamer I was saved a walk of
several miles home. On the day aforesaid I was standing on
the gunwale of the woodboat nearest the steamer as she came
plowing her way under a full head of steam. The force of
the deep, strong current brought the woodboat square across
the bow of the steamer, which struck it a stunning blow and
knocked me. like a shot from a rifle, into the deep, dark water
below, between the boats, which were rapidly swinging in to-
gether over the spot where I had sunk out of sight. The first
I knew T was struggling in the water and could see the light
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 95
as I swam to the surface The mate on the deck of the steamer
was watching for me, and when I came up. he had two men
hanging over the gunwale of the steamer with hands extended
toward me, and when I got near enough, they grappled me and
pulled me to the deck with my hat still on my head and none
the worse, except being well chilled through before I got home.
CHAPTER XVIII.
A RIDE WITH ONE OF THE CLOTH.
Our home was the headquarters for the visiting preachers
of the old Scotch church. As a matter of fact, my parents
ran a sort of "Preachers' Inn," and I can hardly recall a time
when some of the cloth were not enjoying themselves at my
mother's table. I looked at them askance, for the prayers were
long. They seemed to feel bound, under the claims of hospi-
tality, to repay my mother for her good cuisine by ranging
over seas and across continents in search of material to
lengthen out the petitions to the point she would accept as
liberal compensation for the free lunch. While the debt was
being paid I usually fell over dead asleep.
One day Tom Cunningham came along. You remember
Tom? He was the "flash" preacher of the old church when
I was merging into my "teens." He had one of the best jobs
under the paternal care of the Western Synod — the pastorate
of a big congregation in St. Louis. It was a sunny morning
in June when Tom got off the Northern-line packet at out
landing and met father at the gate, just starting down town.
I was standing in the yard, stunned by the appearace of the
dapper young preacher in his white silk hat, nobby garmenture,
and winning ways. For a minute or two my father, the
family, I — even I — everybody — was thoiotighly saturated by
a spray of Tom's choicest salutions. When the sign was
about right, Tom sprang his request. I never knew one of
those preachers that did not have a deep-felt want of some
kind. Tom had a good old father and mother out on a farm,
northwest of Monmouth, and could my father land him on the
spot? Father could do that, or anything else, one of the
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Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 97
preachers of "our church" asked him to do. Yes; he had a
horse and buggy and a boy, and the boy was listening, and
heard his father acquiesce in the plan. It was the boy that
was always called on to handle the preachers, and he 's han-
dled his share of 'em. I got out the nice buggy with old
Coelum. Coelum in Latin means "heaven." What better than
Coelum to haul the man who was directing the world to the
port after which he was named. Good enough — we started,
not for Paradise, but for the preferred lamling at Father Cun-
ningham's in Warren County. Tom was voluble, and the
landscape bright with the tender spring verdure, and every-
thing took on new beauty as seen through the eyes of the
young preacher from the city, who was in a state bordering
on ecstasy as we jogged along. Betimes we pulled up at the
gate of a farm-house where the roses clambered over the
entrance and the moss-covered bucket invited man and beast
to refreshment. There was a pause of some minutes if Tom
came in contact with some of the fair young faces of the house-
hold, which gave opportunity for an exchange on the trans-
cendent loveliness of everything when you "feel that way,"
and when you don't "feel that way" everything is a theory and
not a condition. My distinguished companion's exuberance
was the counterpart of the affluence of nature in the most
hopeful month in the year. He could not repress himself.
He became more communicative, even confidential, with every
mile accomplished. He had a load on his mind and he must
ease himself by making me a partner in his joys. He told me
all about it. He was in love! In a few choice phrases he
told me all about it, how divinely fair she was. And then she
had a further charm not universal among expectant brides.
She had a rich "Pop," think of that ! Tom thought about it
every day, and every hour in the day, and every minute in
the hour — poor young preacher ! She was sixteen he said
To head off all rivals, Tom had "cast his fly" early. Having
secured his catch, he had nothing to do but to play with it
until she had reached her majority, then land his prize. The
98 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
children of light are as wise as the children of this world in
some things! It is seven and fifty years since I took that ride
with Tom and it is little less than that since I saw him the
last time. It was on the day in 1859 when William H. Seward
made his bid in Chicago for the vote of the young West for
the Presidency. Quite unexpectedly I caught a mere glimpse
of him on the street. The young St. Louis wife was with the
angels, and Tom had a second one, leaning joyfully on his
arm as they tripped away through the crowd. On what seas
sails his barque now, or is poor Tom a-cold?
The limits assigned to these pages preclude the interest
.that attaches to the lads identified by birth with the early his-
tory of the town. Suffice it that John M. Fuller, Esq., a staunch
supporter of the great cause, took an honest pride in his sons,
but the one that gave the least promise led all the rest. The
rather delicate, freckle-faced lad learned a trade, and the
knowledge of tools gave facility in the handling of agricult-
ural implements .for one of our great Illinois manufactories
which led to position and a competence. George Fuller sits
now among the commercial princes of the earth, and, what is
better, his exemplary Christian character puts to shame the
unbeliever and the scoffer. I cannot refrain from a passing
allusion to two others of the contemporaries of my youth :
Tom Scott — "our Tom." as he is affectionately called, and
Horace Bigelow, who led me in age by a year or two. Both
have won a fair share of worldly fame and fortune in the
face of adverse conditions, and none of my early friends are
more worthy.
The "Q" railroad, or Peoria and Oquawka, as the charter
read, was completed from the east shore of the Mississippi,
opposite Burlington, up through the Henderson County bluffs,
in the summer of 1854, and the company on the 4th day of
July ran an excursion train from the river to the groves along
the hills, the terminus being at Ward's mill, where an old-time
barbecue was held — the pit dug and the ox roasted, with such
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 99
side dishes as the people chose to bring. The train was made
up of platform (dirt) cars, with plank seats. A large crowd
took advantage of this opportunity to take their first ride on
a railroad train. Junketing parties were let off any whei e they
chose among the natural groves along South Henderson Creek ,
those in charge of the train accommodating themselves to the
whims of the people in that respect. Some of these small
parties, with their lunch-baskets and hampers of champagne,
showed greater nimbleness in getting off the train in the morn-
ing than they were able to exhibit in getting on again in the
evening.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE BLOOMER COSTUME, THI; CRINOLINE DISTURBANCE.
AND OTHER MATTERS.
One of the great sensations in the town was the advent
of the "Bloomer" costume. When it first crossed the disk ot
fashion, the young misses throughout the country craned their
necks till they nearly pulled them out of joint staring at it,
and the staid matrons had to put on their glasses to make it
out. But the weakness of human nature to grab at every new
style met with a perceptible balk as the Bloomer tide rolled
westward. The Yellow Banks were agitated as never before
over the question of trousers becoming the wearing apparel
for both sexes, with only such modifications as modesty might
suggest. At the last it assumed the form of give and take.
To maintain the judicial balance, the men thought it would be
correct to adorn their breeches with some of the trimmings
heretofore in exclusive use by the ladies; while the sewing
societies of the town almost broke up in a row over the adop-
tion of hip pockets. Ed Ray. as the strenuous advance agent
of the new style, ordered fringes around the bottoms of his
new trousers ; while Luke Strong, as a Miss Nancy, occupy-
ing a position between the rival parties in interest, had a row
of steel cut buttons sewed on the seams of his'n. The new
fad was making progress after all ! The ladies took courage,
but who should take the first plunge? By and by it leaked
out. The garments were being made. An expert seamstress
had 'em on the way, seven-ninths completed, and she would
have them ready to launch the next Sunday for church. There
would be new millinery attachments and everything in rapid-
100
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 101
fire order. There was an excess of joy throughout the pur-
lieus of the Yellow Banks. Everybody hoped it would be a
pleasant day. For once in the history of the town, the people
had a pious spell, and all with one accord brushed up their
religion, and said they were going to attend the services. The
eventful day dawned at last — a sunny summer day. vServices
were held in the court-house, and as the tribes went thither
the windows were packed with noses flattened against the
panes to see the pants go by! Crum Mathews was in com-
mand; but as to the particular frills and the fit of the calico
pantaloons, ask any of the old-timers. They can tell you all
about it.
The Crinoline atmospheric disturbance which followed in
due succession equalled that of Free Silver under "Coin" Har-
vey in '96, and they were alike in the dependence upon wind
for their exploitation ; the more you talked against them — the
more wind you raised — the greater the increase in circulation
It was dangerous for mere man (the old man of the house)
to suggest to his son that the hoops on the rain-barrel needed
mending. The daughters of the household took the slur and
drove the male beasts away with a stick of stove-wood. Hoops
got to be such a necessity that an order for groceries was seldom
issued that did not include a skirt of the approved pattern.
The grocer had the latest in stock, and the hardware man did
not consider his purcases complete without assorted sizes of
the common and the patented articles. They hun<? like gigantic
Chinese lanterns swinging from the awnings of enterprising
dry goods houses, and the town corporations were in a condi-
tion of chronic defense against suits for damages by men in
a hurry to catch the train whose feet were caught in the meshes
of a cast-off hoop-skirt thrown into the street to trip the
unwary.
In those days came Queen Victoria looking like a dirig-
ible balloon, and Mrs. Lincoln (poor Mary), when she appear-
ed on state occasions, a miniature replica of the dome of the
102 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
Capitol. Lord Lyons and the other gilded gentry of the effete
monarchies had to stand out under the dripping eave-troughs.
In the woods one day on Cedar Creek, with my uncle
James Giles, he asked me if my teacher had ever given me for
a copy the line, "The eagle's flight is out of sight." I an-
swered that he had, and he said to me, "Look up there and you
will see the eagle now in his flight." It was a clear sunny
day, and I was eager to see the national bird looking his do-
minion over. I scanned the sky with a boy's keen eye, but was
disappointed. I looked for a large bird, which I thought might
be easily seen. Then my uncle said to me, "You will see only
a speck moving in a great circle." After some further search,
I found it. No incident in nature in all my life, certainly not
in my younger days, impressed me more deeply, save perhaps
the comet of '58, the total eclipse of the sun in '69, or the
descent of an immense meteorite in '73, in Iowa, a copper-
colored globe of fire. The majesty of that flight in the far
ether ! The bird seemed in no hurry. A sentinel in the third
heaven, it seemed to have eternity itself in which to make one
of its grand rounds. Nothing had so completely captivated
the boy's imagination as the bird that dared to look in at the
sun's open door and feel the breath of his furnace fires. My
uncle suggested to me that the bird from its far eyrie could
see across many States, and that the energy of its vision was
so great that a rabbit hopping along the ground would be an
easy mark for it.
Almost all American families, especially of the farmer
class, in the course of a generation own some fine horses —
draft or steppers. If not natural horsemen, they get the over-
flow, which not infrequently contains some speedy animals.
I believe America has the best cavalry in the world, because
we have the best horses, and the most of 'em, and the best
riders. Englishmen and Germans, as a rule, are too pot-gutted
for cavalry. Take a ^thousand Germans, as they run, from
civil life, and they are the most awkward riders on earth. As
we are to-day and have been, good horsemanship is a national
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 103
characteristic. My brother Marion owned two fine steppers
at different times. They were so fast they were at the quarter-
pole before they started. Some of my happiest hours were
spent in the very early morning riding out behind one of these
flyers over a good country road in the fall of the year with
my brother, who was proud of his "typewriters." Grouse were
plentiful — I miss them so much from the Illinois landscape
nowadays! and from the top of almost every stake along
the "worm" fence they called to one another in prolonged
cadence as we rode along. What a shame it is we can hear
them no longer ! The too zealous sportsman has driven them
out, and our wheat-fields where they fed have disappeared
also. Every fall after I had reached the age of twelve or
thirteen I hauled hundreds of bushels of winter apples in from
the farm to those who had ordered them at the Yellow Banks
and in Burlington. As I drove along the road I used to throw
apples at the "prairie chickens," which scorned to retreat under
my bad marksmanship.
CHAPTER XX.
THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER.
He was a gentleman of the old school. He liked to fix
up. He was as fond of the frills of the toilet as a young miss.
A portion of each day was devoted to the placing of his person
in dry dock, where it was scraped and adorned for the voyage
to the morrow, when the regulation for repairs was observed
as before. The Algonquin would have said that his hair was
yellow ; it was parted in the conventional way, but when the
comb reached the crown it descended to the back door, part-
ing the locks in the descent, and carefully brushed them foi-
ward over the ears. He seemed never to have been young,
and yet he was not old, and at the close of each succeeding
decade he seemed about the same — a sort of perennial Beau
Brummel. He was the only man in town who went habitually
\vell dressed, day by day. He uniformly shone upon the street
in a swallow-tail coat, silk hat and white vest ; his hands neat-
ly gloved, brandishing a gold-headed cane. A precious stone
of uncertain value glanced like a serpent's eye upon his fault-
less front. His linen was Byronian, his ivory plates con-
spicuous to a degree. His unequal extremities caused a dis-
tinct but slight pause in his gait. He illuminated the streets
of the Yellow Banks for many years. He was one of the at-
tractions; a phenomenon indeed; the Mysterious Stranger —
all in one — of the town.
He was the unique and incomparable host of the old
Pioneer House in the palmy days of the Fink & Walker
mail-coaches ; he assisted the travelers to alight from the tally-
ho ; he was the Sir Walter Raleigh at the reception of his lady
guests ; he was old J. K., and no other ; a shrewd man of the
104
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 105
world ; posted on the news of the day, and had his opinion of
George Washington and everybody else. And withal, he
seemed suspiciously well versed in the under-world — the sub-
merged tenth, and all that implies. This information, how-
ever, he kept carefully to himself. He was never known to
comment on it, but if it became the subject of conversation in
his presence, he was complacent, serene, disinterested, Satanic.
The great games were played on the river in those days, from
St. Paul to New Orleans; chiefly on the lower Mississippi.
The big stakes and the guns to defend them were on the tables
in the gentlemen's cabin. But the Phenomeon was no fighter ;
he had what was better for him, a demoniac's cunning, sharper
than a needle point, and luck came his way sometimes ; but he
was too cautious, I surmise, for a successful gambler. He
had compensations. If Fortune gave him the cold shoulder at
the gaming-table, he brought his reserves into the fight. His
touch was light and sure, and he did not disdain revenue from
any source, nor object to it in small amounts. An observing
Boniface, accustomed to study his guests, can create opportun-
ities, if they are not apparent. For many years he paid on
demand, and shone resplendent. Other men aged under their
burdens, but the Phenomenon carried the world on his shoul-
ders as it were a puff-ball.
The swell society functions throughout the forties and
fifties at the Yellow Banks were held at the Pioneer House,
which, with its bold river front and shade and its Corinthian
columns, affected my boyish gaze quite like the Parthenon is
supposed to overwhelm the traveler. The great semi-annual
events were the cotillion parties, or "balls," as they were
called in the golden far-gone times. There was a noticeable
stir among the young couples when the date was announced
for the next one forthcoming. The fair ones lapsed into a
form of hysterics over what they were to wear; they ran
across the street the back way and compared notes about it,
breaking out into fits of lunatic laughter at their own quips.
io5 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
The impending social convulsion struck the hotel kitchen in
advance of all others, and the staff shoveled up pie stuff till
the stanchions gave way and the chef and his retinue of aids
were buried under a landslide of raw material.
The Nestor of hotel managers, our imperial J. K. was on
earth in his best form on these great occasions. All things
being in readiness, the couples began to arrive. They came in
all sorts of vehicles from everywhere. The high-over-all ton
came from Keith sburg and Monmouth. The real nickel-plate
could be easily distinguished by the height of his boot-heels.
He always wore boots on great occasions. To wear shoes was
plebeian. He scorned the suggestion. The more "ply" he
could persuade the cobbler to nail onto his boot-heels, if only
one more than his rival displayed, puffed him up horribl).
When he walked, his heels struck the cobble-stones some sec-
onds in advance of his toes, if the latter landed at all. The
women of 1911 are becoming knee-sprung by the revival 01
this barbarism. The man afflicted with an excess of boot-
heels when I was a boy — well, his head ran up to a point as
his heels ran down, the terminus in either case being small.
Having acquired knock-knees, his pace along the sanded floor
was painful to behold. The ball-room of the ancient hostelry-
was well proportioned for the gayety of its time, and it tends
to sober one to muse in silence now on the animated scenes
redolent there far beyond the half-century mark.
On these occasions the early settlers got together. The
ball served a good and an evil purpose, as their successors do
to this day. There were many reputable people at these gath-
erings, and Satan came also. Virtue came clothed in the lat-
est fashion, and otherwise, and Vice followed her example.
Couples from up the creek came within the charmed circle of
Terpsichore not in the best tonsorial form, clothed in black
satin vests venerable for service, but with honest dollars in
their pockets and honest purposes in their hearts, and it would
have been well if all had gotten home in the gray of the next
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 107
morning with a conscience equally void of offense. As a rule,
there was an odor like that of a bad circus left in the wake oi
these balls; the livery-stable crowd prevailed, and the atmos-
phere had a horsey taint. At the upper end of the ball-room
sat the orchestra in state. The first violin was a character.
He was known in all the region around, and was considered
indispensable to a successful function. He was known as "The
Man that Slept on His Violin." I don't know that he had any
other name. Nobody ever heard him talk ; none ever saw him
awake ! He went to sleep fifty years before Rip Van Winkle
was heard of, and he is asleep now — for good. He was an
exceptional character, and will prove exceptional doubtless
when Gabriel blows his horn, and sleep on regardless of what
the other fellows do. He was playing for balls when Colum-
bus discovered America, and was at it like a mere sprig of
youth when I was a boy. When they got ready to open the ball,
they just gave the old fellow a hunch and music rose voluptu-
ous. His touch was delicate, resonant, militant ! He dreamed
celestial dreams as he drew his bow back and forth, and his
head dropped in dead slumber and swayed from side to side
as he played. He was on duty from the opening to the close.
To ease himself he rose at times to his feet, asleep, filling the
room with his strains, keeping the accompanying instruments
busy At the close of the cotillion, and before the waltzers
hegar. i^ spin, he would imitate the nightingale. The bird
struck its sweetest note far up in trie twilight, a challenge to
every bird that carried a harp of gold in its throat; then fol-
lowed an intricate melody too subtle in its method and triumph-
ant in its strains for mortal ken ; the note of victory was so
complete that one thought it would cease, nothing more being
possible, but the note of exaltation continued to rise till the
heavens were filled with its glory, and all the angelic choirs,
the answering harps of seraphim to seraphim, broke forth in
jubilant chorus. And still the wonder grew how one man with
that frail little instrument and bow could so entice the soul
io8 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
and overpower it with the charms of music ! Knight and lady
sat still under the spell of this backwoods master of the violin.
At the hour of twelve, midnight, the guests were summoned
to Belshazzar's feast, for which tickets were required.
Frontier criminal exploits along the Mississippi may be
supposed to have reached high-tide about the time of the mur-
der of Colonel Davenport at his home on Rock Island in 1845.
The minting and circulating of counterfeit coin was one of
the active pursuits of these river rogues. The owner of the
mint was not always the most successful distributer of the
"queer" ; that required a nimble endowment not possessed by
every man. In pioneer days the Yellow Banks was not short
on original genius of this and other kinds. Some of them were
birds of passage. If they had been flushed, they came in from
abroad on tired wing, more or less bedraggled, and took ref-
uge at "The Catfish" — a hostelry that started with the best in-
tentions, but fell under the opprobrium of too much skin-fish
on the table d'hote, a pabulum interdicted by the old Jewish
economy, nor enthusiastically popular with the Gentile as a
daily ration, and for that reason this particular travelers' rest
suffered martyrdom all its days. "The Catfish" did not shelter
the game birds, however ; they stepped softly with gum-shoe
footfall into the dove-cote farther up the hill. The Mysterious
Stranger took care of them, and when the pursuit had lost the
trail and the sky seemed propitious, the rascal sallied forth
again, and the Mysterious Stranger in dandy attire went with
him. The guests at the Pioneer House and the man-about-town
noted the absence. These pilgrimages, more or less prolonged,
occurred at intervals annually. They came to be a feature.
One day the report came in that the mail-coach had been rob-
bed. Alert ears kept tab on the absences from the hotel and the
coincidence of the road agents' activity. Well, the years came
and went, children were born and the aged passed away, but
the Mysterious Stranger held steadily on his course like an
ocean greyhound through fog and storm and ice-floes. On a
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 109
sunny day in June he arrived in port. The air was balmy.
The world had been clothed anew in leafy splendor and the
great river flowed serenely on to the sea as our lives flow on
into that vaster eternity. The bush was full of happy chil-
dren, and they plucked the tender, spongy, half-formed leal,
surcharged with its cardinal tints, and placed it between layers
of snowy white sheeting, put pressure upon it, and lo, the print
of the leaf delicately transferred to the cloth ; and as the chil-
dren shouted their triumphs to each other, they noted the Mys-
terious Stranger as he passed, tapping the walk with his cane,
and then the long step and the short step. His leathern pocket-
book with a fold and a tuck was gorged with bank-notes, and
the Yellow Banks and all the world around was conscious o?
a great change going on, involving the Mysterious Stranger
and all his' neighbors. The Fink & Walker mail-coaches had
ceased to run; the railroad carried the mails, and the Pioneer
House was no longer central enough for travelers. These facU
had hardly been accepted before the Eagle House was open
for business under the suave welcome of its distinguished
host. Now came some brief years of prosperity when Julius
Gifford ran his livery-stable in the rear of Jamison & Moir's
brick block and Thad Warner hustled his mail and passenger
hack up and down from the Junction to the county seat. Thai
remembered the thundering display of the Fink & Walker
stage when it made the grand entry, and attempted a feeble
imitation. Thad had a facial trick which he always played
when he wished to win the admiration of the crowd. He couid
look cross-eyed at will and he had a distinguished leer. He
had other crooked accomplishments, but these were his trump
cards. It was a humiliating drop for the whole town when
the advance of civilization on the frontier compelled it to ex-
change the pomp of other days for Clifford's two-horse hack,
but Thad conceived himself more than equal to the amend.
Driving up from the Junction with the mail in the evening, on
reaching the brow of Schuvler Street he assumed his most
no Recollections <>f I'ionccr and .Inny IJfc.
powerful strabismus stare, and \vith an artistic flick of the
\vhip he gave his two old plugs to understand what was re-
quired of them, and down they came, making the grand cur\e
at Phelps' corner in approved style. 1 am sure the old-timer
falls short of what is due to Thad whenever he omits to shed
a few tears at the remembrance of that performance.
In due course there was an enlargement of the household
at the Eagle House by the addition of two sons-in-law. As the
increase in numbers wras purely ornamental, there was no in-
cumbrance in the way of additional revenue. This made hard
sledding for the Mysterious Stranger. There is hardly any-
thing in this present evil world that will make a man's face
blanch whiter than to look into his cash-box and find it empty.
It was noticed that the old gentleman was less spruce than
formerly. The broadcloth was getting a little seedy ; the step
less springy, and Hope sat on his brow less securely. The in-
exorable years will bind the best of us hard and fast. In the
early morning of a day long gone the early riser went down
to the river shore as usual. The fresh morning air cleared his
brain and his heart, and there was something like the finger
of Fate in the mighty river that rolled ever in that one direc-
tion in which we all are going, and a voice seemed to say. "That
stream cannot turn back upon its course, nor can you return
and make good the \vasted years." The town breakfasted as
usual, and in the interval of going and returning from the
morning meal the "jimmy" had been at work and forced an
entrance to Phelps' Bank. The safe had been wrecked and
the contents taken — all in a moment's time, and silence reigned.
As the rising sun burst upon the streets he who kept the keys
returned to the scene of his life-long labors to find the evidence
of the burglary — the forced entrance, the confusion within, the
prints of feet without. The first thing we do in a case of this
kind is to stare in unbelief. Then one or two neighbors come
along, and we point to the havoc, and we explain that when we
went to breakfast all was as usual. In a few minutes the town
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. in
awoke to what had been done, and the singular thing about
it all was that while. few glimpses, or none, were had of fig-
ures going or coming, the mass of the people had but one
opinion as to the idenity of the robbers, but all was serene at
the Eagle House. The old Mysterious Stranger was there,
supervising the first meal of the day. The household seemed
intact. If there were any discrepancies, they were not noticed
at the moment. As the people canvassed the situation the ex-
citement increased. After some consideration, the crowd of
citizens as if by common impulse went to the Eagle House. T
was in the crowd, along with all the boys in town, and I stood
at the head of the cellar-way when Frank A. Dallam, of the
Plaindealer, led the searching party, thrust his hand into a hole
in the cellar wall and brought forth a double handful of paper
money. There was a shout of exultation, not so much over
the recovery of the money, but at everybody's "I told you so."
The additions to the family by marriage went over the road.
The Mysterious Stranger, who formulated the scheme of rob-
bery, and enticed the willing tools to do his bidding — well, the
gold-headed cane thumped the walk as in the past, followed
by the long step and the short step.
CHAPTER XXL
THE GHOST.
On a dark and stormy night in recent years a physician,
returning from a midnight professional call in the country,
caught a glimpse of a moving taper through the windows ot
the Eagle House, when it was unoccupied, in its uncanny, dis-
credited old age. Having left his conveyance at the livery,
on his way up town his curiosity awoke on passing in front
of the deserted hotel, and he determined to go in and quietly
survey the premises. Taking a station at the window through
which he had seen the light, he silently awaited developments.
He had no better company at first than a mouse gnawing in
the wainsconting or an occasional rat scurrying along the dark
passages. At a moment when he was not looking directly
through the window into the interior of the building, he caught
a glimpse of a dim tongue-like flame (a mere wisp of light)
as it quickly passed out of view, going from one passage-way
into another, and along with it a slight noise which he could
not make out. Putting his ear to a small opening in the cor-
ner of the windowpane where a bit of glass an inch square
had fallen out, he listened with an awakened interest. He
was rewarded in a few moments by a slight noise, scarcely
audible, like the thump of a cane on the floor,' tapping at reg-
ular intervals, accompanied by the mere whisper of a foot-
fall, a hesitating, regular, but soft footfall, as of a long step
and a short step. In a moment :t seemed to be descending a.
stairway. The doctor stood with his back to the outside cel-
lar-way, which stood wide open, dismal and damp. The foot-
steps seemed to be coming nearer in that direction and he
crouched and peered down into the cellar, a part of the in-
terior of which at intervals, by the glow of intermittent light-
112
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 113
ning, he could see — the whole, in fact, of one side of the wall.
He could hear the gentle tap of the cane and the footfalls as
they reached the bottom of the stairs. The doctor, being a
man of iron nerve, was not in the least disconcerted, and re-
lated this incident afterward in the assured, easy way char-
acteristic of him. The invisible Presence then strode across
the cellar floor, diagonally, to a small, irregular hole in the
wall in full view of the silent visitor on the outside. The
taper cast a pale, peculiar light and moved unsteadily about
as if held in an invisible hand, while a real hand (pale and
finely formed) reached into the hole in the wall, withdrew,
and — here a large loose stone under the doctor's foot rolled
and fell with a crash into the cellar. Instantly the Presence
disappeared, and the doctor withdrew, determined to investi-
gate later on.
Ghosts are supposed to stand their ground, but this one
cut sticks for the happy hunting-grounds, breaking all rule-;
for good behavior, al! records for speed, and I fear will seri-
ously impair the confidence of my reader in this and all other
ghosts. The details of this well -accredited experience were
never related to mere than one person. The doctor, ordinarily
uncommunicative, was particularly so on a matter which hLi
senses could not readily credit. To one close friend, however,
the doctor, before his death, gave the minute phases in full OT
this extraordinary occurrence, and discussed in a way peculiar-
ly his own his beliefs respecting the gulf which marks the
boundary of another world than ours, and the probabilities
of an interchange therewith. On two occasions subsequently,
months intervening, the doctor verified the main features of
his first noctuinal visit to the deserted caravansary. During
the first of the last two visits, on a night of arctic cold and
darkness, he saw the taper in the old office of the hotel in a
state of strange agitation. The light, as before, seemed to be
carried f>bout by an unseen hand and the movements of the
pantomime seemed to answer plainly . to an ungoverned pas-
ii4 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
sion. It. would swoop down at limes as if in a great rage-
then trembJe as if in a paroxysm of anger; the drawers of
the desk would open and shut with a slam-like movement, and
yet thov made no uoise. The lid of the old-fashioned desk
lifted like the jaws of Leviathan and closed with an apparent
snap, bnt there v;as only silence, and no other visible move-
ment except that of the little taprr. In a moment the noise
of the cane passed through the doorway into the passage, tap-
ping quickly along in company with the long step and the
short step. On a Christmas night, for the last time, the taper
was seen at the head of the long dining-room table. In the
darkness, relieved by the dim rays of the quarter-moon, it was
seen apparently in the hands of one doing the honors. It
seemed to be bestowing the compliments of the season upon
the invisible guests seated to grace the holiday occasion. The
taper raised high and bowed low. as if mine host interlarded
'his speech with the good cheer and pungent raillery with
which the year's chief est festival is usually adorned. At times
one might suppose the company to have broken out in con-
tinuous quavers and semi-quavers of laughter, the taper cut
such curious antics, as it passed with measured pauses down
one side of the festal board and up along the other side. Ar-
riving at the head of the table once more, the little flame made
three grand flourishes, from which one might suppose the
Mysterious Stranger delivered his valedictory; reviewed his
three-score years and ten upon this earth, his meteoric suc-
cesses, his humiliations, and the vanity of it all !
CHAPTER XXII.
OVERLAND TO FOUNTAIN GREKN.
During my school-days at Monmoutb I made an overland
trip with Robert Wilson McClaughry, a well-known fellow-
student, now a distinguished authority on penology and war-
den of the Government Prison at Fort Leavenworth, whose
fame is founded on exhaustive study, and a career of many
years of supervisory control of some of the great prisons and
reformatory institutions of our country. The journey was
made in a single-rig livery conveyance of the subdued pattern
of those days. Mack called the horse "Bones," which was
illumkiatingly descriptive, if not elegant. The steed was tall
and his ribs shone resplendent: peace to his ashes, for he must
have died a long time ago. Our destination was* Fountain
Greea, in Hancock County. I am sure it was a poet that
named that hamlet; anyway we were going there if "Bones"
and good fortune could help us out in a bad job. In the old days
that are not forgotten the flat prairies of our dear old "Sucker"
State were in a condition of chronic moisture, and when a
lane was forced on a community and the traveler could not
muster courage to throw his neighbor's fence down and drive
over the corn crop, that portion of the interurban subway be-
came anywhere from one foot deep to a bottomless bog. Well,
the brace of travelers were not responsible for the state of
the Union, nor for the condition of the roads of the common-
wealth, so we made bold and drove gleefully south over the
level prairie until we came upon the kind of obstruction noted
in the few cautious words just set down. At this point we
made a pause; then the travelers glanced naively at each
other : then at the landscape ; then at "Bones." I suppose the
n6 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
instant before a Jap commits hari-kiri upon his honorable per-
son— for he professes great contempt for this mortal existence
—he is just as happy as he ever was in his life. I suppose also,
when one jumps from a spring-board for the bottom of the
Colorado Canyon two miles below, that he is as serenely com-
fortable at the precise second in advance of his pre-determined
leap as one ever could be here below. It certainly is after,
and not before, a Frenchman "sneezes in the basket" that he
feels "the slings and arrows
of outrageous fortune." So
here, looking ahead upon
the long stretch of liquid
mud ahead of them, the
travelers were not in the
least dismayed ; on the oth-
er hand, your humble serv-
ant, who bore aloft the rib-
bons, proudly said "cluck"
to "Bones" and advanced
confidently. We sank a
foot the first length, the
second length out we were
up to the axles, at half of
"BoNEs"AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BOG the third length "Bones" had
difficulty getting his feet up out of the stuff muck at the bot-
tom ; then he laid down flat and rested, out of sight, except the
half of his neck and head. "Bones" did this respectfully,
quietly, without disturbing anybody. But he was not ailing,
and there was a chance for an argument. Mack gave an
audible gasp and succumbed. By and by a little resolution,
the size of a pea. began to flutter under his waistcoat, and
he crawled out onto the rail-fence and cooned along to land
not so moist and went up to the farmer teaming near by, and
I could see the pantomime between the two. Mack first stood
on his toes, bowed his back, pushed his telescopic neck out
three meters and lifted his hat. The tiller of the soil stood
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 117
as rigid and unbending as a statue of Patrick Henry. Mack,
seeing he had failed to make an impression, turned, and with
desperate eagerness hurled his long arm, barbed with a keen
index finger, toward "Bones" and his driver. The agricultur-
ist continued sphinx-like, as though he had stood there for
four thousand years and meant to stay there for a season
longer ; whereupon Mack, who was full of resources, thrust
his windward arm deep down into his spring pajamas. I took
that for a feint, but before he could turn and give me a grave
\vink that farmer had unhitched from his wagon, backed
his team up to the disabled vehicle far out from shore and
"yanked" it from the jaws of Erebus, while the driver sat on
the box triumphant as it emerged. The travelers contemplated
"Bones" in silence for some minutes. Then one said to the
other, "Tie is richly embossed and I think we had better have
him baked and hand-painted, and return him to the livery-
man as a 'shef-duver.' "
We took dinner with Mr. Eldridge, of Roseville, not with-
out some apprehension as to the appearance of our entourage
as we drove within the porte-cochere. We greeted our host
meekly as he glanced at "Bones" and observed the evidences
of the desperate efforts we had made to clean him off with
cobs and sundry other aids we found along the road, and
after the noon hour, as we drove away, our courteous host
seemed to smile in an unwonted manner as we trotted off
down the lane. Our stepper had been refreshed with a good
dinner and was winsomely blithe and graceful, barring the
mud on his sides, on the harness and on the vehicle, which
did not seem to impede his movements as we drove south-
ward toward the next frog-pond, which we reached in due
time, and on the verge of which Mack deserted his compan-
ion, and took to the fence again to observe the behavior of
"Bones" and his driver across the worst place we had yet
struck. A farmer plowing in the field adjacent was also in-
terested in the passage, and craned his neck over the plow,
bent on not missing any part of the show as he saw "Bones"
MS
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
cautiously descend into the abyss and the driver lay on the
whip at the supreme moment. At the bottom of the bog
"Hones" declared himself, and walked out of the harness and
away from the jaunting-car onto dry land, leaving the driver
with a piece of the lines in his hands. Mack from his perch
on the fence and the plowman in his furrow exchanged wire-
less messages, while "Moses" sat speechless down where the
bulrushes grow. Mack dubbed me "Moses" on the journey,
on account of my superior
wisdom and meekness, char-
acte ristics which. I am
pleased to acknowledge,
adhere to me to this day.
Henceforth the skies re-
lented, the roads improved,
and we passed through a
series of landscapes not
surpassed in the Garden
State, nor matched outside
of it. On our return trip
we bore away northwest
and reached the Mississippi
River at the Yellow Banks.
MOSES IN THE BULLRUSHES. Here we should have turned
due east on the old stage road to Monmouth, but the bridges
were gone, and we drove north to Rollings worth's; but the
storm god shook his head, and we continued north to Coghill's,
where the bridge was also gone, and under grim necessity poor
"Bones" dragged his weary way far north into Mercer Coun-
ty, where we found lodging at the hospitable farm-house of
Mr. Duncan. From this point we drove nearly due south,
finding a crossing near Little York. On our last day out we
came upon Monmouth in the happy possession of her over-
grown cottonwood tree and fathomless mud-hole in the north-
west corner of the public square, which were her chief orna-
ments in ante-bellum davs.
CHAPTER XXIII.
\ GLIMPSE OF HORACE GREELEY.
The Civil War of 1861-65 was one of the stepping-stones
of the ages ; like the expulsion from the Garden ; the Exodus ;
the fall of Babylon ; the civilization of Greece ; the fall of
Rome; the crucifixion of Christ; the Crusades; the discovery
of America; the overthrow of British tyranny by the thirteen
Colonies. It was a fight to hold what the race had already
won of civil liberty — a free conscience and a free right arm.
With the crisis came the man — our great political prophet;
born in due time, among the lowly, in deepest poverty. There
was no beauty that we should desire him. We were faithless
and unbelieving. "Can any good come out of Nazareth ?" "Is
not this the carpenter's son?" "Whence getteth he this
wisdom?" Derided, scorned, hated, threatened, murdered!
Anointed of God, bearing His unmistakable image in his soul,
and confessed of just men, willing to stand for the truth at
the cost of blood and treasure. And so it came to pass that
he was made President of the United States, and wrought a
work which has transfigured the man for all time.
A root out of dry ground, he is still an enigma and an
astonishment to many; incomprehensible now in this age of
graft and colossal selfishness as he was to the great men of
his own generation, who assumed superiority over him. A
matchless pilot he, to the consternation of the shallow pre-
tenders in high places. He had none of the pride of life. The
obscurity of his birth weighed upon him down to his entering
the White House. It was only then that he was emancipated.
"I am not fit for the Presidency/' he wrote to his friends.
119
120 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
At the opening of the senatorial joint discussion, he said:
Twenty-two years ago Judge Douglas and I became ac-
quainted. We were both young then — he a trifle younger than
I. Even then we were both ambitious — I perhaps quite as
much so as he. With me the race of ambition has been a fail-
ure— a flat failure; with him it has been one of splendid suc-
cess. His name fills the nation, and it is not unknown even in
foreign lands. I affect no contempt for the high eminence he
has reached. I would rather stand upon that eminence than
wear the richest crown that ever pressed a monarch's brow."
The one glorious and glorifying fact concerning Mary
Todd, a fact that should hallow her memory to all future gen-
erations despite her weaknesses and follies, is that she be-
lieved from the first, implicitly, with a faith rock-ribbed and
unshakable, in the inherent greatness of her husband. "Doug-
las is nothing but a scrubby little Vermont Yankee, not to be
compared with Lincoln," said Mary. The woman's intuition
surpassed the wisdom of the great.
During my school-days at Monmouth there were no hard-
and-fast contracts with literary bureaus to secure popular lect-
ures on diverse current themes. Some of the distinguished
men of the period were at our service, among them Horace
Mann, George D. Prentice, Dr. Haven, and Horace Greeley.
The literary societies of the college were the intermediary for
providing this mental pabulum, and we negotiated with the
principals direct at an average cost of $50.00 each. It fell to
my lot to secure the services of some of these men — to see
that they were properly domiciled during their brief stay
among us — and that the leading professional men of the town
had an opportunity to meet them. Horace Greeley was the
most interesting figure that appeared on our platform. He
was the man behind the anti-slavery guns during the years
leading up to the Civil War. He had the conscience and the
ear of the nation as no other had. The people were eager to
see and hear him. His eccentricities no less than his great
ability contributed to this curiosity. Since the foundation of
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 121
our Government we have had only two (not more) great
journalists in this country — Benjamin Franklin and Horace
Greeley. This was my thought when a young man and at the
close of half a century I am still of that opinion. These two
men in intellectual force surpassed a thousand, and they will
he remembered when ten thousand bright editorial pens are
forgotten. It is true that the founder of the Tribune was
brought low during the Civil War and had to dip his colors
to the Great Commoner in the White House, but he might
have done that and still easily be the one great editorial light
to lead a nation to rid itself of a damning stain.
Benjamin Franklin was not a pattern in morals for his
generation and Horace Greeley had his limitations ; but when
that honored memory is menaced, a mighty throng of the
chivalrous and impartial stands ever ready for its defense. Mr.
Greeley arrived in Monmouth, according to agreement, on the
early morning train. I was late in getting down to meet him.
The depot was a dirty little dry-goods box, the reserved space
fully occupied by a "cannon" soft-coal stove, by the side of
which stood the solitary figure of the great editor, wrapped in
an enormous buffalo great-coat, his well-remembered face and
full dome of thought o'ertopped by a broad-brimmed Quaker
hat of the precise pattern of William Penn's own. I con-
cealed my amazement as well as I was able, and found him
most cordial and companionable. I saw him comfortably
quartered at the old Baldwin House. On assisting him to
divest himself of his wooly buffalo investment, we uncovered
the famous old "drab overcoat" which had become, on account
of its age and constant daily service, a piece of garmenture
subject to national comment. At the last, or first, however,
I found the old gentleman in conventional evening attire as
good as the best, barring his neck-tie — a wandering accessory
to his toilet, which Elizabeth Cady Stanton, on one occasion,
had to bring into control on short notice as a distinguished
company was on the point of passing in to dine. At the solic-
122 Recollections of I'ionecr and Army Life.
itation of the local photographer, I had agreed to entice Mr.
Greeley over to the sky-light for his picture. This he good-
naturedly assented to, and after breakfast and other prelimi-
naries were out of the way, I sallied forth with my peculiar
charge in the ancient drab envelop and Quaker hat. ,Mr.
Greeley had a certain inequality of carriage as a birthright,
a lameness, or shuffling gait, which made him appear to dis-
advantage as he made his way through the town, and it fol-
lowed that we had all the idlers and street Arabs at our heels.
They lay in ambush while we were occupied in the photo-
graph gallery, but at our reappearance upon the street they
fell in again like Falstaffs army, receiving recruits moment-
arily, so that by the time we had got around to the Atlas
office we had a large convoy. The local newspaper office oc-
cupied another dry-goods box under the old cottonwood tree
at the northwest corner of the public square. At this point
the motley crowd, narrowly watching our distinguished vis-
itor's every change of direction, and probably anticipating our
objective, overflowed the local editor's sanctum in advance, so
that I had difficulty in getting the two men together.
It was Horace Greeley's influence and active personal
labors, as is well known, that led the convention of 1860 to
nominate Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency. Little thought
we, as this singular figure slouched around the public square
in Monmouth in 1859, of the strange detenni-iing influence
which was so mightily to effect the history of our Govern-
ment, and how this personal triumph over William H. Seward
in the old Wigwam was to be requited by his own complete
discomfiture at the hands of the man whose elevation to the
Presidency he had so signally aided. Greeley's helplessness
in his encounter with Abraham Lincoln may be accounted for
in precisely the same way that other distinguished men whose
ability equalled that of Greeley discovered their master in the
man in the White House — the failure to comprehend and rely
upon the consummate pilot in charge of the helm of State
during the Civil War.
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 123
We are not to kick, therefore, if in being helped in the
advancement of a great cause, we ourselves should suffer
humiliation and contumely. Alas, that it should ^be so! His
great and sensitive heart was broken at the last, and it was a
hard and stony heart that felt no qualms when that great
editorial light went out in eclipse.
George D. Prentice, the biographer and friend of Henry
Clay, the poet, editorial wit, and paragrapher of considerable
fame was greeted by a full house. His best verse, written in
his earlier and better days, will survive the flood of similar
literature, but the Lyceum platform suffered no loss when he
retired from it. He was billed for two lectures at Monmouth,
but he was let off with one appearance at his own request.
We transferred him to Oquawka for the unemployed even-
ing, where the receipts, owing to the short notice, barely cov-
ered the expenses. Prentice, at this time was supplying Rob-
ert Bonner's New York Weekly Ledger with a quarter col-
umn, more or less, of paragraphs, wise saws, and otherwise.
On our way over to Oquawka by rail and hack I had the op-
portunity of observing how this Ledger work was done. He
carried a volume of "Quotations" in his hand, from which he
would make a selection, transfer it to his mental hopper, turn
the crank, and lo here and lo there — something bright and
new; nothing more or less than old straw threshed over!
Who was it said, "There is nothing new under the sun"?
CHAPTER XXIV.
LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS.
Stephen A. Douglas was well known at the Yellow Banks
when Henderson was a part of Warren County. My father
sat on the jury when Douglas was the circuit judge, and his
charges to the jury, as my father was wont to say, were
models of force and clearness. At the age of thirteen or
thereabouts I first heard Douglas in a public address. It was
during the "Know-nothing" eruption and the gathering took
place at the north door of the court-house. General Dodge,
of Burlington, Iowa, introduced the speaker, who presented
a striking figure as he came forward on the platform. On
a compact little body, clothed in a black broadcloth, claw-
hammer suit, sat a remarkable head, surmounted by a shock
of dark brown hair. It was an Irish mug and he looked like
an unabridged edition of Admiral Dot. But he was mighty
in the pulling down of his enemies' strongholds. For con-
centrated vituperation his denunciation of the political fore-
runner of A. P. A.-ism has had few equals. His invective did
not appear in its most significant aspect in the printed page.
I recall it now as though one of our battle-ships had placed
one of her twelve-inch shells ten times in succession in the
same spot on the enemies' water-line. In the course of his
address he undertook a defense of the repeal of the "Kansas-
Nebraska Act." It was then that the crowd became restless
under the interpellations of Gideon Russell, a thoroughly sin-
cere, courteous, fearless and well-informed citizen on the cur-
rent political questions of the day. The local anti-slavery cham-
pion was persistent and sent a shot in at every favorable oppor-
tunity. The Democrats in the crowd finally got nervous over
124
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 125
it, and boldly accused Frank Dallam and Colonel Henderson
of molding the bullets for Mr. Russell to fire at the speaker.
At this moment there was a chance for a row. As a boy,
earnestly partisan, and watching the corners, I could see that
there was an undercurrent of deep feeling in the crowd. This
was made plain in various ways ; as for Colonel Henderson,
he was shaking like an aspen with anger and excitement.
Douglas could on occasion make the amende honorable in a
very neat way, and so, here and now. oil was poured on the
troubled waters; the crowd quieted down, and the meeting
dispersed in an amiable mood. Afterward, I heard Douglas
on the public square in Monmouth. He had grown stouter;
his voice, always strong, now seemed at times Stentorian as
he rolled off his periods. His deliberation was such that his
words seemed hyphenated, and too the syllables, and he be-
came so absorbed in his theme that he was oblivious of his
handkerchief and other trifles till the foam gathered in the
corners of his mouth, not an object specially attractive. I was
at school at the time, and having a good voice myself, I used
often to amuse my confreres by imitating Douglas' peculiar
bull-dog notes and manner. I usually began with the Senator's
opening sentence in his Monmouth speech : "Fellow-citizens-
of - old - Warren ! We - have - come-together - to-dis-cuss-the-
'grea:t-questions-which-are-now-ag-i-ta-ting - the-country-f rom -
cen-ter-to-cir-cum-f er-ence !"
His stump speeches were composed largely of pure soph-
istry and bluff, but he will be remembered for his sturdy,
all-around, large patriotism. If Great Britain put up a bluff
against us, Douglas was sure to call it on the floor of the
Senate. He was a thoroughbred American, and that meant his
country — an indissoluble Union — first, last and forever. I
salute his memory.
The answering notes of preparation for the Lincoln-
Douglas senatorial campaign were beginning to be heard
throughout the State; discussion was rife, and voters were
stirred as never before. As the summer of 1858 wore along
126 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
these giants in the political arena came together on the same
platform at carefully selected points in congressional districts
supposed to be coigns of vantage, but the whole country stood
in the attitude of attention and made careful notes on the
progress of the debate. The passing years have rendered
judgment from which there is no appeal on these two historic
characters and the results of this campaign, and when the un-
believer questions the veteran who "lags superfluous on the
stage," the book is pointed out, with the injunction: "There
is the history of your country; read it."
On the date fixed for the joint discussion I made one of
an immense delegation from Henderson and Warren counties
and boarded a train for Galesburg to witness the meeting of
the gladiators at that place. The day was fair and hot and
the multiplied thousands who came by train and private con-
veyance stirred the dust in the streets until it was suffocating.
Douglas was detained at a hotel near the depot during the
forenoon by a political side-show. An ambitious student from
Lombard University, encouraged by his party allies, addressed
the Senator in a speech of absurd buncombe and presented
him with a small flag. After the noon hour, the immense crowd
assembled on the Knox College campus, the platform for the
speakers, the reporters and others having been erected against
the wall of the old auditorium on the south side. Here with
their backs against the wall of the old college — as near as
either of them ever got to a college — the tribunes of the peo-
ple were at bay, and had. as it were, to fight for their lives.
As a young auditor and a strong partisan, it is easy for
me to exaggerate the scene presented to my highly wrought
nerves on that day ; and still, now. looking back upon it after
the lapse of three and fifty years, through the color reflected
by the blood-red shield of Mars, am I not justified in record-
ing that the occasion was a memorable one, so full of sup-
pressed feeling, as the tall figure of our great political prophet
advanced to protest against the brazen impertinences of the
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 127
chief Northern apologist for the extension of slavery? Aleck
Findley, an intelligent farmer of our county, stood in the
dense crowd in front of me, and when Lincoln in a few clear-
cut sentences laid bare the moral stain of slavery -upon the
race and its depressing effect upon the heritage won by our
fathers, which we wished to preserve in its entirety, he could
not restrain his emotion — "Isn't that grand!" Douglas opened
the discussion in a speech of one hour; Lincoln replied, oc-
cupying an hour and a half ; and Douglas closed with a resume
of thirty minutes, during which he presented a figure which
could not be forgotten. Taking exception to Lincoln's pointed
arraignment, Douglas presented a spectacle for men and an-
gels as his shock of hair flared like that of an enraged lion,
and, as usual, his explosions of wrath and power of denuncia-
tion were the sensations of the day. During this forensic dis-
play Lincoln sat with his back half turned to the audience,
leaning on his hand, braced by his arm akimbo; at times run-
ning his fingers through his hair until it stood straight up, the
gnarled face upturned, the kindly, beaming, penetrating eyes
looking straight into the face of his roaring antagonist !
Apart from the joint discussions, both speakers continued
the canvass of the State, and including all other points, Lin-
coln spoke in the old Military Tract at Dallas, Oquawka and
Monmouth. His speech at the latter place, where I was at
school, was delivered under conditions in striking contrast to
the bright, sunny day on which Douglas appeared there. From
first to last the two men appear in striking contrast: The
one was tall ; the other short. The one deferential ; the other
sufficient unto himself, and deferred to none. The one studied
carefully his ground, then moved with the force of an aval-
anche ; the other with supreme audacity forced the fight from
start to finish. The one seemingly never quite ready ; the
other alert and never surprised. The one inscrutable in his
patience ami \\-ariness, waiting his opportunity; the other, with
savage directness, did not scruple to tear down the most sacred
128 Recollections of Pioneer and Anny Life.
barriers. The one composite, revelling in the warmth of his
companionships, passing easily to the consideration of the
gravest questions that concern our race ; the other destitute
of humor, selfish in his aims, basking in the plaudits of the
groundlings. The one loved his home and the child at his
knee ; the other almost unconscious of the domestic hearth.
The one lived, as it were, under the constant surveillance of
the Eye that slumbers not nor sleeps; the other oblivious to
the unseen world so close at hand. The one took counsel of
the prophets of old ; the other was never known to open the
Book, nor to care concerning its contents. The one abstemi-
ous, clean, not an habitue' of the bar-room, and shrank instinct-
ively from its odorous powers as a soul- and body-wrecker.
The other drank whiskey, and leaned heavily on men given
to their potations. Both have disappeared from the horizon
of mortal ken — the souls hungering for liberty in every clime,
of whom the world is not worthy, with upturned, wistful
faces, looking yearningly after the great Emancipator depart-
ed; the other forgotten, except as his memory is preserved
by association with his great rival ! Yes ; even the weather
divided upon these two men. The skies were dissolving when
Lincoln arrived in Monmouth ; the crepe was on Nature's
door, and the mourners were going about the streets under
umbrellas. But this was a slight affliction compared to the
prolonged address of welcome inflicted upon the patient crowd
standing in the rain through it all ! The local orator was a
distinguished gentleman from somewhere in the south end
of the county. This was the opportunity of a lifetime, and he
enjoyed it to the full. The meeting was held in the vicinity
of a lumber-yard, where a water-proof shed had been erected
for the great Commoner's accommodation. It took our neigh-
bor half an hour to introduce Mr. Lincoln. The work was
done after the manner of some of the old-time preachers of
the period, who took the Lord to one side, as was their wont,
and told Him all about Himself; where He was born, and
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 129
when, and the circumstances incident thereto, and what He had
been doing these six thousand years : where he had failed in
his calling, the remedy he had applied for his mistakes, how
things were going now since he had introduced his reforms,
what rebates he had abolished, the amount in dollars and cents
of the graft he had exposed, the number of the big thieves
he had locked up, and on and on, extending particulars, until
he had thoroughly coached him in the whole of his biography.
And now to turn the switch — after the gentleman had equip-
ped the speaker with a good running knowledge of himself
and fully posted the crowd as to the importance and extent
of his own superior knowledge and information, he told Mr.
Lincoln that it was his turn.
In the meantime how poor old Mother Nature did flood
the earth with her tears ! And by the time the entire crowd
had found a seat on the lumber-pile, and under the protection
of their umbrellas had pulled off their boots and emptied a
quart of water out of each one, the speaker had finished, and
we all went home.
CHAPTER XXV.
MY SCHOOL-DAYS AT MONMOUTH AND THE CROZIER-
FLEMING TRAGEDY.
Monmouth College was opened for the reception of stu-
dents in September, 1856, in an old frame school-house of
one room, which stood on ground near the Y. M. C. A. build-
ing. Provision had been made for a college building, of which
the school took possession the next year. The president-elect,
David A. Wallace, did not take charge of the school at once.
He was an attractive, interesting man at the time of his ad-
vent on the streets of Monmouth, within a twelvemonth of the
opening, at the age of thirty-five or thereabouts. His intellect-
ual qualifications were considerable. He possessed good exec-
utive talents and marked energy. I have heard him deliver
some very able discourses, but as a rule his sermons, while ac-
companied by more or less forensic display, were not above the
average. He had his limitations, but he must be credited with
a laborious life-work, self-denying, great and enduring. He
had affable, pleasing manners, and I am sure he will be held in
grateful remembrance by the early friends (alumni and their
descendants) of what has come to be a highly creditable and
flourishing school. It is to be hoped that some glad day the
college will come into the possession of an endowment that
will place it beyond apprehension as to its financial support ;
then it will follow as a matter of course that a fund will be
raised and expended in the erection on the campus of a bronze
statue of its first president. My elder brother, Porter, and I
were among the first students in attendance at the opening
of the school. My father was a staunch friend of the under-
130
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 131
taking, a member of the first board of trustees, and a liberal
supporter.
In the year 1857 we occupied a room at the hospitable
home of James G. Aladden, Esq., on East Broadway, and on
a sunny day in the autumn, between the hours of one and
two o'clock P. MV as was my custom, I Was sauntering along
the street toward the college with my books under my arm
to attend the afternoon recitations. On approaching the
old Baldwin House, Mrs. William Grant, who lived across the
street, came running in an excited manner toward the hotel.
As I came up to the first or ladies' entrance old Mr. Fleming
stood at the foot of the stairway leading to the second story,
shouting in a crazed way that they (not saying who) had kill-
ed his sons, and demanding help. His face was bleeding, and
the white hairs of age aroused my sympathy. The crowu had
not yet gathered, and there were only a very few people about,
and these few were standing dazed at the sudden shedding of
blood, uncertain what to do. A step or two and I stood in
the f r6nt doorway of the office, and in the' center of the room,
stretched at full length on the floor, lay the body of Henry
Fleming, the glassy eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling.
In a room up stairs his brother lay dead. A stalwart young
carpenter, thirty years of age, William Crozier by name, was
the author of this double homicide. The Flemings (father
and two sons) had brought pressure to bear upon Crozier and
compelled him to meet them for a private interview at the
hotel. The Flemings were armed and brought with them a
written statement compromising Crozier and Miss Alice Flem-
ing, an attractive young lady of hitherto unblemished reputa-
tion, the eldest of three daughters of the Fleming family.
The Flemings demanded Crozier 's signature to the paper,
which they had placed before him. On his refusal the two
young Flemings (both married men) sprang upon Crozier as
he sat in his chair, and in the struggle which ensued he man-
aged to get a large dirk knife from his pocket, with which he
172 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
cut both men to the heart. They died almost instantly. Henry
Fleming, after being cut, ran down the stairway into the hotel
office and fell a corpse in the center of the room as aforesaid.
His brother sank down a corpse in the room where he was
struck. A young brother of Crozier's met the elder Fleming
in the hallway upstairs and struck him in the face, and thus
-ended this bloody tragedy, the whole of which was consum-
mated in less time than it has taken to write these words. The
few people at hand at the moment were stunned. The Flem-
ing family suffered great loss, and Warren County stands
conspicuous with the name of Crozier written in blood upon
her annals ; a name not to be pronounced in the home which
shelters the sacred honor of a Christian household. He be-
trayed the innocent one, and in defense of that crime commit-
ted a double murder for which there was no extenuation, and
lie should have forfeited his life on a limb of the first tree at
hand ! I do not believe there is another instance in the his •
tory of our country where a family and the majesty of the
law suffered such an enormity at the hands of one man, and
the crime-laden scoundrel anointed with an acquittal and given
"his liberty ! The old church of which he was a member began
forthwith to manufacture public sentiment in his favor, and
some young men of the town secured a cheap notoriety by
supplying the prisoner with something better than a convict's
ration and sharing his bed in the old county jail. It is a fair
question whether, in the event of their own household having
suffered a like invasion, these young men would have hesitated
to advertise their shame by lying-in with the ravisher. One
of these addle-pated gentry I believe served a term subsequent-
ly as a member of the State Leg'slatur^ and rounded out his
career as a statesman by selling second-hand sewing machines.
The truth in this instance may be discerned at the bottom of
the well. The community where this crime was accomplished
"had not been so fortunate up to that time as to come into
possession of a hero. In Crozier they discovered this "great
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 133
awakening l.gnt," and they made the most of it. I do not
know at whose instigation or permission, but the finishing
touches were placed on this uncanny business by the photog-
rapher who secured a negative of the remains of the brothers
resting together on the bier ready for burial, and the picture
gallery became the subject of curious inquiry on the part of
the groundlings who repaired thither in numbers to gratify a
morbid curiosity. It is a pity that Crozier could not have sup-
plied the "high light" to this post-mortem finale by standing
on the public square and selling his own negatives, rather
than undertake a retreat to Texas.
It was on a dark, misty day that the long funeral train
passed like a phantom across the high tableland to the cem-
etery, as the road ran in those days. As I stood at my window
and caught a glimpse of the procession the words of Ossian
seemed to fit in well : "The mist is on the hills ; the blast of
the north is on the plains ; and the traveler shrinks in the midst
of his journey!"
During my attendance at the school "bleeding Kansas"
was the principal theme of public controversy. Politicians
wrangled over it; street toughs fought over it; "advanced"
preachers bloviated about it ; and the Eccrittean Society, of
which I was president during a port of this period, went into
convulsions trying to reconcile the antagonisms growing out
of it. If, in the regular weekly debates, we sounded the depths
of theology, astrology, psychology or any other subject which
we knew nothing about, the astute disputants uniformly wound
up with a peroration on "bleeding Kansas," in which she was
made to bleed afresh, at every pore, copiously. Out in Kansas.
John Brown, of Osawatomie, was the heavy villian. The
Eccrittean Society, not be outdone in mixed vaudeville, ex-
ploited a John Brown also. At a memorable meeting of the
society during the winter of 1858-59 we suddenly found our-
selves in the throes of revolution, with John Brown in the
leading role as a Jacobin. The "house" came to a division, in
134 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
which Brown "got it in the neck." In a paroxysm of wrath
he seceded — went across the hall to the Philos — and they shut
him out with a .blackball. Thereupon "bleeding Kansas," out
of sympathy, discharged gore more profusely than before. Bob
Diehl led the Brown forces. Bob appeared on the floor at the
next regular meeting with a manuscript speech seven yards
long. His roach, nicely slicked, stood vertically in the most
menacing way. The benches weie full. Bob was a veteran
orator (the equal of Dad Harris), and the boldest held his'
breath to catch the opening sentences. Bob was grave even to
sadness. He took a hitch in his suspender and addressed the
chair in his best lord marquis manner. The chair responded
with a distant random rap of the gavel that made the eyeballs
of the members "about face." The house came to order and
Bob opened artfully. He said — or read — that he purposed
to "touch lightly upon the great questions which now made
the earth tremble exultingly." At this point the members look-
ed suspiciously at Bob's manuscript, which hung down and
extended in manifold waves along the floor like a queen's
train. I would be pleased to give a stenographic report of
Bob's speech right here, but the necessary space would exceed
that required for "Atmosphere Bill's" speech on Free Silver,
and prudence admonishes a recoil. To explain, however.
Bob's speech was in defense of the Brown family generally,
and among other things he declared with extreme emphasis
that nothing had occurred in "bleeding Kansas" to compare
with the revolting abasement which our own illustrious scion of
the tribe of red-heads had suffered at the hands of his enemies.
The upshot of it all was that, in the absence of the lord chan-
cellor and his lieutenants, on a subsequent night, "our Brown"
sneaked back into the fold, and when we heard of it we ex-
changed a casual glance, pulled a Virginia stoga and took a
smoke.
CHAPTER XXVI.
"To PIKE'S PEAK OR BUST."
During the year 1859 ^e political parties throughout the
country were organizing the contest for the nominations for
the Presidency to be made in the national conventions the fol-
lowing year, the dramatic features whereof stirred the dark-
est passions of partisans for years, and were destined to affect
the organic structure of the Government itself for all time.
The hopes of the conservative anti-slavery party were cen-
tered in William H. Seward, although strong side-lights re-
vealed figures of other notable men. In due time Seward
made a direct bid for the vote of the Western States and I
joined the multitude which packed the trains going to Chi-
cago to hear him. The city had less than 200,000 population ;
it laid low on the flat prairie, the wooden sidewalks conspicu-
ous for their inequalities. It was essentially a wooden town,
the same that went up in flames twelve years later. The term-
inals of the "Q" railroad were of the crudest description, and
our train stood on the open prairie with a dozen other long
passenger trains of that and converging roads for two hours,
waiting turns to get into the city and unload. Seward's
Northwestern welcome was an open-air meeting, for the
crowd was beyond the capacity of any dozen auditoriums of
that day. "Long John" Wentworth was the mayor of the city,
and introduced the senator, who was welcomed by the pro-
longed cheers of the people, who were massed in the streets
for blocks in the vicinity of the speaker's platform. The lit-
tle "great man" was visible only to the few, and could be heard
only by the select few in his immediate vicinity. He made
one of the great orations of his life, as the people discov-
135
136 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
ered after they had returned home and read it; but Seward,
to be appreciated as an orator, required certain conditions ; an
enclosure of limited area ; a place to lie down, broadly speak-
ing; to be exact, something to sit on, or, in default of that,
something he could cling to with both arms, for he was born
tired. The Civil War, you remember, would not last longer
than ninety days, according to the New York senator's reckon-
ing, because, in the physical sense, that was the limit of his
comprehension.
In May of the year the nominating conventions were held,
1860, I was on my way to the Western mountains. As we
wound along westward, across the broad, lonely tablelands of
western Iowa, where the bleaching bones of the recently ex-
terminated buffalo were still lying plentifully broadcast, the
approaching Republican Convention at the "Wigwam" in Chi-
cago became the subject of conversation between myself and
my companion, James Shoemaker, who declared stoutly and
conclusively (in his own estimation) that Abraham Lincoln
would be the nominee. I shared in the general belief that
William H. Seward was the coming man, and I also shared In
the general surprise, although not in the disappointment, at his
defeat. The western half of Iowa was very thinly settled;
the only object of interest which we visited before reaching
the Missouri River being a Mennonite settlement, where mar-
riage was barred and property held in common. I recall the
log dining-room and kitchen with its immense cauldrons where
the food was cooked. We crossed the "Big Muddy" at Platts-
mouth. Nebraska, where we met E. H. N. Patterson and D. C.
Hanna with quartz mills, on their way to Pike's Peak. We
joined their train, which materially increased the pleasure of
the journey, for Mr. Patterson had made the trip the year
previous, and, too, was an Argonaut of '49, and* had printed
notes of these trips at hand, which gave our bearings from
day to day.
At this point I respectfully submit that a memoir of Mr.
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 137
Patterson is due the people of Henderson County from the
pen of his talented son, now the publisher, in the third gen-
eration, of the Spectator, one of the oldest county papers in
the State. Such a memorial volume, with portrait and the
notes of the California and Pike's Peak journies and the his-
torical matter available from data left by the grandfather,
Mr. J. P>. Patterson, would meet with a cordial reception at
the hands of the people of the county and without doubt would
be financially profitable. The Historical Association of the
county would find such a volume an invaluable accession to
its archives. Neglected local history soon fades into tradition,
then to doubt, which is another word for denial. Catch the
record while you can.
Bayard Taylor at this time was in the flush of his fame
as a litterateur and traveler, and his published works were
familiar to me. Before leaving for the West I had the pleas-
ure of hearing him at Galesburg deliver a descriptive lecture
on a journey along the Nile valley, which so affected my imagi-
nation that when we first came in view of the Platte River I
looked with delight on the distant virgin landscape, the wind-
ing river, the isolated trees, not unlike the tufted palms of the
Nile valley, and almost in spite of myself, I found I was look-
ing through Taylor's glasses upon old Rameses' sand-dunes and
fertile fields. With a pyramid or two the picture would have
been complete. I was mounted, riding alone far in advance
of the train, and, at a moment, Mr. Patterson overtook me
afoot. T was riding leisurely, and, as he was a genial com-
panion, we were en rapport at once. He was a cultured gentle-
man, and 1 cannot recall a happier hour on this journey than
this present one; the soft, rose-colored atmosphere was en-
chanting, and our hearts burned within us as we drank to our
fill the elixir of a perfect spring morning in the last of May.
There are lost years in our lives ; so long gone and so com-
pletely forgotten that we cannot identify them; then there are
other days — hours — one hour in which we feel that we have
been supremely blest, and yet nothing has been added to oui
138 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
stature nor to our bank account ! This was one of my happy
mornings! That was largely an equestrian journey so far as
I was personally concerned, and I had a picturesque steed of
an ashen hue, and its sense of hearing was fully proportioned
to the equipment which Nature had provided for that neces-
sary office. Had General Washington, in Crawford's bronze
group in Capitol Square, Richmond, Virginia, been mounted
on a thoroughbred such as mine, his dignity would be im-
paired ; but I believe Julius Caesar had nothing better to ride at
the head of his victorious legions. My steed had a voice with its
other accomplishments. One June morning our train took the
upland trail while I rode out of sight of it on a parallel route,
at the foot of the marl bluffs, along the river, and had ad-
vanced some miles when I suddenly found that the ears of
my steed had assumed a particularly rigid and questioning at-
titude. I gazed off toward the Pacific Coast and saw in the
distance two highly illuminated mounted figures advancing
in my direction — gentlemen without hats, with quills in the
seams of their pantaloons, fringe on their coat-tails, and a
turkey cockade in their hair, and when the sense of being un-
armed fully dawned upon me, they seemed about nine feet
tall, and at the end of each rod in our mutual approach they
took on at least a foot more in height, until by comparison I
felt of no consequence whatever. But I made bold with the
thought that maybe I was increasing in size in their imagina-
tions also, and I rode on to my doom ! As we met in Nature's
audience-chamber the old chiefs said "How ! How !" and the
one nearest to me reached out his brawny hand in welcome.
My Rosamond circled gracefully out of his reach. Then it
was my turn to do the grand handsome, and I plunged the
spurs to the hilt and bore down upon I'empereurs Americaine
with the glad hand : but Rosamond was coy ; a princess of the
blood could not courtesy and retreat more faultlessly. Noth-
ing daunted, I summoned the shades of all my patriotic an-
cestors, and plunged down into the dust of the arena once
more with my hospitable right hand extended far out. The
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 139
old chiefs embraced the opportunity in succession, and with
a hearty "How! How!" from both sides the brilliant court
dissolved, assented to with great readiness by Rosamond, who
lifted up her noble voice, with the echoes of which the vasty
solitudes rang in a way they never rang before and will never
ring again.
Fremont's orchard, and Fort Kearney, O'Fallon's Bluffs,
and old Fort St. Vrains, of the Hudson's Bay Company, were
some of the interesting points on this journey, but the trail
of the Argonauts of '49, still plainly visible in many places,
affected me in a peculiar manner. I noted with interest where
they crossed the Platte — at the confluence of the North and
South Forks — where some of them lost their lives by drown-
ing. 1 should wish to approach the palaces of the Eternal
City by the Via Appia, along the ruts worn by the chariots in
the solid rock-paved road where Paul went with "this chain"
to appeal to Caesar. Here, rather than in the shadows of the
mouldering plinths and blackened shafts, I should feel like
taking the shoes from off my feet. The footsteps of those
who have gone before hallow the ground for me !
We made our noon halt one blistering hot day in a desert
region where the prickly pear and other forms of cacti were
the only visible vegetation. For an hour or more, off in the
distance south of us, an Indian was in full view stalking an
antelope. He finally killed it, as I remember, with the bow and
arrow, dressed it, and came in haste, spitting cotton, and of-
fered to trade half of the carcass. We gave him a pint of
sugar in exchange, with which he was delighted.
In the vicinity of a suspicious cabin, where the pasture
was rich and plentiful, we made our camp. The small log-
cabin of one room was occupied by two slouching rascals, who
had no visible means of support, and Jim, who had an uneasy
feeling concerning them, had them under surveillance. He
paid them a visit and came back to camp confirmed as to the
character of the squatters; but, notwithstanding, none of us
were considerate enough to stand watch during the night. We
140 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
paid the usual penalty. The next morning our best horse
(picketed out) was missing. Jim had plenty of nerve, and
during breakfast fixed upon a plan for the recovery of the
stolen horse. He took a lunch and disappeared over the hills
with the doubtful prospect of ever returning, for he was un-
armed and horse-thieves in that region held human life in
slight estimation. The good fortune which attended my com-
panion on many of the battle-fields of the Civil War in later
years crowned his search in this instance. We had almost
reached the end of our journey when lo ! Jim rode into view
on his blue roan. He found his horse picketed far out from
the trail, screened by the intervening hills. Returning to the
Cache le Poudre trail, he cast his lot with friendly trains along
the way and returned in safety.
My riding-nag, with all her vocal accomplishments strong
within her. was at our service ; but when I put "Nailer's" har-
ness upon her and condemned her to service at the wagon-
tongue, she seemed more under-sized than ever alongside of
the bay mare; but "Nailer's" mate pulled the wagon, while
Rosamond was thrown in for good measure. In the absence
of the veteran driver, T was promoted to the box, and having
seated myself and got hold of the reins, I had ample time to
scrutinize my team, which looked like an old mare and her
colt, the latter walking at her side with its father's harness on.
I was not unreasonably elated at the presentment. I medi-
tated on Thad Warner and the stage-drivers of the elder time,
and felt humbled by comparison, not only at my accomplish-
ments as a Jehu, but at the aspect of my roadsters. I had some
misgivings as to how Rosamond would discharge her obliga-
tions, and I treated her with great deference. As an encour-
agement. Captain Hanna took the advance, and the ox team
with the machinery was our rear guard. I had the center.
The advance moved off. Rosamond was silent and in a dis-
consolate state of mind, and T was uncertain as to the out-
come. The Scripture came to my rescue. Do you know, you
miserable sinner, that the Lord is always at hand to give you
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 141
a lift if you will only ask Him ? Faith gave me a jog in the ribs
and said, "If them sayest to this mountain, 'Be thou removed!
and cast into the sea,' it shall be removed." So I raised my
whip and in a burst of confidence said, "Get up." and Rosa-
mond, to my infinite relief, took up the line of march.
At the distance of thirty miles we had our first view of
the mountains, lying like a bank of blue clouds on the west-
ern horizon. After a few hours' travel, we could distin-
guish the pine forests thereon, looking like weeds or small
shrubs, and in due time we rested in camp at the foot of the
rocky escarpments which formed the background of the site
of the hamlet of Boulder, on the banks of the stream of that
name where it debouches upon the plain. Boulder is now a
beautiful city ; then it consisted of two or three cabins, and the
immense spiral horns of mountain rams, weighing fifty pounds
with the skull, lying around where the carcasses had been-
dressed. In the vicinity panther, wild cats, and mountain sheep-
were plentiful. We celebrated Independence Day in Gold Hill
mining camp in a light fall of snow, and made the return trip-
to Boulder (nine miles) almost on the double quick, as it is
an easy descent all the way. This was the camp where Hanna
and Patterson proposed to install their mining machinery.
Here, on the summit of the valley range, their associates had
excavated a hole about fifteen feet deep; on this and nothing
more their hopes were founded. If there was any color in
the camp, the possessor did not boast of it nor offer to show
it. There was still some grub in the camp and an unusual
number of men for the size of the hole in the ground, with
which all of them claimed to be identified, and on this rested
their justification for assembling with great promptitude for
pork and beans at the hour of twelve.
Experienced men had explored Colorado thoroughly and
determined that the gulches of the territory held no reward for
the placer miner. The reduction of the quartz was the only
alternative, and this did not seem to be gold-bearing. I recall
seeing but one "stamp-mill" there in 1860, and that had proven
142 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
a (barren investment. In the face of these discouragements
Hanna and Patterson, neither of whom had any practical
knowledge of the reduction of quartz, invested in two quartz-
mills of the Swartz pattern. They were nothing more than
large coffee-mills of the type in use by pur grandmothers. They
were lame and ineffective, and came to naught. They were
built for horse-power, but the motor was ridiculously inad-
equate, as well as the grinding power. The mills went to the
junk-pile in short order — Patterson to his printer's case and
Hanna to his plow.
Along the summit of the valley range some happy mid-
summer hours were rounded out breathing in the delicious
odors of the spruce groves and gathering the flecked gum so
much prized by the children of the home prairies, who had lit-
tle knowledge of the glorious regions where it is gathered. On
some far granite boulder I used to loiter and look back over
the plains whence we had come, and trace like threads the
course of the streams. At intervals we came upon scenes of
devastation too black for words, caused by forest fires — the
beautiful coniferous groves burned to a crisp, the mountains
to their very summits studded with the skeleton stems of the
masses of young trees. Having secured our animals and other
property for an absence of some days, we strapped Rosamond
with a grub-stake and made a trip over the range to the Greg-
ory diggings in search of the camp of Billy Martin and Will
Porter. The trail crossed the first range north of the Boux-
der; it was very narrow, and in places the narrow path stop-
ped at the base of a vertical ledge of rock ; then Jim would get
under Rosamond with one of her forelegs over each shoulder,
whilst your humble servant would secure a good stout tail
holt, and in this elaborate and skillful fashion lift her majesty
onto the shelf above and so continue the ascent. From the
spot where the trail crossed the Boulder, that mountain tor-
rent, clear as crystal, can be seen for miles in its sharp descent
from its covert of eternal snows, escaping confinement in the
narrow passages in the rocks at one point, breaking in spray
Recollections of Pioneer and Artny Life, 143
over resisting boulders at another, coming down upon one
like a long line of glittering, .sabre-wielding cuirassiers ! In
our passage over we slept one night on the dome of the
mountains with the cougars. At dawn Nature was in deep
mourning. We no longer looked up at the clouds. We groped
our way cautiously in the midst of them. They enveloped
us like cotton-wool. As we made our way in the moist mass
it would open and close upon us, then move in prodigious vol-
ume round about us, to open for a moment, then close again.
The mountain world was reeking wet, but there were no rain-
drops. Along those high altitudes, through these impenetrable
fogs, we came now and then upon miniature glens carpeted
with the most luxuriant emerald pasturage. We were now in
the ancient haven of the wild flocks and herds. Even Rosa-
mond the imperturbable took heart at this scene. After some
hours' travel, we descended into the lateral gulches leading into
Gregory Canyon, which we found strewn in places with the
abandoned appliances for placer mining. Pay dirt had not
been found, or not in quantity to warrant further effort. Be-
fore nightfall we had reached Martin and Porter's cabin, where
the two Henderson County boys labored assiduously in the
role of masters of ceremony, and welcomed the travelers
from "the States" with the pomp and circumstance worthy of
old Gregory in her best days. Jim responded promptly to their
friendly advances ; placed another quid where it would do the
most good, and broke out in one of those full-moon smiles
which have been the envy of his friends these three-score years
and ten. Porter acquiesced with a broad grin, his eyes rest-
ing heavily on our grub-stake ; then he lifted up his voice with
his favorite song:
"The ash and the oak and the bonny willow tree
Are all growing green in the old country."
We were as hungry as coyotes. Billy Martin was the chef.
Seigneur Porter turned to him and said : "Let the grand salon
be made ready, and covers laid for four." "The salon 5s al-
144 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
ways ready," replied the chef. I was curious to see a Gregory
•dining-hall that was "always ready," so I looked in. It had
no windows. It had a piece of the mountain for a floor, and
there was a pig-sty in one corner which I was about to take
liold of when Seigneur Porter staid the hand of the intruder
with the expostulation, "Don't disturb the bed!" As he said
this he gazed in a vague way at the stringy clouds as they
•coiled like vaporous snakes around the summit of Pike's Peak.
Then Bozzaris (I mean the Grand Seigneur) cheered the band
by saying to the chef : "Is the piece de resistance about ripe?"
""I ran the knife through it and she 's gittin' there," said Billy.
"I say, chef," resumed Seigneur Porter, "ain't it about time
the puree was purred?" "Sound the gong," said the chef;
"call Jim, but softly, for he is hungry enough to eat a raw boar;
and tell Mat to go out and point Rosamond to the pine trees
and tell her to help herself.'' Then the Grand Seigneur sat
himself down in the seat of MacGregor. The guests were
placed according to storage capacity, which gave Jim first
place, and he helped himself to the dried apples first dash. The
introductory over, the cloth was removed, and the corn- dodger
came on hard and cold. The heft of the feast centered on this
course, and there were some lightning strokes, and the act
throughout was abreast with the claims of the press agent.
•Our pack-animal, being well supplied with granite gravel and
^ine needles, seemed to enjoy the function to the limit.
Our return journey to the old "Sucker" State had irresist-
ible charms for our two mining friends, and on the payment
vof a large sum they secured the right to walk alongside of our
wagon home. *
CHAPTER XXVII.
HOMEWARD BOUND.
Denver \vas the place of rendezvous for our departure
homeward. Here we met Mr. Fred Ray, Sr., his son Fred,
and other associates, who had just got in from extensive ex-
plorations of the mining region contiguous to South Park.
Alaska is the only territory now under the Stars and Stripes,
with the exception possibly of the Philippine Islands, which
can produce such a scene as Denver presented in 1859-60.
Dance-halls and gambling-dens had full swing, and these re-
sorts were crowded with blacklegs of every description. Three-
card monte and every other gambling device, the most of them
beyond my knowledge and the whole of them I was looking
at for the first time, were being patronized by the crowds com-
posed of Mexicans, half-breeds, and strange characters from
distant corners of the earth. A leader, an assistant, and the
"cappers" exploited each his own peculiar game of chance in
his own way. Abandoned women stole into view and disap-
peared through doorways opening from the rear into the main
hall, and the passage to hell was softened and gilded to the ear
by strains of music from an orchestra. I looked in at the
morgue, where the dead were to to be found almost every morn-
ing. Few questions were asked about the crimes committed the
night before ; whatever happened was accepted as a matter of
course. The town pointed with pride to its graveyard contain-
ing a select assortment of gentry who had died with their boots
on. In one of my rambles about the town I came upon a more
cheerful aspect some distance back from the turbulent streets:
a well-conducted school under the supervision of a lady teach-
148
146 Recollections of Pioneer and Artny Life.
er, a bright, intelligent woman of middle age, in the pursuit of
her vocation with as much pride and success as we are accus-
tomed to see in well-ordered communities. Under the circum-
stances the discovery was a surprise to me. She was the only
woman of good repute that I can recall seeing in Denver at
that time, although the good mothers of the children in that
school were in the town somewhere ; certainly they were chary
of going on the streets. To get a letter from home I stood in
line while two hundred men preceded me to the delivery. On
opening my letter, I found that Robert Moir (on whom I had
an order for money) and Mr. Blake, of Burlington, had passed
through Denver ahead of us on their way home. The men
quarreled on the return journey, and after my own return
home I was the only witness to a terrific pugilistic encounter
between them. In the late summer we bade adieu to Denver,
which I have not seen since, and on our way home we came
upon the whole of the Sioux tribe of Indians returning from
their annual hunting-trip with the "jerked buffalo" heat hang-
ing in strips across their ponies. They went swarming over
the plains northward, the squaws having the care of things
generally, the young copper-colored lads, cunning as mice,
shooting birds in the grass with the bow and arrow as they
continued on their way. The young braves, tall, athletic
scamps six feet in height, some of them, annoyed us a good
deal, sneaking around our wagon for an opening for theft.
When well settled in camp one evening we found that we
were close neighbors to a small village of the Ogallalah Sioux.
The bucks were away on some thieving foray, a favorite
amusement, the main purpose of which was to make a sneak
at night on the ponies of a neighboring tribe and get off with
some of the best of them. Nothing shows some of the char-
acteristic traits of the Indian so thoroughly as this bent to
theft. His skill at secreting himself at the moment, permitting
you to pass within a few feet of him unobserved, is provoking.
On this journey and in subsequent years he caught me un-
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 147
awares many times. I have been the victim of an old lump of
a squaw with a papoose on her back, standing in the woods
like a statue — I rode past within a few feet of her, unconscious
of her presence. They seem to have the art of the wild animal
of taking on the color and shape of surrounding objects. It
is true that I was not hunting "Injuns," but I was in their
country, and I always felt a little "off" when told by others
of my company, who were following the trail after me, that we
had just passed some red folks. On the evening in question
we were not aware that there was a small group of tepees in
our immediate vicinity, in a valley on the further side of the
knoll; great was my surprise, therefore, when a group of
ladies of our great interior quietly filed around me as a cen-
ter-piece and seated themselves in a circle around our camp-
fire. I felt like a tenderfoot, much abashed. Doubtless I
smiled with a mixed motif, but I bowed correctly. Inasmuch
as the ladies had already secured a solid foundation on the
ground, it was not necessary for me to suggest that they take
seats. My "buffalo chips'' were burning brightly, and I was
frying "twisters" of the barbwire type in a hoary spider of
an earlier time. The ladies had found me by tracing the odor
of the evening meal up the wind. I was glad they called, for
I exchanged without difficulty some of those libelous dough-
nuts for chamois (antelope) skins, soft as the cheek of in-
fancy. They departed in triumph, these club women of the
Ogallalah Sioux — heavy laden with the trophies of an equit-
able commerce.
A few days afterward we were in camp at the noon hour.
I had in the wagon a "target" rifle of the old pattern; a su-
perior gun, highly ornamented, but very heavy ; too much so
for hunting game. I had brought it along in the hope of trad-
ing it off. While we were eating our lunch some Indians rode
up to the wagon where I was seated, and I entered into an
earnest pantomime with one of them, exhibiting my rifle, and
offering to trade it for his pony. It attracted his attention at
148 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
once, and he reached out for it. The weight of the gun so
surprised and disappointed him that he showed his estimation
of it by instantly pulling a feather out of his hair and offering
it in exchange for the rifle.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
A VOLUNTEER AT THE FALL OF FORT SUMTER.
The winter of 1860-61, following the election of Abraham
Lincoln to the Presidency, was marked by a disturbed condi-
tion of the public mind. Conservative men began to question
themselves and each other as to the threats of the Southern
leaders who had declared the right of revolution, as our fath-
ers had done against Great Britain. The people looked for-
ward to the message of President Buchanan to the Congress
in December with deep interest, not to say apprehension, as
containing a statement of the conservative Democratic view of
the situation. I recall as freshly as if it were yesterday how
eagerly my brother Porter took up the Chicago morning daily
and began reading the message to my father and others gath-
ered at the store, and their comments pro and con as the read-
ing proceeded.
As the winter months wore away the slave-holding States,
through their prolonged political rottenness, sloughed off and
dropped into the abyss of rebellion. In this connection I re-
call one figure in South Carolina — that of Judge Pettigru,
the only public man probably in all of my mother's native
State who remained true to the Union. A stranger met him
on a street in Charleston one day in 1861 and inquired the way
to the insane asylum. "Look anywhere," the old Judge an-
swered ; "you will find it anywhere around here." While
Floyd completed hi> theft of the Government stores and arms,
and as the oak buds began to swell, the country was startled
by the reverberations of Beauregard's guns firing on Fort
Sumter.
On the 23d day of April, 1861. eleven days after the fall
149
150 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
of Fort Sumter, there was a movement at the Yellow Banks
for volunteers to join the Union forces at Cairo under Colonel
Ben M. Prentiss, of Quincy. Frank A. Dallam, founder of
The Plaindealer, was the leader of this movement. Along with
the principal young men of the village, I signed my name on
this roll of the first volunteers of the Civil War from Hen-
derson County. My services as such ceased on the 4th day of
July, 1865. On the day we left home for the South there was
a throng of people on the streets and around the court-house
to see us off. There was a current of strong patriotic feeling
in the hearts of those who had assembled to bid us God-speed,
and, as was natural under the circumstances, our thoughts took
a practical direction, and a Democrat distinguished himself by
coming forward and offering to drill us in the facings and evo-
lutions of the military company. I was much surprised to see
Judge Richey engage in this most useful and necessary work.
He was a Democratic official and an honorable man, but some-
how in the mind of the youthful brave the word "Democrat,"
as known in that day, had a sinister association with "seces-
sion," and although I joined the "awkward squad" for awhile,
the more I thought of it the more suspicious I became that
through some military sleight-of-hand this Democratic son of
Mars might land us in the ranks of the Confederacy ; so I fol-
lowed Jeff Davis' example and seceded. It seemed absurd to
me that I should take lessons in methods of fighting from peo-
ple I was going to fight.
We were so ignorant as to what constitutes a good soldier
that we had not the slightest suspicion of our ignorance.
Along with all the youngsters of my day, -my imagination was
stocked with the feats of Napoleon, with the school reader
pictures of the surrender of Cornwallis, and, not the least of
these, the patent medicine placard of Santa Anna, his wooden
leg having dropped on the road while fleeing for his life with
his mounted escort before his American pursuers ; and all we
would have to do in going to war, we surmised, would be to
draw the wooden scimiters of our boyhood and the enemy
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 151
would disappear with the vapors of the morning. Alas for
him who boasteth before putting on the armor, rather than
after putting it off! But however dense our ignorance, we
were not boasters. As for myself and a moiety of our com-
pany, we had a decided advantage. We had belonged to a
company of "Wide-A wakes," drilled campaigners during the
political rivalry and stimulus of the Lincoln-Douglas senatorial
campaign of 1858, an organization which continued down to
and through the Presidential campaign of 1860. Charles S.
Cowan, county clerk, was our captain and drill-master, and a
thoroughly competent leader. There was no company in our
Congressional District that could compete with us in company
evolutions, and without doubt many thousands of young men
throughout the North were in this way unconsciously prepar-
ing themselves for efficiency in the Civil War.
Massachusetts, always the stout defender of free institu-
tions, was well represented in the crowd in the person of
Joseph Chickering, whose patriotic fervor found expression in
song. He mounted a wagon in the crowded street and led
some of the young vocalists in singing "The Star-Spangled
Banner." As the hour of departure drew near a great throng
from the village and surrounding country gathered in vehicles
to escort the volunteers to the depot in Sagetown, five miles
south. At the moment of leaving I bounded in long strides
up the stairway to my mother's chamber, where she was lying
temporarily ill, and kneeling at her bedside, received her bless-
ing. On our arrival in Quincy we were hospitably entertained
by, Mrs. O. H. Browning, wife of one of the leading attorneys
of the old I4th Congressional District, later a member of the
Senate, and later Secretary of the Interior under Andrew
Johnson. The Browning home was of palatial proportions,
distinguished for its architecture, and, taken with its parklike
enclosure, was the pride of the city. After an exchange of tel-
egrams between Capt: Dallam and Col. Ben Prentiss, we took
the train for Cairo, where we were incorporated into the loth
Illinois Infantry as Company D. Cairo was the rendezvous for
152 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
troops, the base of supplies, and the chief strategical point in
the Southwest in the days of hurried organization under the
first call for 75,000 men. The population of the town com-
prised many traitors in disguise; rebel spies crowded elbows
on the streets with the Union troops and a good deal of con-
fusion and uncertainty marked the administration of the post.
The regiments of the State began with the number 7, where
our regiments in the Mexican War left off, and they were
composed of the best blood of the commonwealth. The Qth
and loth Regiments occupied barracks along the levee on the
west side of the town. Here we had a local drill- and parade-
ground, and our time was occupied by squad, company and
battalion drills, including the zouave skirmish drill, and in
private apartments the sword and Turner athletic exercises,
the latter excelled in by the Germans from St. Louis. Our
German-American friends occupied a separate barrack and
were supplied with free beer by the car-load from their home
breweries, and as a result these staunch friends of the Union
were most of the time in a condition of incertitude — the cap-
tain of the company particularly, a big, fierce- visaged six-
footer, uniformly appearing at the head of his men on dress
parade his face blazing like a head-light. They stood firm by
their war-cry throughout the service. "Zwei Lager nnd cine
Union!"
Floyd and his conspirators were still busy shipping arms
and munitions of war South in disguised packages in the holds
of the steamboats up to the last moment, and it was the busi-
ness of these craft carrying the contraband goods to get past
Cairo without being searched, although none of them succeed-
ed in doing so after our arrival. A shot across the bow from
one of our field guns compelled a landing. There was such a
mass of humanity — citizens . and soldiers — on the streets of
Cairo during these months, and indeed down to the close of
the war, that business of all kinds was very profitable : so much
so that it was a common remark, that one could, and many
did, make small fortunes, or lay the foundations of large for-
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 153
tunes, selling pea-nuts and the "pegged and sewed" pies so
notable in that town in those days. Close to our barracks, on
the extreme point of the peninsula, Fort Defiance (a formid-
able earthwork) was being constructed. In its unfinished
state General George B. McClellan, who was making a study
of all the advanced posts held by the Union forces, paid it a
visit, and the field guns placed near were fired to show him
the range over the water. In the evening the troops were
reviewed by him — a really formidable host as they appeared to
us, unused as we were then to the large armies with which we
were identified in the years afterward. I recall his short, stout
person ; his large black charger, and his new buckskin gaunt-
lets. We looked upon him as he dashed down our line as noth-
ing less than a god : if anything less than a god, certainly noth-
ing less than a god with a small g, who, at the very least,
possessed some of the attributes of the supernatural. Such
was the impression made upon the youthful warriors by the
successor to General Winfield Scott, the aged and the hero of
two wars.
Innocently enough, while in the armed possession of this
post we had a peculiar (if long-range) connection with the Brit-
ish Government. Palmerston and "melud" John Russell were
no friends of ours. English official opinion gave vent to its joy
at our fancied dissolution in the columns of "The Thunderer."
The London Times had already wiped the United States
from the map of the world, declaring that "the great Republic
is no more" ! In this vein of cherished belief the publishers
of that paper sent W. H. Russell, who had served as their war
correspondent in the Crimea, to spy upon our movements and
troubles. From the first he showed a marked fondness for the
South and her leaders. He domiciled and counseled with
them, made the most of their preparations for defense, and
declared them invincible. Starting in at Richmond, he made
a tour of the Southern States, concluding with a trip up
the Mississippi River from Xew Orleans to Cairo, where
he looked the raw levies of the Government over. I can see
154 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
him now; his insolent figure confronting us as we stood on
dress parade on that summer evening in 1861. But "where
be their gibes now"? Across "the gray and melancholy waste
of years" I see the pirate ships, equipped with English guns
and manned by English sailors, being built and fitted out in
English ship-yards: the destruction of our merchant marine
on the high seas ; the British corvette, the "Deerhound," stand-
ing in the offing to rescue Semmes and his drowning ship-
mates, fleeing like rats from the sinking "Alabama."
Is there anything in history more detestable than the con-
duct of the British Government toward us during our strug-
gle to save our national inheritance ?
On the completion of Fort Defiance, a small group of
soldiers, including some ladies from the North, led by Colo-
nel (later Major-General ). Dick Oglesby — wounded nigh unto
death at Corinth, resisting Van Dorn and "Pap" Price — gath-
ered at the foot of the flagstaff to do honor to the raising of
"Old Glory" over the fortress. The flag was run to the top,
when the tackling parted and the colors fell to the ground.
We had the heartache for an instant when Oglesby burst forth
in an impassioned speech of a few sentences, declaring that the
flag of our country would be trailed in the dust by some of
the States of the Union, but that it would float again over an
undivided country and in greater splendor than before!
In July the reports of the first battle on Bull Run reached
our camp. Our chagrin and humiliation was complete. The
term of our enlistment (ninety days) would soon expire, and
our leaders gathered the soldiers en masse on the parade-
ground, pleading and insisting that in the shadow of defeat it
would be dishonorable to accept a discharge. I am sure that
if the Government had insisted upon it — officially suggested
such a sacrifice, the large majority would have promptly com-
plied and remained in the service. The South recoiled from
that shock more distinctly than the North — were amazed, in
fact, that by a lucky chance they held possession of the battle-
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 155
field. If they had felt convinced of a fairly earned success,
they would have promptly followed it up. The excitement
died down, leaving the Western troops where they properly
belonged.
CHAPTER XXIX.
To WASHINGTON AND THROUGH NEW ENGLAND.
When our term of enlistment had expired, under which the
first call for 75,000 men were sworn in, the: regiments reorgan-
ized, and re-enlisted for three years unless sooner discharged.
We were paid in gold and silver, and with the thought in
my mind that I would like to serve throughout the war in the
Army of the Potomac, I took the train for Philadelphia, de-
termined withal to refresh my patriotism at the shrines of the
past. A young blood is tempted to do some foolish things in
going to war, and without doubt I did my share of them. My
older brother, Porter, although he was not in the military serv-
ice, must have had some war-like notions in his youth, for he
was the possessor of an elegant pearl-handled poniard which
had never been brought into requisition ; but, as the opportu-
nity to use it seemed to have arrived when I volunteered, I
took the Castilian weapon with me. When I boarded the train
for the East I concealed the stiletto in my boot-leg in regular
cut-throat fashion, and thought no more about it until I had
been two nights out, when, feeling the loss of rest, I took an
upper berth in the sleeper. The car was packed to suffocation ;
the aisles overflowing with passengers ; so that I had difficulty
in reaching my berth in the old-fashioned sleeper, and in doing
so my dagger was exposed, and instantly I became an object
of suspicion. At that time one was liable to be placed under
surveillance on slight evidence. I became aware forthwith
that I was assuming unwonted and sanguinary proportions in
the imaginations of my fellow-passengers, and, as the result
of pantomimic notification, the conductor came and peered with
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 157
a searching eagerness into my boot-leg. I affected indiffer-
ence, and turned over as though I had taken refuge in "the land
of Nod." On arriving in Philadelphia the next morning a
stranger came and indulged in a little common-place, but I
shook him off. After I had established myself in comfortable
quarters at the hotel and scrutinized the old Liberty bell, and
the apartments at Independence Hall, and the portraits of
the sages on the walls, and plucked a blade of grass or two
from the grave of Benjamin and Deborah1 Franklin, I was con-
scious, as I made these various and sundry turns throughout
the city, of the momentary presence of the face I had met on
getting off the train. Had I taken a carriage to admire the
venerable edifice known as Girard College, the face seemed to
flit by; at Betsy Ross' house, where the flag was made, I was
not quite sure, but I had the impression that the face was
hovering in the vicinity ; but if so, was that anything to won-
der at ? Were not patriots of all ages, from all over this broad
land, dropping in at all hours to see Mrs. Ross or the rooms
where she had experimented with the national colors? Hav-
ing no quarrel on this head, I bowled out upon the suburban
drives, over miles of beautiful boulevards, along the little gem
of a stream called the Wissahickon, yet the face was there !
"Well," I said to myself, "I hope the gentleman is enjoying
his outing," and I turned to the driver : "We '11 take zwei glass
lager beer on it anyway," and we drove up to the road-house,
and quaffed the stranger's health. On the morrow I rode out
to Laurel Hill cemetery, gave "Old Mortality" with his chisel
and hammer a nod as I passed in, and was soon lost in the
peaceful vales of this ancient city of the dead. For some
years I had been fascinated by the experiences of Doctor Kane
in the Arctic regions. That fine scholar with the noble spirit
of adventure had just died, at middle age, and his tomb was
a shrine where I could worship. As the cab carried me out
from the avenues and away to the city I thought I caught a
glimpse of a familiar face. Tt seemed grave and business-like,
but I smiled and lifted my hat to it. On the day following I
158 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
was in Washington. I lodged at the old Willard Hotel, where
all the great men of eld, my peers, were wont to put up. I
lodged in realistic fashion, for they put me in a crypt directly
under the roof.
Washington was a scrub town in those day — a military
camp — and the commissioned officers blocked the passage-way
at Willard's, and the entrance to the saloons along Pennsyl-
vania Avenue. The soldiers were coming and going. One
poor lad in uniform, quite exhausted, had sunk down under
the load of his knapsack and accoutrements. He was a mere
youth. Drawn by his pale face, General Mansfield approached
and began conversing with him, advising and admonishing. In
line with our American love of sensation, I looked upon the
spot where Dan Sickles killed Philip Barton Key. I was
ashamed of myself when I looked down on the slight stump yet
remaining of the shade-tree in the brick sidewalk (all that was
left by relic-hunters) to mark the place of the tragedy. Think
of the human vultures making off with the splinters of the
shade-tree which marks a lecherous chapter in the history of
the capital ! Under the second call for troops a large army
had already assembled on the heights around Arlington. The
Army of the Potomac, however, lacked the enchantment that
distance gave it, and I reconsidered my purpose to join it,
preferring to return and trust my fortunes with the comrades
with whom I had already passed through a preparatory serv-
ice. Having resolved, while I was on the ground, to finish my
visit to the East, I spent some days in the Capitol building
itself, and in the Department buildings (mainly in the Patent
Office building), where at that time were kept the objects of
interest most attractive to an under-age youth to whom Gen-
eral Washington's sword and Ben Franklin's old. wooden
printing press were as sacred as the bodies of Gengis Khan's
ancestors were to him. And more than this : to keep my spir-
its at the right point above low-water mark, the face of my
Philadelphia double had a ghostly preference for me. How-
ever, when I took the "Bound Brook" route for New York
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 159
the familiar face came and sat down in the seat with me and
\ve got real chummy, he having made up his mind, without
any assistance from me, that I was not an emissary of Jeff
Davis, nor an assassin from Baltimore with designs on the
President. We walked up Broadway together from the Jersey
ferry at midnight, and he showed me into a nice hotel. No.
144 Broadway, for which act of courtesy I was sincerely grate-
ful, as I was a stranger in the town. Manhattan Island em-
braces its share of the visible traces of the brave days of old,
and I spent some happy hours there, for the transfigured scenes
of youth and young manhood surpass in interest all others.
On an excursion steamer to West Point in subsequent years
I fell in with my old comrade in arms, Major Charles S.
Cowan, who was born in the city. In our stroll from the Gold
Room (the scene of the "Black Friday") 'over to Broadway
we passed into Trinity church-yard, where he showed me his
mother's grave. When the Major was a babe occurred the
great fire in the history of old New York, when the fire de-
partment was wholly inadequate to cope with such a disaster,
and in the widespread confusion and destruction of property
his mother died from fright and grief, in the full belief that
her child, which had been taken by its nurse to a distant block
on a visit, had been lost. Trinity and the interior of old Saint
Paul's, where Washington worshiped, are haunts not to be
overlooked by the young visitor — nor by their elders, for that
matter.
I found a seat in a coach on the old New York and New
Haven line through New England for Boston in the month of
August, a favorable time for a visit along the Atlantic coast.
I had been dreaming of the land of shoe-peg oats and bass-
wood hams since childhood, and I now was to see the people
of the old Wooden Nutmeg State in the very act of emptying
their coal-scuttles out at the back window onto Rhode Island,
and in this mean and underhand way had about buried "Little
Rhody" out of sight. My most radiant recollections of my
mid-summer trip up to Boston are illuminated by the bright
160 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
Yankee girls with whom I exchanged bits of silver for pieces of
huckleberry pie, which happened every now and then, for, as I
remember, we jogged along in no great hurry and I had a good
opportunity to see the hills, salt-water estuaries, villages and
country life on the hunting-grounds of the Pilgrim fathers.
As I rode along toward the intellectual and commercial center
of Massachusetts I could not bring myself to believe that the
shadow of a great civil war (the most terrorizing of all wars)
was at that moment lowering over these peaceful landscapes.
I saw no evidence of it anywhere. And yet I had already com-
pleted one term of military service and would soon return to
resume these duties. On arriving at the, hotel, and having reg-
istered and gotten rid of my grip, I stepped to the entrance
and saw across the street an old brick meeting-house, plain as
a barn, and helf-embedded in the walls, near the cornice, a
British cannon-ball, fired in 1776 from one of King George's
blockading vessels. Now, I had come to Boston to see that
cannon-ball and other coincident things, and I saluted it with
unction ; and right there and then I took the shades of all the
embattled farmers, each in his turn, and gave him, or it, a big
hug. I was so impressionable that when I recalled all the scraps
the patriots used to have with the "red-coats" in those crooked
streets (they have been straightened since), I went about in my
unsophisticated "Sucker" way earnestly desiring to worship
everybody and everything I met. Down at King's Chapel,
where the British stabled their cavalry, I would not have been
in the least surprised to have seen the stout) troopers dash
out like an arrow from the bow and charge Washington's
lines down on the Common there. Ben Franklin stood in
bronze close by and I saluted him in abject admiration, and
I would not have considered it a hardship to have saluted him
five hundred times a day while my visit lasted. In truth I
soon reached such a condition of chronic salutation that I
went about with my hat poised three inches above my head,
where it rested in rigid veneration for all Boston had, could,
would, or should have. In this patriotic trance I came at last
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 161
to the foot of Bunker Hill. On the spot where Warren fell,
marked by a tablet, I sorrowed as sincerely as mortals can. I
did not see the monument. I was too busy looking for Pres-
cott and "Old Put," and the farmers young and old, with their
flint-lock muskets, long-barreled rifles, and shot-guns carry-
ing buckshot. I remarked the line where they had stood, and
I looked off upon the bay where the British debarked, and I
saw them form in line, one company after another and one
battalion after another, until they seemed strong enough to
swallow the hill and all the patriots upon it. They were in full
uniform and silent, but they were not cowards. The Briton
had been a soldier for a thousand years, and he was not going
to balk now. The battle of Bunker Hill belongs to your day
and mine. There was no loud-resounding circumstance of
war along that British line of battle that is now ready to charge
the hill. The order to advance was given quietly. I am stand-
ing here on the hill, looking down at them. The shadowy forms
of other days are around me. There is a deep silence here
also, for modern civilization is about to strike another blow for
a larger liberty. Crowns and titles will not see this thing
done willingly. England's might is at the foot of this hill to
see that it shall not be done. Her line of battle is already half
way up the hill, coming on with the masterful resolution she
had ever shown. They are nearer now and coming close.
The farmers at the word crouch and lean forward, looking
keenly along their rifle barrels with the fine nerve of the New
World hunter. There is a crash as the farmers send their shots
to the mark. Through the powder smoke you can see the
British line stagger and fall in its own blood, and they sullen-
ly fall back and re-form again at the foot of the hill. You know
all the story that fills so bright a page in the history of this
dear land of ours.
Down at the "Cradle of Liberty,'' I laid my hand on its
walls to assure myself that it was still there, and the mor-
row being Sunday. I attended the service at Tremont Temple,
where Jenny Lind had sung a few years previously, her con-
1 62 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
cert being marked by an enthusiastic advertiser, who bid $625
for first choice of seats. On Monday morning I laid a twenty-
dollar gold-piece down and the agent gave me a ticket for
Chicago, and I was whisked away through the Catskills to Al-
bany, thence to Buffalo, where the conductor gave me a stop-
over for Niagara. On a moonless night I stood alone on the
narrow bridge leading to Goat Island and looked down for the
first time on the darkling waters as they flashed their myriad
Satanic faces upon me while they passed like a shot from a
rifle under my feet. In the visitors' register on the Canadian
side I noticed the autograph of Henry Clay and other notables
of the past, placed some years before. Here we put on our
water-proof suits, and descended under the main fall, and on
the verge of rock in the depths below we felt as one might
who is about to stop into eternity! Here I met some Hen-
derson County Argonauts returning home with a good stake
after twelve years' absence. On the Niagara River below the
falls I squandered some delightful hours and brought to a
close my inter-military itineracy.
CHAPTER XXX.
RE-ENLISTED FOR THREE YEARS.
Our company reorganized for the three-year service un-
der Charles S. Cowan, and assembled along, with the other
companies of the regiment at Cairo. The commanding officer
of our regiment, Colonel James D. Morgan, had served as
captain in an infantry regiment in the Mexican War, rendered
valuable service at the battle of Buena Vista under General
Taylor, and was a thorough soldier through natural aptitude
and experience. He was the captain of the Quincy Rifles dur-
ing the Mormon troubles, and no man in the State excelled
him in the mastery of the evolutions of the battalion. He was
cool and clear-headed in an emergency, as we often had oc-
casion to remark during the war, and in the preparatory
months, when we were drilling for active service, the dress
parades and battalion drills of the "Old Tenth" were interest-
ing and beautiful. For the accuracy and precision of his work
at all times, his bearing in battle, and for his fine, well-remem-
bered voice, to which the battalion became so well accustomed
— for all these things, which play their part in rounding out a
perfect esprit de corps, the gallant old man, who died at the
age of eighty years, will not soon be forgotten by the survivors
of his "command," who claim him as the leader par excellence.
The Government had established a ship-yard at Mound
City, seven miles up the Ohio River from Cairo. Here two
"iron-clads" were in course of construction, and the Tenth
was ordered there late in the summer of 1861, as a guard over
this important work. Later on, while the weather was still
warm, we were ordered to join our brigade at Cairo for a re-
163
164 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
view of all the troops at the post. Forty thousand men of the
different arms of the service were in line, and the earth was
tramped till the dust was deep and stifling. The intense heat
and the suffering of the men for water gave us a foretaste of
the many privations in store for us. As our Government ad-
vances in age the lustrums are apt to be marked by the lineal
descendants of distinguished soldiers in its history who come
to the front in the activities of the hour. My attention was
called to this fact by the appearance among the general officers
in charge of the review of General Van Rensselaer, a name
familiar to readers of "Knickerbocker" history on Manhattan
Island. We had with us also, in our carr£>aign in the Car-
olinas, under Sherman, a general of division, a lineal descend-
ant of Israel Putnam. When I found that we had a Van
Rensselaer with us at Cairo, I would hardly have been sur-
prised to learn that "Hard-koppig Piet" and "The Headless
Horseman" were members of his staff.
The people of southern Illinois were not all loyal, and this
was shown by a wealthy resident of Mound City when our
regiment took possession of the town. His large, comfortable
house was directly on our route as we entered the village: the
day was hot and the men thirsty. It was a great surprise to
Mr. Rollins when our men rushed in upon his well to replenish
their canteens. The old gentleman came out in a furious pas-
sion and ordered them out of his yard. His voice was drowned
in the volley of chaff the boys fired at him, and in spite of his
valiant exertions he was carried off his feet like a feather on
the current of the Ohio. The large majority of our company
was composed of the native born; the remainder were Ger-
mans and Swedes. The foreign-born were almost to a man
good soldiers, and here and there among them a man of su-
perior fibre. This, is shown now, after an interval of half a
century, during which they have achieved successful careers ;
one of them being the president of a bank, others successful
merchants, live-stock commission agents and farmers. One
of the most attractive of the young Swedes (Albert Peterson)
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 165
died in the hospital at Mound City, and his grave, along with
that of others of our regiment, formed the nucleus of the
National Cemetery at that point. It came in time to be a trite
and indifferent thing — the passing to the grave of the bodies
of these young lovers of liberty from a foreign land ; the bier
covered by the Stars and Stripes ; the escort and firing-squad
marching to the funeral note; albeit, it was a scene full of
pathos, for those who were dear to them were still in far
Scandinavia, patiently waiting for good tidings and a remit-
tance from the son who had gone to the land of great oppor-
tunity to seek his fortune.
Our parade-ground was as level as a floor, an advantage
in our primary military schooling, and in the pursuit of daily
routine I was out one day with our company when we had
occasion, along with other points in the manual, to "ground
arms," but one of the most popular soldiers in the ranks had
difficulty in obeying the order. With this exception the com-
pany executed the simple feat with ease, but a gracious provi-
dence had equipped "Put" with an unusually thrifty and ample
growth, both in stature and bulk, with the balance in favor of
the latter, and when the gallent lad reached the critical point
in the posture his trousers parted at the tactical cross-roads,
making an exposure of which the enemy for target purposes
might take advantage. On our return to quarters he got a
needle and thread and strengthened his base against assailants
of all sorts whatsoever, and with admirable foresight followed
up this bit of grand strategy by securing a detail to the com-
missary department, where he had freedom of growth and
could indulge his personal preference of posture without in-
terference and where he proved one of the most efficient and
useful men in the "command." Our regiment occupied a
large brick factory building, each company having a room
60x20 feet. Here in the evenings, under the training of Dr.
W. H. Craig, we became expert in the Ellsworth Zouave
manual.
1 66 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
We first came under the observation of General U. S,
Grant on this parade-ground. Orders had been issued that
the General would review our regiment on a certain day. We
knew nothing about him; had hardly heard of him. Before
leaving Cairo field orders from him as commander of the De-
partment had been read to us; but the only incident that had
occurred up to this time to draw my attention to him was an
order read to us one evening by Adjutant Joe Rowland, signed
"U. S. Grant, commanding, etc.," and when the adjutant came
to the General's initials — in a Stentorian, perfunctory voice he
announced "United States," when on noticing that "U. S." did
not stand for the Government in that connection he recovered
himself and read the name as signed. There was a rumor
that a man had succeeded to the command of the Department
who went about the streets of Cairo in citizen's clothing, wear-
ing an old plug hat. We knew so little about the matter that we
did not identify this man with General Grant Our battalion
formed for review as appointed, and the mounted officer who
was to officiate had arrived from Cairo for the purpose. He
sat on his horse, an indifferent figure, undemonstrative, quiet-
ly looking us over. The usual formality of presenting arms
gone through with, the battalion had massed in columns by
companies, and was marching past the reviewing officer when,
on account of our indifferent martial music (we no longer had
Tip Prentice with us), accidental change of step, or other mis-
fortune, the nature of which I have forgotten, we passed un-
der the eye of the greatest general of modern times, not with
the faultless front and rhythm of step which was our pride,
but like a flock of exasperated goats.
Beginning with Scott's tactics, I learned three different
manuals during the first six months of my military service.
Following closely onto Scott's, or in combination with it, we
took up Hardie's; then at Mound City I diligently practiced
the Zouave drill and manual of attack and defense. After the
lapse of fifty years I have seen nothing superior to the Zouave
skirmish drill in use in 1861. It was controlled by the voice
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 167
or the bugle, preferably by the latter, and always so in battle.
During our first ninety days' service at Cairo this drill was
beautifully given on that level parade-ground. During our
stay at Mound City one of the gun-boats was launched. A
large assembly of soldiers and citizens witnessed the event
which was marked by the usual ceremonies. When the full
number of these fighting-craft was completed and in commis-
sion, the Mississippi flotilla under Commodore Foote, and later
under Commodore Davis, formed a formidable arm of the
service, which played an important part in opening up the
river to an unvexed flow to the sea.
The hulls of the boats were built in water-tight compart-
ments, eight feet square, of 12x12 solid white or live oak tim-
bers. Our guards held the approaches, with a reserve on the
vessel under construction, and if any of our men dropped to
the bottom of any of the compartments, they had difficulty
clambering out, for the walls were neatly joined and smooth
and seven or eight feet in depth.
On the 7th of November, 1861, the battle of Belmont was
fought. We could hear the field guns distinctly. On the next
day one of the transports brought the remains of some of our
officers slain on that field to our levee to be expressed home.
As we looked upon their pale faces, their hands crossed in
eternal protest against the deep damnation of their taking off,
treason and rebellion assumed their true significance. Men
will volunteer for war whose physical qualifications are noth-
ing short of a travesty on what a soldier should be. In our
company we had a man built on the plan of the Platte River,
which Artemus \Vard said would make a good river on its
edge. This man had length and width, but no thickness. As
he approached one could see distinctly through his transparent
rigging without the aid of the .r-ray. The skull was always
grinning, for he was a very good-natured fellow, and he was
always sick and always eating. At the sutler's and elsewhere
he kept his pockets replenished between meals. "M. Kom,"
namesake of the original at the Yellow Banks, called him "Old
1 68 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
Death." This man, after gliding spiritually throughout camp
for a few months, was reabsorbed into private life. And I
think at this precise moment he must be somewhere in this
glorious Union in high feather with a big pension, for such
people never die.
At my readers' sufferance I will devote a few lines to the
method of such creatures. Finding the Government more than
willing to get rid of them, they returned home to play the game
of the "coffee-cooler," to place himself in the swim, under the
patronage of some gentleman recruiting to secure a commis-
sion, through whose collusion he was sworn in again, securing
the usual perquisites of city, township, county and occasion-
ally private bounties, amounting in all to a considerable sum.
The second enlistment would not last long. He would be dis-
charged the second time probably, on the recommendation of
the surgeon at the hospital. By this time he would have
learned his lesson well, and presenting himself before some
man who wanted to hire a substitute, he would be paid $1,000,
perhaps more, to make once more the vicarious sacrifice. It
is only fair to say that the men with whom I entered the serv-
ice at the fall o!' Fort Sumter did so without a thought, hope
or promise of reward of any kind. Bounties were then un-
known, pensions unthought of. As noted elsewhere, we were
paid in specie at the close of our service under the first call.
Our first payment under the second enlistment was made in
greenbacks (the first we had seen), crisp and clean, fresh from
the press. Since the foundation of the Government our people
had struggled with an uncertain, discounted, if not fraudulent
shinplaster currency. And here it may be said in a word, but
with the force of exact truth, that among the many blessings
brought about by the Civil War was a stable, secure financial
system, which came to its full and rounded perfection when
the nation anchored at last on the resumption of specie pay-
ments with the gold dollar as the unit of value. The green-
backs (promises to pay) — "five-twenties" they were called —
were indeed an epochal departure.
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 169
Uncle Sam was solvent (entirely so), but he had no
money, and assassins were thirsting for his blood on all the
horizon around. Honest man that he is, he took a simple, open,
straightforward way. He issued promises to pay, founded on
the wealth of the country. He fixed a time and manner of
redemption. He signed the bond. At a later day the people
called it "fiat" money, but the greenbacks were a "go" — they
went like Sampson's foxes and firebrands through the "stand-
ing corn." The pockets of the people bulged out with them;
prosperity prospered over again, and the North grew rich be-
yond the dreams of avarice, as a direct result of the war.
Calico sold at 25 cents a yard: but hogs brought n cents a
pound on the hoof. Everybody took greenbacks, nothing
doubting. I could fill my wallet with them in Chicago and the
cashier at the bank in San Francisco or Boston would receive
them without question. Not so under the old regime. Then
the cashier would get out his "Bank-Note Detector," adjust
his glasses and scrutinize columns of names and titles dignified
as "Banks," where they kept in store a few old-style coppers,
a poverty-stricken assortment of silver, and a coin or two of
gold, all conspicuously displayed, and a ton of shinplasters,
shown with less effrontery. In those days a cashier was em-
ployed for his accomplishments as a persuader. His business
was to stand at his window and convince people by some hocus-
pocus that the shinplasters he was shoving at them would not
expire before they could unload them on some other fellow.
Here in the greenbacks we had a universal currency; a finan-
cial heaven we had never aspired to and did not feel worthy
of. We had discovered another Beatitude : "Blessed is he that
hath a barrel of them."
But our ancient enemy, John Bull, would have none of
them. Andrew D. White in his memoirs gives testimony to the
light in which the financial circles of London looked upon our
issue of currency to carry on the war: "Drawing money one
morning in one of the large banks of London, I happened to
exhibit a few of the new national greenback notes which had
ijo Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
been recently issued by our Government. The moment the
clerk saw them he called out loudly, 'Don't offer us any of
those things ; we don't take them ; they will never be good for
anything.' I was greatly vexed, of course," says Mr. White,
"but there was no help for it." John Bull sings a different
song nowadays !
I took the clean bright bills from the paymaster and ex-
pressed them home. Good money ! I had no doubt of it.
Good as gold. Taken on faith ; faith in a good cause. Faith
in God ! And I communed to myself : Uncle Sam's promise
to pay had gone forth to the world. He must make good.
And he has placed a rifle in my hands that carries nine hun-
dred yards and sent me South on a righteous errand with this
injunction, "See thou to that." There never was an hour dur-
ing the four years that I did not feel the force of that obliga-
tion. It bore me up through good and evil report; in light
and darkness ; in weakness and strength ; down to that moment
when, standing under the dripping trees in North Carolina in
the driving rain, chilled to the marrow, we were told that Lee
had surrendered ; that we must finish Joe Johnston ; and then
we could go home !
CHAPTER XXXI.
OUR FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH A CONTRABAND.
During the winter of 1861-62 general orders were issued
for the concentration of troops at Bird's Point, opposite Cairo,
in Missouri, and on the Kentucky and Illinois shores in that
vicinity, for a projected movement down the Mississippi un-
der General John Pope, and a similar movement up the Ten-
nessee against Fort Donelson, and on to Pittsburg Landing,
under General U. S. Grant. Preparatory to these movements
and for the purpose of confusing the enemy, our regiment be-
came part of the 4th Brigade of 10,000 men, under the com-
mand of Gen. John A. McClernand, to threaten the fortified
rebel post at Columbus. It was a mid-winter march, the weath-
er was severe, with a considerable fall of snow and rain, and
the reconnaissance, while it fulfilled its purpose, was far from
a round of pleasure ; the rough clay roads, worked into an
almost impassable condition by the artillery and trains, made
the progress of the infantry slow and difficult. While in camp
at Fort Holt, after our return from this detour, an incident
occurred which will throw light on the status of the slave at
the opening of the war. We were still splitting hairs over
the question, whether we were fighting to save the Union as
it is, or as it ought to be. We had men on both sides of this
question, and while the majority, if put to the test, undoubted-
ly were anti-slavery, the North through observation had be-
come so accustomed to the "peculiar institution" that many
doubted whether we might or could get rid of it. Ben Butler
bad not as yet defined the slave as contraband who had taken
refuge within our lines. And so it came about that a young
fugitive slave within our lines but a few hours gave rise to
171
172 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
a new experience. McClernand, the commander of this expe-
dition, was a radical pro-slavery politician. The slave's master
had a clew or suspicion that his chattel was in hiding among
the troops, and applied at the general's headquarters for as-
sistance to recover him. There was an impression current
that our regiment had possession of the colored boy ; the
charge was in fact whispered around that the nigger was in
E's wood-pile. The general's partisan zeal was aroused, and
he applied at Colonel's Morgan's headquarters for informa-
tion, but without result. When, as in blind man's buff, the
search got warm, our men were non-committal; if questioned,
they answered that they had not come South to hunt niggers.
No discovery was made. The troops were under orders to
move. The transports were at the landing to take the division
across the river. McClernand had his spies out, and when the
train came down to drive aboard, our wagon was searched and
the young slave dragged out from under the load of tents and
equipage and handed over to his master. This incident had
a marked effect on our personal fortunes. McClernand's prej-
udices were aroused against us, and our regiment was omitted
from the troops selected to fight the battles of Fort Donelson
and Shiloh. But for that colored boy doubtless the bones of
many of us would now be resolving to earth on those famous
fields.
On a bright day in February, after a season of prolonged,
dismal, severe weather, I was standing on the levee at Cairo
when a fleet of transports, coming down the Ohio, landed the
Confederate prisoners from Fort Donelson and were taken on
to Rock Island. It was an impressive scene and rejoiced the
hearts of the loyal North.
In compliance with a general order for the concentration
of 'troops, the Tenth Illinois made its final exit from the
preparatory school at Mound City and winter quarters in
cabins at Bird's Point, on the Mississippi shore, opposite Cairo,
whence we entered upon those great campaigns under Gen-
erals Pope. Halleck, Rosecrans, Thomas, Grant, and finally
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 173
Sherman, which terminated, so far as I was personally con-
cerned, on the 4th day of July, 1865, after the exhausted Con-
federate armies had surrendered and our Government rested
once more in the peace and security of restored sovereignty.
While at this camp I was forced to go to the hospital for
the first and the only time during the war, b) a severe cold,
akin to pneumonia, and I believe was diagnosed as such by
one of the surgeons. I was convalescing when the troops broke
camp and marched South at the opening of the spring cam-
paign, and I stood in the doorway to greet my regiment as it
passed by, feeling blue as it disappeared from view in the
woods. In a few days, feeling stronger, I insisted on rejoining
my regiment, against the remonstrances of those in charge at
the hospital. Although not at all strong, I felt well, excepting a
tender throat, and shouldering my traps, I boarded a "bob-tail"
train, which took us as far as Sykeston, where I took the high-
way in company with others for the front, which we reached
in the evening. The weather being mild, I regained strength
and resumed my duties. Our brigade occupied a camp within
a few miles of the rebel fortifications at New Madrid, an old
town founded by the Spanish when under their jurisdiction.
My first glimpse of Gen. John Pope was had at this camp
during a review of the troops, when he rode down our front
at break-neck speed on his dapple-gray charger. This per-
formance was intended to be very impressive, but something
in the appearance of the horse and the rider made it both
ridiculous and comical. General George B McClellan's per-
formance in the same role, while more grandiose, had essen-
tially the same effect. I never could rid myself of the comical
figure our dear old President, Abraham Lincoln, used to make
on review — as I read of it in the dispatches, for I certainly
never had the opportunity nor the desire to see him in the
act — his tall, angular figure, his small horse, the long legs, the
tall silk hat, his coat-tails in horizontal display while in pursuit
of a possible jack-rabbit for anything the troops could de-
termine by the performance.
174 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
I cannot say certainly, but I do not believe Ulysses S.
Grant ever thus displayed himself for the delectation of be-
holders. It is possible that Julius Caesar wert down his lines
with such speed as he could thump into an ass. and military
gentlemen in all the ages have been loth to surrender the priv-
ilege; on the other hand, there is the sense of majesty and
power in an immense army, such as the Army of the Cumber-
land before the battle of Stone River, passing in review before
General Rosecrans at Nashville; or the army that made the
March to the Sea passing in review before General Sherman
:in Exchange Square, Savannah ; or the same army, at Raleigh,
.North Carolina, after it had completed the historic campaigns
in Georgia and the Carolinas, passing in review before the
group of historic mounted figures, in repose, composed of
Grant, Sherman, Howard, Slocum, Schofield, Terrill, Schurz,
Logan, and many other distinguished soldiers. Such pictures
•as that, or the Grand Review at Washington, are epochal tab-
leaus that remain fixed in the memory and are beyond criticism.
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE CAPTURE OF ISLAND No. 10 AND NEW MADRID.
On the 1 2th of March, 1862, in the evening twilight, our
brigade formed and silently moved out from camp, the artil-
lery muffled, and the men cautioned against making unusual
noise. Conversation, when indulged, was in undertones. In
the darkness of the moonless night the column moved like an
immense serpent winding in and out through the openings of
the forest. I was in the file at the head of our company with
Lieutenant Sam Wilson and Captain Carr, whose company
(H) preceded us in the column. That officer was a veteran
of the Mexican War, of middle age, who had seen much of
the world; was devoted to the service, and kept his men well
in hand. We chatted in low tones as we marched along, Cap-
tain Carr admonishing his men at intervals against the clat-
ter of their canteens, or the querulous voice of some man
who had difficulty in getting along amicably with his neighbor.
We passed rapidly along in the darkness, and soon debouched
upon an open field. Our engineers and staff officers were at
hand and under their guidance we were drawn up in line
facing the rebel works ; stacked arms ; and in the inky darkness
found a line of rail-fence, which we lifted bodily, noiselessly,
and extended along our front as a base for a breastwork ; then
with our trenching tools, working like beavers, we soon had
an effective defense against the enemy's siege guns, for at
daylight we would be an easy mark for his trained gunners
at the rebel fort. We were now up against the first notable"
obstruction of the Mississippi south of Cairo, which consisted
of a formidable earthwork and siege guns and a line of de-
fense works for infantry, a fleet of gunboats on the river, and
175
176 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
the fortifications on Island No. 10 above. On the left of our
line four siege guns were placed in position protected by a
still heavier earthwork. While we were engaged in this work
not a shot had been exchanged. If the rebel pickets heard us,
they relied upon their ears rather than upon their rifles for
entertainment. The silence remained unbroken, till Captain
Carr left his company at their work in the trenches and went
out on our front to reconnoitre on his own account. There
was a lane running at right angles to our line of works, and
along the "worm" fence the captain stole quietly. He loved
his pipe, and in an unfortunate moment stopped and struck a
match ! That was the rebel sharp-shooters' opportunity, and
in the glare of that little blaze the veteran received a mortal
wound. He was carried to the farm-house near by, where he
died shortly afterward. In the early dawn, our earthworks
having been completed, there was a lively exchange of Minie
balls, and the gunners in the rebel fort, discovering a big black
hunch in the corn-field which they had never seen before,
trained some of the best rifled pieces on it and made the morn
ing exercises interesting for Captain Joe Mower and his men.
The captain (later a major-general) in command of our divis-
ion, and later of our corps, was a fighter, but he was out-
classed with his little hunchback of earthwork and four guns
against a deliberately built fort of approved pattern.
During our second night under the rebel batteries our
company was on the outposts, where in the silence we could
hear much that was going on behind the enemies' lines. There
was a "racket" throughout most of the night, their lights were
gleaming, their band played continuously, and there was the
rumble and tumult as of reinforcements coming in. The
truth proved to be, they were going on board their transports
in a panic, evacuating all their works, leaving valuable prop-
erty behind them. At daylight we found their tents standing,
lights burning in them and breakfast on the tables, and mili-
tary stores in quantity and the heavy guns in the fort fell into
our hands. The result was that during the unequal duel which
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 177
extended throughout the previous day, a center shot from the
rebel fort nearly buried Colonel Smith of the i6th Illinois and
another broke the muzzle off one of our big guns, putting it
out of the game. The captain smiled grimly (a man in a fight
always smiles "grimly," I believe, if he is able to work his facial
muscles at all) and landed another shot a little closer than be-
fore ; at all events, the captain took a look at the enemy's coign
of vantage after we got possession of it, and found one of his
guns dismounted and his household furniture piled up in a
heap.
Along with our work on this day there was something do-
ing down at Point Pleasant — pointed but unpleasant for the
rebel Commodore Hollis, which shut him out of the mixup. The
Mississippi is a nice stream to travel on if you have the stuff
which entitles you to a first-cabin passage and a "Northern
line" table to lunch at with a seat on the right of the captain,
and provided there are no hunting parties out looking for big
game. Up to this hour in the Commodore's life he had smooth
sailing, but on a night a Yankee battery was neatly fitted into
a depression made for it at the "Point" and a lot of our best
wing shots stood in the rifle-pits, looking bland and smiling out
over the water, and, as usual, the unsuspicious Commodore
came along with his flock of "Turtles," and our boys scared
him so he has not been heard of to this day. As a further
diversion, during the afternoon the rebels formed a small in-
fantry force out of our sight and played the old trick of march-
ing it around and around through the fort as a continuous
line- of reinforcements, but really dropping out of sight be-
hind the fort and coming in again, an endless chain. We were
unbelievers and smiled as we looked at the performance.
General Pope made the following official report of these
operations :
"The loth and i6th Illinois, commanded respectively by
Colonels J. D. Morgan and J. R. Smith, were detailed as
guards to the prosposed trenches and to aid in constructing
them. They marched from camp at sunset on the i2th in-
178 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
stant, and drove in the pickets and grand guards of the enemy
as they were ordered, at shouldered arms, without firing a
shot ; covered the front of the intrenching parties and occupied
the trenches and rifle-pits during the whole day and night of
the 1 3th, under furious and incessant cannonading from sixty
pieces of heavy artillery. At the earnest request of their Colo-
nels, their regimental flags were kept flying over our trenches,
though they offered a conspicuous mark to the enemy.
"The coolness, courage and cheerfulness of these troops,
exposed for two nights and a day to the furious fire of the
enemy at close range, and to the severe storm which raged
during the whole night of the I3th, are beyond all praise, and
delighted and astonished every officer who witnessed it.'"
General Pope says in another connection, referring to this
movement :
"One brigade, consisting of the roth and i6th Illinois,
under Colonel Morgan, of the loth, was detailed to cover the
construction of the battery and to work in the trenches. They
were supported by General Stanley's division, consisting of
the 27th, 43d and 63d Ohio. Captain Mower, of the ist U. S.
Infantry, with Companies A and H of his regiment, was placed
in charge of the siege guns.
"The enemy's pickets and grand guards were driven in by
Colonel Morgan from the ground selected for the battery, with-
out firing a shot, although the enemy fired several volleys of
musketry. The work was prosecuted in silence and with the
utmost rapidity until at 3 o'clock A. M. two small redoubts, con-
nected by a curtain and mounting the four heavy guns which
had been sent me, were completed, together with rifle-pits in
front and on the flanks, for two regiments of infantry. Our
batteries opened as soon as the day dawned and were replied
to in front and on the flanks by the whole of the enemy's heavy
artillery on land and water."
We had in our company an educated Virginian, Absalom
Martin, for whom I felt a warm admiration on account of his
literary quality. By the aid of a good memory he would plunge
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 179
into the English classics and help me to divert the tedious
hours in camp. He had a premonition of his fate. We were
seated on our breastworks one evening after the enemy had
ceased firing at us, when he said to me: "If I should fall dur-
ing this revolution [I use the exact words], I want you to
write to my wife and tell her all about me." I replied that I
would be glad if I should never have occasion to comply with
his request. His ordinary mood was that of a cheerful good
humor, and although physically too weighty a man for active
service, he got along very well until after the close of our opei
ations around New Madrid, when it was noticed, while on the
transports going South, that he was not well. On our return
up river, on the way to Pittsburg Landing, during a stop at
Cairo, he was sent to the hospital. From thence he was for-
warded on a hospital steamer, along with hundreds of others,
to one of the large general hospitals in St. Louis, from whence
we were notified of his death. The letter from his wife in
response to one from me concerning him was painful reading.
Concurrently our friends were busy up at the Island.
Colonel Roberts (that gallant, deeply lamented hero of the
42d Illinois, who fell at Stone River), with a picked squad of
his boys, dropped in upon General McKown at vespers and
spiked his guns, and on a stormy night the "Pittsburg" ran
the rebel batteries and got safely down to the New Madrid
landing, where we were waiting for it. Withal, the opening
along the bayous for the transports had been completed, and
while our brigade stood in arms on the shore, lo ! a steamer
came walking, as it were, out of the woods, landed, and took
us aboard. There was a rebel earthwork on the opposite shore
and the "Pittsburg" dropped out into the stream and sent a
few plunging shots at it. There was no response, and the
transports carried us promptly to the Tennessee shore, and a
foot-race began to interpose our force across the rebel line of
retreat from the Island above. Our brigade had the advance ;
quick time was made, and before night came on we had taken
up our positions with strong picket forces out. Our own com-
i8o Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life,
pany occupied an outpost, where we took prisoners in number
equal to our own strength — regular Arkansas travelers ; armed
with frontier "toothpicks," home-made, on the anvil, and rifles,
muskets and revolvers and every description of shot-gun that
had been made up to that time ; one of these a giant shot-gun
that only a giant could carry or wish to fire. During the night
the commander of the rebel army at the Island, whose forces
we had barred in their efforts to escape, sent in a communica-
tion asking for terms of surrender. These having been agreed
upon, the rebel army (infantry and batteries) filed onto open
ground, nearer the river, in the vicinity of a hamlet named
Tiptonville, close at hand, and stacked their arms. I cannot
say that the stars in their courses contributed to our success
in these operations, or that our foe lacked courage and skill.
I am sure that those rebel soldiers of the Southwest lacked
nothing essential to the real soldier. The use of fire-arms, and
fighting of one kind or another, was an everyday affair with
them — almost a pastime ; and I feel that I am stating the exact
truth in saying that those backwoodsmen whom our company
corraled as prisoners at our outpost could, man for man, have
"wiped the ground" with us on a fair field and no favor.
The reasons for our success include some curious facts.
Precisely fifty years in advance of our appearance before New
Madrid a great convulsion of Nature had changed the features
of the landscape from the mouth of the Ohio River to the St.
Francis. Where once had been level farming lands and high
plateaus covered by the ancient forest, appeared lakes of great
depth or depressions difficult to pass. The seismic disturb-
ances of 1811-16 (for they covered the interval between these
years) involved this whole region and were the severest in the
immediate vicinity of our operations. No disturbance of the
kind recorded since the landing of Columbus could compare
with it. The best authorities state the movements were of
two kinds — a perpendicular and the horizontal ; that the latter
was the most destructive; that it moved in immense waves,
increasing in size as they progressed until they were the height
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 181
of the trees, which tossed and tumbled together, the earth
opening and discharging great volumes of water, sand, coal
and rock. Whole districts of fertile country were covered to
a depth with white sand, and in other places the earth and
forest sank, forming lakes some of them twenty miles in length.
Adjutant Theodore Wiseman, of our brigade, assured me that
previous to the war he had passed in a hunting-boat with his
fowling-piece over submerged forests in this region, the trees
standing upright where they had sunk. The grave-yard of
New Madrid and large tracts of land with it were swallowed
up by the great river, and chasms and crevices appeared across
which the few inhabitants of the country crawled upon trees
where they happened to span these gulfs. As a result of this
earthquake the region around Island No. 10 — which since the
close of the war has wholly disappeared in the current of the
Mississippi — extending on clown the river and embracing all
the country on both shores below New Madrid, was so broken
up by lakes and the scars of this convulsion that the passage
out from the Island by an army under the restrictions of an
investment was not a job to be relished by the most competent
of military commanders. The difficulties of the situation were
greatly increased by high water. The Father of Waters was
rolling one of his immense spring tides to the sea and was a
majestic spectacle. The tributary streams were overflowing,
and I hive said enough to show that the Confederacy was in
hard luck in her struggle with Nature, to say nothing of John
Pope and his army.
A field battery of the Washington artillery (the pride of
the South), manned by young bloods from New Orleans, was
a part of the trophies of this campaign. These gallant young
French Creoles and their beautiful brass guns won our sym-
pathies, and I had an interesting talk with a lieutenant of the
company as we stood on the shore looking out over the great
river. He was courteous, intelligent, undismayed by their ill
fortune, and had a rock-rooted faith that the South would
never be overcome. Our prisoners followed those of Fort
1 82 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
Donelson to Rock Island, while a fleet of transports assembled
at New Madrid, and, convoyed by the flotilla of gunboats, the
Army of the Mississippi descended the river to a point on the
Arkansas shore in the vicinity of Chickasaw Bluffs, the next
fortified stronghold placed to dispute our passage. It was a
notable scene — our descent of the river; so many of the
steamers, often in full view, crowded with troops: hesitating
at intervals on the broad bosom of the water, at a signal of
caution from the iron-clads which were the advance guard,
on the discovery of one of the enemy's "Turtles," half hid
around the point of an island, when the boom of one of our
rifled chasers woke the deep echoes of the desolate region.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
FROM SHILOH TO CORINTH UNDER HALLECK.
The surprises, involving sudden change of direction and
thwarting well-laid schemes, during the Civil War, are well
illustrated in the change in our fortunes while waiting in this
Arkansas camp for the order to advance. We were startled
by the news from Shiloh, and, under an order from Washing-
ton, re-embarked and made the long journey back to Cairo and
up the Tennessee River to Hamburg, where I met Will H.
Scroggs, an old classmate, who make a diagram with his finger
on the ground to show me the position of his regiment and
the general line occupied by our troops at the battle of Pitts-
burg Landing. We had a close personal interest in this fight,
for our old colonel (later general), Ben M. Prentiss, and most
of his division, after a prolonged struggle, were surrounded
and captured and taken to Richmond. The Army of the
Mississippi (now no longer such), under Gen. John Pope, be-
came the left wing of Gen. Halleck's grand army, and advanced
on Corinth, along the Farmington road. Halleck's entire force
comprised more than 100,000 men, and it was an army worthy
of any commander. The enemy kept us busy. After the ex-
perience at Shiloh, we were wary and made our reconnaissance
in force. General E. H. Paine, of Monmouth, a West Point
graduate, was our brigade commander. He was a man of
"nerve," and in many respects an accomplished soldier. Our
first reconnaissance was in a heavily wooded country, so diffi-
cult to operate in, for almost every step in advance was a sur-
prise of some kind. The "Yates Sharp-shooters," armed with
globe-sighted rifles, were our close comrades and the appoint-
ed skirmishers of our brigade. At a crossing, close to the edge
183
184 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
of the dark, heavy timber, a number of the enemy were killed
trying to get over an open space to a refuge. On the low
ground we halted for a few moments, when a neatly dressed
young rebel officer came out of the woods on our company's
front to give himself up, crying out to us not to fire upon him
— "Don't fire, gentlemen," he said ; he was submissive now, but
afterward, when he found he was being treated according to
the rules of civilized warfare, he became very abusive. Be-
yond this timber there was high open ground, which the enemy
stubbornly held. There was some delay, when General Paine,
becoming restless, passed through our lines, and having made
his observations, we forced our way under fire out upon ris-
ing, open ground. Our line was now the target for an enemy
we could not see in the woods west of us. At this moment
Houghteling's Battery passed us like a flash, unlimbered on a
knoll on our right and shelled the woods, which we followed
up with a charge that cleared our front of the enemy for
that day.
It was a warm morning in May when the long roll called
us to arms. Our camp was on a high wooded ridge with open-
ings to the south upon the Farmington plains, a park-like
plateau, with copses of wood here and there, and covered with
l)luegrass. Looking south upon this partially open country,
we saw an army with banners like a stereoscopic picture
suddenly cast upon canvas — a reconnoitering force, twenty
thousand strong, led by John C. Breckenridge. The facts were
as we now know them to be: Beauregard's army in Corinth
was getting ready to abscond and did not wish to be crowded
in the act, fearing it might not be a success ; hence this bluff
(the battle of Farmington) on our front this day. Our army
was drawn up in line to receive them, and at one or two
points of contact there was severe fighting, but the Confed-
erate force withdrew without bringing on a general engage-
ment. Following up this diversion, we advanced to the village
and threw up a formidable line of breastworks. Tarrying here
briefly, we advanced within striking distance of Corinth. Here
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 185
was a beautiful pasture-like country studded with parks of
"Napoleons," or "rifled parrots," and all the paraphernalia of
a great army. As our lines of circumvallation shortened a
portion of this splendid equipment was necessarily held in re-
serve. On the last day of our operations on the front of
Beauregard's army we came into line in the early morning.
We occupied the south line of an open field, across which,
posted along the edge of a wood, were the rebel outposts. As
we stood in line waiting, the "Yates Sharp-shooters" deployed
rapidly upon our front and passed gallantly across the field
in face of the enemy. We held our breath for a time, fearing
some of our lads would fall ; but they employed the Zouave
trick of always keeping in motion, and the line, including the
major in command on his black charger, coolly riding up and
down with his men, had a wonderful escape. As I remember,
only one or two were wounded. Our line of battle was many
miles in length — through swamp and thicket, over hills, across
gullies, at the door of farm-houses, closing in on all sides of
the fortified town except a door of escape by the B. & O. Rail-
road, which it was the Confederate commander's especial care
to keep open. At intervals along the line sharp fighting took
place. The day was occupied on our own front in forcing
our way close up under the rebel works, the yellow clay of
which we had glimpses of through the woods. An infantry
force came out under cover of the thick underbrush on our
front to dispute our further advance, and our sharp-shooters
had to withdraw. At the moment one of our batteries opened
on them with grape. Between the volleys a remnant of our
skirmish-line ran crouching back into our lines. We looked
for the enemy to advance upon us, but he refused our chal-
lenge. At nightfall we supped on what we had in our haver-
sacks and lay down in our blankets, guessing on the morrow.
At midnight we were suddenly aroused by a succession of ex-
plosions which could be heard for miles, accompanied by the
prolonged cheering of the rebel troops. Now, Beauregard
might have sneaked away more easily than to have kept his
1 86 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
men out of their blankets yelling themselves hoarse trying to
make the impression that they were receiving reinforcements.
We stood in groups in our blankets in the chill night air (in
the South the temperature is low from midnight to dawn and
our ponchos reeked with dew when we woke up), assuring one
another that the rebel army was destroying what they could
not carry away. The rumbling of trains was incessant, loaded
with our departing friends in their hurried flight.
In the wake of our cavalry our brigade had the advance
in the pursuit, for a portion of the retreating army occupied
the roads leading south from the town. As we entered the
village but one man greeted us — a typical hook-nosed Jew with
a peddler's pack on his back. He crawled out of a wet brush-
heap and solicited comradeship. The wandering Jew is the
real thing when we want to label a man doing business under
difficulties. We came up with the rebel rear guard at the
Hatchie River. They had burned the bridge, and their cavalry
videttes occupied the south bank. At this point our pursuing
cavalry suffered a severe check and retired in our favor. They
came upon this ground in the early morning hours, before it
was yet dawn, cautiously feeling their way. At a sharp turn
in the road, close to the bridge, the advance was literally
blown from the muzzles of a rebel battery ambushed to cover
the approach. The spot, marked by the dead horses, was the
subject of remarks as we passed. Our company (E) was here
detailed to advance and discover the strength of the rebel
videttes holding this crossing. We filed down into the woods
to the left of the burned bridge and advanced at will toward
the river bank, each man selecting his own cover from whence
he could fire upon the ambushed enemy waiting for us on the
opposite bank. We were well to the front, having gained a
hundred yards advance, when Sergeant George W. Cowden
had his arm broken by a shot from the hidden foe. As we
could not charge him across the stream, we poured a volley
into the brush where he was hidden, with good effect, for he
decamped without ceremony. The pursuit of Beauregard's
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 187
army was given over to our cavalry, and we went into camp
at Big Springs near Corinth. We were here during the black-
berry season and recovered from the fatigues of the campaign
indulging in pie sicklied o'er with the pale cast of crust con-
structed without those helps down in milady's cook-book a&
the shortening and baking powder. They were just cobbled —
those pies. Possibly Martha Washington regaled Uncle George
with something better, as she had saleratus and sour milk. I
don't know. The boys dug a hole in the side of the hill and
built what they called an oven, where they baked those pies.
I did not think it good manners to inquire too closely about
that oven. I contemplated it respectfully at a distance. Some-
how our pies had no color. They must have had tuberculosis,
for they perished prematurely.
Dave Sage was our tonsorial artist at this point, famed
for the superior style of his "cut," and for the way he in-
spired the boys to spruce up. When David got through with
the army, the men looked like a lot of dudes. When he had
trimmed and slicked up the last man, he had hair enough on
hand to start a hair-mattress factory. He was our pride, and
distinguished for his versatile talents. When he took a patron
in hand, he finished him for a swell function of any kind. He
shaved him and "shingled" him, stuck mint in his nose, sham-
pooed and manicured him, laid him on a board and pinched
and punched and slapped and rolled him under massage, rub-
bed in some skin food, shook him, and made him stand up like
a man and look like somebody.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE MARCH TO TUSCUMBIA AND NASHVIU.E.
At the close of a day's march toward Tuscumbia, Ala-
bama, at nightfall, supper over, we gathered our mounts on
short notice (a group of the line officers and subalterns) and
struck off at right angles into the enemy's country for a moon-
shiner's headquarters of which we had been advised by one
of our scouts. An hour's rapid riding from our outposts
brought us into a desolate, uninhabited, hilly region within
striking distance of the rebel cavalery. We slowed down and
advanced cautiously with a small, alert, advance guard. There
was no moon and the darkness and silence made our ears re-
ceptive of every sign or noise outside of our own group.
About 9 o'clock we came suddenly upon the cluster of cabins
well within a small canyon, withdrawn from the prying world
without, which composed the "still" characteristic of the South
in ante-bellum days, where, judging from the quantities of
ancient pumice lying in heaps around, the quality of "chain
lightning" known as peach brandy had been manufactured for
a hundred years. Having posted pickets, we took an inventory
of the "still" in the darkness. The premises stank of alcohol.
Strong as the odors were, they were so conflicting that we
could not locate the best in stock in the darkness by smell
alone, and we strode noiselessly to the door of the moon-
shiner's cabin and tapped it softly, one, two, three, and an
object came to the door and we said to it, "Stranger, we are
around looking at the country for an uncle of ours : have you
anything at hand with which to cheer belated travelers?"
With great apparent alacrity, but with a subdued, apprehen-
sive voice, the figure out of the darkness answered : "It 's likker
188
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 189
you'ns 'd like?" "Stranger," replied the captain, "you 're warm;
hand her out." Without ado, the old mountaineer rolled a keg
out at the door, saying, "Thar ain't much in yer, but it 's all
1 hev." The contents were drawn into canteens, the cabin-
door closed softly, and we were promptly on the road for
camp. We had hardly got away from the "still" when at a
low signal we stood motionless in the road. There was a
movement at the front which cast a doubt in the minds of our
advance, and the riders parted equally to each side of the road,
sheltered in the heavy forest, and stood on their guard, listen-
ing and waiting. After a brief interval and a sign of restored
confidence, we covered the miles into camp at a rattling pace.
The round trip had been made in comparative silence, and was
wholly free of bibulous traits. It was undertaken at the in-
stance of John Tillson and other headquarters gentlemen of
like tastes, simply to equip their circle with the cup which
cheers. I joined the expedition with no better motive than
that of adventure.
Of the many beautiful springs in the South — at luka,
Huntsville, Nashville, and Rome — from \vhich we filled our
canteens, I am sure the spring at Tuscumbia is the most won-
derful of all, worthy of a journey of a thousand miles to see.
It rushes from the rock a river in volume and, like the jester in
cap and bells, goes plunging and dancing away over the rocks,
glittering in the sunlight and shaking with merriment. If I
were an artist, I would return to Tuscumbia and lay upon
my canvas the old colored "auntie" coming up from the
spring, with the turban of color around her head, a pail of
water balanced upon it, her pickaninnies happy all the day, in
her train.
On one of the lonely hillsides near that town we buried
one of our Swede boys. Alabama — "Here we rest." It used
to be said of one of Henry Clay's partisans that he would
go twenty miles to hear Kentucky's great Whig orator pro-
nounce the name "Alabama." Our family used to have in
Henderson County a friend (Allen Briskey by name — peace
190 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
to his ashes!) who had two distinguishing characteristics: he
was from Alabama and, as the boys in the Army used to say,
he "stood lots of rest."
The seizure of cotton by Government agents and by pri-
vate parties began first to attract my attention at Tuscumbia.
The leader in this business near our camp was a Jew, and this
fact did not tend to confirm my conviction that it was a
"square deal." The great staple of commerce was moic to
be desired than fine gold. A few bales surreptitiously tuins-
ported within our lines and cashed would place the possessor
on the road to independence. A book might be written on "The
Adventures of a Cotton Broker during the Civil War." A cer-
tain well-known officer in our command may have been baited,
or he may have made a study of "How to Get Rich Quick" in
the cotton business prior to the summer of 1862, but I think
the beginning of his criminal connivance should be dated at
Tuscumbia. Here was an opportunity for graft, and the career
of the officer in question furnishes a striking example of how
easily one may barter away an honorable position in the serv-
ice and the respect of his neighbors at home for money vir-
tually stolen, and which betrayed, him at last into abject pover-
ty and the forfeiture of home and friends.
Little thought we as we marched away from Corinth,
Mississippi, that in a very few brief months it would be the
scene of one of the most fiercely contested battles of the Civil
War. "Old Rosey," however, drove Price and Van Dorn
away in disastrous rout, and after much sparring for an open-
ing between Generals Buell and Bragg, the next move on the
military chessboard resulted in a foot-race for Louisville.
When the course of events left no doubt of this fact, the Gov-
ernment resolved not to give up the capital of Tennessee, feel-
ing a proprietary interest in a State which contained so many
Union men like Andy Johnson and Parson Brownlow, and
which had made so many sacrifices in life and property in a
great cause. As these two armies left the South for the Ohio
River, our division, in command of General John M. Palmer,
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 191
marched to Nashville, crossing the Tennessee River at Athens,
and advanced north through Pulaski, Columbia and Franklin.
We were molested more or less all the way by guerrillas, who
killed or captured our men as occasion offered. As we left
our camp on Duck River, opposite Columbia, the bushwhackers
gathered in considerable force and some of our men were
driven away from the spring where they were filling their
canteens ; but, as our column was stretched far out on the road,
no halt was made to exchange shots. This running fight with
guerrillas did not cease till we had passed Franklin.
CHAPTER XXXV.
ISOLATED AT NASHVILLE.
At Nashville we were isolated in the enemy's country,
having neither rations nor communication with our military
leaders save by courier, which was a dangerous business at
that time. The city was full of spies and other enemies, and
we were liable to attack at any time by independent forces,
such as Forrest's cavalry, or other marauders of the guerrilla
type. We prepared for this by enclosing the city in a rude
breastwork and by a series of fortifications, of which Fort
Negley was the chief; albeit this fortification was in a crude
state for some months, but afterward, when completed, a
formidable defense, armed with heavy artillery in bomb-proof
casements. Our regiment occupied this fort for some months.
Rations had to be supplied by our wits : and a systematic
search of the cellars of the city resulted in finding a quantity
of cured pork in a condition bordering on putrefaction, and
in a limited supply of flour and corn meal. With this pork
and accessories we invited the bubonic plague, dysentery and
the malignant fevers that find a hospitable home in the South
in the sultry season. As for forage, the brigade marched into
the country in force with a train of empty Army wagons, and
having marked the plantations where the cribs were well sup-
plied, outposts were stationed on all the approaches and the
wagons, loaded, returning to the city heavy laden. Some of
our men were captured in small squads when they ventured
out along the turnpikes in search of something to fill their
haversacks. Reports of guerrillas in force came in almost
daily, and there were collisions of more or less importance,
192
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 193
and finally we prepared for an attack, threatened by Forrest.
The situation was considered serious enough to justify Gen-
eral Granger in coming to the fort and carefully studying
through his glass the movements of Forrest and his men on
our front. The enemy, not finding what he was looking for
(an opportunity to surprise us), reconsidered his purpose and
decamped.
The State's prison is in the suburb east of the city. Here
the military prisoners were confined, including those under
sentence by the general courts-martial. One day our brigade
was called out and marched to the level ground on the east-
ern outskirts of the city. In the column was an Army wagon
containing a coffin and a prisoner in irons seated thereon. On
reaching our destination, we "formed square," the wagon and
the prisoner at the center, where was an open grave. The
coffin was placed on the ground and a guard conducted the
condemned man to his seat on the coffin as before. He sat
facing the west. An official of the military court read the
charges and specifications and the sentence of the court. An
officer of the line then stepped forward and blindfolded the
prisoner, and at a silent signal another officer with a file of
sharp-shooters faced the prisoner at a distance of ten paces
and cocked their guns out of his hearing. Some of the rifles
were loaded with ball and others were not. In silence, at a
signal, the men aimed at his heart; at a signal they fired.
For an instant the body sat upright, then fell over backward,
and the column moved quietly away at the word. Not all the
deserters from the service had the good fortune to receive
clemency at the hands of that most merciful of all men —
Abraham Lincoln. On another occasion our regiment had a
painful duty to perform. A troop of Pennsylvania cavalry
had refused to obey orders. They were picked men — blue-
bloods from the old "Keystone" State, who claimed to have
been "inveigled" into the service (poor credulous dupes) as
the body-guard of General George B. McClellan, whereas it
was sought to put them to baser uses — to feel for the enemy
1*94 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
if happily they might find him, and put him to rout. Here
was another rebellion and it was up to Uncle. Sam to put it
down. The general sent for Colonel Morgan; explained the
situation to him, and told him to take his regiment out to the
cavalry camp west of the city, and bring those boys; to head-
quarters, boots and saddles. The next morning the old Tenth
halted in front of the Pennsylvania troopers' camp ; faced ;
came to "rest," and were ordered to load. Under all circum-
stances the colonel was a man of few words and full of busi-
ness, :and addressing the descendants of William Penn, said
to them : "You will be given twenty minutes to mount and
fall into line with this battalion." One of the leaders came out
of his tent bareheaded and in his shirt-sleeves (a company
officer probably), armed with some manuscript flapdoodle, and
began to pluck the tail-feathers of the national bird savagely ;
but it was noticed that at the expiration of about five min-
utes the majority of the men were out at the tethering-rope,
drawing cinches with the saddle-girths. Our conception of
liberty is so broad within the boundaries of these States that
we don't want to mind anybody anywhere at any time.
Andrew Johnson was the Military Governor of the State
and during our occupation of the city he had convened a pro-
visional legislature, representing the loyal counties or all the
counties by loyal representatives, and the leaders who were
faithful to the Constitution and laws of the Government were
familiar figures in the halls of the Capitol and on the streets-
such men as Parson Brownlow, Plorace Maynard and Judge
IJawkins. But there was a gathering of another sort from the
remote corners and mountain fastnesses of the State which
was an object of pathetic interest, the refugees from Confed-
erate oppression — the patriots of this and other rebel States,
separated from their homes and families by the Davis con-
scription. Scores of these hunted men assembled at times,
apparently without shelter, on the outskirts of the city. Many
of them lost their lives in east Tennessee, and a considerable
number in other parts of the South, especially in Missouri and
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 195
Texas. In the latter State from two to three thousand lives
were taken by local vendetta on the plea that they were not in
sympathy with the rebellion. Those who were fit for military
duty were organized in one or another branch of the Union
service (cavalry mostly) and. in a sense, provided for in that
way.
The women of the capital city of Tennessee (chiefly the
wealthy class — surcharged with the spirit of treason) had one
amusing method, among many, of showing on which side their
sympathies lay, by coming out on the veranda as the Union
soldier passed by, and calling their dog : "Come, Beauregard !
now, Beauregard! will you come?"
The large buildings in the city, such as the medical school,
the seminaries, the factory buildings, were taken by the Gov-
ernment for hospitals and they were constantly full to reple-
tion. At the convalescent hospital, on a Sunday afternoon,
in the large hallway, there was usually an improvised semi-
religious service or "talk." The leader, often a distinguished
visitor of the Sanitary Commission, like Lydia Alaria Child,
of Philadelphia, her hair snowy white, the sweet motherly face
of fine intelligence, set off by the Quaker cap of lace. The
halt, lame and blind, or nearly so, from the great battle-fields,
gathered eagerly around her while she gave out in simple
words those truths which we need to have repeated to us every
day, and which are as old as the race.
After the battle of Perryville, General William S. Rose-
crans succeeded to the command of the newly organized Army
of the Cumberland. My first glimpse of him was over in Mis-
sissippi near Corinth. We were in column on the march when
he dashed by us alone, a stout-built soldier in fatigue dress
and cavalry boots. The army was reviewed by him on the
outskirts of Nashville near the close of the year 1862. lie
appeared to advantage, and scanned the troops closely for de-
ficiencies of every kind more thoroughly, I believe, than I had
ever seen it done. He had many of the traits of a popular
commander, and some of his noblest c|ualifications. He nar-
196 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
rowly missed being the idol of the North during the Civil War.
"Old Rosey" was once a name to conjure with, and his men
saw him go away after Chickamauga with a pang. I saw him
in Nashville on his way North from Chattanooga. Laura
Keene was in town, playing leading roles at the principal
theater — the same actress who appeared in "Our American
Cousin" the night Lincoln was assassinated. Rosecrans and
his staff occupied a private box one evening and the actress,
during a pause in the play, in response to applause from the
general and his companions, turned full upon him and court-
esied in acknowledgment. As he passed out at the close of
the . performance the soldiers present gave him an ovation,
and we all shook hands with him. It was the passing of
"Old Rosey."
While in camp on Stone River, we strengthened our love
for the Union by marching over to "The Hermitage" and wor-
shiping at the shrine of "Old HicKory." We stacked arms
in the avenue of cedars and were received by General Jack-
son's foster-son, Andrew Jackson Donelson, then a man well
advanced in life. The room in which the old defender of the
Union died, and his tomb, were the principal objects of inter-
est. As we walked along the paths familiar to the hero of the
battle of New Orleans, we could hear the distant guns of an
army assembled with the sworn purpose to destroy all that
"Old Hickory" held most dear, and we came away convinced
that his bones were resting uneasily in the grave where his
countrvmen had laid him.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
BRIDGEPORT TO CHATTANOOGA.
On our march to Bridgeport, on the Tennessee River, we
were held for a day or two in our camp at Columbia. Dur-
ing the delay, along with Sergeant Simpson, I called at the
"Athenaeum" — a seminary for young ladies, equipped with a
fine library and a number of musical instruments. It was the
summer vacation, but the principal was in charge, and a num-
ber of students were in attendance — taking lessons in music
possibly. Our reception, while not lacking in the amenities,
was a little on the bias, as a call from the "blue-coats" evident-
ly had not been anticipated. However, she was a lady of
mature years, intelligent, and we soon became interested in a
line of conversation that presented some difficulties. The
principal having cleared the ground and stretched the rope,
as it were, we were given an opportunity to explain our mis-
sion to the South. While Charlie was making the pass pre-
liminary, I was looking over my mental wares to see if I could
find a reason for having been discovered by this lady south of
Mason and Dixon's line with a gun in my hand. My comrade
was a "Union Democrat," and scorned the thought of fight-
ing to free the "nigger." Whether I was an Abolitionist or
not, I thought I was, and I said to her in effect that slavery
was a subsidiary thing, to be gotten rid of, as Washington and
Jefferson had shown us by personal example; but I ran the
knife to the bone by adding that the black man had a right to
the bread which his toil had won; that I was in the South to
help him to win out; that if we succeeded, the South having
never gotten out of the Union, would be in it, and we could
and would continue to do business at the old stand, having no
197
198 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
bone of contention to wrangle over as before. Charlie fared
no better in the old lady's graces than I did ; in truth, she smiled
on us as though we were a brace of young lunatics. While
on this march the troops were called into line one morning,
and to our surprise there came on a quick-step down our front
the snare-drums and the shrill notes of the fife, playing "The
Rogue's March," the rogue himself following, and a file of
bayonets in close touch bringing up the rear. The culprit was
exhibited before a long line of troops, his buttons cut off, and
at the end he was drummed out of camp. What his offense
was we were not informed. From Bridgeport our regiment
escorted an immense train of ammunition along the Sequatchie
valley and over a spur of the Cumberland Mountains to the
army at Chattanooga. Two miles out from the foot of Wal-
dron's Ridge we came upon the remains of a similar train that
had preceded us, which contained withal some sutlers' wagons
loaded with miscellaneous confectionery, tobacco, whiskey no
doubt, canned goods, etc., which had been destroyed by Wheel-
er's cavalry. The road for the whole of that distance was
filled with the large, fine mules, shot in thei. tracks, and the
ashes of the burned wagons, and along the road-side, under
the bushes, cans of cove oysters and other edibles were found
where they had been left by the rebel cavalry, too heavily laden
with the spoils to carry everything off. One dead rebel lying
in the mud was the only visible regret Wheeler had left be-
hind him. Looking east from the crest of Waldron's Ridge,
over the valley in which Chattanooga is situated, the eye rests
on a natural amphitheater of majestic proportions. The Ten-
nessee River flows through the foreground, the city at the
north end of the valley, the immemorial summits of Lookout
and Mission Ridge, covered with forests framing in the scene,
with the woods that hide Rossville and Chickamauga for a
background. The National Cemetery is a feature new to this
valley. Historic ground ! From the top of this ridge (a moun-
tain range in itself) the road descends like a cork-screw. Here
at the edge of the precipitous mountain wall, in the shade of
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 199
the trees, we stand absorbed, thinking of all the tragedies that
have taken place here within the sweep of one's vision. Can
one name a spot on the round globe so fit for the circumstance
and pomp of war? A painful scene this; as our train wound
slowly along this valley, which had been so often crossed and
recrossed by armed men and by the starving animals of the
beaten Union host. The earth was trodden bare for miles, so
that not a blade of grass was left, and the bushes withal had
been eaten up, and the limbs of the trees. Somewhere on the
high tablelands we met the slightly wounded from Chicka-
mauga, footing it back to Bridgeport to take the train for the
general hospitals at Nashville, or for home on a short furlough.
I remember seeing Sam P. McGaw, of Henderson County, in
the crowd.
We had a rude awakening at Bridgeport which will be
easily borne in the memory of the last survivor of our brigade.
The reserve ammunition of the Army of the Cumberland was
kept at this place. Through the lack of proper storage it was
placed on high ground, adjoining our camp, in pyramidal form,
covered with a tarpaulin. In this pile of explosives were mil-
lions of cartridges in cases, "spherical case," and grape, and
shrapnel, in unlimited quantity. A guard, in reliefs, stood
over it night and day. Nero, possibly, in taking up his fiddle,
threw the stump of a cigar into a pile of shavings, which set
Rome afire? A wisp of fire the size of your little finger
started the conflagration that wrapped the city of London in
all-embracing flame. Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked the lamp
over which started one or two little straws burning, and they
started other straws, till Deacon Bross, fleeing along the streets
of the lurid city, looked back and saw the public buildings
aflame "with a sublimity of effect that astounded me" ! No
one knows. Dead guards tell no tales. They were careless,
and smoked their pipes in unconcern on this mountain of gun-
powder. It does not seem possible that a grain of powder
could have been exposed among those sealed packages and
2OO Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
water-proof percussion shells. I know not, nor does any other
man know. Did a blundering guard let fall one of those
weighty shells on the dangerous cap of another? All the an-
swer we ha^e is the thunderbolt that tore the bodies of some
of those guards to atoms ; bits of whose flesh were picked up
in the weeds a hundred yards away. Then those shells opened
on our camp like a battery, and men hunted shelter in every
direction. The body of John Owens, of Henderson County,
was burned to a crisp; every shred of clothing burned from
the body, the hair from his head ; the eyes sealed with fire.
He still breathed when brought to the surgeon's tent, and soon
died.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
GOOD-DYE, BRAXTON BRAGG.
During the crucial days when General Grant assumed
command of the beleaguered army in Chattanooga and General
Sherman and the Army of the Tennessee were being trans-
ferred from Vicksburg to our front, our division, under the
command of General Jeff C. Davis (the same who shot Gen-
eral Nelson in the Gait House at Louisville), was distributed
along the fords of the Tennessee above the city; our own
company (E) being stationed at Penny's Ford. We were di-
rectly opposite the extreme right of Bragg's army on Mis-
sion Ridge. Across the river, on our immediate front, were
the rebel cavalry videttes with infantry supports en echelon
behind barricades. This was our situation at the opening of
the battle of Mission Ridge. Our division was a part of the
Army of the Cumberland, under General Thomas, which oc-
cupied the center some miles away from us in the Chatta-
nooga valley. Our orders were, therefore, to co-operate with
General Sherman's Army of the Tennessee, which came onto
the ground we occupied, but remained screened from obser-
vation in the woods back from the river. General Jeff
Davis (our Jeff) was a West Pointer and a lieutenant under
General Robert Anderson when Fort Sumter fell; after
that event he was advanced in grade along with most or
all of the West Point men, and transferred to the West,
and was in command of a brigade in Buell's army at Louis-
ville when the personal encounter took place which resulted
in the death of General Nelson. He was a stocky little
man, was Davis, and would recoil, one would suppose, from
a passage at arms with a powerful man like Nelson, whose
201
202 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
courage nothing could daunt. Not so ! Nelson's brutality
ventured once too often ! Alas, that it was so ! for he was a
soldier whom Napoleon would have chosen for his most des-
perate enterprises. Poor old Braxton Bragg! Who could
stand against such a combination as this : Hooker at Lookout
Mountain; Grant, Thomas, and Sheridan at the center, and
Sherman on the left. No soldier nor combination of soldiers
since the world began! In the great crises of the future may
the honor of our country find defenders in sons like these!
Any one of them (barring only one) the equal of any soldier
our race has ever known. Hooker, in line with his best days,
had taken Lookout, and his camp-fires from base to summit
flickered in the darkness like signal lights, beckoning the
avenging forces of the Union on. The armed hosts for miles
around (friend and foe) took note; and as we looked at the
moon, rising above the hood of the mountain, the fugitive
figures of Bragg's defeated left wing passed across the lunar
disk. In the night hours the small boats, packed with armed
men, crept along in the shadows of the willows on the shore
of the Tennessee River on Sherman's front. Captain Ewing,
of the 36th Illinois, had command of one of these boats. They
landed silently on the enemy's side of the river unseen, and
stole noiselessly upon the chain of rebel barricades, and pointed
their guns down into the faces of the enemy's outposts taken
unawares ! The Federals were busy. A strong force quickly
deployed and covered the ground, protecting the men laying
the pontoons. The cavalry, infantry, artillery, and the ambu-
lance and ammunition trains passed over in rapid succession.
Tom Ewing was ordered to advance his division upon Bragg's
right and "not to call for help unless he needed it." Jeff C.
Davis' division was massed in reserve. A Federal battery of
siege guns (rifled Parrotts), planted on a promontory on the
west side of the river, kept np a continuous fire over our heads
at the rebel trenches. During the progress of the battle on our
front we could see the steady stream of rebel reinforcements
toward us from Bragg's center, following the crest of the
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 203
ridge, their polished arms glistening in the sunlight. The en-
emy had the advantage of us in his superior view of all parts
of the field. Sheridan's charge on the center of his defenses
was noticeable to us by the musketry fire only, as we could
not see the movement.
* General John M. Corse, later the hero of Altoona Pass
and son of the old-time bookseller at Burlington, Iowa, was
on the fighting-line in our front, and was borne back wounded
to the field hospital, on a stretcher. He was boisterous and
blasphemous, declaring his ability to lick the Confederacy, with
other manifestations of lunacy. The surgeons gathered around
him, and among them our division surgeon, Henry R. Payne,
whom I quote : "We removed the general's clothing tenderly,
expecting to find (as there was no blood) a severe contusion.
On opening the underclothing at the knee with a knife, the
disabled limb was exposed, and looking it over minutely, we
found a little blue spot where a spent ball had struck him !"
On learning that some prisoners from South Carolina had been
taken on our front, I went over to where they were held, and
found among them some men from my mother's native parish,
who told me of a Giles relative who had received a mortal
wound during the day.
After Bragg's center had been broken and his army had
taken the roads south in retreat, our division crossed Chicka-
mauga Creek in pursuit. We came up with their rear guard
at Chickamauga Station, where they had a field hospital. Here
we were confronted by a strong earthwork on a salient of
the bluff. The Confederate officers stood on the parapet ob-
serving us form our line below. To charge these hills we
had to make our way over fallen timber, much of it of the
largest size, felled to make almost a perfect defense against
the attacking force. The trunks of some of the trees were so
large that while we could not force our way under them for
the mass of tangled limbs, they were so thick through that it
was all we could do to climb over them. As we advanced we
finally got away from this obstruction, and \vent to the top of
204 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
the ridge on the double quick in the face of a sharp cross-
fire of musketry. We got possession of the range of hills
without difficulty, and advancing through the open woods
across the high tableland, discovered the enemy's rear guard
(a division of troops) in full retreat across a field in the next
valley. They disappeared from view in the dense woods on
the further side of this opening. Here they were screened
from our sight, and I thought we would be severely punished
as we came within range with a close line of battle. I could
distinctly hear their teamsters cursing their animals in their
efforts to get their trains out of our range. We were halted
here. When we did advance, after some delay, the enemy
had taken a strong position, where severe fighting was going
on when night fell and we withdrew to our camp-fires. This
was the last we saw of Braxton Bragg. When we grappled
again with this reorganized rebel army, it was under the able
leadership of General Joe Johnston.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
RELIEF OF KNOXVILLE.
Longstreet had withdrawn* from Mission Ridge before the
battle and united his strength to the rebel investment of our
fortifications at Knoxville, defended by Burnside. Under the
impression that the Union army there might suffer defeat,
our division and Gordon Granger's were sent by forced
marches to raise the siege at that point. Our route lay along
some of those fertile valleys in east Tennessee, celebrated
when I was a boy for their crops of red winter wheat, highly
prized on the Atlantic sea-board when converted into superior
flour for domestic use and for export. I was kindly re-
ceived at a cabin on the roadside, one evening after we had
got into camp, by an octogenarian, who had served under
Jackson and who was greatly surprised and pleased to find the
Stars and Stripes so unexpectedly near his house. The women
of that household baked for me some biscuits — incomparable
biscuit, no doubt, for never before nor afterwards during the
service was I blessed with the good fortune of wheaten biscuit,
for "co'n-bread" was the staple article of diet in Dixie at
that time. Perfect little gems (those biscuit), baked by the
fire-place of our forebears, in the same little oven, with the
hot coals underneath and on the lid.
One day later on I went into a farm-house, at the close
of a long march, and found a group of soldiers who had pre-
ceded me being entertained by an intelligent young lady of
the household. She Deemed in good humor with her self-
invited callers, but as I took a seat (with due deference I am
sure) she turned to me and said, "Do you think you can
conquer the South?" I was taken aback by this unlooked-
205
206 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
for sally, but I could not take water; so I gathered my wits
and replied: "We are here and it is General Bragg's busi-
ness to put us out." I must say here, once for all, that not-
withstanding all that had happened, and was happening, and
in the nature of things would happen, I took no pleasure in
the ghastly wounds the South was inflicting upon herself,
through that pride which goes before a fall. The young lady,
contrary to my expectations, ceased to press her inquiries.
Full sorrowful was she, I fancied. Had her lover been slain
in battle, in the forlorn hope of trying to make good a lost
cause ?
One morning, as the column left camp, weary of the
interminable marches, I chose my comrade, John Clover, for
a companion, and followed the crest of a chain of hills par-
allel to the road. This move of mine was not good military
form in the enemies' country, but I seldom left the column,
and to relieve the wearisome monotony, I chose to come in
contact with the people of the country at their homes, and
exchange a little of our small store of coffee, which the fam-
ilies on the plantations had long been deprived of and would
be glad to barter for. In this way we could get a change of
ration.
I am aware that I am drawing upon the credulity of my
readers in the suggestion I have made; for it seems to run
counter to the observation and experience of all who have
ever come in contact with a hungry soldier, campaigning in
another quarter of the globe than his own — a sort of shock
to most people to intimate that even in remote instances the
soldier will depart from his own peculiar method of securing
something good to eat, and deliberately engage in equitable
traffic to secure it. Well, there were some poor white trash in
east Tennessee, and we came upon a lonely cabin occupied
by a cheerful old lady, who, so far as we could see on a cursory
view, was full as short on subsistence as in everything elsje.
When all other visible means of support failed, those people
had one never-failing resource — they could chew snuff; and
Recollections of Pioneer and .Inny Life. 207
this poor thing had the snuff-stick in her mouth, emphatically
indifferent to Bob Toomb's success in calling the roll of his
slaves on Bunker Hill. I challenged Fate by donating some
of my coffee on the spot, and the joy with which it was re-
ceived well repaid me for the slight sacrifice.
The ever-changing landscape, as seen from the high coun-
try along which we were making our way, was at intervals
very interesting, and we kept our bearings by catching a
glimpse now and again, off in the valley, of the column wind-
ing its anaconda way toward Knoxville. As we strode warily
along I amused myself at times revolving on the ease with
which we might bring a marked change in our fortunes by
taking a course a mile or so further southward and being run
off to Libby or Andersonville by the enemy's scouts. In going
from one plantation to another, along a zig-zag course, we
traveled twice the distance the column made in the day, and
were thoroughly tired and hungry at the noon hour when we
entered a well-to-do planter's door and suggested in circum-
locutory fashion that refreshments would be acceptable. This
being in line with the daily procedure, we were not disap-
pointed. The planter was a substantial, well-fed person, and
he had "backing" in a young man of brawn whom I took to be
a son-in-law, but that was only a guess. It was two and two
anyway, and we looked well to our "Enfields." However,
after looking the situation over, I made up my mind that these
men were disposed to be hospitable, but did not confess as
much for fear that in some way the fact would leak out, and
there would be trouble, either with their neighbors or with
Jeff Cavis' conscription officers. The fact that here were two
able-bodied men at home satisfied me that they were friends
at heart. We were invited to seats at the dinner-table — a
wide board, but there was little on it. The plantation had
responded so often to the raids of the Confederate commis-
sariat that private hospitality was scudding under bare poles.
The place had been stripped of animals and fowls. There were
only two plow-horses left ; and when we applied for transpor-
208 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
tation with which to overtake the column, the planter responded
with better grace than I anticipated. I assured him that if he
would send his man along, that when we came in sight of the
rear guard we would dismount and his horses would be re-
stored intact. This agreement was faithfully carried out,
and John returned to camp triumphant, with a nice ham hang-
ing on the point of his bayonet.
At a day's march out from Knoxville we were advised
by courier that Longstreet had delivered his charge on the
Federal defenses and met with a bloody repulse, and was re-
treating toward Richmond, and thus ended our expedition for
the relief of Burnside. Here we fully realized that the people
of east Tennessee were steadfast and true to the Government
founded by our fathers. The able-bodied men were in the
Federal Army, and the women (young misses, sixteen to
twenty) came to the column on the road, waving the Stars
and Stripes, and bade us God-speed.
We were now near the close of 1863, and about to take
up the drudgery of the return march to Rossville. We had
not met with the quartermaster for some months and the
men's shoes were worn out. I don't know why his case should
stick in my memory, for many were getting back to winter
quarters with their feet wrapped in rags; but Captain Sam
Wilson was making great personal sacrifices for his country
— that was plain. In an unfortunate moment he had chosen
to penetrate the Confederacy in a pair of boots, rather than
in a pair of Uncle Sam's uncompromising, broad-soled, easy
marching shoes. His martyrdom was painful to behold. Be-
fore we had fairly shook Braxton Bragg for a neighbor the
captain's boots had begun to weaken under the stress of the
stony mountain roads, and on our approach to Knoxville the
heels of his foot-gear had reversed arms. With a rusty cape
on his shoulders, a slouch hat, his trousers stuffed into those
boot-legs, the afflicted veteran limped along like a disconsolate
"Arkansau traveler" on the home stretch.
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 209
I am in deep sympathy this moment with my patient
reader. He was wholly justified in his expectation that these
pages would be filled with a blood-curdling narrative of war.
I am mortified beyond words that I cannot disembowel a hun-
dred of the enemy on every page, or hold up my dripping
sword on filling a number of chapters with the slain of my
own valiant arm. A word about this : Our destined end and
way depends upon the star under which we were born. The old
3d Brig., 4th Div., i4th A. C., under Gen. James D. Morgan,
possessed a peculiar hypnotic power — the power of dispersion.
When we suddenly confronted the rebel fortifications at New
Madrid and my company took position on the outposts, that
was a bluff. And the foe did not stop long enough to blow
out his lights, nor to eat a hasty, early breakfast. When he
found the old loth and i6th Illinois across his path of escape
from "Island No. 10," he acknowledged the corn, came in, and
stacked his guns. Beauregard kept his nerve from Shiloh to
Corinth, till Morgan closed up against his works. That fixed
him. He promptly exploded his magazines and left for a
sunnier South.
When we got to Bridgeport the Fates went against us
(but for a few minutes only) and turned our own shells against
us — a striking instance indeed where, gallant men not being
able to bring the enemy to bay, adverse fortune evened up the
score by involving them in a fight with themselves. At Mis-
sion Ridge and Chicakamauga Station the old prenatal influ-
ence returned and Bragg virtually refused to make our ac-
quaintance. And here we are, within striking distance of
Knoxville; and we waved our magic wand and Longstreet at
once bestirred himself to get back into Virginia. Fortunate
man ! Morgan's brigade was instructed at the outset to "make
war gaily" and we continued to do so "all summer," and every
summer, till Jeff Davis, tired of his job, disappeared in a
petticoat.
210 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
And so now we have nothing to do this moment but to
take up the long march in the hot sun and stifling dust and
stride on, unmoved, when men oppressed by the heat, the
burden of arms, and the choking thirst, throw away their
blankets with an oath and awake in the chill and heavy dew
of the Southern night suffering for the want of those blankets.
Whosoever thou art, O youth of this dear native land of ours,
who shall bear this flag in other days on other fields — know
thou that not to every man is it given to bear wounds or suf-
fer death on the field of honor. At the supreme moment,
when duty calls, we in vain protest ; for shall the thing made
say to Him who made it, "What doest thou?"
CHAPTER XL.
ON VETERAN FURLOUGH.
At Rossville we received the proposition to re-enlist as
veterans of the service; to receive our regular pay, a bounty
of four hundred dollars to be paid in advance, thirty days'
furlough and free transportation to and from the place of
enlistment — Quincy, Illinois. We completed our muster-rolls
and were sworn in and paid on these terms. Each of our
men had a comfortable roll of greenbacks, but some of them,
being incorrigible gamblers, had lost all their money at "cbuck-
a-luck" before leaving camp and boarded the train at Chatta-
nooga bankrupt. We made the round trip in freight cars, and
other notable rides we had in like fashion, during and at the
close of the war.
The self-denying work of the loyal women of the North
through the Sanitary Commission and other agencies were a
part of the amazing energies of the Civil War. We came
within the scope of this influence on our arrival at Quincy.
We had hardly stacked arms before we were ushered into
the banqueting-hall. The soldier could hardly get around
without breaking his neck, stumbling over things provided for
the inner man, and the attention and service of these ladies
did not stop here, but they were at the beck and nod of every
volunteer, sick or worn out. I am sure our reception, how-
ever, would have had fewer qualms could we have dodged
from the cattle-cars into the bath-room before being discovered
by the fair daughters of the Gem City. Passing through the old
"Sucker" State — from the sliding doors of the box-cars we
cheered everybody and were cheered by everybody in return.
As our train passed through a small, coal-mining hamlet on
211
212 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
the Quincy branch of the "Q" a buxom young Irish mother
came to her door with her babe in her arms in response to
our cheers and the swinging of our hats from the car windows
(we exchanged freight for passenger cars at Quincy), and
began saluting us by lustily swinging her disengaged arm, and
when that tired, she would bounce the baby over onto the
other arm dexterously and swing the free arm as before, the
baby smiling and enjoying the fun as much as the mother.
As we passed out of sight that baby was making lightning
changes from right to left and back again with the goodi humor
and abandon the Irish race throw into every cause which they
have at heart.
On our way North to Galesburg, Major Charles S.
Cowan wired ahead to a way station an order for dinner, for
the company, as a free-will offering. In the evening of a
January day in 1864 we were received by our friends in the
ancient village of the Yellow Banks. It is difficult to ade-
quately set forth here the deep sympathy and loving-kindness
shown us by our old friends and neighbors during our leave
of absence of thirty days. We shall not see its like again, for
somehow the great days of old never repeat themselves.
As the war spirit grew in fervor from year to year the
political estrangements and antagonism in the North multi-
plied so that almost every neighborhood showed the limit to
which people can be drawn in the fierce enmities of a civil
war. The people were divided as formerly between the two
great political parties, but within the Democratic party arose
another, a secret organization known as "The Knights of the
Golden Circle," sufficiently ornate in its title and threatening
in its teachings to create the suspicion that it originated in
central Illinois and the southern half of the State, southern
Iowa, Indiana and Ohio and along the border counties of
other States adjoining the Confederacy. Henderson County
was afflicted by ambitious gentlemen of this description. They
took their cue from the Right Reverend Henry Clay Dean
("Dirty Dean"), formerly of Iowa, later of Rebels' Cove, Mis-
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 213
souri, Dan Yorhees, of Indiana, and Yallancligham, of Ohio.
The official title of the organization was found in practice to
be too elaborate for the Western mind, and the people cut it
short by calling the members the "Copperheads'" and "But-
ternuts." The young people of the "Circle" households were
the more demonstrative in their efforts to show the world
where they stood on the great question at issue. They evaded
explanations and came to the point at once by wearing a "But-
ternut" pin — an article of home-made adornment, worn as a
lady's brooch. On the occasion of a social event held at the
south end of the county (in Bedford precinct, I believe) be-
fore our return on veteran furlough, a young lady had the
temerity to traverse the sentiments of the Union majority
present and a patriotic woman in the company tore the offend-
ing ornament from the wearer's person. The men of our
company, to show their appreciation of this act and to com-
memorate the event as a part of the local history of the times,
purchased a valuable set of jewelry, and at a public meeting
where a banquet was served, honored the heroine by presenting
her with this evidence of their approval. My comrades were
kind enough to ask me to make the formal presentation. It was
an interesting occasion, and the notoriety 'given the incident
served a good purpose, as it had a deterrent effect upon insolent
enemies of the Union cause at home. The meeting was held
in the Methodist church, and the first citizens of the town and
vicinity were present and gave their hearty assent to the pro-
ceedings. With a few complimentary phrases I endeavored
to discharge my comrades' commission. The ceremony closed
with one of those characteristic Civil War banquets where the
abundance and variety of the viands were beyond belief.
At whose initiative I do not remember, but in a burst of
generosity a liberal appropriation was made by our men, and
a sword purchased and presented to Captain Sam J. Wilson.
The enthusiasm of E Company was without bounds so long
as our "greenbacks" held out. For the first ten days of our
furlough we felt equal to any proposition in high finance.
214 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
Hence the sword affair. General Grant and other heroes had
received a sword at the hands of admirers, and our lads would
hold their place on earth with the best. The majority "chipped
in" ; that is to say, those who had a reserve fund with no pre-
ferred investments. A considerable contingent refused to "go
broke" over the sword. I was solicited to make the presenta-
tion, which I did. There was a big crowd present to witness
the ceremony. McKinney's Hall was packed to the entrance
and our sweethearts were there, and the lamplight gloated
o'er. In presenting the sword I assumed that the captain was
as much of a hero as anybody and a good deal better one than
some we had heard of, although I did not press the point.
Rev. Hanson backed all I had to say on the subject and went
me one better, and as the affirmative "had it," we adjourned
to another hall and had a "shake-down."
CHAPTER XLI.
THE; KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE.
During the winter of 1863-64 the "Copperheads" con-
spired with Jeff Davis and the select coterie of traitors at Rich-
mond known as "The Forty Thieves" to control the next Pres-
idential election, on the platform that "The war is a failure."
The details of the scheme were perfected in the councils of
the Knights of the Golden Circle, or the Sons of Liberty, as
they, on occasion, preferred to call themselves. A part of
their general plan, as it is now well known (see the memoirs
of Geo. H. Bontwell, Secretary of the Treasurer in President
Grant's cabinet, 2d Vol., pp. 57-61), was to kidnap President
Lincoln, hold him as a hostage until the independence of the
Confederacy was recognized ; failing in that, and in the event
that the election was lost to the Democrats, to murder him.
I do not mean to say that the masses who voted for the Mc-
Clellan electors nursed the thought of assassination, but I do
mean to say that the leaders of the "Copperhead" branch of
the Democratic party of 1864, which was an annex of the
Confederate Government at Richmond, were traitors with all
these intents and purposes. Vallandigham discussed his plans
with Jeff Davis and the Southern leaders during his expatria-
tion, and "the man without a country" and his associates gave
aid and comfort to the enemy, in cash, in an all-pervading spy
system, and in other forms without stint.
The battle of Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg, fol-
lowed by the flight of Bragg from Mission Ridge and of Long-
street from Knoxville, sent a wail of lamentation throughout
the South, and the waning fortunes of the Confederacy made
215
2i 6 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
it imperative that Bill Hanna, as an auxiliary of the "Copper-
head" leaders of the old Military Tract, should make a demon-
stration to prevent the Union armies from overwhelming Lee
and Johnston in Virginia and Georgia. The unorganized rebel
forces in Henderson County were therefore promptly brought
under military discipline : a charter for a council of the Knights
of the Golden Circle was secured: the ritual also, the rules
and the regulations for the installation of members. The
gentlemen concerned felt the solemnity of the occasion. They
conferred fully with each other, with Vallandigham at Wind-
sor, Canada, and with the Confederate authorities at Rich-
mond, who urged sepulchral secrecy and the utmost energy
in organization. Hanna and his men responded promptly.
On a certain night, notable in the history of Henderson Coun-
ty, these patriots of the bush came together by stealth and
posted their pickets. The council being called to order, Bill
Hanna, in suppressed tones, made known the object of the
meeting, and read from the printed matter in his hands a
synopsis that gave his compatriots a vague conception of the
scope and purposes of the order, which statement carefully
veiled the whole truth except by inference. One of the ob-
jects was to create as large an armed force throughout the
North as possible; to do this their unsuspecting dupes must
be inveigled to commit themselves by oath and the restraints
of association and comradeship to the fortunes of a desperate
cause. The leaders therefore dealt gently with the unwary,
but were open and bold among those who had their confidence.
This meeting of the charter members was confined largely to
the great unwashed, unsanctified Democracy — such as Bill
Hanna, Sam Hutchinson, Tom Record, Lynn Carson, Jon-
athan and Sam Mickey, Elihu Robertson, and other well-
known choice spirits of the Yellow Banks, Stringtown, Bald
Bluff. Sagetown. and Biggsville. While the oath taken was
about all they could stand up to, they swallowed it at a gulp
and made a pretense of calling for more. Bill Hanna, having
been previously sworn in and qualified by the State Council.
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 217
now called before him the charter members, to whom he re-
peated the following oath, line upon line, which was assented
to in like manner :
The Opening Declaration.
"Do you believe, the present war now being waged against
us to be unconstitutional ?"
Answer : "We do."
"Then receive the obligation."
The Oath, or Bill Hanna's Holy Alliance.
(A true copy.)
"I do solemnly swear in the presence of Almighty God
that I will support the Constitution of the United States and
the State in which I reside, and keep it holy!
"I further promise and swear that I will go to the aid of
all true and loyal Democrats, and oppose the confiscation of
their property, either North or South!
"And I further promise and swear that I will suffer my
body severed in four parts, one part east, out of the East gate';
one part west, out of the West gate; one part north, out of
the North gate; and one part south, out of the South gate,
before I will suffer the privileges bequeathed to us by our
forefathers blotted out or trampled under foot forever!
"I futher promise and swear that I will go to the aid,
from the first to the fourth signal, of all loyal Democrats,
either North or South.
"I further promise and swear that I zt'ill do all in my
power against the present Yankee, abolition, disunion Admin-
istration.
"And I further promise and swear that I will not reveal
any of the secret signs, passwords, or grips to any not legally
authorized by this order, binding myself under no less a pen-
alty than having my bowels torn out and cast to the four winds
of heaven ; so help me God."
2i8 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
The tenderfeet in this assembly felt some distinct qualms
at the prospect, under certain contingencies, of being hung,
drawn, and quartered for no worse offense than a mild ad-
hesion to the administration of Abraham Lincoln, who was
accepted by many of their neighbors as one of the prophets
of the ages, a seer in the councils of the wise and prudent,
the herald indeed of a better day; but they were reassured
by a motion to adjourn to the school-house for an hour of
social intercourse, where elaborate preparations had been made
to jolly the boys. The men from Sagetown vied with the
veterans from Bald Bluffs in the glow and warmth of their
enthusiasm ; Stringtown led the Yellow Banks a merry dance ;
and the Smith Creek boys emptied the flowing bowl in a way
to disgust the Biggsville patriots. The leaders mingled with
the common herd like birds of a feather. Bill Hanna fratern-
ized with the boys with that stereotyped sneer for which he
was famous somewhat modified. Colonel Sam Hutchinson did
not unbend — that was spinally impossible; but he cast some
of his most benignant smiles upon the assembly from the
Hutchinson Heights. Lynn Carson and a pard from Sagetown
were convivially inseparable (the bibulous twins of the even-
ing), and they finally went to sleep in each other's arms. The
Tipperary round of pleasure was at high tide when the gray
of the morning compelled the warriors to strike hands with
pledges of eternal fidelity and disperse.
CHAPTER XLII.
THE CONFEDERATE; CAMPAIGN IN HENDERSON COUNTY.
Our thirty days at home at the crisis of the war intensi-
fied the bitter feeling between the loyal citizens and the "Cop-
perheads." But the influential Union men at the county seat
were not of one mind respecting their neighbors in secret op-
position to the Government. Men like Fred Ray, Sr , and
Sumner S. Phelps and others of the same relative standing did
not agree on all points involved in the peace of the commu-
nity. I conversed with them freely on these subjects. Mr.
Ray was peculiarly sensitive, apprehensive of incendiarism;
and, to state the bald fact as it was, he distrusted a brawling
soldier as much as a "Copperhead." Ben Harrington offered
to show me where the Confederate forces of the town had
arms secreted. Out of regard to the conservative sentiment
among the Union men, the majority of our men neither said
nor did anything to provoke a collision. As for those arms,
we were not under martial law at home ; and as for Bill Hanna
and Sam Hutchinson and their retainers, we considered them
impotent. Bill Hanna was a nice man. He was much deferred
to. When he sneezed, some of his neighbors never failed to
explode in concert with him. His only fault was, he pulled
off from the men who staked life and treasure on the Union,
and became an ordinary skulking "Copperhead."
But notwithstanding the friendly deportment of our boys
during their freedom from military restraint, we did not es-
cape attention from Bill Hanna's "bushwhackers."
I have briefly stated the condition of affairs at home
when on a Saturday a few of our men of the pugilistic tem-
perament who had imbibed freely of the usual stimulants con-
219
22O Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
sidered themselves still in the pursuit of the enemy, and hav-
ing one of the most notorious of the local type pointed out to
them on the street, gave chase, and cornered him in a dry
goods store with the object of compelling him to take the oath
of allegiance to the Government. It hurt the pride of the
"Butternut" to take the oath under compulsion, and if his
friends could have been summoned at the moment, there
would have been an encounter of more or less impoitance.
There was some delay in getting the rebel courier off through-
out the county with dispatches, but at the summons to arms
there was a prompt uprising among the local step-sons of Jeff
Davis. Bill Hanna left his plow in the furrow ; Sam Hutchin-
son spit on his flintlock, wiped off the dust, jumped bareback
on his old mare and rode at breakneck speed for the rendez-
vous. Bald Bluff arrived with strong reinforcements. It be-
ing Saturday night, Sagetown was in a condition of indeter-
minate consciousness, with a gallon jug of "Coonrod's best" in
reserve, and on the way over lost the road, and did not reach
headquarters till after midnight.
Jake Spangler and the learned blacksmith from String-
town struck the highway with loaded powder-horns. The army
assembled in the mountains on the head-waters of Smith's
Creek, and detachments continued to arrive on the grounds
on all the public roads up to a late hour. It was a formidable
mounted force, well equipped. All movements were carefully
muffled; all the approaches carefully picketed. General Bill
Hanna arrived on the ground by a circuitous route, and cau-
tiously reconnoitered his own command from behind a hay-
stack before he ventured to make himself known. His ad-
vance guard having completed a final patrol of the ground
ahead of him and notified him that the way was clear, he
assembled his escort and rode to Colonel Sam Hutchinson's
headquarters in great state. The troops were massed and the
affairs of the hour carried on in suppressed tones, no fires or
lights being allowed. A large number of recruits had been
sworn in at the sub-stations during the weeks preceding, and
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 221
the officers and most of the rank and file being unacquainted,
it was determined to improve the esprit de corps by introduc-
ing the general commanding the Department to the army.
Colonel Hutchinson therefore stepped forward and saluting,
said: "Gentlemen, I have the honor to introduce to you the
brigadier-general commanding the gallant Knights of this
Congressional Department. Soldiers ! I propose three sup-
pressed cheers for General Bill Hanna." The noble general
advanced, lifted his shako, smiled, bowed in an uncertain way,
both right and left, and said : "I am delighted to see you look-
ing so well to-night. I am looking extremely well myself.
There are none like me. I am the only one — the real thrng, in
Henderson County. It is true, gentlemen, that I have only a
single star on each shoulder to designate my rank during this
night attack, but when this cruel campaign is over 1 shall have
gold-wash epaulets equal to those General Scott wore when
he led the victorious American army into the capital of Mex-
ico. Wait and see. It would be useless to wear gold epaulets
in a night attack. You could not see them, but I '11 be with
you. Understand me, pray: I am your brigadier only. Colonel
Huthchinson will command in the field ; he will lead } cu : I
will follow ; follow all the way, even to the gates of the city."
Lynn Carson, his face all allaze with — with — well, Lynn broke
out in a wild "Hooray" but was choked off in the midst of
his "hoo." A voice broke in here — that of Brother Jonathan,
who only the day before had his patriotism refreshed by tak-
ing the oath at the Yellow Banks: "Gentlemen, this is the
winter of i;iir discontent; the breeze is chi'ly for Democrats
of our peculiar stripe, and as the school-hov.st has been warm-
ed for our accommodation, I move, sir, that we repair thither
to complete our preparations for our advance." The change
of base was made without the loss of a man. The hi<r)i ones
and the powerful Knights entered the audience-chamber with
grave visages, big with portent Colonel Hutchinson iirode
grandly in, his lofty mannei and stern glance enough to wither
a hand-spike (his brave comrades saluting and bowing Vw as
222 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
he passed), and took a seat on the left of the brigadier-general.
A warrior from Biggs ville got his monocle deeply imbedded
between eyebrow and his cheek-bone, and covering the crowd
with his questioning gaze, gave his thumb a rotary turn; there
was a responsive conference aside, between the forces from
Sagetown and Smith's Creek, and the foreman addressed the
assembly, saying: "Your Imminence, has the refreshments
arriv?" Lynn Carson bore down proudly and answered,
"They have, sir !" saluted, and brought a two-gallon jug down
upon the table with a thwack that made the gold and silver
plate on the sideboard jingle again. Lieutenant-Colonel Tom
Record, the second in command, was painfully affected by the
demonstration, mounted the tribune, and in his most scorch-
ing manner said: "We didn't come here to drink Schiedam
schnapps; I 'm no Dutchman, nohow. You have heard," he
proceeded, "the reverberations walluping up and down over
our distracted country ? You have heard," the orator went on
to say, his voice rising to a most painful pitch, "what Wilbur
F. Storey, in his Chicago Times, calls our grand old Demo-
cratic party? He calls it 'a putrid reminiscence' ; are you going
to stand that?" "No, begorry!" reared the battalion from
Sagetown, and the gallant Colcnel Hutchinscn banged the
round table with his eminent sword and cried, "Not much,
Mary Ann!" Colonel Record proceeded: "Men, patriots,
Democrats!" ["That 's us !" said Smith's Creek.] "We didn't
come here to limber up and be hauled home in some neighbor's
wagon. We're here for war! Lincoln's hirelings attacked
us in the streets of the Yellow Banks, and we 're goin' to wipe
out the stain — on to the Yellow Banks!" The orator, purple
with wrath sat down to recover him?elf. At this point Gen-
eral Bill Hanna arose, gave his accentuated sneer another
twist and said: "Colonel Record has spoken to the point; we
are already in the field; why stand we here idle? Is life so
dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased by the price of
chains and slavery? There are armed men now on the plains
of Boston, but I am suspicious that they are no friends of
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 223
ours. If those men on the plains of Boston should make a
mistake — a feint only of reinforcing General Grant in Vir-
ginia and suddenly drop down on us here in Henderson Coun-
ty, in the language of Uncle Remus, where would be our mo-
lasses jug?" "Now, comrades," continued the general un-
sheathing his glittering blade, "we are about to engage in a
military expedition of the first magnitude and in the organiza-
tion of our command it is proper that the troops which I shall
have the honor to command (not, actually, but technically)
should have an official title. What shall it be?" The learned
blacksmith from Stringtown took the floor and explained that
as "we are going after large game, we should need the buck
and Ipall cartridge, and happily our double-barreled shot-guns
wiU prove the most effective weapon; I therefore move, sir,
that our troopers be given a descriptive title, namely — 'The
vShot-Gun Brigade.' ' By unanimous consent an official order
was issued confirming this title and setting forth the subdivis-
ions of the army and designating the commanders thereof. At
this point the army took to the woods, and under a scrub oak
Col. Hutchinson, commander in the field of all the expedition-
ary forces, assumed formal direction, of the fortunes of the
Confederate cause in old Henderson. It was a mpst solemn oc-
casion, and in the pale moonlight it was noticeable how much
the, distinguished department commander and his troops had
aged on the eve of the battle — so wan, and so swan-like, in
that they sat them down on the frozen ground to weep and
sing their last war-chant. There was danger of a collapse,
and field orders for an advance were issued at once. En
passant, it may be noted that the scrub oak where Colonel
Hutchinson drew his sword and assumed command of Demo-
crats especially fond of the Constitution is an historic spot —
a shrine for the has-beens so long as the world, shall stand.
These eight and forty years now they have made their pious
pilgrimages to the spot and chipped the historic oak till noth-
ing is left- of it.
224 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
On further reflection, General Hanna summoned the offi-
cers to a last council, and explained the necessity for a gen-
eral review of the army before opening the campaign, and
12 o'clock midnight was the hour named in general orders for
the pageant. "The moon is at the full," said the brigadier,
"and I have carefully scrutinized it over my right shoulder,
and the signs are all propitious. A moonlight review is an
innovation," said he, "but I am introducing improved meth-
ods in all military operations in my department and I shall
make Wellington and Nap the First and the rest of the boys
ashamed of themselves before I conclude my triumphs on
Fame's eternal camping-ground."
At the blast of the bugles and the roll of the drum, the
Stars and Bars dipped and the sabres flashed in salute as the
group of mounted officers and their escorts appeared at the
head of the column. It was noticed at once, when they made
ready for a dash down the line, that Colonel Hutchinson's old
mare was gay; she snuffed the battle from afar, and com-
municated her martial spirit to the brigadier's nag, and the
fever spread through the group, the most of whom were riding
bareback with blind bridles. A rare exhibition of horseman-
ship took place. The spirited steeds pirouetted around about,
lifted fore and aft; standing at times heroically on their
haunches. Colonel Hutchinson kept his seat admirably, one
hand clutching both the mane and the reins, the other holding
on to his plug hat, at an angle on the back of his head, but
pounded down securely over his eyebrows, his knees gripping
the shoulders of old "Snip." General Bill Hanna never ap-
peared to better advantage, and in the chopping sea of agi-
tated horseflesh Baul de Conying Ham, Lynnovitch Carson-
ovosk and Jake Spangler acquitted themselves beyond praise.
At the firing of the gun they were off ; the hirsute extensions
of the war-horses rose to the occasion; between Colonel Sam
Hutchinson and the brigadier it was nip and tuck, and the
descent down the line was accomplished in a style befitting a
battery of discharging interrogation points. Instantly the col-
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 225
umn, in fours, followed at the trot, Colonel Record, the second
in command, acting as rear guard. A night march in the pres-
ence of the enemy is a dangerous performance, but the com-
mand reached the Davenport Gap in the Henderson County
Alps with a loss only of those who fell over seas, into the
fence-corners. At this point the force moved with circum-
spection. The head of the column approached the narrow
defile with extreme caution. The veterans from Sagetown
were vexed at the reckless bravery of Colonel Hutchinson, and
expostulated with him for exposing his valiant person on the
outposts,; but the noble commander made as if to tear him-
self away from them and plunge more deeply into the danger-
ous gorge. The brave men rode forward in groups, and
pressed the daring officer quietly on the arm, saying: "Prithee,
mon, is it dyin ye 're after ? Stay, milud ; for if a cannon-ball
should tunnel yer stomach, who would care for mother thin ?"
The colonel was undismayed. The crisis was approaching,
and another council of war was held, at which it was deter-
mined to secure the crossings of the Henderson at Jack's Mill,
Coghill's and Hollingsworth's. It was noticed that Colonel
Tom Record had something pressing hard on his giant mind,
and the way was opened for him to assert himself. Address-
ing the commander in the field, he asked: "What is the ob-
ject of this expedition?" "To capture the Yellow Banks."
"But have you a casus belli?" "We have, sir, two of
'em, and we '11 be overstocked if any of these men straggle
from the column over ground dedicated for thirty days to
Major Cowan's men." "But have you sent in an ultimatum
to the burgomaster?" "Brother Jonothan did that yesterday
when he hiked through the gates to give the alarm." "Have
you ordered the non-combatants to the rear?" Here Brig-
adier-General Bill Hanna interrupted by saying: "I shall be
in close touch with the rear guard as soon as my horse can
carry me." "Banzai !" yelled the troops. Private Baul de
Cony ing Ham now advanced and modestly inquired if the
refreshment train was at hand. Corporal Lynnovich Car-
226 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
sonovosk replied that the supply was getting low, but he had
adjusted his personal necessities to the situation, and believed
"it" would hold out "till we had dynamited the breastworks and
captured the city." "General Hanna," said Colonel Hutchin-
son," addressing the department commander, "before you fall
back on the teamsters, can you think of anything we have
omitted to do to compel a glorious victory?" "Colonel, I beg
pardon, but I think I hear a noise on our front, and I will send
in a written report on that point to-morrow." Saying which,
he waved his new buckskin gauntlet and fell back on the field
hospital. Detachments were now told off for the ap-river
crossings, the commanders stuffed with precautionary orders
of the severest description. The army was now massed for
final instructions, which were given in a few incisive words :
"Democrats of the glorious days of the Constitution as it was !
Forty centuries look down upon you from these Alpine sum-
mits. We are now at close quarters with the enemy," con-
tinued the colonel; "we are about to advance, and as a pre-
liminary, Corporal Carsonovosk will issue a final refreshment
ration." Turning to the engineers, the colonel said : "Gentle-
men, you will see if Davenport has fortified the bridge." They
returned in two minutes and a half and breathlessly reported
that Davenport kept the bridge, as in days of old; that he
was sound asleep, and that his rooster had called the hour with
a clearness and jocularity that showed he had escaped the
whooping-cough. "The route then is practicable?" said the
colonel. "It is," responded the civil engineers with emphasis.
"Is Colonel Record, the rear guard, in position?" demanded
the colonel. "He has deployed himself, and is holding on
prepared for the worst," said Baul de Conying Ham. "Then,"
said the gallant colonel, "let Le Grande Armee follow its com-
mander." The bugler was heard winding his horn through
the enclosing mountains, signal rockets from the detachments
at the up-river ^crossings were seen bursting in the far ether.
and there was a simultaneous dash from all points, up through
the black-jacks, converging upon the Temple of Justice, where
Recollections of .Pioneer and Army Life. 227
in accents aspirate they tied the mules and the plow-horses
and the various and sundry saddle-nags to the bushes, and in
their heavy-tramping cavalry boots and loud-clanging sabres
marched up the grand staircase and occupied the ancient
panoplied hall of the judges and magistrates in all the splen-
dor of Solomon of old. It was yet dark and a solemn hush fell
upon the brigade in full possession of the stronghold of the
burghers, who were not aware, and would not for some time
realize, that they were victims of Bill Hanna's four hundred.
But never since the days of Hannibal had a military surprise
been worked out with greater precision and success. General
Hanna embraced the colonel and re-embraced him, saying, "It
was my plan, but it's your treat"' Colonel Sam soured at this,
and the silence was audible. The relations between the com-
manders continued strained, and each took a window and set
himself the task of observing the landscape; meantime the sun,
after the second Austerlitz, had dawned. For some incruta-
ble reason the brigade did not sally forth and slaughter the
burghers in the streets, and the unsuspecting people were in
awe at the number of horses tied under the bushes, and with
bated breath inquired the reason thereof. It seemed that hav-
ing achieved a famous victory, the instinct of the Knights of
the Golden Circle to lurk in hidden places asserted itself, and
Bill Hanna was abashed at the prospect of having to look an
honest man in the face in broad day.
To John McKinney, Jr., and others, who called upon him
for an explanation, he laid great stress upon the fact that if
the brigade had attempted to put the populace to the sword,
the schoene Fraus would have frustrated the design from
their upper chambers by emptying their yellow crockery down
upon the heads of his Cossacks.
As the sun mounted the blue vault the children appeared
upon the streets in their bright frocks and the church-bells
began to call the people to prayer. "What day of the week is
this?" said the brigadier, turning suddenly from the window
and addressing Colonel Record. "General," replied Colonel
228 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
Tom, "do you know, 1 had lost the count myself, and the old
Cumberland stone church is open for service to-day, and I 'm
going to have trouble to square accounts with my wife."
"Hold! there comes Ed Patterson with a basket of rations,"
said a high private, "and it begins to look like we must feed
and get out of this." The refreshments were served in silence,
and by twos and threes the brigade dissolved and quietly
disappeared.
A close study of the voluminous Confederate archives
reveals the unique character of the military operations under
General Hanna. It is clear from the records that he was a
war lord of the first water. He is now in heaven ; and if, on
my arrival there, he comes forward, out of deference to a per-
manent accession to the citizenship of the place, to do me
honor, I shall recognize him cordially, and shall be happy to
receive his personal assurance that he is now supporting the
administration.
THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN;
OR,
THE HUNDRED-DAYS BATTLE.
On our return to our old camp at Rossville, Georgia, in
February, 1864, we occupied winter-quarters cabins, for the
cold still boxed the compass and refused to leave. Following
the resignation of Major Charles S. Cowan, on a vote of the
field officers of the regiment, Captain Sam J. Wilson, of our
company, was advanced to the majority; and by the almost
if not quite unamimous consent of Company E, Governor
Richard Yates was authorized to honor me with a commission
for the vacant lieutenantcy. The spring of 1864 opened early
and the weather was beautiful. There was a note of prepara-
tion on every hand for the momentous events of this year, and
troops were massing in camps around us, and as far as the foot
of the Pigeon Mountains, around Ringgold, twenty miles away.
We had a level parade-ground, and squad, company, batallion
and brigade drills were the daily routine. It was near this
camp where Dan McCook's brigade was drilling that Dr. Mary
Walker, assistant surgeon so that brigade, was captured while
riding beyond our lines. The "Johnnies" in catching Mary
in their drag-net got hold of a freak which was a surprise and
a conundrum ; but, after making a close study of it, they re-
turned it in as good condition as when they got it.
When not otherwise engaged, we made excursions over
the battle-field of Chickamauga, close at hand. In the few
months that had intervened since Bragg and Longstreet had
swept over this field little change had taken place. In the
somber woods rude log pens, made of the fallen, half-rotted
timber, had been built over the graves of some of the precious
229
230 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
dead, the lowly resting-places of others were marked in sim-
pler fashion, and here the trees, riven by the vengeful wedges
of war, held up to the view their splintered fingers. The ten-
der opening leaves were now spreading a canopy of green
over the scene and the warm sunlight lay in mottled patches
upon the earth. I trod Death's deserted banquet-hall alone.
The birds in the leafy boughs and the winged thoughts with-
in repeopled the forest paths to the exclusion of the erstwhile
bloody harvest.
1864.
April 30th. In camp at Rossville, Georgia. Mustered.
Packed baggage for the campaign. Reuben Bellus, losing the
conveniences- of settled camp, has determined to "take it cool,"
and says he is "only on a visit." Officers assembled at Put's
Ranch for dinner to-day for the first time. Lieut.-Col. Mac
Wood and Col. Tillson guests. Spring showers. James Simons
returned from Smallpox Hospital. A thrilling future before
us- — men feel it, display it in their faces, and jest upon it.
Play at draughts with Lieut.-Col. Wood.
May i st. Sabbath. At dusk heard voices engaged in sing-
ing hymns. Mistrusting the cause, set out in the direction of
the sound and found in a distant camp a large assembly en-
grossed in religious exercises. Chaplains of regiments and
others made remarks which interested me. Many fervent
prayers offered up, bearing upon the success of the approach-
ing campaign.
2d. A day long to be remembered. The sun rose in all
his glory from behind the eastern mountains. Peace and
beauty smiled upon the landscape. Silently the battalions
formed in solid masses preparatory to quitting Rossville for-
ever. Our regiment formed on the color-line at 8 A. M. and
stacked arms. Hear the hoarse thump and clatter of "i6th
and 6oth's" bass and tenor drums ! My eyes wander among
the clouds above the summit of Lookout, who sits in his maj-
esty, the waters of the Tennessee in his lap, and rules the
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 231
illimitable region around as only a true king of mountains can.
How softly blue his tawny sides appear in the vapory, en-
chanting morning air ! How the masses of Carrara-white clouds
wheel around his frowning forehead ! The hour has come.
Gen. Morgan and staff appear on the road; the blue column
links on, and drags its slow length behind. They come ! Adjt.
Wiseman on his gray mount at the side of General Morgan,
next the escort ride gayly on, bearing the brigade guidon, two
crescents on a red and blue ground; then the brigade band,
chanting a national hymn. The line opens, our regiment files
into its place, and the winter camp is seen no more. Halt near
Ringgold at 12 M.; went into camp on north side of Chick-
amauga Creek at 2 p. M. Our cavalry engaged the enemy in
the mountains on our front.
4th. Visited signal station situated on the summit of
mountain to left of Gap. Found a throng of eager comrades
looking rebel-ward. Could see the enemy's outposts and our
own. Facing north, could see King "Lookout" and his train —
the latter receding to the left — southwest and disappearing on
the horizon. Squads of our cavalry dashing along at the base of
the hills. The view of our camps inspiring — vast in extent and
growing larger momentarily — the little white tents half hid in
the evergreen forest presented a charming picture. The vil-
lage directly beneath us. Night, received orders to -move for
to-morrow.
5th. Marched at daylight, passed through the mountains
by the pass where General Hooker overtook the enemy's rear
guard after the battle of Mission Ridge, and engaged it, and
came off worsted, losing 500 killed and wounded. The trees
as we passed through gave evidence of the fight, as also the
graves on the mountain-side. Had a pleasant march of five
miles. Turned off the road to right and formed line of battle,
our right resting on - - Creek. After much delay, went
into camp — i6th 111. on our left. Hear an occasional shot on
the picket line. Supper. Officers fishing in stream close by.
Fine opportunity for bathing, which we improve. 4th A. C.
232 Recollections of Pioneer and .Irniy Life.
went into camp on the hills to our front and left. Col. Waters,
Adjt. Casswell, Prvt. Drummond and others of the 84th 111.
paid us a visit.
6th. Bathe at sunrise — numbers of our regiment fishing
this morning. Place shade over tent and play at draughts.
Officers of other regiments putting their companies through
the skirmish drill. Capt. Garternicht, 84th 111., took dinner
with us. 3 P. M. received orders to move at daylight to-morrow.
7th. Breakfast at 5 A. M. Broke camp and moved out
on Tunnel Hill road; delay at Gen. Morgan's headquarters —
halt and stack arms. Artillery moves out in advance. Resume
the march. Strike the enemy at 6:30 A. M. Hot skirmishing
with the rebel cavalry, during which Gen Palmer and staff
ride past and dismount a little distance off, in an open field,
whence they observe the movements on the front. First artillery
shot fired at 9 o'clock, rebels give way. Reach Tunnel Hill-
severe skirmishing. Our artillery opens — lines mass and load
— the enemy flanked out of the town. Our brigade has the ad-
vance through the place ; gain the opposite side and the base of
Horn Mountain. Our regiment deployed as skirmishers and
advance up the mountain-side — reach the summit, finding no
enemy. Regiment assembled on the summit. After the lapse
of twenty minutes, saw line of rebel skirmishers moving by
the right flank along the valley towards the Pass. Heard the
shrill not£s of a cock at a farm-house far below us in the
valley. Our skirmishers encircle the base of the mountain
looking towards the Pass. No water on the mountain — severe
thirst. Men get their canteens filled with great difficulty by
descending to the springs and streams half-mile distant. Sun-
set— deepening of the mist over the valley. Very beautiful
and strange. The sighing of the wind through the pine boughs.
Thoughts of the morrow; night; sleep.
8th. 8 A. M. first shot fired by skirmishers. Our lines
advance, driving the enemy back. Our skirmishers move from
west to east. The crest of the mountain cleared of trees and a
platform erected for the use of the Signal Corps. Howard's
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 233
forces (4th A. C.) formed line of battle ; left resting below us
at the base of the mountain; the right extending to Rocky
Face, beyond the southern limit of the rebel position. Nothing
came of this movement. At I P. M. Gen. Sherman and staff
appeared among us. He scanned the enemy's position with his
glass closely. Saw on crest of a low ridge running transverse-
ly through the enemy's lines and behind them what seemed to
be a rebel general and retinue. Only occasional shots this P. M.
by the skirmishers. Our general seems bent on a thorough
study of the enemy's works before he moves on them. See,
miles to the south, the dust of McPherson's column moving
on the enemy's flank, in the direction of Snake Creek Gap.
1 140 P. M. Company B sent out to fill gap in picket
line. Good-looking, stout, medium-sized, mustached Gen. But-
terfield, of the 2Oth A. C., makes his appearance among us.
Also the quiet, observing, one-armed, gentlen anly Gen. How-
ard. The three generals climb up on a large stump, interlock
arms to steady themselves, smoke, and watch the enemy. Gen.
Sherman, an alert, picturesque man, tall, slender, farmer-like
in his demeanor, with large lustrous eyes, and a cigar in his
mouth, keeps up a "devil of a thinking." He looks at the
frowning range of Rocky Face, studded with the enemy's bat-
teries, and anon at McPherson's dust miles away.
9th. Left camp at 5 :3O A. M. Reach the foothills at the
base of Rocky Face. Form line of battle. Skirmishers in ad-
vance. Move fonvard over hills, across ravines, filled and
covered with jungle and fallen timber. Heavy forest also,
which screened us from the rebel sharpshooters, else many
more would have lost their lives. After advancing a consider-
able distance, we were halted. Delay. Moved by the right
flank over almost impassable ravines. Weather oppressively
hot. Halted in an exposed place, where Prvt. Saunders, of
Company I, was killed at the distance of 900 yards. Shot
through the head. Crittenden was wounded on same ground.
Moved by right flank again, and took up new position under
cover of a steep hill. Put out more companies on skirmish line.
234 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
Severe action ensues. Batteries open on both sides. Rebel bat-
teries give us canister. Adjt. Wallace Rice displays great cool-
ness under fire. Gen. Morgan spirited anl skillful. Gens.
Howard and Sherman witness the action. Night settled down
before we were drawn off. Brigade lost forty-three killed and
wounded. 6oth Ills, lost heavily as skirmishers. At dusk ran
gauntlet of enemy's balls while going to rear to get a drink of
water. The scene to-day at times was truly magnificent. The
glaring wall of Rocky Face Mountain, the enemy posted on
and firing down on us from the overhanging cliffs, made a
striking picture !
loth. Stood to arms at 4 A. M Stacke ' guns after some
delay. Breakfast at 6 A. M. Dispatch from Army of Potomac
received and shouted to. Artillery passing along the valley in
our rear fired on by the enemy posted on the mountain-top.
Disabled some of the horses. Confusion. Get off. Battery
planted on our front this morning. Rebels shell us. Fierce
artillery duel to our right. Received mail Boys increase the
size of their cartridges to throw their balls to the top of Rocky
Face. Nonsense ! Left the front of Rocky Face at 5 :3O p. MV
relieved by McCook's (3d) brigade.
The following inscription, carved by a rebel, we found on
the head-board of an orderly sergeant of the loth Mich, kill-
ed on this ground in February last : "Let God judge between
us; which is right, which wrong."
nth. 12 M. Holding ourselvts in readu-ess to march to
McPherson's aid below Dalton. Capts. Garternicht and Mc-
Gaw, of the 84th, with us. 2 p. M. Drizzling rain. 5 p. M.
Orders received to march at 6 to-mcrrow.
I2th. Marching south. 6:30 halt and stack arms. Corn
in the fields 2 inches high. March rapidly aloi.'g. Reach Snake
Creek Gap. Overtake i5th A. C. train Delay Halt one
hour for supper. Night. Push on. Dv^-adful marching
through the mud and darkness; go into cam," at 12 midnight.
I3th. 5:30 pass portion of 2Oth A. C. Gen. Hooker
passes. He talks with Gen. Knight We halt on side-hill to
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 235
left of road behind earthworks wl ich stretch across mouth
of Gap. Stack arms. Artillery passing to the front. Gen-
erals with body-guards pass. Gen. Thomas comes into the road
from our rear, looking splendid. Rapidly and silently, dense
masses of troops move out in the direction of Resaca. Ord-
nance trains and ambulances follow. We were the last out.
Left at 3 130. 4 p. M. Artillery opens.. Our forces invest the en-
emy's works at Resaca. We move up and rest on our arms
in rear of the line of battle. Hot musketry firing.
I4th. 6 A. M. Our division moved forward into open
fields to rear and left of Gen. Johnson's first division ; massed
and stacked arms. Gens. Morgan and Jeff C. Davis lying on
plowed ground, consulting their map. Dispatch of Grant's
victory received and cheered.
1 P. M. Johnson heavily engaged. We move close to his
support. Johnson makes a charge. Only partially successful.
Wounded being borne to the rear. Ammunition to the front.
Musicians gathering leaves and boughs for the wounded to
rest upon. 4th A. C. on our left. 84th Ills, there. Geo. Cow-
den wounded. Rumor from the 36th Ills, that John Porter,
first sergeant, disabled by a falling limb, broken off by a cannon
shot, struck on the head, severely hurt. 2Oth A. C. passing
along our rear to the left. Night. Lie down on pallet of straw.
Just dropping asleep when we were aroused by: "Get out of
your nest, going to move!" Draw on boots and speculate as
to "what is up." Move to right and fill trenches vacated by
2oth A. C. Got into position at midnight.
1 5th. Skirmishing on our front.
10 A. M. Gen. Davis passed along. Tells the boys to de-
scend the hill in front and try their hand on the rebel pickets
just across the field. Half a dozen go down. All return un-
hurt after amusing themselves as much as they wished !
T2 M. Heavy firing on our left. The battle is on! No
genuine fighting on our own front.
2 P. M. Adjt. Rice struck by an enemy's ball in the hip.
Borne instantly to the field hospital. He was reclining at the
236 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
foot of a large oak tree (we were all idle at the time), his pen-
cil in his hand, tracing lines on the palm of his hand and
chatting with Lieuts. Carr and Boughman. The ball was
from a sharpshooter's gun and came a long distance, but with
full force, striking him in the hip and coursing up, it is be-
lieved into the viscera. The pencil dropped from his fingers
and he exclaimed : "O God ! I am struck," and attempted
involuntarily to rise; failed; asked help and received assist-
ance from Lieut. Carr. A stretcher was called, and he was
placed on it, quite pale. He then asked for his pencil and said
he thought he was not badly hurt. His quivering lips, how-
ever, showed his mental agitation. We never saw him again.
6:35 P. M. Benj. F. Bennett, of Company G, wounded in
right leg.
Night. Talking with the rebel pickets Our boys want
to know "when they are going to evacuate."
ii o'clock. Heavy discharges of artillery, accompanied
by cheers and a false charge of the enemy. Our boys were
wide awake to welcome them!
1 6th. Enemy gone; heavy firing at a distance; can-
nonading with McPherson. Move out from entrenchments.
Receive mail. Meet loth Mich, just returned from veteran
furlough. Return to the mouth of Snake Creek Gap. Take
up our knapsacks, camp equipage and baggage train and push
south on the Rome road, preceded by Garrard's cavalry.
Passed some fine plantations.
Night. Camped in pine grove. Our division detached
for this flank movement.
iyth. Rear guard to-day. Marched to Armuch.ee Creek.
2 130 P. M. Rain — coffee — cigars — fight here between rebel
rear guard under Jackson and Kilpatrick.
3:30 P. M. "E" and "K" go on picket — Simon for guide.
Grave of rebel in fence-corner. I took 2d platoon of "E"
and advanced them as skirmishers as far as Dr. Jones' Mill
and posted pickets. Factory half mile to our right — boys get
tobacco there. Dr. Jones and his slave brought his boat over
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 237
and took us across. At his house we got milk and bread and
found a rebel soldier at home. Posted pickets to cover ap-
proach to the mill. I discovered three of our boys with a
pig half butchered!
1 8th. Broke camp at i p. M. — rebel cavalry on our
front — move out on Rome road — rear guard to piece of train
following troops to Rome — reached town in the evening —
shown on the way here the ground where Col. Straight and
his forces were captured. Gen. Baird shows us our camping-
ground.
Night — sore feet. Our advance had a hot skirmish here
with rebel cavalry last evening; captured some prisoners.
1 9th. Boys bringing in immense quantities of tobacco.
Rebel cavalry hovering around on the opposite shore of the
Coosa. Our pickets exchange shots with them. Issue 27 bales
smoking tobacco to regiment. Visit Shelter's residence. Mc-
Cook marches into town. Rebel cavalry talking to our boys —
they kill a citizen.
2oth. Rome — visit town with Maj. Wilson and Lieut.
Walcott. Church — preacher's notes — they are of the "fire-
eating" character; "The chivalry God's chosen people," etc.
Madam Lumkins — Dick W. plays on the piano — the widow
talks of her daughter at a monastery in N. C., pursuing her
studies — portrait of her son in the Army — portrait of "the
Doctor" — lithograph of Mrs. Howell Cobb — the flower garden.
In the capture of this town we have secured the most
important point between Chattanooga and Atlanta. We have
possession of the foundries, machine shops and other expen-
sive appliances for casting shell and the manufacture of similar
war material— these we destroyed.
2ist. Shorter's residence again — talk with slave — Addi-
son's works. This mansion is the property of a very wealthy
citizen. The rooms were richly furnished, which our soldiers
defaced — the ruin was complete when we visited them.
22d. Broke camp at 7 A. M. Marched to pontoon bridge
and halt — delay. Village bells ringing for church — the sound
238 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
comes strangely sweet to us ! Move forward across Oostanaula
River into town — through it to the shores of the Etowah —
troops put across in detached pontoons, rowed. Move out on
the Vaughn's valley road one mile and camp. Creek half mile
to left of camp and large flour mill, where we bathe.
23d. Part of i6th A. C. arrived— Col. Bain, 5oth 111.
Doc. McMaury — strawberries!
24th. Broke camp at 5 A. M. Two miles out on road
two rebel deserters surrender.
Blowing a hurricane this P. M. — marched thirteen miles
and rested two hours. Lieut. Winsett had hilt of sword shot
off — accident. Resumed the march blinded with dust. Halt
at - — . Springs; mass; stack arms and camp.
Night. Violent thunder-storm — torrents of rain — slept
in an old cabin with Col. Tillson, Maj. Sam. W. and Lt. Tate.
These springs are beautiful — water clear and cold, flowing in
several little channels from the fissured rock. i5th A. C. in
camp near by.
25th. Drying blankets — broke camp after some delay
and took a dim road leading over pine ridges, uninhabited
save by the poorest class of "white trash." Brick residence
before striking the hills — piano. Acting Adjt. Tate warns us
to be chary of the water in our canteens, as none can be had
for several miles. Surgeon Reeder riding a mule — boys guy
him — he threatens to shoot — he is known as the "blacksmith."
Evidence in the woods of tornadoes. Halt on hillside for
dinner — rattlesnakes! Sunset — column winding slowly through
the desolate hills — distant boom of cannon — storm — night —
camp — raining furiously. Sleep on a sand-bar in the midst
of a swamp, four miles from Dallas.
26th. Broke camp at daylight — slow progress — bad roads,
hills — 2oth A. C. ahead — on wrong road — countermarch — take
road to Dallas. Pumpkin Vine Creek — deploy skirmishers —
Gen. Thomas Adjt.-Gen'l — Brig.-Gen. Whipple our guide —
bridge — ascend hills — meet boy of i6th 111. returning home;
term of enlistment expired. Reach Dallas. Our skirmishers
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 239
drive rebs out and back upon the hills beyond. i5th A. C.
on our right. In town — woman takes Gen. Morgan for a
"Sub" and asks him for coffee! Minister and family — woman
frightened. Boys found a petition of the citizens of this,
Paulding County, praying Jeff. Davis to exempt them from
the coming conscription, as their aggregate is only 1,000 and
they had already furnished 900 men for the war; that if
their prayer was not granted, many women and children must
starve; as it is now, many families found it difficult to subsist
themselves — there were none left to harvest the crops. i25th
111., McCook's brigade, lost fourteen men, including a lieu-
tenant, on picket-line, at night. The enemy's cavalry vi-
dettes made a sneak on their outposts. A coincidence, that
in the mix-up in the darkness our boys captured fourteen
men and a lieutenant as an equivalent.
27th. Heavy firing on picket-line — cannonading to left
and right — suddenly leave camp — move to front — halt under
hill — skirmishers on our right advance — prisoners taken — one
of "G" slightly wounded. Received mail. Moved forward
again in echelon— halt in woods — occasional shots chipping
trees near us. i6th 111. on our left. Anderson of "B" and
Coppage of "G" brought in wounded off skirmish-line; the
first in arm, second through abdomen. P. M. Coppage dead.
One company of 6oth 111. sent out on our front — rapid shots
on picket-line— S. of "B" mortally wounded. Five wounded
to-day; many narrow escapes, as the enemy's balls fell among
us all day.
28th. Heavy cannonading on our left and continuous
firing on our picket-line — prisoners taken; some of them
wounded — enemy shell us. i '.30 P. M. Form line, expecting
to be attacked.
5 P. M. Rebs charging the 15th A. C. on our right —
artillery and musketry — we spring to our arms. Heard from
Wallace Rice to-day. Logan repulsed the enemy with severe
loss. Stood to arms all night.
ii o'clock enemy again charges our lines— repulsed. The
240 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
fire of our artillery terrible. Rebel prisoners tell us their gen-
erals told them that they would break through our lines and
push for Chattanooga! The enemy has extensive field-works
along a range of high hills.
29th. Two years ago this morning Beauregard evacu-
ated Corinth, Miss. Our pickets swear they saw a woman
shooting at them to-day! All quiet, save slight picket-firing.
One of "G" wounded. Night. Rebs again attempt to charge
our lines on our left — repulsed as usual.
3oth. Occasional shots on the picket -line — " Doctor John"
and "Put" visitors. Man in "G" had his pipe knocked out
of his mouth, and a piece taken out of his chin by a rebel
Minie-ball. Threw up breastworks. Man in "I" wounded.
"E" on picket this eve. In pit with Andy Fuller, Simons
and Hartley — close shooting by rebels — 35th New Jersey on
our right — many of them wounded. Some men very care-
less— lying out asleep apparently in full view of rebel sharp-
shooters. Dead rebels between the picket-lines, killed on the
day of our arrival.
3ist. Zouaves — 35th N. J. still with us. Enemy erect
a^new battery opposite the left of our brigade, on a high hill,
andt shell the i6th 111., wounding one man. Gen. Sweeny at-
tacked the enemy at i P. M. "E" relieved this eve from
picket-line — -returned to camp with no casualties. Night.
Received orders to move at daylight.
June i st. Best sleep in four nights. Delay in moving.
Godden shoots his finger off purposely! Rebs evacuate, leav-
ing a line of observation. We shift position — rebel skirmishers
follow us a short distance— driven back — intensely hot. Move
to the left. Hear that rebel cavalry are in our old camps at
Dallas. Long m^rch to extreme left of line of battle — pass
line of ambulances on Marietta road and drove of beef cattle.
Forage going to the front — hospitals filled with wounded —
graves — strike our troops — move to the left and rear of 4th
A. C. Artillery packed in ravines — cattle shambles. Move
to the front — great caution in getting into line, which we
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 241
accomplished after considerable delay — the filth encountered
here! Crept into our blankets at midnight.
ad. Get tools of Col. Gross and erect breastworks. Go
to the front and take a view of rebel works — shown the ground
over which our forces charged yesterday — Cousin H. wounded
here Rainstorm — lasted all day — Water filled trenches.
jd. Picket-firing. Boys of 84th 111. visit us. The ruse
by Gen. Stanley — failed — rebs didn't bite. Raining — received
recruit to-day, Warren Frazell — "came down to see how he
would like it."
4th. Gen. Davis sick — Gen. Morgan commands division;
Col. Lum the brigade. We leave intrenchments ; file along
the rear of the line to the left two miles — past Gen. Thomas'
and Gen. Wood's headquarters. Halt at 12 M. in rear of lines
and to left of ist Division, Gen. Johnson commanding. i6th
111. and 14 th Mich, go to trenches and relieve troops of 23d A. C.
5th. Raining — rebels evacuated — Sky clears — read and
and pass the day listlessly. Thompson, Colonel's hostler, takes
animals out to graze — horses captured — man of "K," a com-
panion of T.'s, reported killed. Gen. Palmer and staff — the
former very talkative.
6th. Break camp and follow the enemy — firing ahead
at 12 M. Peter Tait, an old college friend, comes to me as
we move upon the road. Roads miry — prisoners — country
church — rebel works — 4th A. C. headquarters — Gen. Howard —
stragglers with rails on shoulders in single file, marching in a
circle. Camp 011 grassy spot — intrench.
yth. Mail to-day — papers — Baltimore Convention. Un-
cle Abe's renomination. Philadelphia Fair. A warm, sunny
morning — encamped on a rebel farm — beautifully growing
wheat — hillside covered with dewberries — apples in the or-
chard— honey in the hives. Boys cleaning up — Negroes wash-
ing clothes. Lieut. Worrell and Doctor Dave McDill visit
us. Gentle spring shower this P. M. How the grass revives
under the moisture ! Plaindealers received — contain circular of
"Copperheads' Wolf Hunt." Darn socks.
242 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
[Mem. — The "Copperhead wolf hunt" was a prearranged
pretext for a political meeting of Henderson County Confed-
erates where Bill Hanna could discipline "the forces."]
8th. Reading Hawthorne and Wordsworth. Hear three
volleys fired over the grave of a dead soldier of the i4th Mich.
Night — light shower — brigade band — Gen. Sherman's order on
straggling.
9th. Orders to march at 6 A. M.; countermanded. Other
troops moving. Rumors of flag of truce.
There are a hundred thousand of us: the infantry, the
cavalry; the artillery and trains; the ambulances and the
signal corps; the furled guidons and the faded banners. And
we lay in our blankets in the silver moonlight in the mount-
ains of Georgia ; the foe close at hand and the dead between
the lines. Sleepless, but resting at ease in my blanket, I lie
and look around upon the champing horses; the batteries;
the billowy forms asleep around ; the moonlight pouring down —
the gray, brilliant moonlight, glittering like the jeweled bosom
of a'queen. We are here on our way to Atlanta and the sea —
from Island No. 10 and Belmont; from Donelson and Shiloh;
frorrfCorinth and Stone River; from Chickamauga and Mission
Ridge; from Fair Oaks and Malvern Hill; from Fredericks-
burg and Chancellorsville. 'Tis the early summer of 1864,
and we are on our way home via Savannah and the Carolinas
and Washington. Many of the lads wrill never see home again,
but we will do the best we can as to that!
loth. Broke camp at 5 A. M. Move out into field along
roadside and halt while 3d Brigade moves in advance, fol-
lowedjbyj[2d Brigade. Col. Mitchell — rainstorm — troops mov-
ing to north and east. Move forward — halt while I5th A. C.
passes us, or, rather, crosses our path. Another beating rain
shower — up to knees in mud. Roads horrible for our trains
and artillery.
3 P. M. Skirmishers engaged — our battery opens — halt
and form line of^battle parallel and confronting rebel works.
Sky clears — evening — brigade band: " When This Cruel War
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 243
Is Over." 4th A. C. in rear. Clearing away trees tcTgive our
battery range. Adjutant James Allen has just received a note
from Wallace Rice, dated in hospital, near Chattanooga, on
the yth, in which he says: "I have been very bad from get-
ting erysipelas (gangrene) in my wound. Have suffered — oh,
so much! and am writing this in much pain."
nth. Misty this morning — shots on the picket-line —
rumor that the enemy would attack. Raining — Gen. Baird
on our left Troops getting ragged — clothes much worn —
holes in hat-crowns patched with bits of blue cloth the size
of one's hand. Cloudy and dismal. Muddy stream — bivouac —
Gen Johnson rides past. Carries a cane instead of a sword!
Gray beard; dark eyes; above the medium size; pleasant-
looking. Artillery shots — skirmishers — cars — whistle of loco-
motive— the engine keeps close on the heels of the skirmish-
ers— cracker-line perfect! Cutting away timber for batteries.
i3th. Raining. Go on picket at 7 — boys fall into creek.
Brigade has orders to move — two companies sent to front —
dinner — artillery opens on our left.
4 p. M. Push line forward. Gens. Davis and Thomas —
Kenesaw Mountain in full view to front and left. Clear our
front of the enemy's pickets. Night; stars; crescent.
i4th. Clear and beautiful. Gen. Morgan and relief. Mail
and breakfast. Read in Plaindealer of money being sub-
scribed as a bonus to induce men to go into the " 100 days"
service!
9:20. Move to the front — light marching order — left in
front, close column by divisions — prisoners going to the rear —
wounded passing back. Advance and throw up breastworks.
Dinner — Gens. Thomas, Whipple, Palmer, Davis, King and
others. Cannonading to left. Skirmishers advance under or-
ders from Gen. Morgan to go to top of hill and halt. Com-
panies "G" and "K" sent out to strengthen the line. Gen-
erals repass — battery on our right opens — mail — moved to
left — Johnson's division fills the works we vacate. Camp in
woods close column by divisions. Rebel signal station detected
244 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
sending a dispatch which asserted that the rebel Gen. Polk
was killed to-day by a shot from one of our batteries. Night,
bands playing national airs — we intrench.
i5th. Under arms at daylight — felling trees for breast-
works— weather clear and beautiful. Shots on the picket-line
intermingled with shots at intervals from our battery on the
right. Four companies sent out as pickets.
12 M. Gen. Sherman and staff pass along the lines.
Heavy skirmishing on our left — i6th A. C. advancing their
picket-line. Sixty prisoners taken in this advance. Tobacco
scarce — not to be had for love or money. "Chokem" says:
"I '11 fight any man in the brigade for one pound of the weed."
1 6th. Clear and beautiful — right advances, encircling
Kenesaw. Shots on the picket-line. Barnett's Battery wakes
up a rebel battery on the mountain. Heavy artillery firing
on our left. Received orders at i p. M. to hold ourselves in
readiness to move at a moment's warning — light marching
order — picket-line strengthened. Johnson is supposed to be
making preparations for attacking us — we are prepared.
2 130 P. M. Parrotts coming up. Mail this p. M. Group
of generals in angle of works at house on our right at 5 p. M. —
Sherman, Thomas, Palmer, Davis and others. From this
point can see on summit of mountain rebel signal station,
also horsemen and infantry.
1 7th. Brisk skirmishing on our left — rumor of prisoners
being taken. 8 A. M. Orders received to hold ourselves in
readiness to move at any moment.
p. M. — Visit picket-line — Negro huts — slaves — i4th Mich.
Reserve — skirmishers advance — flank rebel line and capture
a squad of prisoners — a major among them. Our loss three
wounded. 4:30 p. M. Enemy attempts to recover his lost
ground — repulsed. Our boys cheer. Light rain falling — put
up tents. At dusk the picket-firing grows more spiteful.
Artillery opens on our right. "Put" tells of "Dad Hand"
dancing for "a chaw tu-backer." Night — Gen. Palmer says
main body of rebs ten miles distant — doubtful. The General
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 245
in a jocular vein — "Don't blame a man for getting behind a
tree," he would do the same. "Want anything rash done,
call on new troops — old soldiers too sharp."
i8th. Raining — gloomy — swamps on our front — batteries
on our right moving — our line advances half mile and throws
up breastworks.
1 9th. Bugles rouse us before day — brigade band — "Old
Hundred." Light firing on picket-line. Rebs evacuate — their
pickets driven away. Move forward half mile and halt at
cross-roads. One section of Barnett's Battery goes to the
front. Gen. Whipple passes to front. Col. Dan McCook—
a medium-sized, wiry fellow. Col. Mitchell, a little, fancy man.
They chat together — three reb prisoners pass to rear — Col .
McC. talks to them. Find that enemy had only contracted
his lines — "the apex on Kenesaw, his flanks resting on Noon-
day (?) and Moses Creeks." Our battery (2d Minn.) shelling
the sides of the mountain. Rebels on the summit looking
down on us as we approach. Our skirmishers take a few
prisoners and one of the enemy's ambulances. Pass two lines
of strong rebel rifle-pits and continuous works which the enemy
had abandoned, and halt on his last and heaviest works, which
were ten feet in depth, platformed for guns and bushed to
secrete them, n A. M. Gen. Sherman walks along the de-
serted works where we are resting, gazing at the mountain;
lines of battle and skirmishers advancing on our left — drench-
ing rain. 12 M. Move to the front and form line of battle—
move by the left flank, obliquing toward the mountain, and
form another line of battle. Our batteries fire over our heads
at the mountain.
3:30 P. M. Reb sharpshooters discover us in the bushes.
Del. Esterbrook, "H," wounded in tip of shoulder; ball goes
on and pierces a canteen and tears a man's pocket out. Shots
getting more frequent — sky darkening — strong tokens of rain.
4 P. M. Captain 6oth 111. wounded in the head — mortally.
Hear of the death of Adit. Rice — unexpected — shocked —
profound sorrow.
246 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
2Oth. Built breastworks — rebel sharpshooters trouble us.
Cyrus Chapin shot through the wrist. Our batteries open.
12 M. shell from our battery bursts prematurely; pieces fall
among us. Gen. Morgan views the enemy's position — talks
with us. Pieces of shell falling around.
4:30 P. M. Attack on right. Our batteries open on
mountain — supper. Two of loth 111. wounded, Cos. "I" and
"F"; leg and breast — latter died. Also one of loth Mich.
Regiment moves to the front for picket — reserve in ravine-
night — raining.
2ist. Sergt.-Maj. Chas. B. Simpson hit in the scalp.
Gave him a bad headache! 4th Miss, and i25th 111. talking
across picket-line — exchange tobacco for coffee.
22d. Reb batteries shell our camp. Dan Parker chews,
dries and smokes the same' quid. Rebel guns open on us —
two killed .f Several wounded on our right. Women reported
near the rebel batteries on the mountain-top. Cannonading
to our right. 12 midnight. Rebel batteries open on us; this
supposed to cover the removal of their artillery. Orders to
march — countermanded — build breastworks.
23d. Rebel artillery opens to the right and left of us.
Twelve pieces in rear of our brigade open and silence rebel
batteries — exciting scenes — splendid shots by our gunners.
Our batteries to right — 4th A. C. — open terrific fire on right
of mountain. Another duel between battery in rear of brig-
ade and rebel guns — magnificent — our guns victorious — tre-
mendous cheering by our boys. Cannonading still going on
to our right. Last night rebel pickets attempt a surprise —
our men on the alert, and drive them 100 yards to rear of
their former line.
24th. Robt. Graham gone home — time expired. One of
"C" wounded in thigh.
25th. Artist sketches Kenesaw. 10:30 A. M. Rebel bat-
teries open. Boys repair to trenches — terrific artillery duel;
engagement lasted one hour, neither side gaining any advantage.
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 247
2 '.30 P. M. Rebel batteries open again — they challenge
with a volley of six guns. Our batteries reply and drive rebel
gunners from their pieces. Our guns had effective range —
engagement lasted half an hour — our guns continue to fire-
enemy unable to respond. With a glass can see the effect of
all our shots as they are fired.
4 P. M. Rebel batteries open again — intense excitement.
Shells of contending batteries pass directly over our heads.
Our batteries reply. Action renewed with increased fury.
Enemy directs some of his pieces on our camp. Capt. Car-
penter's right-hand fingers torn off by piece of shell. Tops
of trees cut off by shell and fell with a crash among us. Mail —
orders to move at nightfall. Our division relieved before
Kenesaw at midnight.
26th. Move along the rear of our line of works a distance
of four miles and mass in rear of Gen. Stanley's division, 4th
A. C. Had a tedious night march of it, getting into camp at
6 A. M. Breakfast. Clear and breezy to-day. Prisoners go-
ing to rear. Hear the ' ' halloo " of a voice almost superhuman—
attracts the attention and suspicion of many. Gen. Morgan
thinks it the warning of a spy.
"Stick" Carl, Capt. McGaw, Adjt. Caswell, Surgeon Mc-
Dill, of the 84th, and Lieut. Worrell, of the y8th 111., call.
Hooker on our right.
27th. Roused at 3 o'clock A. M. with orders to move at
daylight, light marching order. Movement delayed — left camp
at 6:30 — observe Gens. Howard and Palmer riding past — no-
tice something unusual in the face of the latter, deeply flushed.
Is there a fight on hand? Heavy cannonading to left. File
into a line of works at the front with great caution — muskets
brought to the trail to prevent the gleam of the barrels being
seen. Run a gauntlet of rebel sharpshooters for quarter of
mile — reach advance of breastworks with loss of one killed
and four wounded. Relieved 2ist Ky. Mitchell's, Dan Mc-
Cook's and Gen. Harmon's brigades charge the rebel works —
advanced in silence. Hooker's skirmishers on our right ad-
248 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
vance upon the enemy simultaneously with the charging-line.
H3th and ySth 111. regiments cross our works on the double-
quick — under a burning sun— the charging-line was exhausted
before it got half way to rebel works. Enemy's batteries get
cross-fire on us, raking our line with grape and canister. Rebel
pickets driven in, most of them captured. The charging-line
disappears in the hills and woods on our front. Hear the
fighting, but see nothing. The deafening crash of the rebel
batteries as they continue to shell our works. Our charging-
line repulsed. Stragglers and color-bearer of H3th come into
our works — one of them struck with piece of shell after sit-
ting down. Confused report of the action. Our charging-line
retired a few yards only and intrenched. Our loss heavy.
Our wounded coming in. Dan McCook mortally wounded.
Col. Harmon killed. Major H3th wounded. Many fine offi-
cers and men lost. A dark, sad day. Gen. Brannon, Chief
of Artillery, Army of the Cumberland, passes along in com-
pany with Maj. Hough teling, giving directions for the planting
of batteries. Gen. Morgan and Company "B" boy behind
tree? Simeon Donelson, of "G, " had hand torn off by piece
of shell. Jno. W. McCurdy wounded in wrist by piece of
shell. Hospital Steward Hobson shot through the breast while
standing near battery in rear line of works. It is related
among our officers that Col. Harmon last evening wrote a
farewell note to his wife, and that Gen. Dan McCook, on going
into action this morning, said to some of his friends: "Boys,
here goes for a major-general's stars or a soldier's grave."
[Mem. — He got both. He was borne home, where he lingered
for some weeks. Previous to his death, President Lincoln sent
him the coveted commission.] Sim. Donelson, with his bleed-
ing hand torn in shreds, broke a leafy bough and passed around
among the desperately wounded men and kept the myriads of
flies from polluting and infecting the wounds of the prostrate
men, and was the last to go upon the operating-bench to have
his own wound dressed. Dr. Henry R. Payne, the Division
Surgeon, said: "I thought we had finished, when I turned
Recollections of. Pioneer and Army Life. 249
half-way 'round and there stood Sim, holding that dreadfully
wounded arm. He was passed up quickly, the hand and
wrist amputated and the stump dressed." The other killed
and wounded listed with the aggregate.
28th. Our batteries in position. Occasional cannon shots
by both sides. Dead and wounded of yesterday's charge still
being brought in — loss of division yesterday 800. 84th boys
over to-day. 84th and 2yth in our rear. 2d line — mail —
total loss on our whole line, 2,500. At this point our men
hold their ground close up under the rebel works. It is pitiful
to see their frail line of defense, composed of anything they
could hurriedly pick up under fire — limbs of trees, dirt scraped
up with tin cups and knives. A singular incident occurred
here to-day, marking a coincidence and confirming in a meas-
ure, our suspicion as to the spy's "halloo" heard within our
lines on the day before this charge was made. A man in blue
uniform, with a mess-pan in his hand, left the front of the
8sth 111., walked directly toward our outposts, behind a big
tree midway between the lines; but passed on and, before his
character could be determined, crossed the rebel works in
safety.
2Qth. Glimpse of Marietta. Go down into Geary's di-
vision 2oth A. C. Generals Geary and Hooker at Spring —
the former a large man, courteous, frank, hearty address; the
latter a princely-looking, silver-haired old gentleman, of quiet
address, ruddy face. Hooker's glance through glass at rebel
works — notice new line of breastworks thrown up last night-
observe rebels busy completing abattis. Capt. Garternicht
over. Truce to bury dead on our front — visit scene of the
charge of 27th inst. Found ground strewn with our dead,
the bodies swollen to twice the natural size under a burning
sun. Our men busy burying. Reb works crowded with their
men looking on. Rebel officer mingling freely with our bury-
ing parties. Conversation. Our men crowding up on the
works, prevented by guard from going out on truce ground.
Gen. Morgan cautiously appears among our men, uncovering
250 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
on coming into the presence of our dead. Rebel general
seemed to enjoy our discomfiture. Reb colonel denounced
Northern "Copperheads" and New York Herald. Return to
our line with feeling of indignation and inexpressible sorrow.
Visit from A. T. McDill. By some strange misfortune this
charge was delivered against the most formidable point in
the line of rebel works, built by slave labor, days in advance,
in anticipation of the event.
3Oth. At 2 o'clock A. M. heavy firing on our front. Rebel
skirmishers opened the action. 34th 111. engaged — they dig
rifle-pits on our front. Pickled onions and kraut, antiscorbutic,
issued to-day. Muster.
July ist. Heavy fog. 26. and 3d Brigades keep up an
incessant firing on the rebel works. Had view, from high,
open ground on our right, of rebel fort being erected to our
front and right, distant one mile. Gorgeous sunset. Our
batteries open along our entire line — no response. 85th 111.,
directly in front of the rebel salient, attempt to mine the rebel
stronghold — our boys rake their works with musketry, and no
"Johnny" dare show his head !
2d. Dawn — our batteries open — no response — cleaning
camp. Rebels fire a few cannon shots.
3d. 3 o'clock A. M. Enemy gone. Breakfast at day-
light. Our regiment moves, skirmishers in advance, in direc-
tion of Marietta. Debouch into main road — strike 2oth A. C. —
take a few prisoners. Halt and stack arms till Hooker's men
pass. "Fighting Joe" passes on gray charger. One of our
batteries opens on rebel rear guard — enemy's artillery replies
from Marietta. Kill one man and wound others of 2oth A. C.
We take a circuitous route to town and enter the place at
the Military Institute. Rest — prisoners — dinner— the town —
pretty village — disfigured by the wear and tear of armies.
Cannonading at a distance — leave town to our left, and move
southward. Pass Hooker's ordnance train. Group of ex-
hausted men — very hot and roads dusty. Column of infantry
with train moving on road to left, and east of us S. R. R. B.
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 251
bury ing— cannonad ing to right. Rebel works. In answer to
a gentleman, Gen. Morgan, proud of his old regiment, replies:
"This is the loth Illinois." Relieve two regiments of 2oth,
A. C. in breastworks. Night — found the enemy on our front-
intrenched. Skirmishing — his new line of works in full view
across open fields.
4th. The national anniversary. Bands out — camp re-
sounding with "Star-Spangled Banner," "Hail Columbia."
"Hymn of Liberty," "Ready to Move at a Moment's Warn-
ing." Cannonading to left, n o'clock A. M. 6oth 111. move
to front as skirmishsrs. Bill of fare for dinner; quarter-
gown green apples, intensely acid. Munched our hard-tack
in the trenches in the hot sun — joked and thought of the
sumptuous feasts North to-day. Our skirmishers advance —
rapid firing — rebs running from right of their rifle-pits to
left — strengthening them. Our batteries shell their pits ef-
fectually. Scatter their reinforcements and drive them away.
Our wounded coming in. One rebel battery can almost en-
filade our works. Orders to move at 6:30 P. M. Supper.
Our brigade advances and throws up a new line of works.
Our regiment sent out to relieve the 6oth on the picket-line,
which suffered severely to-day.- Our batteries open to left
and right. In swamp — sunset — bands playing at a distance.
Night — right wing in reserve— left companies move to the
front — dangerous ground — rebs close at hand — move with the
greatest caution. Maj. Wilson putting companies in position —
very dark, thick undergrowth on our left. Close shooting by
rebel pickets — our boys engaged. During the night Prvt. Jno.
Nelson had rubber poncho on his person struck, it being
folded; on unrolling it, found eight or ten holes in it! James
W. Davis, lying asleep at our reserve, had tin can on his
person pierced and dirt thrown in his face by a rebel Minie-
ball. Maj. Wilson ran the gauntlet of the enemy's fire. Nar-
row escapes were numerous.
5th. 3 o'clock this A. M. rebs silently retreat — dawn —
visit the deserted works of the enemy; found them very
252 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
strong — prisoners. Corporal Wallace of the 6oth 111. dead —
his position — Lieut. Van Tuyl attempts to awake him, taking
him to be asleep! He lay very naturally, as if screening
himself from the enemy behind a small pine bush. "Come,
come, soldier, it is daylight, the rebs are gone — get up!"
Alas, for him! He was farther advanced than any of his
comrades, and the bush behind which he had lain down to
protect himself was scarcely large enough to hide his hand;
There he lay, as if about to take a shot at the foe, his kerchief
on his arm with which he wiped his brow; his gun out ahead
of him, extended, the butt against his shoulder, his face lying
on the lock. The enemy's ball entered the right eye. The
ground on which he was killed had been a peach orchard,
and a few straggling trees remained; flourishing young pines
were coming up thickly on every hand, and the tender grass
sprouted luxuriantly, making a scene of real beauty. As we
moved to the right and left the place spades were busy
preparing the grave of Corporal Wallace. Farther on, came
upon other burying parties — the dead still lying where they
had fallen. Moved out to the regiment assembling on the
road, where we found the column in pursuit of the enemy.
Prisoners — one of them seven feet in height and as saucy as
he was long! Pass through heavy earthworks deserted by
the enemy. March slow — hot — reach hills and halt for din-
ner— cannonading to our right and front. Move close to the
Chattahoochie River and halt. Skirmishers thrown forward
and engaged, loth and i4th Mich, in advance — drive rebel
pickets back to their works — I4th Mich, lost heavily. Brig-
ade forms line of battle — halt and intrench. Our battery
shells rebel train moving across river. Rumor of difficulty
between some of our generals. Rumor that our cavalry cap-
tured large number of militia and Negroes.
6th. Two rebel divisions reported on our front. With
lyieut. Winsett in search of a spring, observe rebel wagon train
beyond river on the double-quick. James M. Rice, on cler-
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 253
ical detail, with us to-day. Hooker moves to our right. Our
batteries shell rebel works. View of Atlanta from tree-top.
7th. In obedience to order, policed camp and fitted up
tents to "stay a while." Spend the day in cleaning grounds,
sinking barrels for water, etc. Night — five companies on
picket. Rebs attempt to advance their picket-line — are driven
back. Shots pass over camp.
9th. Enemy left Hooker's front. 23d A. C. crossed
river east of this yesterday. Cannonading in that direction
to-day. Troops gathering large quantities of blackberries.
Capt. Mason says Adjt. Rice died of neglect of wound by
hospital attendants. Sergt. Brown, of "C," doing well. Fac-
tory burned up the river and train of wagons brought into Mari-
etta laden with the operatives. Order to march at daylight.
loth. Tents struck and packed for marching — enemy
left our front — prisoners go by — sixteen — rumor that we will
not move. Visit abandoned rebel works. Pine bushes cut
by Minie-balls. Post of rebel picket reserve. Rebel picket
stations — octagons — abattis — stockade — breastworks. In rear,
works for field officers and hospitals. These works, a portion
of them at least, have been built a long time. Mail to-day.
Return picking blackberries. Cannonading on the river.
i ith. Misty — lowering weather — cleared towards noon —
write letters — Gen. Sherman and escort pass. Pickets swim-
ming— friend and foe together in river, and exchange coffee
for tobacco ! Gathering berries.
1 3th. Rose at daylight and gathered berries — beautiful
springs — in camp again at noon — clothing issued this P. M.
Evening— received orders to march at 7 A. M. to-morrow —
cannonading — order to march countermanded.
1 4th. Rumor that the enemy charged McPherson — re-
pulsed. Ex-Capt. David R. Waters, formerly of "G," presents
himself. It is exceptional for an officer deliberately to aban-
don the service of his country for personal gain — to sell whis-
key and trash to the soldiers at extortionate prices. This
seems a harsh comment. Capt. W. was and is a talented man,
254 Recollections of Pioneer and Army I^ife.
and acted in this matter within his rights. He was encour-
aged by drinking men like Tillson, and received the sutlership,
which he coveted.
1 5th. Rumored righting across river. Mail - - berries
plenty.
i6th. Cannonading across river. Inspected at 10 A. M.
Received orders to march at 5 A. M.
iyth. Left camp at 5. Marched east and south — up
north side of river to Atlanta road. Came to bank of stream
and massed in ravine. Lay pontoons and cross without much
opposition. i6th 111. in advance — lose four killed out of Com-
pany "F," Henderson County men: D. Montgomery, Warren
Patterson, Alex. Peterson, Thos. Whitcher. Two wounded:
John Shaw and J. E. Nelson. Drove rebels two miles and go
into camp— dead rebels in the woods. Send a note to The
Plaindealer.
1 8th. Slept little — our batterymen hard at work all night
felling trees and planting guns — artillery moving all night —
Hooker's batteries passing along our rear. Visited graves of
Company "F," i6th 111. — found their comrades disinterring
them to get their personal property out of the pockets to give
to friends at home. Our regiment relieved i6th this morning.
Col. Tillson unwell. Maj. Wilson in command. Army moves —
our regiment in advance — Companies "D" and "I" skirmish-
ers— Company "C" ordered out to strengthen line. "H" sent
out subsequently — Nancy Creek — skirmishers have difficulty
in connecting their lines which rest (right flank) on Peach
Tree Creek — Maj. Wilson with it — is struck in thigh — badly
wounded— visit him after being brought in — lies on stretcher —
he goes to rear in ambulance, deeply regretted by all. Dusk—
Capt. Frank Munson, right arm broken by a rebel ball — wound-
ed on picket-line. Night — Company "E" goes on line — fills
space between "I" and "D"; complete rifle-pits — hear rebels
talking and chopping trees — shots exchanged. Hood relieves
Johnston as commander of rebel army on our front.
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 255
1 9th. Call outposts in — mocking-birds — firing to right
and left of us — send Amos Wright to "reconnoitre"; gets a
shot— returns — swing left of picket-line forward — stream and
factory close on our front — in view.
5 P. M. Gen. Morgan, Col. Lum, and major loth Mich,
call at our outpost and go down on our front and take items,
keeping close to the large trees. The General brought loth
Mich, and section of battery with him, intending to advance
upon the stream. After a close inspection of the enemy's po-
sition, deferred the movement. Heavy action on our left, in
which "C" participated.
20th. Aroused at 3 A. M., with orders to march at day-
light. Delay — 10 A. M., orders repeated to hold ourselves in
readiness to move at any moment; n A. M., men permitted to
take off cartridge-boxes. Fighting on our left — rebels charge
our lines — repulsed.
2ist. Move out to picket-line — pass rifle-pits which we
prepared on i8th and igth inst. Prisoners — mill — wade
stream and ascend hill to rebel works, which are very strong-
form line and stack arms. Notice the effect of our shot on
rebel works; found many of our balls in the head -logs. Mail.
This P. M. our regiment left brigade and recrossed Nancy Creek
to Howell Plantation, and relieved pickets of 2d Brigade — three
companies reserve go into camp. Chattahoochie River close
by. Remains of railroad bridge in full view. We are now on
the extreme right of our army.
22d. Rose early — gathered quart blackberries for break-
fast— cannonading far to left — relieved by cavalry this A. M.
Return to brigade in old camp. Heavy cannonading ahead and
far to the left. A battle is on ! Confused reports of the fight
on our left in circulation. General McPherson killed. Our
forces go into line and entrench three miles from the city. Our
brigade on the extreme right, save the cavalry. Our batteries
shelling the enemy — night — heavy skirmishing to left. Black-
berries. Orders to strengthen breastworks. Lieut. Winsett;
256 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
" Oh that this calamity were past and we were returning home
— so many of our brave fellows being slaughtered !"
23d. Cannonading — profound regret at the loss of Gen.
McPherson — build shade over tent. IIA. M. Enemy massing
on our front — generals prepare to receive them — some curios-
ity and excitement. Mr. Eno, from Gen. Thomas' headquar-
ters— this old gentleman belongs to the Sanitary Commission.
Troops on our left in line — our batteries shell rebel column
passing to our right — our shell make it hot for them — they
double-quick and disappear behind a belt of woods. Portion
of the city can be seen from Dutchman's house in rear of our
camp. Heavy firing far to the left. Hear the whistle of a
railroad engine in Atlanta. Gen. McPherson' s body sent North
with two of every grade in his command as an escort. Con-
stant picket-firing night and day.
24th. Artillery and musketry fire. Preaching by chap-
lain at rear line of breastworks this A. M. Noon — Negroes com-
ing into our lines on road from west. Received hat in mail
to-day. Very quiet this P. M. Bands playing — sutlership of
regiment given to Capt. D. R. Waters. Artillery and musketry
spiteful. Gen. Morgan around — says he will watch to-night-
apprehensive — cheering loud and long by the entire army.
Heavy firing — no attack — cheering and firing dies away.
25th. Cold last night — misty this A. M. — days unusually
cold. Policed camp and pitched tents regularly. Night —
signal rockets.
26th. In company with comrade Ed H. Ellett, obtained
pass, approved by A. A. Tate, for Capt. Lusk, commanding
regiment, and by Provost Marshal Stinson for Gen. Morgan,
by which we visit 84th 111. in 4th A. C. Pass along the rear of
1 4th and 2oth A. C.'s breastworks— batteries — reserves.
2yth. Vacillation of Lusk. Disliked by Morgan. 2 P.
M. Recall our pickets — assemble and move into camp — move
out — brigade — to road on the front of Mitchell's brigade — form
line of battle — Companies "G" and "K" deployed as skirm-
ishers under cover of hill — delay — i6th A. C. passing to the
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 257
right along our rear — 6oth surgeon in shirt sleeves — wrist-
bands open and turned back, ready for work, an ominous
figure indeed. Field officers dismounted — snatch a moment to
chat with Lieut. Tunis, 4th Iowa — Mitchell's men on works
behind us, awaiting developments. Heavy rain. We advance
— six companies deployed, four in reserve. Engage the enemy
after marching quarter of mile straight to front. Four regi-
ments close column by divisions support us. Rebel captain
killed and others of his men killed and wounded — drove their
entire line back one mile — i6th A. C. on our right. Put bat-
tery in position and throw up breastworks. 6th Ind. of i6th
A. C. relieve us on picket-line — assemble and return to old
camp. Loss of regiment slight, all wounded. Returning to
camp met iyth A. C.; also Generals Palmer and Baird. Gen-
erals Sherman, Thomas, Palmer, and Davis at Gen. Morgan's
headquarters to-day — Generals Thomas and Palmer present
Gen. Morgan with a pair of major-general's shoulder-straps.
Learn then our division will remain in reserve a while and Gen.
Baird's will take the front. Gen. Jeff. C. Davis in command of
corps.
28th. Gen. Morgan in command of division. Lieuts.
Porter and Parrott call — marched out on Sand town road.
Come upon gth 111. Mounted Infantry on outpost on the extreme
right flank. Road in places obstructed by rebel picket barri-
cades. House — rail barricade — talk with family, one mile to
river, five miles to Sandtown. Turn to left into woods, and
halt for dinner. Rumor that we are going to Turner's Ferry
on Chattahoochie River Out again at i P. M. — strike rebel
cavalry — drive them — house — old man — two miles to ferry.
Aid from Gen. Davis — change our course— turn to left — can
hear the sound of battle at our old camp — volleys of artillery
and musketry. We turn sharply to the left — moving now di-
rect to the position of our army — solitary country — dim roads —
night — saw-mill, house — glare of the flame in the old fireplace —
little girl standing in the doorway, wonder-stricken at the phan-
toms passing in endless procession through the darkness.
258 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
Rapid firing on the front and right of our column — delay —
long and tedious march— men dropping out along the roadside.
Impression that we did not accomplish what we went out to do
— a sudden change in the programme during our march — no-
body seems to know the trouble — reached camp in rear of i5th
A. C. at i A. M. [Mem. — This was a most damnable perform-
ance. We earnestly desired to get into this mix-up with Hood's
army. It was the intention that we should strike the enemy's
flank. We had a guide — whether we were intentionally misled
I do not know. It was as dark as hell when we got into camp,
and the confusion was great. On arriving at the spot where we
were to go into camp, we came up, as it were, out of the bottom-
less pit. Adjt. Theo. Wiseman stood at its mouth with a torch
in his hand to light us out, and I watched him narrowly to see
if he had one big eye in the middle of his forehead and a tail
with a spear on the end of it. Who was at fault in this "Sand-
town" movement I know not. One thing I know: If Joe
Mower or Phil Sheridan had directed the movement, our di-
vision would have found the flank of the enemy in short order.
How did Gordon Granger find the enemy when Gen. Thomas
was hard pressed on the field of Chickamauga? By the sound
of battle. God bless his memory.]*
29th. Issuing rations — breakfast — Quartermaster Oliver
Pyatt called — Gens. Sherman and Davis discuss the orders
given Gen. Morgan yesterday. Gen. Sherman gave no order
to go to Turner's Ferry — Gen. Morgan received that order,
and no other. We were to have gone to the extreme right of
our army and taken position to attack the flank of the as-
saulting rebel column. Gen. Davis (sick at this time) much
r**? *Recent search has ferreted out the truth concerning this move-
ment. This contretemps rests heavily upon our division to this day. It
gi ve Sherman an opportunity to slur the Army of 1 he Cumberland, which
he took advantage of in his "Memoirs." The order of the general of
the army was erroneously copied by a clerk at the Corps Headquarters.
The blunder was higher up than General James D. Morgan, and the
grand old man felt so indignant at the aspersions of Sherman that he
did not at the time, nor ever afterward, attempt to vindicate his repu-
tation as a safe and sure soldier in the field.
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 259
disappointed at the miscarriage. Passed over the battle-ground
to-day. "Louisiana Tigers" fought desperately — many of
them fell on our works — reported that regiment lost their
colonel, major, and seven captains killed . In front of the 55th
Ohio and 26th 111. many rebel dead over the ground. "Put"
says, "They tried to get us into a fight yesterday, but we were
too sharp for them." 12 M. Our brigade, commanded by Col.
Robt. F. Smith, i6th 111., moved to the front — loth Mich, on
the skirmish-line — forward through woods in line of battle-
weather very hot — cross large road leading into the city —
halt and throw up rail barricade.
4:30 P. M. Our pickets engaged. 3d Div. 2Oth A. C. on
our right. Our entire line of investment moved forward this
p. M. and erected works- — farm-houses burning — battery going
into position — fifty-seven dead "Johnnies" found through the
woods on the ground of the action of the 28th inst. Dropped
a little to the rear of our first position and dug trenches by
torchlight.
3oth. Roused at 3 o'clock — completed breastworks —
orders to move — -delay— Col. Tillson visits us to-day — not able
for duty yet. Noon — Morgan L. Smith's division of i5th A. C.
relieves 3d Brigade of our division. Shift to right and ad-
vance flank half mile and throw up breastworks — hard work —
1 6th 111. in reserve. Occasional shots on our picket-line.
Brigade of Hooker's men on our right. Mail — rumor of a
fight on the left.
3ist. Aroused at 3 o'clock — bugles, drums and brigade
bands — "Star-Spangled Banner, " "Old Hundred." Left camp
at 7 — light marching order — on reconnaissance; moved west
to farm-house — turned to left and south, down dim road.
i6th 111. deployed. Entered woods — reached hills and swamp-
found the enemy — heavy skirmishing — rebel works — their bat-
teries shell us. Heavy rain-storm^ — three in i6th wounded,
also slight loss in loth Mich. Form line of battle, and cut
brush from our front — right of regiment refused, being on the
flank. Gens. Thomas, Whipple and Ward — McK. sick — not
260 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
with us. Returned to camp at 4 P. M. Order removing our
regiment from old brigade. Dissatisfaction on the part of our
men — night, wet — dry clothing. This order removing our
regiment from Morgan's old brigade is the result of an old
quarrel between Tillson and Morgan. The regiment must
suffer to appease Tillson's malice.
August i st. Made change in officers' mess arrangements —
a few subs and coffee-coolers, sponging their living — agree to
dismiss them. Signed "grub" note for $59 for Ira Putney.
Issuing rations this morning — Col. Tillson reported for duty —
evening — removal trouble — officers summoned to headquarters.
Col. Tillson demands our support of his course in taking the
regiment out of our old division and corps. Mason and two
others, off -color trio, secretly oppose him. Their farewell paper
to Gen. Morgan. Troops advance lines.
2d. Go on picket at 8 A. M. Relieved i6th 111. Six
companies on line, four in reserve. "Put" Caldwell, i6th,
wounded in right foot. 10 A. M. Lieut. Van Tuyl and twelve
men reconnoitre — developed blackberries! Cavalry on our
right. Enemy reported massing on our front. Strict orders
to hold our picket-line ! Men in trenches strengthening works —
prepared for them. 23d A. C. move in on our front and
entrench. Withdraw to trenches. Mail.
3d. James Shoemaker visits us. Also Capt. Hall, Com.
Subsistence, 3d Brigade, 3d Div., 23d A. C. Prvt. Jno. Tank
fires his gun against orders. Tillson's reprimand. This P. M.
enemy drive in our pickets — shell them back — heavy cannon-
ading— rain — read in Chattanooga paper (Gazette) of death
of Francis P. Speck, in General Hospital, Lookout Mountain.
Severe fighting on our left to-day.
4th. Aroused at 3 A. M. Left camp — light marching or-
der with tools. 2d and 3d Brigades ahead — pass Gen. Scho-
field's headquarters. Gen. Baird and Gen. Cox close by. ist
and 3d Divisions went to right last night.
3 P. M. rumor that we are to have a fight. Move out on
front of ist Division and take position on hill in columns by
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 261
regiments. Troops moving past us into woods on our front
and into position. Artillery packed in valley to our left and
rear. Ambulances debouching into valley and going into
park — a place seemingly made for their safety. Rebs shell
us — shell blows hat off one fellow and dints the muzzle of
his musket — this and nothing more. Lieut. Anderson, Com-
pany "G," reported for duty from hospital at Chattanooga.
Two of our batteries shell rebel works furiously. 6 P. M. rapid
skirmish firing. Evening — air dense with smoke, obscuring
the landscape. Our division files along edge of woods — sun-
set— the blue sky — mist rising along the forest — ambulances
going to rear with wounded — groups of soldiers in valley —
Negroes in valleys stiff with fright — eventide — horses grazing
in the valley — fires lighting — smoke settling — shouts of team-
sters coming up — cheers of our skirmishers driving the en-
emy— one brigade of our division gets position on hill to our
front. Rebels shell them — heavy picket-firing — spirt of balls
passing over us — soldiers passing to the front from commis-
sary with boxes of hard-tack on shoulders. Sapphire sky —
stars — multitudinous voices of insects — hum and buzz of the
Union host settling into camp. New moon — thin crescent
above the western horizon — camp close column by divisions —
entrench — sleep without blankets.
5th. Breakfast — prisoners — Gen. Morgan — we advance—
loth Mich, skirmishers — some loss. Advance over a mile —
entrench — put up traverses to prevent enemy from enfilading
trenches. Shell us severely — no casualties in our regiment.
Gens. Morgan and King, ist Tenn., 23d A. C., on our right.
Send detail to old camp for knapsacks.
6th. Hazy and cool. Reb sharpshooters throwing balls
among us — they shell us — our skirmishers drive their pickets
in — threw their shell among us all day. 12 M. i6thand i4th
sent to front, to support pickets. 23d A. C. advances — heavy
firing in that direction — i6th and i4th return — one of "B"
wounded by piece of shell. Night — heavy rain.
262 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
7th. Issuing rations. 12 M. hot skirmishing on our front
— i4th Mich, sent out to support our line. Two of our batter-
ies open on rebel works. Gen. Sherman and Howard stop in
rear of our line. Fighting on our left. Turn the enemy's left —
he falls back — we advance — take prisoners — reach rebel works,
reverse them and erect traverses — shell us — take head off one
man, wound others — make it hot for us. Move forward to
crest of range of hills and entrench. Fighting to left of us.
Our wounded — more prisoners. Showers to-day. Rebel lieu-
tenant brought in wounded.
8th. Brisk firing on picket -line. 2d 111. Artillery in po-
sition on our front. Put up head-logs. Enemy throwing shell
among us with great precision. Knapsacks brought up — Jno.
Crawford slightly wounded by piece of shell. 12 M. Sergt.
Ben. Kimball of " K" killed while eating dinner — Lieut. Tommy
Kennedy affected to tears at this loss — buried in rear of camp.
One of "D" and another of "K" wounded. Narrow escape
of Capt. Mason and others from shell. Mail — 23d and portion
of our A. C. to advance to-day — rain prevented this movement.
6 P. M. Relieve i6th 111. on picket-line. McKinney sick —
Van Tuyl ist platoon, myself 2d platoon. Pine tree over our pit
— put men in forward trenches — Billy Endicott and others —
enemy's works very close and in full view — angry firing all
day. Sid McCurdy hit in heel. Found dead rebel in front
of our pits — killed on the yth, while engaged with I4th Mich.
Sid got half dollar in silver and knife from his pocket — buried
him! Midnight — squad of I4th Mich, appear and ask per-
mission to go out in front of our pits and bury two of their
dead who fell here on the yth.
gth. Heavy firing on left. Our batteries shell rebel camp,
which is in full view in edge of woods across open field. 12 M.
23d A. C. advances. 2d 111. shell rebel pits; knock head-logs
off. Our boys spoiled several rebs — saw them carried off on
stretchers. Deserters came in last night from 4th Ga. Sharp-
shooters. That regiment at Resaca was 400 strong; have now
but 80 men ; 40 lost in front of our brigade in the advance on the
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 263
yth. Rebel forts on our left. 3P.M. Artillery duel. Relieved
at 6 P. M. by i4th Mich.
loth. Rebels shell our camp; kill one of "D." Narrow
escapes.
1 2th. Orders to move at daylight. Baird's 3d Division
in our entrenchments — 3ist Ohio relieves us on the picket-line.
Keep our reserve at the old place, but move our line to the
right. Brigade shift to right and occupy trenches of brigade
of 23d A. C. Mail. 6 p. M., return to trenches of I4th Mich.,
near Gen. Cox's headquarters.
i3th. Rumor of our leaving old brigade soon and going
to iyth A. C. Orders for our removal said to be with Gen.
Morgan. Night — attend orayer-meeting in company with
Lieut. Van Tuyl.
1 4th. Policed grounds and Ditched tents. Orders for
monthly inspection to-morrow. Suggest Soldiers' Monument
to Sergeant Andrew Fuller and others. The sergeant is a man
who would adorn any company of men to which he belonged.
i5th. Details sent to country for green corn. Bathe at
Cascades this A. M. Receive orders to make out charges against
John Tank for firing his gun in camp. Excitement about leav-
ing brigade — men generally opposed to it — if left to a vote of
the men, it would be defeated unanimously.
i6th. Draft circular for Soldiers' Monument. Evening —
relieve i6th on picket. The loss of such men as Wallace W.
Rice, Samuel Plummer, James McDill, Gid. H. Ayres, and oth-
ers, of Henderson County, suggested the monument to their
memory.
iyth. Hot — bad rifle-pits — too narrow — men cramped up
in them. Close firing by the enemy. Chas. Cowan grazed in
ankle by ball. Relieved — meet, going to camp, Lieuts. Porter
and Aton. Arrange to visit 84th 111. with them to-morrow.
i8th. Lieut. Porter refused permission by Col. Cahill to
be absent from his regiment to-day. Visit 84th with Lieut.
Aton — mule mounts — complete draft of articles for Soldiers'
Monument Association.
264 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
igth. Roused at 3 A. M. by color-corporal and afterwards
by Col. Tillson, with orders to be ready to march at 5. Troops
moving in to take our place — took cup of coffee and moved to
right and occupied works of 23d A. C. Returned to old camp
at midnight — learn from "Solomon" that we leave for the
i yth A. C. to-morrow.
Under an order from the War Department, secured by the
scheming of Col. John Tillson, we exchanged the " Acorn" (i4th
A.-C.) for the "Arrow" (i;th A. C.). After three years of
active service with Gen. James D. Morgan, in whom we had
unbounded confidence, to be torn away from our old division
and corps to gratify the spite of John Tillson was deeply mor-
tifying. And our chagrin was not lessened when, a few dasy
after our departure to the iyth A. C., our old division, led by
Gen. Morgan, gallantly charged the enemy's lines and captured
an entire brigade and two rebel batteries of ten guns. Is it not
plain that Tillson played himself for an ass? In the face of all,
the regiment continued to do its full duty.
2Oth. Bid old brigade good-bye — God bless the brave old
band — forced to leave them or we should never separate. Call
on 1 6th 111. before leaving along with comrade Ed H. Ellett.
We chose our own road to iyth A. C. Comrade Ellett is one of
our most popular men and an accomplished soldier. Reach
Gen. Ransom's headquarters — Henry McDermott — coffee-
Col. Tillson — regiment comes up — camp in rear line — left wing
— right wing in the advance works. Indecision of Capt. Lusk —
Col. Tillson commands brigade — 3d; ist Division commanded
by Maj.-Gen. Joe Mower, with whom we began our career as
soldiers at Island No. 10.
2ist. In response to an order, I reported at brigade head-
quarters, where Col. Tillson offered me a position on his staff;
in effect, it is a command and I cannot refuse, although I have
no desire for close relations with its commander.
22d. Am to report to Col. Tillson to-morrow morning.
23d. Eight companies on picket at 3 A. M. On duty at
brigade headquarters.
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 265
24th. Dr. Payne and Capt. McEnally took dinner with us.
Advised of a move to take place to-morrow morning. Mail —
letter from brother Kwell. John Winsett re ports for duty from
hospital ; leaves for his company, which is detached . Stationed
at bridge on Chattahoochie River, guarding commissary stores
-enemy shell us. Night — marching orders received for 9 A. M.
a.sth. Clear and hot. Very quiet on the lines — packing
up — teams departing — learn that 2Oth A. C. has swung back on
river and entrenched. The rest of the army, 50,000 strong,
side-stepped to right — on Jonesboro.
26th. Orders received to have commands in readiness to
move at 8 p. M. Night— we evacuate works — delay in getting
off — rebels shell us — they can hear our artillery moving — strong
picket-line out— march all night — pass Owl Church. Halt for
rest in morning. Slept none for two nights. Pass on and halt
again at 10 A. M. — take breakfast — find our trains here.
March on two miles— place troops in position — post pickets.
One of the Adams family, relation of the late John Q. Adams,
is reported to be driving a team in this army.
2yth. Again on duty with my company. Delayed in
camp till sunset, when, the train having stretched out on the
road, we move out as rear guard. Pass cavalry. All night
going about three miles — wagons upset — burn them — Capt.
Carpenter missing; supposed to be captured. Went into camp
-train ahead in corrall. Green corn for dinner and supper.
Hear of active operations on the front — troops go out on the
double-quick. [Mem. — Col. Tillson gave me an appointment
on the brigade staff. The books were easily kept, and the
duties otherwise were not beyond the capacity of any man of
average intelligence ; but I had difficulty with Tillson almost at
once. He received an order which was part of a very import-
ant move by the whole army, and which resulted in the capture
of Atlanta itself. He made two verbal drafts of the order in
succession; having made one, he forthwith made the other, and
then, after some reflection, went back to the first, remarking
that one's first thoughts were the best. I said to him, "This
266 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
order I will have to deliver to Capt. Lusk — a slender reed to
lean upon — and it must be as plain as a barn door or we will
get into trouble." I did not hear the order as delivered from
Gen. Fuller, but I gave Tillson's version of it clearly and re-
peated it to Lusk, and he did what he was expressly forbidden
to do. At the moment Tillson cast the blame on Gen. Fuller ;
but Tillson drank whiskey over-much, and, so far as I am per-
sonally involved in this or any other controversy with him, I
am now, as then, a better man than he ever was cut out to be.]
3Oth. Marched at 6. Railroad ties burned — rails twisted
and broken — this is the M. & W. R. R. 15th A. C. moving on
our left — in the direction of Jonesboro. We move on the ex-
treme right — circuitous route. Kilpatrick ahead— drives rebel
cavalry. Darkness overtakes us — very weary — 10 o'clock and
no camp — men clamorous and exasperated. Billy Endicott
cursing at a huge rate — man in company next in our rear
opens with a volley of oaths — Billy eclipsed — felt ashamed of
his own conduct as reflected in the bad temper of the other —
silent for a few minutes — gets humorous, crying out: "O my
bleeding country!" "Hurrah for Abe Lincoln! hurrah for
the Union!" Marched till n o'clock and camped two miles
from Jonesboro. Hear railroad train. Pickets firing.
3 1 st. Constant picket-firing — cannonading to left — trains
running. Advance lines and throw up works. Rebels charge
1 5th A. C. — repulsed with great loss— shift' to left on double-
quick — Jack Thomas, of "A," and Sergt. Nicholas Smith and
others wounded. Entrench — prisoners — see steeples in town
of Jonesboro — night — cars running continually.
September i. Orders to be ready to move at a moment's
warning. Gen. Ransom — prisoners — Tunis and Allen, of 2d
and 7th Iowa.
p. M. Fighting on our left. i4th A. C., Gen. Morgan's
division, charges the enemy; breaks his lines — captured cue
brigadier-general, 2,000 prisoners and ten guns! Our lines
advance — enemy retreating — night coming on — enemy evacu-
ating— our batteries shell them furiously — tremendous cheer-
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 267
ing! Midnight, enemy exploding ammunition. Gen. O. O.
Howard's congratulatory order on the success of recent move-
ments, resulting in the capture of Atlanta. But for Tillson
we would have shared in the glory won by our old division
under Gen. Morgan!
2d. Enemy gone. Our army after them — our division
delayed. Move into Jonesboro in the evening with train.
3d. Churches filled with rebel dead and wounded. Our
own wounded in tents. Go on picket — relieved — march to
front after night.
5th. We move to left and fall back into new line of
works. Right wing of regiment on picket — rain-storm. Gens.
Howard, Ransom and Fuller in house — brigade headquarters.
6th. Drop back into old works before Jonesboro — rebel
cavalry following us — they are in town — raining.
8th. Left camp early and marched in the direction of
Atlanta — cannonading in our rear — rebel cavalry pressing our
rear guard. Reached vicinity of East Point in the evening
and went into camp behind old rebel entrenchments.
9th. Moved one mile nearer East Point Station — within
inner line of rebel fortifications — policed grounds and put up
tents. Right wing east of main Atlanta road — • left wing
west of this road — brigade headquarters directly in our rear —
spring water close by — this is our place of rest after the long
and difficult summer campaign. While in this camp the fol-
lowing line officers resigned: Capt. Charles McEnally, "B"
Co.; Capt. John Boyle, "C" Co.; Capt. Samuel Mason, "D"
Co.; Capt. G. C. Lusk, "K" Co.; ist Lieut. Richard Wol-
cott, "F" Co.
The following officers of the line received furloughs for
thirty days: Capt. Colin McKinney, "E" Co.; ist Lieut.
Henry C. McGrath, "A" Co.; 2d Lieut. Geo. D. Woodard,.
"H" Co.
A large number of enlisted men received furloughs also.
At this time Lieut. -Col. M. F. Wood returned to regiment for
duty and took command. A number of enlisted men whose
268 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
term of service (three years) had expired, were mustered out.
Those in our own company were as follows: A. R. Graham,
Jas. M. Rice, Frank Rascher, Henry Millholland, Kirk P.
Hartley, John Rosebaum.
On 26th September, in obedience to orders, I took com-
mand of Company "F" — receipted to Lieut. Wolcott for ord-
nance, camp and garrison equipage.
Raised a subscription of five hundred dollars in our com-
pany for Soldiers' Monument in Henderson County. The facts
in regard to the above subscription are, it was cheerfully given,
but was much larger than the company could afford.
THE HOOD CHASE.
October ist. Mess with Lieut. Winsett. Confused re-
ports coming in as to Hood's movements. Received orders
at i P. M. to be ready to move at 2 130. At this hour moved
out and formed, close column by companies, on parade-ground ;
stacked arms — breezy, but hot. Brigade band — troops pass —
prisoners — marched three miles and bivouac for the night.
2d. Left camp at 5. Marched ten miles — came up with
small force of the enemy and drove them — returned to the
camp we left in the morning. On picket with Company "F,"
detachment of 25th Ind. and detail from Company "B,"
sixty-five in all. Terrific thunder-storm — slept none.
3d. Left camp at 6 A. M. — returned to old camp in the
trenches. Took breakfast and packed baggage and sent to
Atlanta to be stored. Received marching orders for to-mor-
row. Ira Putney mustered out after making three trips to
4th Division mustering officer— had at last to apply to Gen.
Ransom. Night — complete an article for Plaindealer on W.
W. Rice, ist lieutenant and adjutant. Place it in the hands
of " Put" on the eve of his departure for home.
4th. Troops moving since daylight — delay — left camp at
i P. M. Move slowly and halt often. Draw rations on the
roadside. Pass i4th A. C. camp. Old rebel forts — suburbs of
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 269
Atlanta — strike Sand town road — turn to left upon it. Night.
Road blocked with troops — succeed in the course of two
hours in marching one mile! "Yakob" afflicted with night-
blindness — send him to ambulance. Bad roads — wagons break
down — throw away camp equipage — strike railroad — inarch
along it— Negro pickets — Chattahoochie River — cross and halt
in road — cold — sleepy — stiff. 3 o'clock A. M. Men giving out
— fall by the wayside.
5th. Marched all night and still marching. Road lined
with sleeping stragglers — not stragglers, perhaps, but men com-
pletely given out — pass through old earthworks — troops break-
fasting—Doc. Payne — Gen. Fuller — countermarch one mile
and halt for breakfast. Aching feet — do not move. — 12 M.
Stragglers coming in — Company "F" boys get on train at
Chattahoochie River and ride to Marietta, from whence we
joined regiment. Send our valises to Marietta, where they are
taken charge of by quartermaster, who remains behind. This
is the battle-ground of 4th July. Left camp at dusk, with
but few minutes' warning, and marched till midnight to with-
in one mile of battle-ground of 27th June — Kene saw Mountain.
Halt in old rebel works — rain — drowned out — am amazed at
the rapidity with which we get over this ground now, as com-
pared to our progress south over the same roads during the
spring and summer!
6th. Marching orders countermanded. Bounced coffee-
coolers from our mess!
7th. Heavy fog this morning — distant cannonading —
pioneers go out — read "Mexico" and "On Horseback into
Oregon" in the Atlantic.
4 P. M. Order to march — countermanded — dispatch from
signal station of Corse's fight at Altoona. " 157 rebel dead
before our works." Our loss in killed, wounded and missing
slight. Orders to march at 4 A. M. Hood has a good pair
of legs and is keeping out of our way.
8th. March delayed — high wind and cold — read all day —
had to keep under my blankets most of the day, it was so cold.
270 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
Received marching orders for to-morrow. Put up a wind-
break and slept well.
9th. High wind continues. "A" and "F" rear guard—
march to Marietta — seminary — residences burning — hospitals
— cemetery — camps — moved beyond town and camped in the
woods, close column by division; main portion of the army in
camp here. Hot — graves of soldiers killed during summer
campaign.
loth. In camp — five companies forage to-day — broke
camp in the evening and marched to Ackworth — reached camp
at midnight.
nth. Marched to Altoona — evidences of the fight — garri-
son still there — bridge over Etowah — Centreville — people cheer
us — railroad trains.
1 2th. March to Kingston — cannonading at Rome — bulk of
the opposing armies in that direction. Troops and ordnance
trains pass on to Rome — our regiment got aboard train for Re-
saca — road torn up twelve miles; Hood smashed it good.
Come to within half-mile of the break — "A" and "F" on
skirmish-line — reach break — rebels fled — repair break, during
which "I" is feeling the way in advance. Overtake them with
engine at tank. "I" gets aboard and "D" takes the advance .
Reach Calhoun. "F" and "D" on picket — Federal commis-
sary— $600 horse — rebel cavalry just left town. Dispatch from
Resaca — our garrison there summoned to surrender! Not
much! Train returns to Kingston — we move forward to Re-
saca. "D" in advance — "E" flankers — Lieut. Van Tuyl on
right with ist platoon, myself on left of railroad track with 2d
platoon — placed in temporary charge of this. Capture cavalry
horse and accoutrements on skirmishing-line — belonged to rebel
deserter or spy. Arrive at Resaca at 3 in the morning — very
cold — cross on pontoons — enter fort and fill trenches — 850 of
our men here, mustered out on their way North — time expired.
These movements at night, in the confusion of pursuit, some
queer things happened; one, a horseman having an altercation
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 271
with some of our mounted officers; I observed the man ride off;
he was believed to be a spy.
i3th. Enemy in view — constant picket-firing — enemy
maneuvering on our front.
Afternoon. Rebel force understood to have crossed river
and advancing to attack us — people come in from the surround-
ing country for safety. Wife of Gen. L. H. Rousseau here with
wives of other officers. 4 p. M. Our skirmishers advance and
drive the enemy from intrenchments — cheering. Our cavalry
out — our artillery used with effect — sunset — reinforcements —
rebels attempt a charge — repulsed.
1 4th. Enemy gone — our cavalry in pursuit — had the en-
emy remained, we were to have charged them. Large part of
our army arrived here to-day.
1 5th. Roused at 3 A. M. Army broke camp and moved
after the enemy in the direction of Snake Creek Gap. Came
up with his rear guard at the mouth of the Gap. Our
brigade in advance. We form line of battle — skirmishers drive
the enemy away with loss of twelve killed and wounded. Gen.
Sherman talking to prisoner — Gens. Howard, Ransom, and
Fuller — enter Gap — road obstructed with fallen trees of large
size. Completely blocked — our prisoners cut them away.
Slow progress — skirmishing constantly, our regiment deployed
— march over the hills with extreme difficulty — deep ravines —
weather extremely hot — Gen. Ransom reprimands Lieut.-Col.
Mac Wood, and justly.
1 6th. 1 5th A. C. in advance to-day. Rebels living on
parched corn, sorghum cane, chestnuts, chinkapins, and cow
peas — anything they can find; "No bread," says a Negro cap-
tured— the road literally covered with the chewings of the
Chinese cane; we track their columns by it. Rear guard to-
day. 4th and i4th A. C. moving alongside us on an improvised
road. Gen. Stoneman rides past in a private soldier's hat and
blouse ; very plain man. Camped near Villanow.
1 7th. Did not move until dusk. Received a large mail;
great rejoicing over it — learn nothing of Hood — crossed mount~
272 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
ains and went into camp in cornfield. Gen. Howard's order on
pillaging.
i8th. Broke camp early and marched rapidly — reached
Chatooga River; camp at sunset on this stream, near Osgood's
Factory. Sweet potatoes in abundance — female operatives —
our cavalry had severe skirmish with enemy's rear guard at
the bridge here. Slater's Ridge on our left — passed some fine
farms to-day. Traces of rebel army; it passed here on the i6th
and 1 7th. System of foraging instituted.
i9th. Left Osgood's Factory at daylight. Marched
through Summerville and Alpine. Went into camp at dusk —
out of rations — hungry — Gen. Osterhaus — crossed State Lline
into Alabama.
2oth. Co. "C" brigade foragers. Broke camp at 7 — Co.
"F" rear guard. Brigade inspector picking up stragglers and
private foraging parties. Men in sweet potato patches — old
man shouts to boy to help him get a few before all are gone ; he
gets enough for one meal. Jenkins shoots pig; Gen. Leggett,
of 3d Division, strikes him with the flat of his sword ; men in-
dignant at this. Camp early, two miles from Gaylesville, Ala.
2ist. Supply-train came up last night — strict orders
against straggling. Co. "F" rear guard. Broke camp early
and moved into town — delay — Gen. Sherman's headquarters;
the general walking to and fro before his tent, turning occasion-
ally to members of his staff to answer or make an inquiry.
Very warm — move off road one mile, and go into camp. Learn
that we are to remain here for two or more days. Hood has
"skedaddled" for parts unknown. At this camp, Sherman
said to Wilson, of the cavalry: "I am a smarter man than
Grant; I see things quicker, and I know more about history;
but there is this difference : as to what is going on behind the
enemy's lines, Grant don't care a damn, while it scares me
like hell."
22d. Co. " E" foraging. Lieut. Winsett and I go through
Gap to Spring Valley to picket-line and get persimmons and
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 273
black haws — foragers in procession, going into camp loaded.
Inspection to-day at 2 P. M.
23d. Capt. Geo. Race to see us this P. M. — informs us
that our old brigade is close at hand.
24th. On picket with "F" at 6 P. M. Relieve Company
"A" at the mouth of Spring Valley.
25th. On the picket-line — Parson Canfield — citizens wish
to go North and ask rations — appear at our station hungry-
give them coffee and hard-tack — give me chestnuts. Hurley
wants to go North — has a son in Illinois — Widow Hurley and
Widow Banister want rations — our foragers have stripped the
country. Mrs. Martha Cromar wants to go North — her hus-
band a prisoner at Rock Island — she wants to meet him in
Illinois and remain there.
Our army has stripped this region of its horses and mules,
grain and provisions. People are utterly destitute. Parson
Canfield's written appeal referred. The parson is a "Mission-
ary Baptist."
26th. In camp — read "History of Europe." Lieuts.
Woodard and McGrath return from furlough. McKinney's
furlough has expired also.
27th. Gen. Ransom very sick. Gen. Jo. A. Mower ar-
rived yesterday and assumed command of division. Gen.
Wilson in command of cavalry.
28th. Portion of army marches to-day. Reviewed by
Maj.-Gen. Mower and Brig. -Gen. Sprague. Col. Lum and staff
present as spectators.
2Qth. Broke camp at 7 — crossed Chatooga River on
bridge — our brigade rear guard — pioneers fell trees in the ford
and burn bridge after us. Pass through village of Cedar
Bluffs on the east side of valley, under the hills. Cross Coosa
River — delays — swampy country covered with pine forest —
trains have great difficulty in getting through. Capt. Hemp-
street, Division Provost Marshal, thinks we will march all
night — darkness — flounder along till 10 o'clock and camp.
Draw rations — sleep at n. Roused at 4.
274 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
3oth. Broke camp at 5 — very dark yet — halt for ord-
nance train to pass. No meat in supply train — men hungry-
living on hard-tack and coffee. Push on — strike Rome road
about 10 A. M. Reach Cave Springs — ragged village — camp
in field.
3ist. Gen. Ransom died within three miles of Rome,
on a stretcher. A fine-looking young man — dark brown hair,
hazel eyes, tall and slender — much lamented. Rumor that
Perry Godfrey was captured while guarding a forage train
near Marietta.
Large mail this P. M. Letter from Robert S. McAllister
on Soldiers' Monument; also one from Maj. Wilson. Papers
in abundance. Col. Wood sent up an application for the re-
turn of Capt. Race to regiment. Mustered to-day. Adjt.
Allen informs me of his commission as major in 5th U. S.
Colored Heavy Artillery, stationed at Paducah. On a stroll
this P. M. met a brigadier-general and a host of other officers
returning to their commands from furlough. Jno. F. Bennett,
of "F," among the number. Also Sergt. Nicholas Smith, of
"E," who brought us news and letters. McKinney does not
show up!
November ist. Indian summer — liazy and blue and peace-
ful! Received marching orders for 3 A. M. Broke camp at
7. Passed through village of Cave Springs. Saw two citi-
zens only — women at windows! Orders kept secret — know
nothing of where we are going — thoughts of being paid soon
almost abandoned — moving southeast — tending probably to
Marietta or Atlanta by easy marches — foraging in the valleys
as we go — on one spot at the roadside to-day noticed thirty
hogs slaughtered, which a foraging party had placed for their
comrades when they should come along in the column. Boys
in rear had a few shots to-day at guerrillas hovering around,
picking up stragglers. Reached Cedar Town at i p. M., where
I7th and isth A. C.s camped — a deserted, dilapidatedjplace.
Rumor that Gen. Blair has returned from his pacificatory
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 275
tour! Mountains beyond the valley south of us loom grandly
upon the distant and indistinct horizon.
2d. Broke camp at 8 A. M. — raining— dreadful roads —
train miring down — burn cotton and cotton gins on our way —
camped at a miserable place called Van Wirt.
3d. Marched from Van Wirt to Dallas — our old "stamp-
ing ground." Severe march — rained all day — prisoners — camp
at dusk — rear guard got in at 3 o'clock in the morning. Passed
a beautiful slate quarry to-day — houses roofed with it and
tombstones cut from it.
4th. Broke camp at 7 and marched to within seven
miles of Marietta — camped at 12 M., behind an old line of
breastworks — showers this morning and sleet, afterwards very
cold with high wind — read "History of Europe."
5th. Marched at 8 A. M. Reached the railroad four miles
below Marietta, and went into regular camp. Capt. Pollock,
Division Inspector, seized all extra horses and mules not
accounted for.
6th. Put in estimate for clothing — special order from
Gen. Howard, stating that we will remain in camp here till
the army is paid and clothed and till after the Presidential
election. Corporal John Clover brought this order to me on
the picket-line. Sent in list of married men to headquarters.
The regiment received two hundred recruits to-day; thirty-
eight of these substitutes and drafted men — assigned to Com-
pany "F" — to drill these men so I can handle them on the
eve of an opening campaign is an arduous labor.
7th. Henry Post visits us on picket-line — says the troops
are being paid off! Great rejoicing in "F" at this news — men
in this company have not been paid for twelve months, some
fourteen months!
8th. Have all I can do and more — no help — company
of eighty-three men now, larger part raw recruits. Lieut. Carr
returns this evening with desks. Make out and forward ord-
nance returns.
276 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
9th. Hard at work organizing and drilling company.
Had to correct Wolcott's rolls. Paid after night.
loth. Received ist sergeant's pay on "final statements."
Ordered to drill recruits five hours daily. Everybody in a
great hurry. Received captain's pay as commander of Com-
pany "F" and pay on rank as lieutenant. Lieut. Winsett
was a genuine homespun — a fine old country gentleman, one
of the olden time. He was chosen to carry a large sum of
money home after the troops were paid, and the load of green-
backs was so heavy and he discharged his trust so faithfully
that he established a solid reputation as a hunchback, which
he had not enjoyed before, and which was never called in
question afterward.
nth. Drilling recruits — issue clothing — work enough to
do — everything hurrying back from Atlanta to Chattanooga.
1 2th. Battalion drill to-day — finish clothing receipt rolls.
Last train for Chattanooga leaves to-day! Lieut. Winsett goes
North with the regiment's money. A large fortune in green-
backs went North in private hands from the Army.
The stupidity of Lieut. -Col. Mac Wood was well illus-
trated on dress parade this evening. My thirty-eight recruits
were in line with the veterans of "F" and the other troops,
Wood in command. He was putting the battalion through
the manual of arms, at which the veterans were expert. My
recruits were as awkward as Satan among the angels in Heaven,
although I had drilled them considerably. They could handle
the guns all right, but they could not order arms with neat-
ness and dispatch. Wood couldn't see straight, being cross-
eyed, but he could hear like the Devil, and when the guns
of the recruits came down, one would have supposed that
old Mac had got religion (which indeed would have been a
most extraordinary supposition), he received such a shock —
calling out to me to place one of my veterans out for a fugle-
man and show the green ,'uns how it was done. The battalion
rested in silence while this wonderful interpellation was gone
through with. I had among the recruits a slick youth, ex-
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 277
pert in the handling cf his gun, who had belonged to the reg-
ular Army. I answered the colonel, saying: "Certainly, I
will take one of these recruits and show you and the rest of
these men a little sleight of hand." My man went to the
front and did the trick as though that had been his specialty
for three hundred years. As for Mac Wood, I didn't care a
continental. He couldn't drill his own company, when he
was captain of "A."
1 3th. Gen. Mower and Col. Tillson inspect us this morn-
ing, ii A. M. Received marching orders. Left for Marietta to
tear up railroad track — entered town — filed to left and formed
by wings along the switches — formed line along railroad track —
line stooped, put handspikes under track, heaved it over,
pried the ties loose, piled them up, put iron rails on top,
fired the piles, and twisted the rails around trees. One hour
for supper — Gen. Mower — work again till 10 P. M.
i4th. Left camp at 5. Got two miles on our way south
and were recalled — went back to Kenesaw Mountain and fin-
ished tearing up a piece of track which was untouched ; so care-
ful were our generals that the work of destruction should be
complete. Left for Atlanta at i P. M. Marched till dusk —
halt in edge of woods and take supper. Resume the march.
Reach Atlanta at 9 P. M. — move to Whitehall and camp. At-
lanta on fire. Read portions of " Regulations to Recruits" and
accompany it with some advice. Place sick and lame in ambu-
lance— draw cartridges — broke camp at 10 A. M. Marched
half-mile — halt — long delay — division supply-train moved out
on wrong road; had to wait for it — move forward — come up
with train — rear guard — seven wagons to company — wearisome
march all night long — reached camp at 9 A. M.
THE MARCH TO THE SEA.
"HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
"In the Field, KINGSTON, GA., Nov. 8, 1864.
"The General commanding deems it proper at this time
to inform the officers and men of the i4th and isth, iyth and
2oth Corps that he has organized them into an army for a
special purpose, well known to the War Department and to
Gen. Grant. It is sufficient for you to know that it involves a
departure from our present base and a long and difficult march
to a new one. All the chances of war have been considered
and provided for as far as human agency can. All he asks of
you is to maintain that discipline, patience, and courage that
has characterized you in the past; and he hopes and through
you to strike a blow at our enemy that will have a material
effect, what we all so much desire — his overthrow. Of all things
the most important is, that the men, during marches and in
camp, keep their places and do not scatter about as stragglers
and foragers, to be picked up by a hostile people in detail. It
is also of the utmost importance that our wagons should not be
loaded with anything but ammunition and provisions. All
surplus servants, non-combatants, and refugees should now go
to the rear, and none should be encouraged to encumber us on
the march. At some future time we will be able to provide
for the poor whites and blacks who escape the bondage under
which they are now suffering. With the few simple cautions,
he hopes to lead you to achievements equal in importance to
those of the past.
"By order of MAJ.-GEN. W. T. SHERMAN.
"L. M. DAYTON, Aide de Camp."
SHERMAN'S FAREWELL TO THOMAS.
Before the telegraph wire was cut^iwhich was the last frail
link that bound us to our friends, Sherman sent this simple
message to Thomas:
"All is well."
The distance to be traversed was three hundred miles.
On leaving Chattanooga on the Atlanta campaign, one hundred
and thirty carloads of provisions had to be delivered daily over
the Louisville & Chattanooga Railroad for the use of our army.
Now we had to cut loose from the "cracker-line" and "root
hog or die."
The army was composed as follows: 55,329 infantry, 5,063
cavalry, 1,812 artillerymen, and 65 guns; 4 teams of horses to
each gun, with caisson and forge; 600 ambulances, each drawn
by two horses; 2,500 wagons, drawn by four mules to each.
Each man carried 40 rounds, the wagons having the remainder
of the ammunition. We had five days' rations only when we
started. The army was divided into four corps, which marched
on parallel roads, with the cavalry on the flanks. This gave
us a front of from forty to sixty miles and we cut a swath of
that width as we moved toward the sea.
The London Times said of the " March to the Sea," in an-
ticipation of that great movement : ' ' That it is a momentous
enterprise cannot be denied. It may either make Sherman the
most famous general of the North or it may prove the ruin of
his reputation, his army, and even his cause altogether."
1 6th. Having marched all night, we rest two hours and
push on. Prisoners — country rough — poor farm-houses—thin-
ly settled — stream — old mill-house — old man, tall and gray —
279
280 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
old store-house — two boys in buggy — cotton burning — getting
a little forage — pork and sweet potatoes — men jaded and silent
— come into fine, open country this P. M. Night — old man
watching his barn — creek — camp near McDonough.
1 7th. Broke camp at 7 — slept well — village dingy and
weather-beaten—court-house — fine country — plenty of forage —
march well conducted to-day. Army Negro attempts to forage
a little on farm on roadside; white woman gets after him
with sharp stick; boys shout and groan. Advance ordered to
kill all bloodhounds and other valuable dogs in the country.
1 5th A. C. behind us. Camped on beautiful spot, near Jack-
son. Forty horses and mules taken by our division to-day.
1 8th. Broke camp at 7. Hear that the Georgia Militia
are assembling to stop our progress. Reached Ocmulgee River
at ii A. M. Halt in field to right of road while pontoon bridge
is being laid. Dinner — issue rations — recruits' feet very sore;
feet of all of us sore — plenty of forage — burned cotton — rain —
night — called into line suddenly; move off partly by right in
front, partly left in front — general confusion — road blocked by
train — swamp — wagon upset — Ocmulgee Mills— the rushing
river — high, precipitous banks — bridge — rapids — lights reflect-
ed— camp-fires on shore below and on the distant hills — across,
up to the mountains and over an undulating country into camp.
1 9th. Rained all night — wet blankets — breakfast — three
barrels sorghum found in woods close by. Learn of forty
barrels more secreted — Negroes tell of it — two hundred bushels
sweet potatoes found in one heap — placed there by "C. S. A."
Recruits give me trouble — in poor condition for marching —
get some of them into ambulance — burn cotton and gins —
pass through Monticello — pretty village — citizens — Negroes —
churches — forage — camp four miles beyond town.
2oth. Broke camp at 6 130. Received foraging pass from
Lieut. -Col. Wood for two men and sergeant. Dwellings burned
to-day! Made first six miles without a halt — bad roads —
first specimen of the palmetto to-day — raining — made sixteen
miles — camped in open grassy field. Robt. G. Bell brought in
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 281
N
two fine horses. Supper tonight on fresh pork, sweet potatoes,
sorghum and quince butter! Cavalry engaged.
2 1 st. Rained all night — still raining — broke camp at 9
A. M. — slow progress — burned cotton — turned cold towards
sunset — high wind — portion of our army is in Macon, also our
cavalry in Milled geville.
22d. Broke camp at 7 — very cold — reached Gordon at
12 M. Portion of isth A. C. in camp here. Went into camp —
rest this P. M. Bath — change clothing — engage Billy Roberts
as forager for officers' mess. Two regiments from ist and 2d
Brigades detailed to tear up railroad — cannonading in direc-
tion of Macon.
23d. Clear — frosty — inspection — guns of recruits in bad
condition. This p. M. moved out on M. R. R. and tear up
track — return at 9 p. M.
24th. Broke camp at 7 — rear guard to-day — moving
towards Savannah — heavy frost last night — clear and cool —
tear up railroad as we go! Louisiana sugar-cane — get into
swamp — miserable roads — delay— night — delay — midnight-
teams unhitch and feed in road — orders to rest till morn-
ing! Slept none.
25th. Countermarched at 4 A. M. and took another road,
or, rather, no road — route through fields till swamps were
cleared — farm-house and vats of molasses— boys get what they
want and pull out the bungs and let the contents run down
hill in a stream for a distance! Black haws, persimmons,
huckleberries! Cannonading eastward — Irvington — rice grow-
ing— Col. Mac Wood's interview with three ladies — their story
of the pillagers — how they received them. War is "he!l"(?)
Long and tedious march. Reached No. 15 Station after night
and went into camp. Orders to march at 6 130. Reveille at 4.
26th. Marched en time! Old man to right of road —
arms folded, looking over his silent home and desolate fields!
Make four miles — enter swamp — obliged to turn back for want
of road — countermarch and go into camp till Negro pioneers
make rcac1 — three miles to ri\ci — pontctr.s c'cwn and part
282 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
of 1 5th A. C. across. Our cavalry had a skirmish here yester-
day. Left camp at sunset and marched to Oconee River and
crossed — narrow stream — vista to right converged in dark-
ness— clear, starry night. Thoughts on Sherman's movement —
effect on Lee — poor Confederacy! Camped on high ground —
lofty pine trees on fire to their topmost boughs !
27th. Gen. Sherman with us. He signifies his intention
to move with the right wing during the remainder of the
march. Broke camp at 6 — swamp — slow progress for the first
two miles — Spanish moss as we come upon high ground; the
country improves. Made nine miles — portion of i5th A. C.
tearing up railroad. Order from Gen. O. O. H. against pil-
laging, or worse— penalty, death! Forage in great abundance.
Old man on roadside salutes the flag! Indignation at allow-
ing prisoners to ride horses and mules when the sick and
barefoot of our own army can scarcely be accommodated.
28th. Broke camp at 8. Slow progress. Cotton burn-
ing— commodious farm-houses and slave cabins — long march —
got into camp late — on picket.
29th. Broke camp at 8. Forage in abundance — large
farm-houses with Negro quarters. Bottom of shoes slippery
as glass, marching on the "needles" in the piney woods!
Fifteen miles to-day.
3oth. Relieved from picket-line at 6. Marching orders
for 7. Pine barrens most of the day — reached to within half
mile of Ogeechee River at sunset — supper — crossed river after
night — horrible place — railroad station — camp— lost Jacob Er-
tell, a worthless "substitute" — deserted probably.
December ist. Broke camp at 7 — moved to railroad sta-
tion and filed down track — troops tearing it up — reach our
point — tear up, burn and twist — hard work — hot sun — hot
fires! Move on to another point, tear up, burn and twist;
and still another point, tear up, burn and twist — getting our
hand in! It is now 3:40 p. M. Moved one mile farther south
on track and tear up, burn and twist !
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 283
Night — march to camp four miles distant — crossed a hor-
rible swamp to get there. Gen. Sherman complimented our
brigade upon its work to-day. Gen. Fuller complimented
Company "F." He might well do so! Company "F" killed
two calves while rails were heating! The fatlings intruded
and the boys, needing a roast, supplied their wants like sensi-
ble fellows!
Plantations seen to-day were large and well appointed.
Slave cabins, etc., deserted by their owners — hogs in abund-
ance— potatoes also. Picked up an old Southern paper con-
taining extracts from a book of travels in North America in
the 1 8th century, written by Capt. Basil Hall, of the Royal
Navy. The Cockney captain travels in Georgia and dis-
course th as follows: "Rain is amongst the greatest of all
plagues in a journey ; your feet get wet ; your clothes become
plastered with mud from the wheels of the carriage; the gen-
tlemen's coats and boots steamed; the driver gets his neck-
cloth saturated with water!" And further: "He could rarely
obtain a private parlor arid table in the country inns"; he
was "often obliged to lie on a feather bed"; he carried with
him, indeed, "one of those admirable traveling-beds, made
by Mr. Pratt, of Bond Street, London, which fold up in an
incredibly small compass."
Three-fourths of the tillable land in the Confederacy stood
with corn this year — the cribs from which we get our supply
attest this fact. There is no greater humbug than the " starva-
tion theory." "Dixie" can feed itself — -now — for the first
time since the slave-holder appeared on the soil.
Picturesque swamps — cypress groves — Spanish moss —
water-lilies — stalk with tuft like that on the head of some
South American birds — small pale pines shooting up — the
counterpart of the human plants which inhabit these sickly
localities. Gen. Sherman and escort — bad roads — marching
rapidly, however. No halts in iyth A. C. save the accidental
ones resulting from swamps — bully for the swamps! Large
284
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
tracts of land abandoned, supposed to be worn out — covered
now with young pines.
Reached Millen, an insignificant town; but an important
railway station. Rebel stockade here, like that at Anderson-
ville. Union prisoners hurried off to other points.
2d. Broke camp at 9 — marched down railroad three miles
and tear up, burn and twist — men bruised more or less —
marched to Scarborough and camp. Negro pen — Gen. How-
ard's orders relating to foraging and firing guns read to regi-
ment to-day. Made eight miles.
3d. Broke camp at daylight — moved down railroad three
miles and tear up, burn and
twist — twenty eight rails
first— Company " F " — forty
rails second time. Moved
out to wagon road and halt-
ed for the foragers to bring
in their spoils, during which
Company " F " killed a cow !
Preferred to take her along
for fresh milk, cream and
butter; being short on dairy
implements, accepted fresh
"TEAR UP, BURN AND TWIST." meat as a substitute
Cannonading this morning, also after getting into camp.
We are near Savannah Going into camp by moonlight —
marching over the white sands of Georgia — the men are silent
and tired — for the thousandth time, more or less, we are trudg-
ing "weary and heavy-laden" into camp — to a hasty supper,
a short sleep, the reveille — the tocsin to new toils, continuous,
unceasing, interminable (?). A large concourse of slaves; men
women and children are following after us — the men and boys
laboring as pioneers I noticed them in camp to the left of
the road as we came in — a strange but interesting picture.
John McClintock arrested for firing his gun — secured his
release
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 285
4th. Broke camp at 8 — fifty-four miles from Savannah —
came up with the enemy — our division in advance — struck
swamp where rebs were entrenched — Gen. Blair — two shots
from our battery and they "skedaddle" — pushed ahead one
mile and camped — sugar and molasses galore — passed "Uncle
Billy" sitting in porch of farm-house with his heels over the
railing and his big head uncovered ; thought he was asleep, but
am not so sure about that.
5th. In camp all day — portion of our army tearing up
railroad. Lieut. W. H. Carr placed under arrest for absenting
himself from the picket-line — Capt. Pollock reported him.
Reading "Edwin Brothertoft." Pleasant day — men washing
and cleaning up — reported $2,000 in gold and two watches
found buried, the property of one man; doubtful — pillagers
foiled. Coming uo to Negro cabins, they address a wench
with:
"What did you hide?"
" Box clothes in de field."
Turning to another standing near, they ask :
"And what did you hide?"
"Books in de garden."
Boys believing the "half had not been told," started off to
the garden with high hopes. They searched and found — a
Bilue and a work on medicine.
Four men of "C" tied by thumbs in front of color-line for
pillaging.
6th. Broke camp at 9 — slow progress — rear division to-
day— poor country; full of swamps — had a time getting our
train through — rained— did not reach camp till 2 A. M.
yth. Broke camp at 7 — clear — very hot — country poor —
swamps covered with saw palmetto — white clouds to south of
us must hang over the sea. Marlow station — locomotive de-
stroyed— twenty-six miles from Savannah — live oaks — resi-
dences. Wheeler defeated by Kilpatrick.
8th. Made ten miles to-day without incident, save cordu-
286 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
roying several miles of swamp and clearing the same of trees
felled by the enemy — heavy guns at sea.
9th. Inspection— broke camp at 6 — our division in ad-
vance— Sprague's brigade ahead, ours next. Strong sea breeze
in our faces — dense pine forest — prisoners — skirmishing — heavy
guns at sea. 10 A. M. One of our batteries opens — go into line
of battle on the double-quick — skirmishers advance — Gen. Mow-
er— buildings burning in our rear — we turn the enemy's right
— our regiment deployed — enemy's works; pass over them — go
into line of battle again — move forward on the double-quick —
strike railroad — discover locomotive — platform car; one piece
of artillery on it — advance through swamps and over fallen
trees — through thickets — over fences to Station No. i — enemy
shell us — first shell bursted among us — they had our range with
considerable accuracy, but no one on the line was hurt. The
long-servce men in Company "F" were Germans, from St.-
Louis; they had not re-enlisted as veterans, and their term of
three years having nearly expired, they were not anxious to
take risks, and when the rebel shells unexpectedly dropped
among us, they disappeared like a covey of partridges in the
thick underbrush, leaving me standing alone. The "presto-
change" quickness of the act amused me; but they all returned
to the line in a few minutes. Capt. Hamerick, Q. M., killed
some distance in the rear — 32d Wis. lost a few killed and
wounded- — torpedoes buried in the road ; Gen. Sherman com-
pels prisoners to dig them up — eleven miles to-day.
loth. Rear guard. At 10.30 halt and stack arms at a
point five miles from Savannah. Enemy here in force — en-
trenched— troops go into line of battle ; trains and non-combat-
ants ordered to rear — four companies, "A," "F," "G, " and "I,"
ordered back as train guard ; rest of regiment in line at the
front — Lieut. O'Reilly, of Gen. Mower's staff, shot through the
neck; not killed — shell takes head off Negro and passes close to
Gen. Sherman.
Gen. Kilpatrick's headquarters. The general — blue sur-
tout, light blue trousers, two rows broad gilt lace, medium size,
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 287
broad shoulders, not heavy, but wiry, thin light hair, almost
bald, sloping forehead, heavy and full at the brows, large
Roman nose, light complexion, blue eyes, broad mouth, thin
lips well compressed; his staff, laced; his orderlies and two
wench cooks; his nephew "Billy" and the pigeons; what lieu-
tenant says of this boy; don't know his place; insults every-
body on the staff. Night — signal rockets.
i ith. High wind toward night and extremely cold — sky
full of shaggy clouds, hiding the moon — rockets — i4th A. C.
moves in on our front and relieves us — Morgan's division — old
friends — troops out of rations — we move to-morrow to Ossa-
baw Sound to open communication with fleet.
1 2th. Bitter cold — slept little — broke camp at 6 — <>n our
way to the coast — slow progress — hard -tack selling at high-
prices — men hungry and the whole surrounding region stripped
of food — roads very bad — throughout the entire day we scarcely
made, between halts, more than a few hundred yards; the de-
lays were so frequent and long that the train often went into
park and remained thus for an hour, two hours, or more, as
would happen; occasionally we made a distance of two miles
easily, then the wagons would mire to the axles; almost the
entire distance was corduroyed by our pioneers; marched thus
all night long.
1 3th. Crossed canal at 8 A. M. — hear whistle of steam tug
on the Ogeechee River. i5th A. C. in position; their pickets
engaged. Reached camp a.t 12 M. An occasional shot by our
artillery — smoke of transports seen to-day off the coast — we
are not far from Silkhope Station on Gulf Railroad. Fort Mc-
Callaster stormed by Hazen's division i5th A. C. — it is said that
Hazen "drew cuts" with Gen. Mower of our division for the
chance of storming the fort. Gen. Sherman with the fleet —
men living on rice, which is issued to them in the straw; it is
hulled by beating it in a mortar; tedious and difficult process;
the pestle for beating out the rice is fastened to an old-style
well-sweep, which we work up and down. Transports at Hilton
Head with rations signaled down.
288
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
1 4th. Trains moving to Ogeechee River for rations —
oysters on the coast; men go down for them — policed grounds —
rice for breakfast, dinner, and supper; we empty the camp-
kettle at each meal.
I5th. Learn that our troops at Fort McCallaster received
mail to-day — anxiety for letters — one transport said to be
loaded with mail for us — living on rice. Appointed one sergeant
and six corporals to-day for " F," chosen out of the veterans.
1 6th. Got ration of rice for men. 2 p. M., received march-
ing orders, the substance of
which is to cross the Ogee-
chee River and proceed for-
ty miles west on the Gulf
Railroad, tear up the track,
burn every tie, and twist
every rail for that distance,
and destroy the bridge
across the Altamaha River,
and return within five days.
The force to accomplish this
consists of i st Division iyth
A. C. (ours) and Kilpat-
"Twisr EVERY RAIL." rick's cavalry.
Going towards the Ogeechee — passed hospital of isth A. C.
containing wounded — saw column of prisoners — the garrison
captured at Fort McCallaster — looked like jail-birds — beautiful
farm-house — yard; troops camped therein — train of wagons
bearing our wounded men to hospitals — Negro pioneers and the
corduroy road — immense labor — best corduroy I ever saw;
pinned down; very solid ; needed, for it rested on a quagmire or
quicksand. Met wagon-load of mail going to camp, turned it
back. Reach Ogeechee River — troops here — boat-bell — sunset
— go into camp — half-dozen sacks mail brought us; great re-
joicing over it — read letters and papers most of the night—
learn that we draw rations to-night — men shout for hard-
tack; none comes; disappointment — noticed men in the dark-
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 289
ness purloining the half-eaten corn from the mules to parch for
their supper.
lyth. Broke camp at daylight — crossed river — heavy fog
— country flat — bog — trees dripping with dew — small bridge
broke through — halt — men reading letters — noon halt — had
piece of half-cooked sole-leather beef for dinner — marched rap-
idly this P. M. in the face of the hot sun — camped at Midway
Church, a place of Revolutionary memory — got a little forage
from country this eve — "Alex" and "Billy" out — eat supper
at midnight— Lieut. Van Tuyl principal cook — first good meal
in four days— had the advance to-day — I carried in my hand a
small history of Georgia, containing brief references to fighting
on this ground during the Revolution.
1 8th. Broke camp at 7 — severe march — very hot — came
into good country — plantations large — people wealthy —
reached Walthourville at 2 p. M. ; a small, aristocratic village,
situated in pine grove — pretty churches — residences vacated;
everything left in them save the jewels and portable valuables ;
furniture and libraries intact ; got two books — marched beyond
the village to the railroad and went into camp — men's shoes
giving out ; some of them barefoot — abundance of forage —
passed two noble palmetto trees.
1 9th. Broke camp at daylight — light marching order-
out on railroad — our work assigned — Co. "F" had forty-three
rails for the first job— marched two miles further down track
to Walthourville Station and tore up twenty-six rails — returned
to camp by circuitous route through woods. Evening — sea
breeze in our faces — sunset — night when we got into camp.
Heard Kilpatrick canonading at the Altamaha bridge; learn
that he can do nothing on account of the high water — sur-
rounding country flat and overflowed.
2oth. ist Brigade sent to reinforce cavalry at Altamaha
bridge ; on their way met cavalry coming back, having failed
to burn the bridge, which was surrounded by. water and de-
fended by cavalry and a battery strongly entrenched. Our
work completed, we started, after some delay, for the Ogeechee
290 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
River — reached Midway Church at sunset without incident —
brought in quite a train of carriages, carts, and buggies loaded
with forage — met our supply-train here with rations — hard-
tack issued.
The ancient vehicles which the foragers picked up and
loaded with sustenance for the inner man were a prize lot; they
were the skeleton remains of carriages of state, in which milord
and ladies rode to the society functions of the Oglethorpe and
earlier periods. Imported they were, and had descended
through heraldic lineages from a time remote. The worm had
eaten up what the wear and tear of prehistoric man had left
of the upholstery. There was a blear of a film on the wood-
work, and the tackling and the once gilded metal fastenings
and furnishings were of a unique and strange pattern. I
marked the vehicle — the family carryall — in which Adam and
Eve rode out to see the new homestead; the road wagon in
which Noah rode around to look at the country after the
freshet; the State chariot of Nebuchadnezzar, in which Shad-
rach, Meshach, and Abednego took their revenge on that po-
tentate after he was sent to grass by yoking him with his mate
and using the pair to draw them and a brass band through the
crowd of anarchists holding high old wassail in the Hanging
Gardens; and all the lumbering things on wheels that gave sig-
nificance to the later succeeding centuries down to our time.
2ist. Broke camp at 6 A. M. — reached Ogeechee River at
12 M. — bad reads — learn here that Savannah was evacuated by
the enemy last night — reached old camp at 3 P. M. — hear of
Thomas' fight with Hood at Franklin and Nashville ; bully for
"Pap" Thomas! On picket "F" and "E."
When Gen. Sherman presented the city of Savannah to
President Lincoln as a Christmas gift in the winter of 1864, he
restored to its honored place under the flag one of the most
interesting cities of the Colonial period. Two centuries prior
to the investment of the city by our army, the Creek chief
Tomochichi, then ninety years old, welcomed to the Georgia
shore "the first soldier and gentleman of his day," Gen. Ogle-
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 291
thorpe. That old Indian friend of the founder of the city was
buried in the center of the public square, and a huge boulder
with a memorial medallion imbeded in the side marks the
spot. The names of the streets suggest loyalty to the Union :
State, Congress, President; the avenues: Montgomery, Perry,
McDonough; the wards were named Washington, Warren,
Franklin, and Greene. The lots were platted 60x90 feet and
fronted upon a street both ways.
The city contains a monument to Gen. Greene, to Sergt.
Jasper (the historic idol of my youth), and to Count Pulaski,
the "heroic Pole." The Marquis de Lafayette laid the corner-*
stone of the two last in 1825.
While our army rested on the Thunderbolt River near by,
I studied the city with great interest, not omitting the Colonial
burial-ground. On south Broad Street stands the old house
where the Colonial Legislature assembled in 1782 and the house
where Washington was entertained and which was his head-
quarters while in the city is still an object of interest to all
visitors. ,
I attended services in Christ Church, where John Wesley
and Whitfield, the great evangelists, both preached, and the
tradition is that Wesley was an irascible old English gentleman,
who ruled his parishioners with the "big stick."
22d. High wind — cold — on picket — relieved at 5 P. M. by
two companies of 32d Wis.
23d. Sun rose like a queen from the sea — morning gun at
Fort Jackson — along with Lieut. Van Tuyl, spent the day in
making a house ; made a good one— bought a table from one of
26th and put it in place. Evening, received orders to march to
Savannah at 8 A. M.
24th. Broke camp at 8 A. M. — reb works — heavy artillery
— shell road — cemetery — inner fortifications — forts — our troops
encamped in the suburbs of the city — penitentiary — poor-house
— Forsythe Place — its fountains and groves — citizens — Negroes
—account of the evacuation, some drowned in the hurry to
cross the bridge. Marched three miles south of town and went
292 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
into camp near the fort and town of Thunderbolt — Fort Jackson
three miles distant — Thunderbolt River close at hand.
25th. Christmas — putting up house— visited Thunderbolt
— "pressed" a table from a deserted house — borrowed a stool,
and paid $1.00 to an Irish oysterman's wife for another table.
Monitors anchored in the river — transports in the distance-
inspection. Commenced clothing receipt rolls by candlelight.
Lieut. R. H. Mann mustered out.
26th. At work on clothing receipt rolls — had them signed
and witnessed.
27th. At work on ordnance returns. Lieut. Mann left
for New York city. Order received for review to-morrow —
Gen. Sherman will review his entire army at the rate of one
A. C. each day.
28th. Roused at 4. Lightning low on eastern horizon —
sky overcast — every indication of stormy weather. Left camp
for Savannah for review at 6 A. M. Commenced raining heav-
ily as we entered the suburbs of the city — formed line on
lower end of South Broad Street — delay — rain — delay — rain —
black servant steps out of a residence close by and invites us
in — pouring rain — Capt. Gillespie, Adjt. Allen, Lieut. McGrath
and I go in with the servant. Conversation — black grand-
dame — her courtesy — coffee — rain — "wringing- wet." Return
to camp — review postponed — work on papers — night — high
wind — cold. Death of McMeems — write to his friends and
enclose letter of chaplain.
29th. Clear and cold — drums — air thick with rumors —
signs of orders and marches — ask for information — none able
to answer. Will we be reviewed to-day? Nobody knows.
Troops moving out. ist Brigade moves to town for review.
We receive no orders — Capt. Carr, over from division head-
quarters, informs us of review — no orders still — everybody
drunk at brigade headquarters — order arrived there from di-
vision, but too drunk to read it! Order finally received-
fall in and march to town — form line same as yesterday —
cold — delay — citizens — city papers — Gen. Morgan — i6th and
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 293
6oth officers — Col. Tillson and my article on "Wallace W.
Rice." Wishes me to describe "Buenaventura." Wishes ar-
ticle on " W. W. Rice" sent to his wife — delay— McGrath and
I visit dock — reviewed in Exchange Place — great crowd —
Gen. Slocum and Gen. Sherman and staffs — Pulaski Monu-
ment— return to camp at 3 p. M.
3oth. At work on papers. Visit "Buenaventura" with
Lieut. Lewis W. Van Tuyl. Night— C. B. S. mustered —
turn "F" over to him — feel relieved.
3 1 st. Mustered this morning — at work on papers. This
work completed, my connection with Company "F" will cease.
I will receive commander's pay, and such consolation as fol-
lows duty faithfully performed.
John Charles Fremont, the first Republican candidate for
President, was born in this town.
1865.
January ist. New Year — get pass and attend church in
city — Independent Presbyterian — pleased with services — Gen.
Sherman and staff present — visit city — oyster supper.
ON OCEAN TRANSPORTS TO BEAUFORT, S. C.
ad. With my own company again — go on picket with it.
Guard mount at Gen. Mower's headquarters. Met Col. Till-
son. His compliment on the manner in which I had conducted
Company " F. " I made no response. Pleasant day. Night —
troops cheering — Lieuts. Shaw and Woodard visit us on the
picket-line with an appeal for signatures on Lieut. -Col. Mac
Wood's case. Wood is an ignoramus and Tillson a plotter,
as the surgeons say, by "first intention." He plotted against
Col. James D. Morgan at Mound City, and through all the
years of the service afterward. He was shallow enough to
suppose that while he flattered he deceived me — never for a
moment on any point! He affected poetry, and died an
inebriate.
294 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
3d. Early breakfast brought us by Aleck — troops have
marching orders — going — ijth and isth A. C.s — to Beaufort,
S. C., on ocean transports. Relieved from picket — go to
camp and pack up baggage.
2 P. M. March to Thunderbolt to embark. Troops going
aboard — Gen. Sherman in neat fatigue suit, white vest, talk-
ing to naval officers on board transport, anchored in middle
of river. Tars row the General from one vessel to another —
transports leaving — General aboard salutes General Sherman,
who waves his hat in return. 32d Wis. and loth 111. go aboard
one vessel — men crowded — officers comfortable — night — offi-
cers drinking — went to bed early — steamer did not leave her
anchorage till late in the night. The embarkation was an
animated scene.
4th. Emerge from the Sound into open sea at 9 A. M.
Reach Hilton Head at 12 M. — did not stop — reached Beaufort
at 3 P. M. Moved out to camp two miles from town. The
trip up Beaufort Bay is a delightful memory.
5th. Mess out at Negro huts after oysters — get them
after dinner — big stew — Aleck in town to-day. Move camp
this eve — go back few hundred yards on higher ground — cold
and windy.
6th. I and Howard go to town. Call at commissary
department and make requisition for mess. Meet Ed eating
cheese — isn't going to camp until he spends all his money!
Get an Atlantic Monthly — see Sam Cooley — artist — cour-
tesy of himself and wife — his coast views very beautiful —
arsenal — dinner at Beaufort Hotel. Gen. Saxton and wife-
returned to camp. Line officers met at Col. T.'s headquarters
and elected Capt. Gillespie to the majority -vice Wilson.
7th. Majority of mess go to town on mules! Tillson
having placed Gillespie in line of advancement, he will succeed
to the lieutenant-colonelcy as soon as Wood is out of the
way, an event anticipated daily. Gillespie gave a champagne
blow-out this evening.
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 295
8th. Company inspection — received sanitary goods —
edibles.
9th. Completed papers — drilled company. Went to
town and mailed "The Republican Court." Negro soldiers
abused by white ones — white soldiers drunk — bought clothing
at post quartermaster's — officers drunk — returning to camp, met
Burns with "D" going into serve as provost guard.
loth. Send note to Plaindealer. Wrote to Robt. Moir
on loss of subscription to Soldiers' Monument. Wrote to Maj.
Kelly on pay. It seems that the company subscription of five
hundred dollars to the Soldiers' Monument has been inter-
cepted and squandered — consider how it may be recovered.
nth. Learn that Lieut.-Col. Wood will be mustered out
to-morrow. Old Mac was a failure in some respects; but he
was not a coward.
CAMPAIGN THROUGH THE CAROUNAS.
1 2th. Received marching orders for to-morrow. In town
with Lieut. Hankey — charming view of the Bay — Gen. How-
ard's headquarters. Col. Wood in Beaufort— a citizen — drank
his health in a glass of wine — good-bye. Took dinner with
Burns and Howard, isth A. C. landing from transports —
recruits — substitutes — drafted and furloughed men of both
A. C.s coming in from Nashville — eleven days on the road—
McKinney not among them.
i3th. Muster-roll for "F." Broke camp at 5 p. M. and
marched seven miles — did not get off the island — went into
camp near estuary.
1 4th. Broke camp at daylight — delay — move out upon
causeway and over pontoons — vessels in the far blue distance
at sea! Cannon shot — skirmish in advance — drove the enemy
before us all day- — went into camp after night inside old en-
trenchments of the enemy — heavy cannonading — marsh grass
on fire — had to burn a ring around our bed to prevent burn-
ing out during sleep.
296 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life,
1 5th. Broke camp at 7 — passed through two lines of
heavy earthworks, old and grass-grown — Negroes inform us the
enemy left our front at midnight — reached Pocotaligo Station
on P. R. & A. Railroad at 10 A. M. — camp on low ground on
south side of railroad — rebel winter quarters — learn that Fos-
ter's troops, Capt. James' command, five miles distant — loth
111. and 2yth Ohio ordered out with foraging train this P. M. —
Heyward Mansion; its destruction — books — furniture — pict-
ures— musical instruments — bust of Calhoun — New York Her-
alds. This was the summer dwelling in the piney woods of a
prominent family, a class in touch with Northern traitors
through the spy system, by which they were supplied with
medicines and the daily papers, etc., etc. Our soldiers smashed
the piano with the butts of their muskets while the wagons
loaded with forage.
i6th. Reading B. T— — 's "India, China, and Japan."
iyth. Reading — ride with Woodard into country — plan-
tation-cemetery— "No common dust lies here, " etc.
Maj. Screven's plantation — Gregory's — letter from Maj.
Wilson — death of Gid. H. Ayres at the head of his colored com-
pany in the battle of Nashville. Beaufort and vicinity was dis-
tinguished before the war for its wealthy slave-holders and
their aristocratic pretensions, illustrated by the above line,
copied from one of their tombstones.
1 8th. Clear— nights cold — heavy frost — inspection at i
p. M. — prepare "Buenaventura" for Plaindealer.
1 9th. Circular of Gen. H. announcing capture of Fort
Fisher — received marching orders for to-morrow.
2oth. Broke camp at daylight — moved out on Ridgeville
road — struck the enemy's cavalry soon after leaving our out-
posts; drove him four miles — only our division out— aim to
capture a battery and its support— made a flank movement,
during which rebs decoyed and nearly surrounded a small force
of our cavalry; prevented by our infantry — struck river in our
flank movement; attempted to bridge it; swollen by recent
floods; failed — rained continuously — waded in water to our
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 297
knees — very cold — returned to Ridgeville and camped — got
comfortably settled, when we were ordered back to Pocotaligo—
i^ot into old camp after night — found my old friend Capt. James,
33d U. S. (colored), at my tent; pleased to meet him — camp
llooded with water — sick — no rest.
2ist. In company with Capt. James, called on Colonel T.
— mounted and returned with the captain as far as the Hudson
Plantation, the scene of Col. Terry's fight, leading colored troops
against the enemy; won his first star here.
22d. Troops tearing up railroad — our regiment moved
east in direction of Charleston and tore up one mile of track —
rebel battery shell us — Pocotaligo Station, on P. R. & A. Rail-
road— in the station building I examined a mass of private
papers left by rebels in their flight — some curious deeds to
realty signed by King George III.
23d. " E" and " K" on picket at 9 A. M. — reading history
of Georgia — Gen. Fuller returned from furlough — what has
become of McKinney?
24th. Dried blankets- — clear — high wind— reading.
25th. Mounted and rode down to Capt. James' regiment
at Hudson's Plantation — met Negroes who informed me that
Gen. Hatch's troops had crossed the Tilufinny— resolve to go
on; — pass Gens. Potter and Hatch — reach works of colored
troops; deserted, save by section of 3d R. I. battery — see from
this point the new camp across the ri\ier — shipping in the estu-
aries— leave mule under the Negro guards and cross river in
boat with squad of soldiers.
In Capt. James' tent I was ill at night from ptomaine
poisoning, caused by something I had eaten ; sick now for two
days with intermittent attacks; but for strong camp coffee, I
had fared worse.
26th. Up with the sun — breakfast — recross river and re-
turn to Pocotaligo — found division gone; overtake it- — returned
to old camp — found Lieut. Winsett in camp ; learn from him of
the interception of the Soldiers' Monument fund by McKinney.
298 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
27th. Arranged with Capt. Kellogg, division command-
er, for getting grub for officers' mess on credit — learn that our
campaign opens on the 3oth inst. — trains loading with supplies,
and sick and disabled returned to Beaufort, also extra baggage
— packed a box of books and papers and sent to rear — Capt.
Race reported for duty. This officer, one of the most efficient
in our organization, but detached on Gen. James D. Morgan's
staff, is a valuable and much-needed acquisition.
28th. Prepared "Buenaventura" article for Plaindealer.
29th. Capt. James and adjutant of 33d (colored) called—
1 5th A. C. moving to front — marching orders for 7 to-morrow.
During one of my father's semi-annual visits to the city of
New York for the purchase of merchandise, a Sunday call, in
1854, at the old Five Points Mission, resulted in an acquaint-
ance with Mr. Pease, the famous superintendent, one of whose
first and best aims was to find friends for the friendless and
homes for the homeless who found a temporary asylum at the
mission. Merchants of character and repute from the West
were seized upon with avidity by Mr. Pease in behalf of the
boys and girls in his charge. In this way Capt. William James,
a youth of fifteen or thereabouts, from Kilkenny, Ireland, came
West to grow up with the country. This alert, active son of
the soldier race throve sturdily under this transmigration ; the
human plant rooted readily in the new soil and grew apace.
He absorbed a knowledge. of business methods, schooled him-
self fairly well in the common branches, became active in the
"Wide-Awake" Presidential campaign of 1860, entered the
Union Army in 1861, and rose from a sergeant in my regiment
to a captaincy in the "First South Carolina Colored Troops,"
afterwards numbered by the Government the "33d U. S. Col-
ored." He survives in comfortable circumstances, a substantial
citizen of Jacksonville, Fla.
3oth. Broke camp at 7 and moved out on Ridgeville road
to point near Combahee River and camped. Reading " Oliver
Twist."
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 299
3ist. This P. M., veterans of "F" were sent to rear and
mustered out, their three years' service having expired — march-
ing orders for 6 A. M. to-morrow.
February ist. Broke camp at 6 A. M. Our division in
advance. Soon struck the enemy. Negro informed us that
they were simply the rebel outposts of two hundred- cavalry.
They felled trees across the road, which our pioneers quickly
removed ; they also erected rail barricades every two miles,
from behind which they did their shooting on our advance.
Drove easy. Came to deep swamp at 3 p. M. — very difficult
to cross — had severe skirmish here — captain on Gen. Howard's
staff severely wounded through the neck — detained here till
dusk — crossed, single file, on poles — precarious footing. En-
camped half-mile from swamp. Pack-mule and trains came
over after night. Made twelve miles — weather clear — country
more hilly than expected. Passed one fine large plantation
which was deserted — our men burned the buildings — large
quantities of chinaware of superior quality found buried in
the earth and destroyed — shame !
2d. 3d and 4th Divisions, not getting across swamp last
eve, could not take the advance, and we took the lead again —
^d Brigade (ours) in advance of Division, 25th Ind. skirmish-
ers. Met the enemy two miles out. Severe skirmishing —
killed four rebs — wounded a number. Had some officers and
men wounded. Burned plantations. Enemy drove hard — delay
— form line of battle — bury rebel dead — Gens. H., B. and M.
close by. Move in — delay where roads fork — take left road —
Gen. Mower pushes things — heavy skirmishing — saw gth 111.
Mounted Infantry make a charge — brilliant — rebs fled precip-
itately. Lieutenant-colonel on Howard's staff wounded in leg.
Reach an open field — halt — form line of battle — send three
companies from our regiment to relieve the skirmishers of
25th Ind Cannonading to our right, aoth and i4th A. C.s
said to be not far distant. Night — bivouac — water hard to
obtain — forage in abundance. Mulatto girl presented herself
at our carnp-fire to-night — wanted to cook for our mess. Colo-
300 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
nel 43d Ohio wounded in leg to-day. Adjutant of 25th Wi>
head shot off by shell. We are now on the shore of the Salka-
hatchie — enemy entrenched on the other side — swamps wide
and deep intervene.
3d. Our division in advance — broke camp at 6 — moved
up road parallel to river one mile — delay — blocked up in
road — raining — deep mud — on causeway — swamp on either
side of us— Gen. Mower standing in the midst — detachments
carrying boards and laying a sort of bridge over the swamp
to left of road to reach the bank of the river. Cannonading
to our right — soldiers on a limited dry spot to right of road,
washing and joking. Move to left, descending into a dismal
swamp. 25th and 32d went in — our regiment moves on up
causeway and suddenly quit the road, entering the swamp
to the right — plunge into water — through deep tangled wild-
wood — a maze of poisonous vines and cypress stumps — water
ankle-deep — knee-deep — thigh-deep and bitter cold. Slow and
tedious — reach river — relieve 63d pickets — glimpses of rebel
fort one hundred yards distant — rebel flag — our pickets en-
gaged— we reconnoitre — Capt. Gillespie thinks the enemy can
be easily driven away and his artillery captured! He sends
word to this effect to Col. Tillson, who is with the 25th and 32d
on the left of the causeway. Sergt. Tom Cook acting as orderly
for Gillespie. Send detail to brigade wagon for axes — ten
men of "E" fell trees across river for the purpose of crossing
our men. Phil Lent, stretcher-bearer of "D," killed. "E"
out on skirmish-line. Prvt. Silas W. Goulden just ahead of
me wounded in breast and arm — sent him to the rear — Willis
Nelson near the same spot had his clothing pierced on the
tip of right shoulder. Companies " K " and " G " cross stream —
Booth wounded — Capt. Wilson of "G" also. One of 'F"
killed. One of "C" mortally wounded. Jacob Rust and Wil-
liam Tweed of "E" wounded. Casualties in other companies
also. Rebel artillery opens, sweeping the causeway to our
left. Our boys pour their volleys into the rebel fort, and
drive the rebel gunners away from their pieces. A few of
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 301
43d Ohio boys assist us. Rain — dusk — troops to left of cause-
way cross the river in force — -flank the enemy's works — we
advance from the front— rebs evacuate — fly in confusion, leav-
ing their dead and many prisoners in our hands, also clothing
and knapsacks — among them four cavalrymen of 3ist S. C.
We occupy the enemy's works — Gen. Howard and captain of
staff arrives: "Can you tell me how you got it?" " By mak-
ing it too hot for 'em." Shook my hand heartily. I was
placed in charge of prisoners — talk with a rebel ordnance ser-
geant and his comrades- — they live in Savannah — anxious to
return to their allegiance and homes. Cavalryman of 3d S. C.
in Yankee uniform — Gen. Mower asks permission of Gen. H.
to hang him. Night— troops go into camp — relieved from
duty with prisoners — supper — dry clothing — boys gathered up
some rebel officers' uniforms — get from pockets machine poetry
and letters. Loss of regiment to-day, 26 killed and wounded.
Gen. Mower fell into river — pulled out by Capt. De Grass.
Buried our dead on a little elevation in the swamp.
4th. Our regiment left camp, light marching order, with
forage train at 8 A. M. . Met 4th Division coming in — Gen. G.
A. Smith, Gen. Potts and Gen. Belknap (Secretary of War
under Grant) , the latter with his saddle hung thick with chick-
ens! Boys laugh at his Shanghais — he, a big, burly, sandy-
whiskered fellow, smiled and said: "Boys, you 're only mad
because you haven't got 'em!" Found rebel artillery ammuni-
tion strewn along the route of retreat of the enemy last night —
had to lighten his load to get away. People along the road
said the rebel forces were going their last cent on their legs
as they passed on the double-quick at an early hour last even-
ing. Halt at old lady's — "seventy-odd" — palsied — her com-
plaints— gave her a guard — moved on a mile — rich reb, four
sons in rebel Army — load wagons with corn — boys fill canteens
with molasses and haversacks with peanuts — kraut — the fam-
ily— a scene — group on porch — cotton-gin and buildings burn-
ing— tears. Ambulance gone back to Beaufort with wounded,
302 Recollections of Pioneer and .inny Life.
under an escort with wagon-train, which is to return with
rations.
5th. Rode into country with Hartley and "C" boys on
mules — kill blood -hound — talk with Negro, who shows us the
hiding-place of his master. Find the old gentleman with his
Negroes, mules, horses and wagon on a little island in the
center of a large swamp. Brought away the animals and
turned them over to the quartermaster. Coming out of swamp
on our return, came upon two other citizens secreted with
horses — men were old and infirm — so were the animals — let
them go. Met Lieut. Kennedy and Capt. Race and their
"Bummers," also Lieut. Woodard — returned to camp with
them.
6th. Broke camp at 8 A. M. and marched to Little Salka-
hatchie — eight miles — arrived at u A. M. Went into camp
here thus early, as it was impossible to proceed till the swamp
and river were bridged and corduroyed. Heavy rain.
yth. Received marching orders for 8 A. M. — delayed till
12 M. Swamps innumerable — took command of "G" to-day.
Reached camp after night. Gen. Mower listening to piano
music evoked by young lady; the boys meantime pulling the
blinds off the windows of the residence for fire-wood !
The commander of "G" being wounded and sent to the
rear, I was assigned to the command of the company and
remained in charge-of it till we reached Raleigh, N. C.
8th. Broke camp at 7 — one mile — past a saw-mill and
over a swamp brought up to Midway Station on the Sav. and
C. R. R. Gen. Howard's headquarters here — stacked arms
along track and tore it up and destroyed it effectually. Talk
with Negro refugees — they come from beyond the Edisto,
whither we go. The Jennings. Go into camp — dinner — throw
up breast- works — learn that the rebel force is not far distant.
Ride out with Lieut. Woodard to the plantations of Sims and
Jamison. Get a few books and papers and return — high
wind — cold .
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 303
[The Jamison plantation referred to belonged to David
Jamison, the president of the convention which voted the
State of South Carolina out of the Union — so far as a vote
could do that. The premises were a wreck when I reached
the spot. There was at least a ton of books and private
papers in a small out-office still remaining; among them I
found the secret cypher used by Jamison when chairman of
that convention to communicate with the conspirators who
remained in Washington. I lost this and other papers, in-
cluding my commission, by accidental fire.]
9th. Broke camp at 8 — rapid marching — pass burning
plantation buildings — cannonading ahead — cloudy and cold —
halt — load — move on — go into line of battle at the double-
quick — rebel batteries open on us — reach a position in an open
field, in a depression. Our battery takes position and opens —
rebels reply — first rebel shot takes the leg off a batteryman
and kills one of the 32d Wis. While we eat dinner, a soldier
with a "diamond" shovel scoops out a shallow grave and
lowers his dead comrade into it. Presently a piece of shell
strikes the grave-digger, who had his back turned to the rebel
battery, on the knapsack, throwing him upon his face, doing
him no injury whatever. An orderly wounded.
After much labor, succeeded in eluding the enemy — drew
his attention to the left of our position and laid a pontoon-
bridge a little to our right, almost on the rebel front (effected
this at dusk) — crossed immediately — strict orders not to con-
verse above a whisper and to move with great caution across
the bridge, making no noise — 32d and loth ahead — off the
bridge into the mud and water and dense woods. Not fifty
yards distant reb pickets discover us and fire into our flank,
wounding John Nelson of "E" in the cheek. "A" and "H"
deployed on our left flank. Firing ceased — conclude they are
gone — move ahead — cautiously — swamp getting deeper every
step — delays — bitter cold — feet and limbs aching — men shiver ;
teeth chatter so they can not talk — delay — Gen. Mower — his
impatience — advance — water knee-deep — water thigh-deep —
304
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
Heavens, how cold! Water waist-deep — some short fellows
nearly go under! Ugh! Ugh! Some crawl up and perch on
the cypress-knees shaking with the cold — foolish fellows ! why
don't they go ahead? Plunge on, leading "G" — hard-tack
from the haversacks of those who preceded us floating on the
turbid water. It is now near midnight — plunge ahead — gain
dry land — cross a fence into a field — form line of skirmishers
and also a line of battle in rear with as many as have now
got through. Hear the voices of the enemy not far distant!
Gave them a volley — they get out of that, leaving a mortally
wounded major behind and some other prisoners. Lines of
battle now complete — we
see the enemy's fires just
across the field — our lines
advance — see rebel troops
passing through the red
glare of their camp- fires
on a rapid retreat — a few
scattering shots pass over
our heads — we advance —
double-quick, with cheers
— enemy does not stay to
receive us — r each iheir
camp — stack arms — throw
out pickets — gather in
groups around the rebel
MIDNIGHT CROSSING OF THE EDISTO. camp-fires and cough and
shake with cold in our wet clothes. We have crossed the Ed-
isto ! We are without blankets, hungry and cold — it is now one
o'clock in the morning. Bring the dying rebel major to one of
the fires, the other prisoners also. Gen. Mower congratulates us
—Lieut. Van Tuyl goes back over river to order pack-mule
up with blankets — morning hastens — I despair of sleep to-
night and lie down on pile of rails — slept none — am but an
indifferent sleeper — "Lew" returned at 3 o'clock A. M. with the
blankets — he went to sleep instantly — not so I.
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 305
loth. Clear — beautiful day. Troops remain in camp —
our regiment ordered out with train for forage. Reported to
Gen. Mower — moved up lane — halt — stack arms — continuous
stream of foragers passing into camp, loaded with meat and
meal, flour — everything! Some with buggies, others with car-
riages; army wagons loaded and pack-mules. Return to camp.
3d Division passes to front — soldier marched through all the
camp under guard with "Skulker" written in large characters
on a board which was strapped upon his back. Lieut. Ken-
nedy and I ride into the country this P. M. Jennings' resi-
dence—its plight — the family in the kitchen — library — "Cot-
ton is King." Visit churches — Jennings and his boats — his
safe. Don't infer that we cracked this man's safe. I can
only speak for myself. I came out of the South dead-broke!
nth. Clear and warm. Broke camp at 12 M. Received
mail on the Orangeburg road to-day — country rolling — planta-
tions large — red clay soil, highly cultivated. Got into camp
after night — made seventeen miles. Heavy firing ahead — i5th
A. C. Reading "Life of John C. Calhoun."
1 2th. High wind — cannonading through the night. Rebs
said to be in force on the river — North Edisto, which is close
by. Look for a fight. Remained in camp till 12 M. Our
batteries meanwhile shell rebel works. Left camp at noon on
a moment's notice — heavy marching order — moved down
towards our battery and turned to right parallel to river,
debouched upon an open field, where we found our artillery
massed — also ammunition train and ambulance — ominous
enough !
Warm, sunny day — stack arms — suspense — presently from
the woods in front of us emerge two officers with orderlies.
They ride rapidly across the field and report to some one far
to our left and disappear 'round our left flank in the woods —
suddenly Gen. Howard and staff appear and ride off toward
the position of our batteries — they speak as they pass the
left of our line — notice slight agitation among the men — news
of some kind — in a minute or two word comes that Gen. Blair
is in Orangeburg! The town is ours! Cheers! A pause —
306
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
Gen. Sherman and staff appear and ride toward us — the old
hero is looking splendid — we cheer — he salutes — cheers re-
doubled— he rides away in the wake of Howard, towards
Orangeburg. Gen. Mower passes down the line — boys shout
the watchword of the campaign: "Cartridge-boxes 'round the
neck! Heave-o-heavef." The first referring to the swamps and
rivers which we wade; the last to tearing up railroad track.
Gen. Mower the boys call "Swamp Lizard." We take arms
and follow our leaders — halt near the causeway which leads
to bridge across river, then push on over into the city — notice
a few dead rebs by the wayside. Reb works — city — buildings
on fire — citizens (men. women and children) in the yards with
all their household stuff packed up awaiting to see their houses
consumed — perhaps themselves! Fools! Court-house — flag —
Negro pen — jail — fine residences — Gen. Sherman on the side-
walk— prisoners — tearing up railroad. Orphan Asylum — gray
suits and-white aprons — little girls and boys seem quite happy —
they bring water to us — the town was fired by a Jew merchant
of the place — whiskey burning.
SCENE: Old rich fel-
low standing in his portico.
Regiment passing. Sol-
dier: "How do you like
the looks of the Star-
Spangled Banner?" Citi-
zen : " I 've seen it before."
Soldier: "You are liable
to see it again."
Noticed the residence
of Lawrence M. Keitt.
1 3th. Marched four
miles up railroad and tore
up the track — "G" "oper-
ated" at Jamison's Station
ALECK AND BILLY. -took UP sixty- six rails
to-day — left track for camp at 5 P. M.— passed through
fine country — came into the old Charleston stage road — beau-
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 307
tiful plantations — reached camp soon after night — difficulty
finding the cook's ''shebang" — dear old "Aleck," of Alabama,
and "Billy," the mule, comprised the commissary outfit of the
officers' mess. "Aleck" was a plantation slave, and came with
us from Tuscumbia in 1862; an honest colored boy as ever
lived. I never could tell why, but "Aleck" always showed a
peculiar affection for me, nor do I know how or where we finally
lost him. After the grand review at Washington, when the
army boarded trains on the Baltimore & Ohio for Louisville,
the little fat mule "Billy," that so faithfully carried over hun-
dreds of miles the greasy old gunny-bag paniers which con-
tained our boiled sweet potatoes and pig meat, would have to
be left behind; but certainly "Aleck" came West with us. I
would give dollars now (1911) to possess a kodak picture of our
faithful cook, the pack-animal, and the grub-stake of the
Carolinas.
1 4th. Advance division to-day—cloudy and cold — fine
country and well improved — wide stage road — golden grass and
hills covered with evergreens — strike hills and streams seven
miles out — buildings burning — smoke of i5th A. C. — mill burn-
ing— halt — tar-pits — turpentine camp — reach high grounds be-
yond and go into camp — dinner — "Aleck" and "Billy" bring
in wagon-load of grub — rain — hear that our hard -tack is giving
out — great quantities of forage coming in. We can trace the
route of the corps on the horizon by the trail of black smoke
from the burning tar, rosin, and turpentine works.
1 5th. Broke camp at 10 A. M. — frequent halts — noticed
road in which isth A. C. moved in ahead of us — the corps of the
grand army are converging to strike Columbia — our foragers
saw men of aoth and 1 4th A. C.s to-day — heard cannonading —
distant — Beauregard, Taylor, and Hardee said to be in Co-
lumbia. Weather clears — carriages with sick — got into camp
late at night — starlight — i5th A. C. had heavy skirmishing —
ii P. M., cannonading — whistle of steam engine in Columbia.
Reading "Gulliver's Travels."
i6th. Cannonading — we shift to left — swamps — strike
sandy country — sky clears — sunny and warm — rapid marching
308 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
— hot — halt — get in shade of small bush — view of Coliimhin;
splendid; situated on very high ground, just below the conflu-
ence of the Saluda and Broad rivers — Capitol buildings, old
and new — flags — deserted streets — small groups of rebels riding
in full view; darting in and out, to and fro, carrying the torch —
cotton burning in the streets — the ground on which our corps
is massed also very high and in full view from the city — our
entire army, with its war-stained banners — artillery — ambu-
lances— ordnance and supply-trains stand in full view before
the doomed Capitol. Report that the enemy has evacuated, leav-
ing only a detachment of cavalry as a party of observation. Our
batteries throw shell across the river at the rebel cavalry in the
streets — foragers coming in with large quantities of meal, meat,
flour, and tobacco — we are halted alongside an old prison camp,
where the officers of our army were only recently starved; a
miserable, filthy place — old garments, patched, lying around —
the breeches! the graves! the hovels — bits of old letters —
pieces of old briar-root, of which the prisoners made pipes.
Strong breeze blowing in towards the city — bands playing
"Yankee Doodle." Gen. Sherman passes — dense smoke en-
shrouds the city — lay pontoons across Saluda — cheers — heavy
skirmishing — enemy driven off — rebel train moving north —
anxiety about Woodard and his " Bummers "; recruiting offi-
cer and his Negroes charge them ; flight — fun — cheers. Finish
"Davy Crockett." Picked up the "base" of pants worn by a
Union officer in this prison; he had repaired the foundation of
his trousers with the half of his vest intact, sewed on the best
he could.
iyth. Cannon-shots 9.30 A. M. — three companies 4th Di-
vision cross river in boats in advance of those who are crossing
on the pontoons — new Capitol building, meant for a capitol for
the Southern Confederacy — churches — broke camp at 10 and
crossed Saluda — factory on our left — camp on peninsula — high
wind — tall grass on fire — talk about wind in Illinois! South
Carolina's can equal the gales of any land or sea; blew coffee
from my lips when I attempted to drink it. Broke camp in the
evening and crossed, slowly, Broad River — passed up through
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 309
the city and out on the Winsboro road and camped — beautiful
plantation — wine in cellar — night— city on fire — visit the con-
flagration with Lieut. L. Van Tuyl — asylum; talk with officers
of this institution — fire spreading in every direction — women
and children in consternation.' House — young lady and two
gentlemen — guard — old doctor from Vermont; he teaches
school — feeds soldiers — lady asks advice ; give it. People, black
and white, going in crowds up the streets, carrying children and
their effects — old gentleman and three daughters; their friends
over the way ; home in flames — exlamations of pity— Catholic
priest; his school for boys — old man will be saved in spite of
himself; we insist that his dwelling is safe, and suggest that he
put a black boy on his roof to put out sparks ; he is indifferent
and reckless; the elder daughter, turning to her sisters with a
wan face and a wagging hand, almost ludicrous: " The pee-an-
nah! the pee-an-nah!" — leave them. Jewish lady and eight
children accost us; give her the best advice in our power — Gen.
Giles A. Smith, mounted, lifts his flask and drinks damnation
to the Confederacy — Irish people ; our Irish soldiers assisting to
save their property — Negroes begging — soldiers with cigars in
sack — elderly lady calls from porch, asks us for help; observing
that she is unduly frightened, her house being in no danger, my
companion tells her that " Providence will do more for you than
we can; fire can't reach you." Cotton piled in the streets burn-
ing. Meet captain i5th A. C. wringing wet, having assisted to'
put out fire in the neighborhood — fire in this quarter of the city
raging with terrible fury over and through the solid blocks of
buildings — families fleeing for safety down the streets — • main
street crammed with a surging mass of humanity — soldiers and
citizens — sidewalks heaped with plunder — soldier with gorgeous
silver platter of immense size — books — carriages and horses —
officer and guard; officer drunk; tells us of his sergeant's "good
thing"; shows a sample of the "good thing" — ladies looking
after trunks — family pass carrying poodle dog and leading
a hound — cross street — accost old Negro, "What do you think
of the night, sir?" "Wall, I tell you what I dinks, I dinks de
Day ob Jubilee for me hab come." Old priest and "sister" on
310 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
sidewalk with their plunder, ready for flight, ask if the flames
have crossed the main street. Press on — pick up case of sur-
geon's instruments — look into residence; a lady in full dress
seated on the stairway, her trunks around her, and a guard
stretched full length upon the floor fast asleep. Revisit old man
and three daughters; old gentleman tells us of mob of black-
legs and Wheeler's men, who remained behind the rebel army
to sack the city before the entrance of our army; one of the
mob drew a revolver on Gen. Wade Hampton, who returned to
dispel the rabble; old gentleman told us that he would rather
lose all he had than have his daughters misused ; to our knowl-
edge, no insult had been offered them; during our absence they
had a very large trunk stolen, which they had placed on the
sidewalk; leave them. Stop again at the Vermont doctor's;
found him in the midst of his household stuff on the sidewalk in
front of his residence, greatly flurried; found his residence, a
large fine one, on fire; went up stairs to the flames and put the
fire out. Pass on — fat old gentleman and family sweating under
their weary load; fat man, with deep anguish in his voice,
"Alas, that we should suffer so on account of our rulers!"
Group on corner, young man and wife ; home burned ; had not
where to lay their heads; told him to occupy the deserted dwel-
ling of one of the wealthy traitors; he thought none of these
would be standing by daylight, which seemed quite probable.
Met a soldier with a small white pony which he had found in a
cellar — Irish lady with babe blessing Gen. Sherman — one fellow
with a window curtain parading the streets and flouting his
strange device for a " Bummer's" banner.
i8th. ist Brigade gone to tear up railroad, also 25th and
32d — our regiment remains in camp — Claiborne White ; his new
rebel uniform coat — 3d and 4th Divisions tearing up railroad —
move out six miles and camp — cannonading this morning— un-
cut sheets of rebel "bluebacks" picked up.
iQth. Broke camp at 7 — light marching order — i8th Mo.
and one company of gth 111. Mounted Infantry with us — pro-
ceeded seven miles out on railroad to — — Station ; here over-
took rebel rear guard ; came near having an ugly fight with
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 311
them; they open on us with a battery; we deployed under
cover of the deserted rebel huts to left of road and looked upon
the enemy deploy his skirmishers and prepare to receive us.
As we came out to tear up track and not to fight, and as we
were already farther advanced than necessary, we stationed our
pickets and withdrew and went to tearing up track. At this
place the Confederate authorities were erecting a stockade for
prisoners ; had cut the trenches and framed a great many timbers
for this purpose ; we burned the timbers. On returning to camp,
learned that the enemy's cavalry made an attempt to destroy
our supply-train.
2oth. Broke camp at 9 — moved up track four miles be-
yond where we were yesterday and camp — portion of the army
tear up track — ten miles to-day. Rumor that Charleston is
evacuated ; contrabands bring in this word.
2 1 st. Our regiment in advance of the army — moved slow-
ly along the railroad, tearing it up as we went; we tear up the
track, pile it and fire it, and the engineers come behind and
twist the rails — some flat rail on this road . Some of our escaped
prisoners came to us to-day — immense quantities • of forage
taken.
22d. Broke camp early and reached Winsboro about noon
— handsome village; has college — found part of 2Oth A. C.
here — railroad destroyed — after leaving village, took road to
right — entered a very rough country — soil intensely red — sides
of hills furrowed by deep gullies — got along slowly. Accumu-
lating Negroes fast; poor creatures cling to us, despite the bad
treatment they often receive at the hands of the soldiers; their
patience is invincible ; I often pity them ; they meet with insult
and abuse at every turn ; the vast majority of our men, howev-
er, respect them. Rear guard to-day.
23d. Broke camp at 8. Marched to within two miles
of Wateree River and stacked arms till i5th A. C. crossed.
Remained here three hours — pulled out finally, but made very
slow progress — reached the river at dusk and crossed over on
a poor pontoon bridge. Boys in trouble about horses and
mules which were ordered to be turned over here — "Bummers"
312 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
anxious about their riding stock — extremely so! As the com-
panies massed on opposite bank, they pushed forward to camp,
distant two miles — rain — miry — hills — night — road blocked
with wagons — pitchy darkness — camp — got into line and
stacked arms in a confused manner — rain — rain — late supper —
get tent up and fare very well. Rumor still floating about
that Charleston is evacuated.
24th. Broke camp at 6 — our division in advance — rain-
ing— miry. 2oth A. C. appears off our left — halt till we pass.
Noon halt — no breakfast— hungry — rain again — very slow
progress this P. M. Got to camp at twilight. "G," "E" and
"K" on picket — posted on plantations. Rain — isth A. C.
pickets — Negrce's cabins.
25th. Raining — old boats burnt. Took up picket-line at
7 and joined regiment. Out four miles came to sandy soil —
good reads — country poor; swamps and thinly inhabited.
People poor. Secure a living by making turpentine and rosin.
Piney woods "chipped" for turpentine. Made twelve miles.
Passed spot where one of "A's" foragers was killed — rebel
placard: "Death to all foragers." Bellus, Cowan and Purcell
of "E" captured and taken to Andersonville Prison. They
had load of provisions in buggy — attempted to cut loose and
run, but were not quick enough! My boots are about "gone
up." Rosin pockets in trees burning last night as we came
into camp.
26th. Broke camp at 8 A. M. Crossed Little Lynche's
Creek — swampy on each side of it — ammunition-train had to
raise boxes to keep load dry — swam the mules — Alex and
"Billy" had to swim! Good roads now — made first three
miles easily; then came frequtnt halts — finally got under way
and moved rapidly along till reached camp before dusk; one
mile from main Lynche's Creek. Passed two houses only to-
day and they were of the meanest sort. Country poor, flat
and gravelly. Tillson, having lost Purcell, details Billy Rob-
erts for brigade forager. Two brigades of infantry and 3,000
rebel cavalry said to have been near this ground at 9 A. M.
to-day — doubtful as to the numbers.
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 313
27th. Our division has the advance. Broke camp at
5:30. Passed 4th Division in camp. Delay at creek — pass
over — stream full to overflowing; farther shore low and cov-
ered with water — road being corduroyed by colored pioneers —
deep water- — horses down — half-mile to dry land — reach it and
stack arms. Move forward one hundred yards and stack
arms — go with Lieut, Winsett to spring — troops move forward
again a short distance and camp for the night. Connecticut
officers with us. Learn of Kilpatrick's disaster with Wade
Hampton. Orderly this P. M. captured forty-three mules, four
horses and large number of Negroes. 1,500 "Bummers" out
to-day.
28th. See little of the enemy since leaving Winsboro —
ominous! Broke camp at 7. Our division in advance; our
regiment in rear. Made fifteen miles to-day. Rain — gained
camp at 3 p. M. On direct road to Cheraw. Learned after
getting settled in camp that 9th 111. were in tight place; went
out to assist them — no forage for man or beast. Drawing ra-
tions at the rate of five crackers for four days. Men hungry
and out of humor. Rumor that communication will be opened
with us on the Great Pedee. Entrenched after night. Presence
of the enemy restricts foraging.
March ist. Our corps remains in camp to-day — under-
stand we are further advanced than the other A. C.s. Fin-
ished Simm's "History of South Carolina"; on "Life of Ma-
rion." Rebs on our front — their picket-line four miles distant.
Taken 150 prisoners since yesterday. Batteryman of our di-
vision came in to-day who has long been a prisoner at Flor-
ence— says rebels, on evacuating that place, left large number
of our sick behind with nurses, to be picked up by our army ;
many die daily. Marching orders for daylight.
2d. "Bummers" forming at headquarters. Broke camp
at 6. Moved out on the Cheraw road — came upon the enemy's
outposts — drove them back upon their rifle-pits and beyond,
with slight loss. Out foraging to-day — our brigade have di-
vision supply-train with us, Gen. Mower and one section artil-
314 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
lery. Found the enemy in force — in line of battle — too
strong for our small force — returned to camp.
Some misgivings about our situation to-day. It is said
we can not penetrate farther into this poor country without
great risk. Enemy is concentrating all his available forces
on our front and entrenching to dispute further progress. We
do not wish to fight so far from a base, lacking facilities for
the transportation of wounded. I think, however, that "Un-
cle Billy" is master of the situation, and we will push on,
probably to-morrow. 2oth A. C. said to be skirmishing heav-
ily. Camp at 12 M. Men faring poorly for rations — country
a pine barren — no subsistence — nothing but tar and turpentine.
Many men barefoot — Chas. N. Cowan captured to-day.
3d. Marched at 7 — moved over same road as yesterday —
did not find the enemy — pushed on — struck his cavalry vi-
dettes — formed line of battle — came upon fortifications — enemy
fled them on our approach and attempted to burn a bridge
behind them which spanned a stream running parallel with
the works — failed, however — our boys rushed upon the bridge,
scattered the rosin on it and extinguished the flames — delayed
us but a few minutes. Our artillery reached Cheraw as the
rebs were leaving it — throw a few shell after them — our skir-
mishers charge to save the bridge across the Pedee — too late —
covered with rosin and turpentine, ignited like powder — the
whole structure instantly wrapped in flames. Our regiment
sent off to left flank of town — put out "C" as pickets. Col.
McFarland's residence. Blair's headquarters. "Bummers"
sack the town. Join brigade south of town and camp — rebel
hospital — cemetery — two rebel bodies unburied — bury them —
supper — visit town — river — reb pickets — lieutenant 43d Ohio,
Lew and Hankey — chat at town pump by moonlight.
4th. Re-inauguration of President Lincoln to-day. Visit
town with Lieuts. Winsett and Hankey — depot burned — ma-
chinery moulds — bank-note printing materials — artillery and
small arms — tools of every description — cotton — locomotive.
In this mass of captured war material was a Blakely gun,
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 315
"Presented to the Sovereign State of South Carolina by One
of Her Citizens Residing Abroad, in Commemoration of the
2oth December, 1860."
Laying pontoons — ist brigade across river — cemetery —
many Revolutionary graves here — mostly British officers.
The following piece of Southern buncombe is cut on the
front of a large family tomb here :
"My name — my country, — what are they to thee?
What — whether high or low my pedigree ?
Perhaps — I far surpassed all other men.
Perhaps — I fell below them all, — what then?
Suffice it, stranger, that thou seest a tomb;
Thou knowest its use. It hides — no matter whom."
Broke camp at 3 p. M. — crossed river — ist Division in line
of battle — skirmishers advance — firing — "G" and "B" sent
out on flank — to knees in mire — cross fields — gain woods-
drove the enemy off and camp — night — enemy's ammunition
exploding on our front — 3d Brigade moves out to reconnoitre —
return to camp — lose my haversack containing toilet articles,
the equipment of many weary campaigns. Cannonading up
the river.
5th. Enemy left our front — left baggage and provisions
behind, on the ground where he blew up his ammunition.
Beautiful day — no move— doze and read the poets. Foragers
coming in loaded to the guards. They report a rebel com-
missariat six miles distant, filled with pork and meal. Num-
ber of barefoot men increasing every day.
Our rear guard still in Cheraw destroying the spoils taken
there. Charleston, in her haste and doubt, shipped her plun-
der off to Cheraw, where Sherman could never reach it! When
at last they found it lay on our route, it was too late to get
away with or destroy more than half of it. They did. how-
ever, burn a large depot building containing valuables of
every description.
Two foragers had encounter with reb to-day. Killed him;
but not before he wounded one of his antagonists and broke
316 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
his carbine over his head. "Bummers" pillaged a rebel store
to-day — brought in rebel uniforms and underwear.
6th. Broke camp at 8. A few of the field-pieces cap-
tured at Cheraw along with us — the cannon not on trucks
were abandoned. Reached finely cultivated country to-day —
large plantations — horses, mules and forage taken in great
quantities. Reached Bennetsville and encamped. Visit town —
Gen. Blair's headquarters — printing-office — prisoners— Charles-
ton refugees — books — search for a map of North Carolina —
Billy Morgan and Alex, our colored cook, learning to read.
7th. Rear guard to-day. Our regiment in advance of
brigade. Took Fayetteville road — passed through fine coun-
try— guide-boards many. Procession of carriages carrying sick,
lame and lazy. Made eight miles and camped at 3 P. M. at
Beaver Creek church.
Night — procession of refugee slaves coming into camp
singing with splendid effect a doggerel after this manner (tune
of "Dixie"):
" Way down South in de land of gravel,
Barefooted Yankees bound to travel.
Look away! Look away! Look away!"
8th. Eggs, sweet potatoes, chicken and coffee for break-
fast! Broke camp at 9:30 — make half-mile and halt — rain
pouring down — slow progress — frequent halts — crossed many
swamps and streams — head-waters of Little Pedee — country
poor — farms small — cabins and fields of stumps and stones.
Negroes' vehicles, taken out of train (lengthened it so much)
and put in rear of corps. Negro procession quite an army
in itself. These poor creatures are sadly mistreated by some
of the soldiers; they are uncomplaining, however.
No enemy last two days — crossed State line into North
Carolina — roads very bad; wagons sink to their axles — have
to corduroy nearly every foot of the way. Regiments and
brigades— in fact, the entire army — take a rail on the shoulder
as they go along, depositing where needed. Rumor that Rich-
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 317
mond is evacuated ! Heard this for a day or two. Prognosti-
cations on this event — rumors of Terry's movements. Learn
that our gunboats have been at Fayetteville looking for us.
Got into camp long after night — ordered out after supper to
corduroy road — train can not get through — anger of men — go
— ordered back — rain — Gen. Howard's orders are to march
till 10 o'clock. What 's up? Lee? Let him come! We can
end this rebellion on this ground as well as on any other.
9th. Roused at 4 o'clock with orders to march at 5.
Warm — calm — birds singing — come into finely cultivated coun-
try— plantations large — dwellings good — families at home.
First plantation: old gent, wife, children, slaves. Second
plantation : young ladies on portico — Yankee officer strutting
and purring and stroking his moustache before them. Third
plantation : two ladies — guard — they stand in the porch look-
ing at us floundering along, knee-deep in mire and in torrents
of rain. We glance ruefully out of the shadow of our lowering,
drenched hat-rims!
3 P. M. Rain lashes our faces — impossible for trains to
get through the mire, so we take a rail each and corduroy
every inch of the road. Thunder and lightning — night over-
takes 3d Division train fast in mud — my old, worn-out boots
lame me terribly. Attempt to camp in open field — failed —
filed off to shelter of woods — pitchy darkness — rain, and numb
with cold. Foragers stuck three miles from camp. Hall —
his silverware. Passed Flora College. A great many of our
men lost their remnants of shoes to-day.
loth. Broke camp at 6. My old boots — my old socks!
So help me God, if I had old Jeff Davis here, I 'd cram them
down his dirty throat; thought I 'd throw them away this
morning, but after much difficulty got them on my feet and
staggered along. Hasty breakfast and move out — Negro men,
women and children. We are rear guard. B.y 12 M. got half-
mile from camp! Swamps without number.
i P. M. Large swamp — delay — moonlight — supper — cross
over — Negro woman's child drowned — horses drowned — march
3i 8 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
rapid ly— swamps again — Presbyterian church — go into house
during delay and give an old reb $25 (rebel money) for pair of
shoes — good-bye, old boots! Cross over — it is now two o'clock
in the morning — come to marshy country — wagons mire
down — got within two miles of camp at daylight. Halt for
breakfast and feed in the road — move on to camp — get in at
9 A. M. — found division ready to move out for the ensuing
march — stack arms, rest a few minutes, and resume the new
day's march. "Toil on, ye ephemeral train!"
nth. In advance — rosin burning — 3d Division camp and
.general headquarters — cross Fish Rod Creek — pass through
Rock Face Village and across river of same name — factory here
burned; operatives idle — camp within three miles of Fayette-
ville, our cavalry having driven the enemy away from the town
and across the Neuse River. Night — just got asleep when
aroused to go on picket — took company and posted north of
camp.
1 2th. Brigade moved down to river; put down pontoons
and crossed over— seventy men and eight commissioned officers
of 24th A. C. communicated with Gen. Sherman to-day — came
up Cape Fear River on tug /. McD. Davidson, from Wilmington
Communication with home at last. Beautiful breezy day.
Wrote note for Plaindealer.
Evening — ordered to take in pickets and join regiment-
Gen. Mower passes — distant canonading — arrive at river — por-
tion of bridge taken up to allow steamer to pass; this operation
cut my company in two whilst crossing. Rumor that we will
receive ten days' rations here and move forward on Wednesday.
i4th A. C. troubles — lost tents and baggage — Gen. Morgan
thinks rebellion "dwindled down"; lost all his tents but one,
which he carries on a pack-mule ; his headquarters in fine house
in town; his staff inside, himself in tent outside; small wedge
tent; fire in front.
Apropos of Gen. James D. Morgan's method of plain living
in the army, the following slight incidents will further reveal
his character and standing with his contemporaries:
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 319
In the evening, at the close of the fighting before Dalton
(Rocky Face), Gen. Morgan ordered Company "H," Lieut.
Woodard, back for our knapsacks. The company passing
Gen. Palmer's headquarters, that officer hailed the lieutenant
with, " Where 's that large body of men going?" Woodard
answered according to Gen. Morgan's order. Gen. Palmer:
"Oh! All right; Gen. Morgan never does anything but what
is right."
On another occasion, in the field, Gens. Stanley, Davis,
Johnson, and Morgan sat mounted, taking a social glass to-
gether. Gen. Stanley, addressing Gen. Morgan, offered his flask
and said: "Will you drink, general?" Morgan: "Thank
you; I am not dry." Stanley: "General, we don't drink be-
cause we are dry." Morgan: "I never drink unless I am
dry."
Demolishing arsenal to-day — Gen. Sherman looking on and
giving the proper instructions — Wm. Case — residence near
camp — pocketbook buried under apple tree — goods buried — the
hazel-tree wand — horses on island — daughters away — rebels
under guard — one tricky fellow crossed dead-line and is mortally
wounded .
Sent in requisition for twenty pounds coffee for mess, got
five pounds, with injunction to go light upon it, as no more
could be had.
i3th. Bright, sunny day — music across waters of Cape
Fear — Mr. Case; stables burning; runs out to save buggy ; plug
hat; boys shout at him; they run his buggy back into the fire.
This old gentleman (?) had made himself very obnoxious by
telling the men that he was a genuine traitor, and looked for
the speedy overthrow of the Union armies.
Broke camp at 7, our brigade in advance — pushed out three
miles and went into permanent camp for two days — encount-
ered rebels, however, and did not gain the three miles without
fighting for them — put up rail barricade and pitched tents,
discharged Hall this morning and took John Banfield for mess-
forager — turkey for supper. Clothing — "C" and "G" estimate
320 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
called for. Order received from Gen. Howard on habit of
profane swearing.
1 4th. With Lieut. Hankey, visit Fayetteville — difficulty
in getting over river — pontoon bridges crowded — town — navy
officers — troops passing — bands playing — citizens out — Negro
burial — return to camp — find troops going into new camp —
night — headquarters off "E" and "H" and " C " in corn -crib —
Lieut. Woodard relieved as "Bummer."
1 5th. Moved out rapidly in direction of Clinton — no ene-
my till we reached — — River; here had severe skirmish with
him; punished him severely and drove him away, but not with-
out small loss; one of their dead and two wounded fell into our
hands— wide and deep swamp on either side of this stream —
rebels attempted to burn bridge; failed; we were across about
as soon as they — torrents of rain on us all evening. Nightfall —
distant cannonading — "Old German Louis" frying flap-jacks
in the rain.
1 6th. Orders to move at 10 — delay — tents down and
packed — stood in rain all day waiting to move. Evening—
ordered out with Company "G" foraging with brigade teams —
go into country three miles — night overtakes us — rain — bridge
breaks down— break tongue out of wagon — orders received to
remain on road where troops are passing — bivouac — to join
regiment in morning.
i yth. Division came up to us at 6 A. M. — fell into our place
and moved with column — came into good country and then
again the usual number of swamps — got along slowly — large
mulberry trees — left Clinton road at dusk.
1 8th. Left camp at 6 — brigade in advance — sore and stiff
this morning — got along rapidly — corduroyed considerable road
in morning — towards noon, came into high hilly country — less
pine, more cak — plantation of Cobb; tomb of his wife — camp
at dusk at Gison's Church. Tons of books found at Cobb's
Plantation.
1 9th. Broke camp at 9 A. M. — our regiment rear guard —
A. C.s to left — placed trains in charge of one division and
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 321
pushed forward to the sound of battle— good country — fine
plantations — Union family at roadside — boy with one leg
wounded at Fredericksburg — heavy cannonading to left ; contin-
ued from 1 1 A. M. till night. Reached camp unexpectedly at 4
p. M. — just across wide swamp on high, steep bank — foragers
bringing in large numbers of horses and mules — vehicles of every
description loaded with provisions — contradictory reports com-
ing in about the fighting on our left — cannonading through the
night — roused at 12 midnight with orders to draw one day's
rations to do two days and prepare to march immediately. The
battle of Averyboro fought yesterday by the i4th A. C., in
which Morgan's division particularly distinguished itself.
20th. Broke camp at 2 A. M. Cannonading — distant —
delay at swamp — push rapidly along after crossing it — cannon-
ading— approach it — 4th Division wagons — Gen. Sherman's
train — hot — fifteen miles made — push on. Trees leaving out
— fruit trees in blossom. Cannonading dead ahead and nearer.
Hot, hot. Reach i5th A. C. and go into line of battle — made
twenty-one miles by 2 p. M. Enemy entrenched on our front.
Night — withdraw and go into camp — moving-back rebels at-
tack I5th A. C. — repulsed. This is Bentonville.
2ist. Picket-firing — best rest last night that we have had
in ten days — our batteries open — orders received — division
files out — pass Gen. Blair's headquarters and Gen. G. A. Smith's
— pass out of 4th Division breastworks — going to extreme
right of our army — pickets — house — 9th 111. Mounted Infantry
videttes — log houses — low land — form line of battle in a heavily
wooded country and move forward instantly, scarcely giving
time to form the line and to allow the skirmishers to deploy.
Nothing joins our extreme left — skirmishers engaged — as we
advance rebel batteries ahell us — we push forward rapidly —
strike line of rebels behind log breastworks; on to them so
quick we captured half of them, the rest fled — at this point
Lieut. Hughes of " I " lost one of his men on the skirmish-line.
Following up the retreating rebel line through heavy woods,
we got into swamp — engaged with rebel infantry and cavalry —
322 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
my men of "G" becoming scattered at this point, firing from
behind cover of the trees; some of them missing in the dense
battle smoke ; and feeling the necessity of having them well in
hand for emergency orders, I stepped out into a small open
space and notified all within hearing that if they intended to
remain with me to form instantly on my left ; the principal men
near by, including the sergeants, formed in good order — Gen.
Mower, Tillson, Gillespie, and Race at hand — enemy reported
flanking us — fix bayonets — fall back to better ground — give
them musketry — Wyatt mortally wounded — number of others
in "G" wounded and others missing — rebels reported still
forcing our left flank — line ordered to retire — fell back slowly
and in good order — did not hear the order at first — discovered
the line retiring and fell back with it — rebels follow, cheering —
Corp. John Hungerford killed — fell back to first line of rebel
works and re-formed our line — awaited the enemy, who didn't
come — regiment lost sixty killed, wounded, and missing — our
skirmishers got into Joe Johnston's headquarters tents; also
reached bridge over Mill Creek in rear of town of Bentonville —
had our movement been supported, we could have held the
bridge and destroyed or compelled the surrender of the enemy's
force. Casualties in "E": O. P. Craig, killed; Mar. Furnald,
John Knutstrum, wounded. Moved to left and joined right of
4th Division — found two lines of battle — drew cartridges —
move again to left and rear — form line — throw up works and
camp — artillery in position on our left — houses passed this
morning used as hospitals — dead buried.
22d. Enemy gone — follow him into Bentonville — halt —
wounded left by enemy in buildings — our wounded and dead
being brought in from the scene of yesterday's action — found
young Otho P. Craig still breathing; lying by fire, one hand in
the coals badly burned; soon died — i5th A. C. overtakes rear
guard of enemy; engaged; our boys drive them away — we re-
turn to camp — our wounded doing well — some limbs amputated
— men tied up before 25th Ind. headquarters for pillaging
wounded men's knapsacks. Sunset — go on picket — visit field
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 323
hospital in search of some of our missing; found none — the
floors of farm-house used for field hospital covered with our
wounded; I stepped cautiously through the crowded, silent,
prostrate men; one, as I approached, a fine -looking young man,
sat up and gazed wistfully far away, then laid down and died
instantly. Relieved from picket at 6 — returned to camp and
marched at 7 — struck down river to point where stacked arms
on 2oth inst. ; here passed Negro troops, loth A. C. ; also white
troops in camp of same corps headquarters — zouave guard;
boys groan at him; for two miles heard regiments as they
passed that guard groaning and shouting derisively ; unreason-
ably and damnably insulting — Gen. Sherman's circular order
congratulatory — pushed on down river — pass isth A. C. in
camp — miserable day; wind blowing a hurricane; sand flying
in clouds — sore, stiff, and weary.
24th. Broke camp at n A. M. — marched to river; crossed
at Cox's bridge on pontoons — rebel earth- works — detached and
furloughed men come out from Goldsboro to meet us — great re-
joicing— we must be about to make communication with the
land of patriotism and bad habits, since I see a fellow smoking
a cigar — reach Goldsboro — Gen. Sherman and group of other
generals review us as we pass into city — march two miles be-
beyond town and camp — McL,ain and McMullen, of 3oth 111.,
call on us — recruits, lately from Henderson County — this is the
third opportunity furloughed men and officers have had to
reach us; but McKinney does not show up.
25th. The whistle of a locomotive from Newbern stirs
our hearts; the whole army cheers — sunny morning — wagon-
train goes to Kingston for clothing and supplies — regiment or-
dered out with small train for forage — "Sherman's army shall
have rest." Learn that mail is at division headquarters for us;
excitement in consequence. Send note to Plaindealer.
26th. Mess held caucus this morning on change of cooks;
did not determine — regiment busy building houses and policing
— received mail.
324 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
27th. Transcribing orders for Lieut. Winsett — issue cloth-
ing— visit town, hospital, college — soldiers in buggies — depot —
Negroes — refugees — train — wounded — Gen. H. — citizens — Col.
Tillson gone home on furlough; is to have a brevet star; for
what reason is what we are all guessing at.
28th. Making pay-rolls for "G" — got furlough for Sergt.
Harvey.
29th. At work on pay-rolls — muster out Rufus Neal, of
"G" — on Board of Survey to-day — passed upon clothing at
brigade headquarters. Learn that Mac Wood is colonel of
1 54th 111. ; a good joke on Tillson if old Mac should rank equally
with him at the close of the service.
3oth. Make out list of articles to be purchased by Maj.
Race at Newburn — issuing clothing — learn that Lieut. Watson,
of i6th 111., is in College Hospital, Goldsboro — marching orders
for 5 to-morrow.
3 1 st. Broke camp at 5 — in company with 43d Ohio and
twenty wagons, went for forage ; orders not to go farther than
seven miles; found nothing, and returned to camp.
April ist. Inspection at u A. M- — knapsacks and quarters
searched for quilts, clothing, and books, picked up during the
campaign, to be turned over to hospitals; only one article
found in "G," piece of sheeting. Officers drunk — Hallaman, of
"I/1 "wetting" his commission. Receipted to Lieut. Win-
sett for McKinney's receipt for package of money — $480,
monument fund — Winsett does not wish to be held responsible.
2d. Maj. Race returned from Newbern — on picket — re-
lieved Lieuts. Van Tuyl and Woodard. Very quiet along the
outposts. We have lost "Old Joe"; he goes to command
2oth A. C.
L 3d. In obedience to orders, took formal command of "G"
and became accountable for its ordnance, commissary and
general equipment— have been in command of "G" for over
two months, but not till to-day have been responsible for its
quartermaster's property. "Uncle Billy" has returned fiom
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 325
his visit to Gen. Grant. Campaign will open soon — extra
baggage going to rear.
4th. Parade-ground enlivened by skirmish and squad
drills. Busy on "G's" papers. Anxiety and sclicitude in-
crease as we approach the crisis of the rebellion! Bets offered
that the rebellion will go down in from three to five months.
Gen. Sherman says this army will be mustered out in five
months.
5th. Called on Lieut. Henry Watson at College Hospital
— his furlough — will start home to-morrow — tremendous cheer-
ing— ''grapevine" news in abundance.
6th. Drills — cheers throughout the camp — shouts of
"Peace! Peace! Grant has taken Richmond! Thanks to
Almighty God!" Regiments assembled; dispatch read and
shouted to ! What 's the price of gold in New York this
morning? At brigade headquarters — "Major Bob," the ex-
pert fife-player — Dick Van Nostrand says he 's getting scared;
the war will soon be over, and he '11 be out of a job !
yth. Mocking-birds along little stream in front of camp —
days and nights resound with cheers!
8th. Policing — no drills — visit Goldsboro with Lieut. Van
Tuyl, Simpson, Col. G., Maj. Race and Sergt. Ritchey. Called
at office of Capt. Hall, brigade quartermaster — firing salutes —
rockets — cheers !
9th. Men buying "Henry rifles" of 64th 111. Doc Craig
reported for duty — Capt. Shaw on leave of absence — cam-
paign resumed to-morrow — men eager to be off — inspection
to-day — circular from Gen. Grant: "Let us finish the job at
once." Marching orders for 8 A. M.
loth. Cannonading at the front — broke camp at n —
passed through town and took road to Raleigh — torrents of
rain — frequent halts — made ten miles — got into camp at 9
p. M. Cup of tea and laid down.
nth. Roused at 4 with marching orders for 5. Moved
back on road three miles to assist trains — corduroyed the road
and returned to camp — found troops moving out for the day's
32 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
march — took our place in column — rail barricades numerous —
used by rebel cavalry — country flat — swamps numerous — slow
progress — now in country called "Pine Levels." Made eight
miles — got into camp at sunset.
1 2th. Train mired down — this moment received dispatch
that Lee has surrendered to Grant — tremendous cheering —
men's guns go down and their hats go up! Army wild with
joy. Brigade massed and dispatch read. Cheers for Grant,
for Sherman and for 3d Brigade !
10 A. M. Cannonading distant — slow progress — long and
tedious delays — no bottom to these roads — wagons mire to
the axle. Went into camp at i p. M. on rising ground. Fin-
ished "Life of Stonewall Jackson."
i3th. Two days' rations issued. Broke camp at 8 A. M.—
delay — Gen. Sherman's circular read on Grant's victories —
cheers — hills covered with living green — orchards in bloom —
in camp at 4 P. M. — three miles to Neuse River.
i4th. Broke camp at 8 — marched to river — delay —
cross — rebel paroled prisoners — beautiful scenery — farms —
growing wheat — rail barricades — dead horses — graves — first
view of city of Raleigh— dome of Capitol and church steeples
to our right over tops of forest-crowned hills — troops encamped
on our left — the city — entrance — heavy siege guns and earth-
works— Fayetteville Street — ladies — Capitol — bronze statue of
Washington — camp in suburbs west of city on Hillsboro road.
I5th. Formed line for march — torrents of rain — order
to march countermanded — rumor that Johnston has surren-
dered— cheers, cheers and cheers! extravagant demonstrations
of joy! Visit city — citizens highly elated at the prospect of
speedy peace. Progress and Standard, daily papers, are
loyal — very strongly in favor of the old Government. Nego-
tiations pending between Gens. Sherman and Johnston.
1 6th. Policed ground and arranged regular camp — at-
tended service at Baptist church — Sabbath-school—soldiers —
sermon very good — prayed for peace. Indeed the sound of
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 327
Sabbath bells and religious ceremonies came gratefully to our
long-estranged senses.
i yth. Inspection at i p. M. Visit city with Lieuts. How-
ard, Simpson and Capt. McGrath. Rode out to the Insane
Asylum — on leaving camp first heard of the assassination of
President Lincoln — a grape-shot through the heart would not
have struck me more dumb. I at first thought it a ghastly
joke— I could not believe the report. After a pleasant ride
through the city, returned to camp only to have our worst
fears confirmed. The President, Secretary Seward, Fred. Sew-
ard and Maj. Seward were assassinated — the former in his
private box at Ford's Theatre; the others at the Secretary's
home. The Sewards, according to later dispatch, were not
killed. Gen. Howard's circular announcing the sad event re-
ceived ; profound sorrow fills every heart. Wrathful resolves
and vows of vengeance. "The South has lost her best friend "
is the opinion of all. "Let us hoist the black flag," say the
soldiers. One says, "I 've just commenced to soldier."
What is going on at the front we can not guess. It is
said, however, that Gen. Sherman will succeed in obtaining
the surrender of Johnston.
1 8th. No word from the negotiations pending between
Gens. Sherman and Jackson.
igth. W. H. Davis and W. H. Roberts mustered out.
Circular from Gen. Sherman received at brigade headquarters
announcing that satisfactory terms had been made with Johns-
ton for the surrender of his army — subject to the approval of
the President. Armistice of five days. No cheers among our
troops since the death of the President.
2oth. Attend review of loth A. C. — Gens. Sherman, Ames,
Terry, Schofield, Slocum, Cox, Mower, Paine, Schurz and a
host of other stars, known and unknown. Negro division —
rumor that we march for Washington after the review.
2ist. 23d A. C. — Gen. Schofield reviewed — not present —
said to have been splendid.
328 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
22d. Attended review of 2oth A. C. — Gen. Mower — mag-
nificent — received particulars of President's death in New
York Herald. Order received for review of lyth A. C. for
24th inst.
23d. Attended service at Episcopal church— Gens. Sher-
man and Barry present. Minister aged and prosy. Prepar-
atory review by Gen. Force at 2 p. M. Lieut. Anderson of
"G" reported for duty; this will relieve me, for which I am
thankful. Thank God for the freedom which awaits us all!
Sent a communication to the Daily Pragress relating to the
assassination of President Lincoln.
24th. Formed line for review at 8 A. M. After some de-
lay marched to south part of city, stacked arms and awaited
orders. Meantime, Adjt. Allen reported that Lieut.-Gen. Grant
would review us — this was the first intimation we had of the
presence of the General-in-chief. Enthusiasm at this an-
nouncement— had an additional incentive (if such were needed)
to acquit ourselves well.
Passed in review — Gen. Grant looked quite natural. Spec-
tators and generals enthusiastic over our appearance and
demeanor.
p. M. Air thick with rumors — sick being sent to hospi-
tals— trains loading with supplies and ammunition — every in-
dication of a forward movement — rumored that Gen. Grant
has given Johnston till 8 A. M. to-morrow to accept his terms
of unconditional surrender; in case he does not, we move
against him.
25th. Broke camp at 8. Moved west along railroad ten
miles and went into regular camp. Communication to Prog-
ress appeared in this morning's issue. Relieved of "G" by
order — thanks !
26th. Engine and coach passed west to Johnston this
morning, carrying Gens. Grant, Sherman, Howard and Blair.
Night — train returned from front — communicates with the
army — cheers — Gen. Blair announces the surrender of Johns-
ton and peace in consequence — rockets and cheers! Tillson
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 329
returned with a brevet star — he ran home like a small boy to
exploit himself over a brevet star — what had he done to win
it? He is a long way behind James D. Morgan, whom he
despises.
27th. Broke camp at 6 and marched back to Raleigh —
occupied old camp — found our brush shades intact. Worked
on "G's" papers. Night — visit the city — band serenading at
Terry's and Slocum's headquarters. Rumor that we will
march through to Washington.
28th. Work on papers — rumor that we march to Wash-
ington; thence by rail to Springfield, 111., to be mustered out.
We go via Petersburg and Richmond. Great rejoicing at
this. Orders from Gens. Howard and Blair — circular to citi-
zens from Gen. Howard — visit city. Interviewed Mrs. Stewart,
a lady past eighty years of age, living in the city and ac-
quainted with Andrew Johnson in his earliest years. Mrs.
Stewart said: "He was born in 1808; I was married the
yth of March of that year; he was born on the nth of that
month. It was the custom to have a ball after weddings in
those days. While we were dancing at a late hour I heard
Polly had a boy. I went up into her room in my wedding
dress — the room was a comfortable one, and reached by a
flight of stairs from the outside — I went up and named him
Andrew. I wanted to call him Andrew McDonald; but his
father said, 'No, only call him Andrew — that is as much as
I can remember.' His father was a tall, raw-boned man;
don't think he had twenty pounds of flesh on him, and the
heartiest eater I ever saw. Andy's parents lived with my
step-father; his father drove team for my step-father, and
they called my parents 'Old Master and Missus.' They were
poor, but honest. I have seen Andy's grandfather, who was
a tailor."
When about to take my leave, Mrs. Stewart said: "Will
you see the President soon?" I thought I would. "Tell him
Mrs. Stewart, who named him, is still living, very frail and
330 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
poor-to-do; tell him to send me a little present, a little sum
of money or something."
I met other persons who had known Andy when a "poor
tailor in Raleigh." One old gentleman, pointing to a large
oak tree about fifty yards from his house, said that under
that tree once stood the house of an old woman which Andy
had helped to stone, and in consequence had to leave town.
HOMEWARD BOUND VIA RICHMOND AND WASHINGTON.
29th. Broke camp at 9. Gen. Howard's circular regu-
lating the march — great pains are being taken to prevent
injury of property or mistreatment of citizens along the route
of march. Heavy penalties laid down against straggling or
pillaging. After considerable delay on the route, reached the
Neuse — crossed and went into camp — rain pouring on us as
we turned in at 8 P. M. Very dark — wet — crawl into blankets.
Heard cannon shots at Raleigh all day at intervals, till
sunset, when a salute of thirty-six guns was fired, com-
memorating the reunion of States, now thirty-six in number.
The first were fired in memory of the fallen President.
3oth. Drying clothing — no marching Sundays going
home ! Boy drowned in the Neuse. Took piece artillery down
and fired over the water — raised body — bathed to-day with
Lieut. "Lew" — S., H. and Davy Duston. Henry Allaman
of our company and Wright of "H" returned from Salisbury
Prison this eve. The former was wounded in neck and cap-
tured at Bentonville; the other was taken near Raleigh. The
Confederates said to these boys when they were taken: "Let
us have your knife and pocket-book." Took rings off their
fingers; sold them at auction — one went at $70 Confederate
scrip. Rebel rank and file in Johnston's army lament the death
of Abraham Lincoln. Slow to believe in the surrender of Lee!
Jeff Davis escapes — paid their soldiers ten months' pay —
$1.65 in silver! Strawberries on the Neuse.
Maj. Race gave me a sketch of his life — a marked success.
Simpson mustered as captain.
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 331
May i st. Broke camp at 7 — marched rapidly— passed
through villages of Forestville and Wake Forest — college —
citizens — beautiful country — groves — valleys — more oak and
elm and less pine — country lads and lassies congregated at
cross-roads to see the "Yankees" pass. Notice many officers
and men of Lee's army at their homes — Othello's occupation
gone ! Army very orderly — disturb nothing and nobody. This
march is much like a holiday parade. Passing through towns
we unfurl "Old Glory" and our bands play, which brings all
the citizens to their doors. Made seventeen miles. Going to
bathe, came upon citizens taking articles of clothing, etc.,
from a cave ! The horrible nightmare of Civil War no longer
disturbs their sleeping and waking hours.
ad. Broke camp at 6 — marched rapidly — citizens out
to see the "Yankees" homeward bound. Country high and
sandy — crossed Tar River — made twenty-two miles.
Boys plagued the Negroes greatly along the route, snap-
ping gun-caps at them and making them take off their hats
and shout for Sherman! Negroes were not displeased at this;
but the guns and horse-play scared some of them, and the
wenches scampered back over the fields to their homes!
3d. Marched at 5. Passed Ridge way Junction — train of
cars passed us here — Ridgeway Station — Warrenton Station —
sick — got into an ambulance for the first time during the war !
It is said we are racing with i5th A. C. for the first crossing of
the Roanoke. It is considered worth an effort to have the
advance after crossing the river — perhaps so; but we are
flesh and blood, and the sun is hot, and, besides, there is
no hurry. Reached within three miles of river — i5th A. C.
ahead— went into camp at 3 p. M. Made eighteen miles.
Fine plantations along to-day's route; any number of Ne-
groes and any amount of tobacco — seventy boxes of the latter
found in one place. Boys appropriate it.
4th. 1 5th A. C. laying pontoons; progress slowly with
this work — Lieut. Hankey — Company "C" sent forward to
Petersburg with fifteen wagons for rations — remained in camp
332 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
till 3 P. M., when moved out and marched down to within half-
mile of river — trains sent over first — first view of Roanoke —
gleam of water through mass of dark-green foliage — twilight —
went down to pontoon bridge — corps trains massed in the
valley.
5th. Broke camp and marched at 3 A. M. — crossed river
and marched rapidly towards Petersburg till daylight, when we
halted for breakfast — spring shower; cooled the air and laid the
dust, making the march delightful — we are now in "Ole Vir-
ginny"; took first drink upon her sacred soil from a sulphur
spring — beautiful landscape — fine plantations — tobacco houses
- Lee's soldiers — Meherrin River — bridge burned — Wilson
— Sheridan— reached creek; bathed face and feet — pushed on
to Boydton Plank Road, historical ground, and camped near
— 's store — some claim we made thirty miles to-day — men
in good spirits — got into camp at 4 p. M. — citizens clever — some
Union people — children brought us the cup of cold water — the
Logan and Blair race seems at its crisis.
6th. Marched at 5 — Negroes shouting for Sherman :
" 'Rah Sherman!" — men suffering from exhaustion and sun-
stroke— made twenty-five miles — camped on north bank of
- Creek on farm where Gen. Scott is said to have been
born, half-mile from Dinwiddie Court House — Five Forks close
at hand, off our left.
7th. Marched at 5 — arrived at Petersburg at 10 A. M.;
camped two miles from city on the Appomattox — purchased
supplies; first we have had from "God's country" for some
months — with Lieut. Lew Van Tuyl, visit city — ride mules —
citizens — effect of grape, shell, and musketry on buildings —
rebel hospitals — officers and soldiers in gray, less an arm or leg,
resting at their homes.
For four years the approaches to the city and, in fact, the
region round about has been tramped by the contending hosts
till the face of Nature, barring the forests, is as bare as one's
hand. We were out where the Petersburg mine was exploded,
and I studied the defensive earthworks with interest, for they
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 333
were intricate, elaborate, and, I believe, were never successfully
stormed at any point for a time, long or short. They were
built by slave-labor, and they certainly furnish evidence that
the Southern leaders came in due time to realize the size of the
job they had undertaken.
8th. Orders to march at 8 A. M. — left camp in company
with Lieut. Brugel ("F") and visited fortifications east and
north of city — exploded mine — Fort Hell — Fort Steadman —
cemetery — bones of the dead — joined the column at the Appo-
mattox, north of city, going out on Richmond Turnpike —
marched to - — Creek and camped — bath — bad conduct of
men while passing through city — bad feeling between Eastern
and Western armies; discreditable to both; a spirit indulged,
however, only by the worst in each.
9th. "On to Richmond ! " — left camp at 8 — marched rap-
idly and cheerfully along the wide turnpike — passed through
earthworks enclosing Richmond — evidences of battle — Dairy's
Bluff and Fort Darling off our right; Drury's Plantation on our
left — beautiful residence and groves— James River and steam-
ers, joyful to our long-exiled eyes — first view of Richmond-
camped in suburbs of city — i4th and aoth A. C.s already here —
dinner — Gen. Sherman refuses the proffered hospitality of Hal-
leek; bully for "Uncle Billy!" With McGrath, Lieut. Van
Tuyl, and Simpson, visit Manchester — factories — Scott's Bridge
— Castle Thunder — Libby Prison.
loth. With Lieut. Van Tuyl, Hankey, and Simpson, visit
Belle Isle — graves — enclosures — low ground — soup-house,
bakery, etc. Along the ramparts of this mournful spot Jeff
Davis and his Cabinet were wont to enjoy an outing on pleasant
days injtheir white flannel suits and gold-headed canes, looking
down on the starving wretches who, by the fortunes of war, had
become their victims.
i ith. With Lieut. Hankey, visit Richmond — Castle Thun-
der— Libby/ Prison — Corcoran Prison — Dallgren Depot — Capi-
tol— marble statue of Henry Clay — Crawford's bronze eques-
trian statue of_ Washington and the Virginia Compatriots — Gen.
334 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
Lee's residence— burned districts — left wing of our army com-
menced the march to Alexandria — stood on west side of Capitol
Square and saw the head of column pass through the city — Gen.
Sherman and staff in advance — cavalry — Gen. Davis and i4th
A. C. — Gen. Morgan, brevet major-general, 2d Division; no
honors to Gen. Halleck- — 2oth A. C. will follow the I4th, and
to-morrow the rig^ht wing will pass through — our A. C. in
advance.
1 2th. Broke camp at 6 — left the column while it was pre-
paring to leave camp and crossed over into Richmond with 3d
Division, which had the advance, as I wished to look over the
city again.
St. Paul's Church, where Jeff Davis worshiped — his resi-
dence— the Patrick Henry Episcopal church, where this cele-
brated man made his great speech advocating war with King
George; the church built on site of theatre destroyed by fire,
which consumed a great number of persons — the Monument;
inscriptions — Gen. Washington's headquarters, fine stone build-
ing on Main Street between Nineteenth and Twentieth; used
formerly as hotel.
Joined my regiment as it debouched into Main Street — out
of the city — Emmanuel Church — Chickahominy battle-ground
off our right — cemetery — graves of soldiers — delays — very slow
progress — went into camp early — troops ahead have bad roads,
which impedes our progress — supper — mess talk of war with
France in Mexico; we are not averse to the adventure.
RICHMOND TO WASHINGTON.
1 3th. Broke camp at 6 — delays — crossed Chickahominy
early — marched to Hanover Court House and camped — pontoon
bridge being laid across Pamunkey — Bethesda Church; this is
the church back upon which Sheridan drove Fitz-Hugh Lee in
the severest cavalry fight of the war; the fight commenced at
Hawe's Shop — skeletons of horses lying over the ground.
I4th. Crossed Pamunkey; small, turbid stream — delays
in getting over — did not clear the bridge much before noon —
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 335
after crossing, marched rapidly; made fourteen miles, and
camped beyond Chesterfield Station on railroad — Concord
Church — wedding — one of Lee's soldiers.
1 5th. Broke camp at 4. Our division in advance and
our regiment in advance of division. Crossed tributaries of Mat-
tapony — made twenty miles and camped across Po River, with-
in five miles of Spottsylvania Court House. Lee's extreme
right rested here — his works — got into camp at 2 P. M. Mounted
and rode with Capt. McGrath to Spottsylvania Court House —
rode over the entire field, several miles in length. Scene of
Gen. Hancock's battles — Gen. Grant's headquarters — McAl-
sop's house — grave of Capt. McGrath's brother. The dead!
Mr. Sanford at Spott's Tavern — grape and shell against his
buildings. This battle-ground still bore the deep scars made
by the artillery and trains through the woods along improvised
roads.
1 6th. Broke camp and marched at 4. Reached Fred-
ericksburg at 9 A. M. With Maj. Race and Maj.-Surg. Ritchey,
visited battle-ground. Howison's Hill — Howison's residence —
Howison himself — Gen. Lee's point of observation Howison's
Hill— his position worth 100,000 men to him. Gen. Burnside's
point of observation on heights opposite. Marye's Hill-
Hamilton's Crossing.
The stone wall; cemetery on Marye's Hill — buildings dam-
aged by our shell — marks of musketry on tombstones — plucked
a rose here. Trenches filled with our dead. Ice-house and
fair ground and their gruesome story.
Visited small shaft to the mother of Washington on Ken-
more estate — Col. Lewis' residence — Mrs. Washington's home
where she died — her character as portrayed by Mr. Bayne.
Washington's father — his grave — Westmoreland County. Rev-
olutionary buildings. Mr. Bayne's talk of the battles — Fred-
ericksburg and Chancellorsville — Lee nothing less than a god !
Sedgewick's retreat across Bank's Ford — dead floating down
river.
336 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life,
The citizens — town demolished — Orphan Asylum. Cap-
ture of Jeff Davis announced by Gen. Sherman. Maj. Race
speaks in just terms of the dishonesty and trickery of Tillson;
and so, also, did Surg. Ritchey. Encamped near Potomac
Creek — severe march — weather extremely hot — overtook col-
umn three miles from camp. The shaft that marks the grave
of Mary Washington is chipped and marked by Vandals and
musketry.
iyth. God speed our weary feet to Alexandria! My
flesh feels- like it had been beaten with a maul. The dust is
thick and the sun hot — the muscles of our legs hard as wood.
Got along slowly — made ten miles only — camped in pines.
Some deaths to-day from overheat. Did not get the nearest
route to Alexandria and have twenty miles extra to march —
1 5th A. C. is on direct road.
1 8th. Reached Occoquan River early this p. M. Blue
-Ridge Mountains off our left for two or three days — heavy rain
this P. M. — bath — camped on heights north of river.
1 9th. Broke camp at 6 and emerged from the hills upon
Strawberry Plains at 2 P. M. — country level — beautiful pas-
tures— camped four miles from Alexandria — mail.
Learn that McKinney is in Alexandria and will join us
to-morrow! Delighted to know that this eminent warrior,
who was not with us on the Hood Chase, nor on the March to
the Sea, nor in the Campaign through the Carolinas, will taste
camp life with us for a day or two before we are reviewed
and discharged.
2oth. Doubts as to whether all the veterans will be mus-
tered out. Boys will be sadly disappointed if they are not
at home on the 4th July coming. McKinney returned to
regiment after an absence of seven months.
2ist. George ("Dad") Hand reported for duty to-day
after an absence of nine or ten months; another of the ab-
sentees who will not adorn the coming grand review. It is
due the men of my company who were faithful through long
years of service that a deep and wide gulf should separate
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 337
Ihem from those who were conspicuous by their absence from
the post of duty.
When the "coffee-cooler" was an enlisted man with a
stomach eaten out by fire-water before he entered the service,
the offense was sufficiently heinous; but where the shirk was
-a commissioned officer, drawing liberal pay, we stood in need
of an endowment akin to the miraculous to endure patiently
-a man so shamelessly indifferent to every sense of honor as
to prefer the associations of "Smoky Row" to the manly
discharge of his obligations to the men whose suffrages sup-
plied his shoulder-straps and the salary for which the Govern-
ment received no adequate return. Our one compensation lay
in the conviction that his room was better than his company.
Recently promoted officers in Washington, drawing pay
on final statements. Wife of Capt. McGrath, of Philadelphia,
in camp to meet her husband.
Orders received this eve to march to Long Bridge at 8 130
to-morrow. We do not hope to compete successfully with the
Army of the Potomac at the coming review. In discipline, in
drill, in physique, we are superior to the Eastern Army; but we
shall not be so well dressed and will not appear so well to
the superficial observer. The Eastern people have an erroneous
notion of us. They think we are a rabble!
23d. Broke camp at 8. Column moved to camp between
Alexandria and Washington to be close to the Capitol at the
appointed hour for review. I did not move with the column
to-day; but, in company with Maj.-Surg. Ritchey and Acting
Quartermaster Hughes, mounted and rode to Mt. Vernon,
eight miles distant. View from Rose Hill of the valley in
which Mt. Vernon is situated. Lunch at a freedman's, a de-
scendant of one of Washington's emancipated blacks — straw-
berries— returned in evening — views of Potomac — views of
Washington and Alexandria from bluff — cross into Alexan-
dria— lunch at restaurant — reached camp at sunset, having
spent some hours at Mt. Yernon, minutely inspecting the place,
to form some conception of the home life of the First President.
338 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
24th. Broke camp at 6 and moved across Long Bridge
to Washington. Met Lieut. Porter, i6th 111. Lee's residence
off our left. Around the Capitol building to suburbs and
massed. At 9 A. M. moved forward — inscriptions — brilliant
pageant — emerged from the thronged Capitol at 12 M. Moved
out on a continuation of i4th Street to camp — right of road
in woods. Our army did splendidly. Pennsylvania Avenue
was brilliantly decorated with the national colors and placards
of welcome.
At the Treasury building the old "Tenth" received its
full measure of applause for its steady lines and finely ex-
ecuted changes of direction. But, notwithstanding the flood-
tide of exultation, the Capitol was lonesome in the absence
of Abraham Lincoln. The President and the Cabinet, Gen.
Sherman, and other distinguished men were on the revie wing-
stand.
With Lieuts. Van Tuyl and Woodard, visited the city in
the evening.
25th. Enlarged booth — sent a bit of chaff to the Daily
Chronicle concerning our rations since our return to "God's
country."
26th. Visited the White House. As I stepped into the
portico a carriage drove up, from which Pres. Johnson alighted.
The doors of the mansion swung wide. We raised our hats,
and the President returned the salute, bowing several times
to different portions of the crowd. We were soon after ad-
mitted. Saw Gov. Curtan, of Pennsylvania, in one of the
upper chambers. In the East Room laborers were busy tak-
ing down the platform on which rested Pres. Lincoln's cata-
falque. The Yankee Vandal was present, as usual, with his
pocket-knife out, splitting walking-canes out of the detached
boards lying around. A fat man, with an impatient air, in-
quires the room of the President. The mansion and grounds
precisely the same as when I saw them four years since, at
the beginning of the struggle, when Gen. Scott commanded
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 339
our armies. Revisited the Capitol and all the other places of
public interest.
Attended Grover's Theatre with Lieut. Van Tuyl, Brown
and Sergt. Fuller.
27th. With Capt. Shaw, slept in city — breakfast at cafe" —
met with Jno. Jackson, formerly of "B," now captain in a Ne-
gro regiment. He gave me a Chronicle containing my squib.
Visited Government buildings with Shaw, who had never seen
them — camp — Atlanta baggage received this evening.
28th. Enlarged our "dog" tent with tents received in
stored baggage. This P. M. visit Crystal Springs on Rock
Creek Mossy spring.
This A. M. made out ordnance and commissary and general
equipment returns. Went to city with Maj. Crenshaw, 25th
Ind., who drew pay on muster-out papers as captain. Applied
to First National Bank (Jay Cook & Co.) for payment — after
banking hours — referred by an employee of the bank to a
subordinate, who cashed the major's check for half of one per
cent.
3oth. Went to Ordnance and Quartermaster's Depart-
ments in city to settle my accounts with Government. Could
not finish on account of the rush — have to wait a few days
on Quartermaster's Department. Both departments hard
pressed Met P. De Krigger, Tillson and Gen. Leggett at
Willard's. Bassett, "Doc" of "B," and Dick Van Nostrand,
" E" men, have difficulty with Invalid Corps, City "Provos"-
our boys overpowered — three of "E" in guard-house — re-
leased— the only defeat of "E" during the war.
Visit Canterbury with captain of Army of the Potomac.
3 1 st. Found on table in tent on my return from city a
letter for "M. H. J." from Mary F. Hamilton, of the Treasury
Department. She read my squib in the Chronicle and asks
me to dine with her! Good Lord! look at my shabby old
uniform — just out of the woods; fine escort for a lady in a
fashionable cafe! I '11 see McKinney. He 's got something
340 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
to wear! I '11 send him! Lew and McK. absent in city —
Gen. Grant and wife passed in carriage.
June i st. Lieut. John S. Spear of the Signal Service,
Regular Army, called — an old classmate — pleasant interview —
crowds of soldiers going from one general's headquarters to
another, calling for a speech !
2d. Called at the Quartermaster's Department about pa-
pers. Sent note to M. F. H. from Willard's- — received reply-
fell in with Lieut. Hankey, Maj. Race and Simpson, with whom
visited Smithsonian Institute and Navy Yard.
3d. Went again to Quartermaster-General's office on
business. Met in town Capt. Kennedy and Lieut. Fannestah
of "K."
BY RAIL TO PARKERSBURG — DOWN THE OHIO RIVER
TO LOUISVILLE.
4th. Received note from Com. Div. "C" of M. Called
on Gen. Force, as requested. Moving to place me on his staff
as ordnance officer, which I do not want — unable to call on
Miss Hamilton, who sent me a note and some money. Sent
McKinney to call on her — he took the money and returned
it to her — he reported that he found her a very pleasant lady,
of which I have no doubt.
Received marching orders for 5 A. M. to-morrow. Army
goes west to Louisville, Ky. Gen. Force's compliments; came
to naught, perforce, as the army is soon to dissolve.
5th. Broke camp at 5 and marched to depot of B. &
O. R. R. Westward ho! Relay house — Bladensburg — Pa-
tapsco River scenery — picnic parties — factories — night — Har-
per's Ferry — Western Virginia — people cheer us and wave
handkerchiefs in friendly salutation.
6th. Mountain scenery — Potomac — Cumberland — Sani-
tary Commission — coffee — mountains increase in size — we as-
cend the range — magnificent views. As our train poised on the
western ' summit, detained for the moment, the hundreds of
faces looking down a sheer perpendicular hundreds of feet be-
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 341
low upon the roof of a farm-house and the beautiful level fields
stretching far away, an involuntary chorus of cheers from our
car windows woke the echoes of the hills around us.
7th. Breakfast at Thornton — Grafton — McKinney leaves
us, as usual — country rough — petroleum scaffolding and der-
ricks— Kanawha River — Parkersburg — leave train and go into
camp on bank of Kanawha, with orders to move at 5 — bath.
8th. Broke camp and marched through Parkersburg to
levee, which we found crowded with steamers — left wing of our
regiment boarded the Marmora, right wing the Camelia — large
number of steamers accompanied us, bearing the other regi-
ments of our division — Blennerhassett's Island; farms thereon
— went to shoals, where we reshipped on steamers awaiting us —
our entire regiment boarded the Empire City — greeting along
the shores by the people — our pilot being unacquainted with
the channel of the upper Ohio, had to lay up for the night just
below Gallipolis.
9th. Rested well last night — Maysville — scenery im-
proving— hills cultivated; covered with orchards and vine-
yards— found violin and guitar aboard; Jim Boyd and "Doc"
Craig musicians; excellent music. Night — Cincinnati — run till
12 and laid by till daylight.
loth. Warsaw — Madison — Louisville at 12 M. — disem-
barked and marched to camp five miles west of city on banks of
Ohio — -regiment attracted some attention passing through the
streets — camped on bad ground; swampy, miasmatic, and
swarming with mosquitoes — rumor that we will be paid and
furloughed.
nth. A camp rumor that 84th 111. passed through Louis-
ville last evening mustered out — having no rations in camp,
dined at Louisville Hotel — our regiment was offered provost
duty in city; Col. Gillespie declined — 43d Ohio went — got note
from McKinney for $480, monument money.
1 2th. After some delay, we changed camp to high, open
ground, where we were paid off, the army receiving an immense
sum in greenbacks, crisp and new, direct from the Mint. [Mem.
342 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
— Across the interval of forty-five years, I recall Father Linell,
our chaplain, trying to hold the attention of a confused mass of
restless soldiery while he proved that all men would be saved.
" It is a fact and I can prove it," said the chaplain. The pock-
ets of the men were full of greenbacks and their heads full of a
speedy and final discharge from the army, and if they were all
going to be saved, what 's the use of a pother about it? and
much as they loved the old chaplain, he could not hold them.]
At Louisville, the troops having nothing to do but to wait
the pleasure of the Government, I took a furlough for thirty
days, and when I boarded the train for St. Louis I found my-
self in the company of Gen. James D. Morgan, our old divi-
sion commander. The train was packed to suffocation, and
we sat down on our grips on the narrow platform of the old-
fashioned cars, where we were hammered and jammed and
trodden upon from 4 P. M. till midnight before we could get in-
side. The general sat patiently through it all without offering a
word of complaint. In St. Louis I went to bed and slept, and
kept on sleeping till they were about to break down the door
of my room with a battering-ram, for I had secured myself
against intruders in case I slept beyond my call. When I
awoke it was upon a new heaven and a new earth, for old things
had passed away. I was glad to be in the dear old city which
was my father's trade Mecca in the old days. To this port
his cargoes of grain and pork and other and minor produce
were shipped and from thence went his shipments of merchan-
dise home. Among some trifles purchased in the city was a
pair of shoes, for which I paid $14.00 (war prices); I can buy
as good now for $5.00.
While the days were passing by, I took the train for Gales-
burg and thence down to Monmouth. It was a sunny, peacefu 1
day in June when a young soldier, who had entered the Army
under age at the fall of Sumter, stepped from the carriage to the
walk in his twenty-fourth year, rather the worse for the wear.
As he passed through the gate his mother, her dear old face
wreathed in smiles, came and placed her arm around him and
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 343
drew him within the sanctuary of home as one rescued from
some dire fate.
I met my regiment at Camp Douglas, Chicago, where we
were discharged to date, the 4th of July, 1865.
APPENDIX.
General Orders, ) HEADQUARTERS I7TH ARMY CORPS.
No. i. \ Goldsboro, N. C., March 24, 1865.
The badge now used by the corps being similar to one
formerly adopted by another corps, the major-general com-
manding has concluded to adopt, as a distinguishing badge for
this command, an arrow.
In its swiftness, in its surety of striking where wanted, and
in its destructive powers, when so intended it is probably as
emblematical of this corps as any design that could be adopted.
The arrow for divisions will be two inches long and for corps
headquarters one and one -half inches.
The ist Division arrow will be red; the 3d Division, white;
and the 4th Division, blue.
The Qth Illinois Mounted Infantry, same as the 4th Divis-
ion; and for corps headquarters it will be of gold or any metal,
gilt.
The badge will be worn on the hat or cap.
It is expected that every officer and man in the command
will, as soon as practicable, assume his badge.
The wagons and ambulances will be marked with the badge
of their respective commands; the arrow being twelve inches
long.
By command of MAJ.-GEN. F. P. BLAIR.
Official: (Signed) C. CADLE, JR., A. A. Gen' I.
CHAS. CHRISTENSEN, Lieut., A. d. C. & A. A. Gen'l.
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 345
STATE OF CALIFORNIA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.
Sacramento, January 2, 1865.
Maj.-Gen. W. T. Sherman, Savannah:
The series of victories which have attended your army
during the past year — the capture of Atlanta, the triumphant
march from Atlanta to the sea-coast, and the subsequent cap-
ture of Savannah — have filled the hearts of all who love their
country with joy, and justly entitle you to the profound grati-
tude of the Nation. For and on behalf of the people of this
State I beg to tender you, and through you to the officers and
soldiers under your command, my heart-felt thanks for the
signal services your army has rendered to the cause of civiliza-
tion, liberty, humanity, and good government.
To you as their great leader I tender my cordial congratu-
lations, with the prayer that God may preserve and protect
you to lead the victorious hosts of the Republic on to still
greater victories, even to the conquering of an honorable and
permanent peace.
I am, General, gratefully,
Your obedient servant,
Official: (Signed) FRED T. Low, Governor.
(Signed) L. M. DAYTON, A. A. G.
346
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
A photograph of the pot-trammels (alias "pot-
hooks") made by James Jamison over a peat fire in
Londonderry, Ireland, in the year 1690, during the
siege of that place by the Irish, led by King James
II. They were brought to America in the year 1713
by John Jamison,who settled in Little Britain Town-
ship, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
After the death of John and his son Samuel
Jamison, they became the property of James Jami-
son, who took them with him to Virginia and thence
to Kentucky in 1798, thence to Perry County, Indi-
ana in 1820, where he died in 1821, and his unmar-
ried daughter Sallie fell heir to the pot-trammels and
carried them with her when she removed to Hen-
derson County,- Illinois, in 1840, where she lived to
the age of eighty-five, and before her death she gave
the trammels to her grand-nephew James Shoemak-
er, who removed to southwest Nebraska, where this
photograph was recently taken.
The hooks are in a good state of preservation
at the age of 221 years. They have been in Amer-
ica 198 years.
BEMENT, TEXAS, October 3, 1899.
Matthew H. Jamison:
DEAR COUSIN, — James Jamison was the son of Samuel
Jamison, Sr., and brother to Capt. Adam, John, Samuel, Jr.,
William and Col. Joseph, and was the grandfather of the writer,
S. S. Jamison. My sister Margaret, now living in southwest
Iowa, at the age of eighty-six years, informs me she ate mush
made in a pot hanging on those hooks over the fire at Grand-
father James Jamison's in Grayson County, Kentucky, seventy-
seven years ago; so they are no myth, but a genuine antique
heirloom of the old Jamison family.
Sincerely yours, S. S. JAMISON.
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 347
PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
The State had a population in 1860 of 1,704,323. She
sent into the field during the Civil War 258,217 of her brave
sons, of whom 28,642 were killed in battle or died of wounds
and disease. Henderson County, in 1860, had a population
of 9,499, and 1,153 °f her sons represented her on many battle-
fields in the years 1861-65. Some of the larger and more
populous counties in the Commonwealth maintained the cause
of the Union at a greater sacrifice , but none of them with
a stronger devcticn.
In the year 1863 I saw the statement in the New York
Observer, a Presbyterian religious weekly (none too loyal to
the cause of the Union, however), that Gen. Joe Hooker,
on the eve of the battle of Chancellorsville, declared that God
Almighty himself could not prevent him achieving a victory
over Lee's army. It may have been no more than a shrewd
guess at Hooker's well-known mental predilections.
Gen. John Pope, of Illinois, in command of the Army of
the Mississippi in its operations around New Madrid and the
capture of the Confederates in their efforts to escape from
Island No. 10, was known at times to be very insolent and
blasphemous toward the Volunteer officers, he himself being
a West Pointer. His "headquarters-in-the-saddle" order, on
taking command in Virginia, was a type of the man with his
head turned, and quite in line with Hooker's mental athletics.
It is a remarkable coincidence that both men were brought
low in a very striking manner.
It is also true that Gens. Grant, Sherman and Thomas
were neither blasphemous nor obscene, but men of pure
thought and high aims under all conditions. Gen. Sherman
348 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
would indeed throw off a "cuss-word" at times, which, with
him, was no more than a verbal flourish. All of them, and
ir.any other Union officers I might name, held woman in su-
preme respect, and that is accounted to be the foundation
of genuine morality.
The Union officers given to strong drink died early. I
can not recall one who lived beyond middle life.
They were susceptible to malignant disease, such as ty-
phoid and yellow fever. Almost without exception, they were
the true sons of Mars, who dared to lead the forlorn hope at
every hazard and to the last extremity. Of such was Gen-
eral Joe Mower. None of them, from Alexander to Napoleon,
ever shared the fortunes of a finer soldier. When the deep
pulsations of the rebel batteries, as under Van Dorn and Price
at Corinth, filled the air with sulphuric grape and canister,
"Old Joe" would advance, spurn the fate that awaited him,
and come out of it all his face transfigured with the flame of
battle' The boys of the old "Tenth Illinois" can never forget
Gen. Mower and his aide, Capt. De Grass.
There was dark disloyalty in the Church in 1861.
Old Dr. Pressley, of the United Presbyterianh Curch at
Pittsburgh, Pa., was a genuine "Copperhead," and his relative
who founded the Public Library at Monmouth, 111., disin-
herited his son because he enlisted in the Union Army!
European Globe-trotters have come to this country
to see the American method of slaughtering hogs and curing
the pork on a colossal and economic scale. Some of these vis-
itors, at the first glimpse of the endless chain of pigs descend-
ing to the knife on the overhead trolley, gagged at the sight
and retreated ! After slaughter, the pig in the packing-house
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 349
is done tp with such minuteness — hair, ears, eyebrows, as-
cending and descending colon, vermiform appendix, hoofs, his
last and undigested meal, that the floor will be scanned with
a microscope to see if they haven't missed something. Now,
it was different in the early fifties in the slaughter- and packing-
house of Jamison & McKinney at the Yellow Banks. The work
was carried on with method and dispatch by hand, but with
incredible waste also. The spare-ribs went begging for a mar-
ket at one cent a pound, and I have seen pork tenderloins cast
outside by the ton and rotting for the want of consumers.
The Columbus, Ga., Sun and Times claimed the follow-
ing letter was found in the streets of Columbia, S. C., after
the army of Gen. Sherman had left. The rebel paper claimed
that the original had been preserved, and can be shown and
substantiated, which, of course, is a gross falsehood . It is
inserted here as a "Secesh" curiosity. Old Henry Clay Dean,
of "Rebels' Cove," Mo., is the only "Copperhead" who had
the "gall" to vouch for it.
"CAMP NEAR CAMDEN, S. C., February 26, 1865.
"My DEAR WIFE, — I have no time for particulars. We
have had a glorious time in this State. Unrestricted license
to burn and plunder was the order of the day. The chivalry
have been stripped of most of their valuables. Gold watches,
silver pitchers, cups, spoons, forks, etc., are as common in
•camp as blackberries. The terms of plunder are as follows:
Each company is required to exhibit the results of its oper-
ations at any given place — cne-fifth and first choice falls to
the share of the Commander-in-chief and staff; one-fifth to
the corps commanders and staff; one-fifth to field officers of
regiments; and two-fifths to the company.
"Officers are not allowed to join these expeditions with-
out disguising themselves as privates. One of our corps com-
manders borrowed a suit of rough clothes from one of my
350 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
men, and was successful in this place. He got a large quan-
tity of silver (among other things an old-time milk pitcher)
and a very fine gold watch from a Mrs. De Saussure, at this
place. De Saussure was one of the F. F. V.s of S. C., and
was made to fork over liberally. Officers over the rank of
captain are not made to put their plunder in the estimate for
general distribution. This is very unfair, and for that reason,
in order to protect themselves, subordinate officers and pri-
vates keep back everything that they can carry about their
persons, such as rings, ear-rings, breast-pins, etc., of which,
if I ever get home, I have about a quart. I am not joking —
I have at least a quart of jewelry for you and all the girls,
and some No. i diamond rings and pins among them.
"Gen. Sherman has silver and gold enough to start a
bank. His share in gold watches alone at Columbia was two
hundred and seventy-five. But I said I could not go into
particulars. All the general officers and many besides had
valuables of every description, down to the embroidered la-
dies' pocket-handkerchiefs. I have my share of them, too.
We took gold and silver enough from the d d rebels to
have redeemed their infernal currency twice over. This (the
currency), whenever we came across it, we burned, as we
considered it utterly worthless.
"I wish all the jewelry this army has could be carried
to the 'Old Bay State.' It would deck her out in glorious
style; but, alas! it will be scattered all over the Northern
States. The d d niggers, as a general rule, prefer to stay
at home, particularly after they found out that we only wanted
the able-bodied men (and, to tell you the truth, the youngest
and best-looking women). Sometimes we took off whole fam-
ilies and plantations of niggers, by way of repaying Secession-
ists. But the useless part of them we scon manage to lose;
sometimes in crossing rivers, sometimes in other ways.
"I shall write to you again from Wilmington, Goldsboro,
or some other place in N. C. The order to march has arrived,
and I must close hurriedly. Love to grandmother and Aunt
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 351
Charlotte. Take care of yourself and children. Don't show
this letter outside of the family.
"Your affectionate husband,
"THOS. J. MYERS, Lieut., etc.
"P. S. — I will send this by the first flag of truce to be
mailed, unless I have an opportunity of sending it to Hilton
Head. Tell Sallie I am saving a pearl bracelet and ear-rings
for her; but Lambert got the necklace and breast-pin of the
same set. I am trying to trade him out of them. These were
taken from the Misses Jamison, daughters of the President of
the South Carolina Convention. We found these on our trip
through Georgia."
GEN. JEFF C. DAVIS AT ATLANTA.
Too SICK TO Go IN THE FIGHT OF JULY 28, 1864, THOUGH HE-
MADE THE EFFORT.
Communicated to the National Tribune by
Capt. David R. Waters.
With a view to some comments on the battle of July 28 ,.
1864, before Atlanta, I desire to prelude with the following
extracts from Gen. Sherman's " Memoirs" :
"As Gen. Jeff C. Davis' division was, as it were, left out of
line, I ordered it on the evening before to march down toward
Turner's Ferry and then to take a road laid down on our maps
which led from there toward Eastport, ready to engage any-
enemy that might attack our right flank ; after the same man-
ner as had been done to the left flank on the 22d. * * * As
the skirmish fire warmed up along the 5th Corps, I became con-
vinced that Hood designed to attack this right flank to prevent,,
if possible, the extension of our line in that direction. I re-
gained my horse, rode rapidly back to see that Davis' division
had been dispatched as ordered. I found Gen. Davis in person,
who was unwell, and had sent his division that morning early
under the command of his senior brigadier, Morgan ; but, as I
attached great importance to the movement, he mounted his
horse and rode away to overtake and hurry forward the move-
ment, so as to come up on the left rear of the enemy during the
expected battle. * * * At no instant of time did I feel
the least uneasiness about the result of the 28th, but wanted to
352
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 353
reap fuller results, hoping that Davis' division would come up
at the instant of defeat and catch the enemy in flank, but the
woods were dense, the roads obscure, and, as usual, the division
got on the wrong road and did not come into position until
about dark."
On the day of this battle I was serving as a volunteer aid
with Gen. Jeff C. Davis, having resigned from the service the
previous April, but upon his invitation I had joined his head
quarters the day before his division crossed the Chattahoochee.
On the 28th his headquarters were at a house on our right, near
the left of Blair. When Gen. Sherman arrived Gen. Davis was
sick in bed. The corps commander, Gen. J. M. Palmer, was
seated on a porch in front of the room occupied by Davis, into
which were open windows. Gen. Sherman j was excited and
very impatient. He censured Palmer for a mistake in the order
to Davis that was misleading Gen. James D. Morgan. Palmer
resented Sherman's reflections on him, and insisted that he had
given the order precisely as Sherman had issued it. Here was
the beginning of the estrangement that arose between Sherman
and Palmer that resulted in Palmer's retirement from Sher-
man's command and the placing of Gen. Jeff C. Davis in com-
mand of the 1 4th Corps in the march to the sea and to the end
of the war.
Finally, nervously chewing a cigar and pacing the porch,
Sherman exclaimed: "I wish to God Davis was in command
of his division to-day." Davis heard this remark, and imme-
diately arose and dressed. His horse was brought out, and the
staff ordered to mount. His colored servant assisted him into
the saddle, but upon gaining his seat he fainted and would have
fallen had he not been caught. He was carried back to his
bed, entirely unable to ride. Every effort possible was made
by the staff to find Morgan and bring the division into the
fight on Hood's left, while Logan was repeatedly repulsing with
pitiful slaughter the brave enemy who charged his front again
and again. Logan reported 765 dead out of Hood's charging
column in his front. Had Morgan got into action as Sherman
354 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
planned, Hood's army would have been routed and Atlanta
won without Jonesboro, for the division was strong, finely dis-
ciplined, and veterans, who had met the enemy in every fight
from Nashville to Atlanta, besides Island No. 10 and Corinth.
I cannot understand why Gen. Sherman so spitefully alludes to
Morgan's failure by saying: "As usual, this division got on
the wrong road." I never knew it to be misled before. Gen.
Davis was beyond all question a brave and skilled officer and
always enjoyed the confidence of Gen. Sherman.
I am constrained to write these particulars of that eventful
day in vindication of the gallant Davis, who was not merely
unwell, as stated by Sherman, but a very sick man, in bed, and
was wholly unable to ride to his command, although he made
a determined effort to do so.
STOP THIS SILLINESS.
The National Tribune submits the following table and
comment :
"The number of ninety-day men and 'eleventh-hour* sol-
diers is being worked to death by those who are opposed to
pension legislation, and are using it with some effect to create
dissension in the ranks of the veterans. It is twin brother to the
other clamor used so effectively for the same purpose about the
number of deserters, bounty -jumpers, and shirks on the pension-
roll. Comrades should pay no attention whatever to this
clamor from outsiders and discountenance it among themselves.
It has little basis in truth, and conveys a prejudiced view of
the constitution of the Army which put down the rebellion.
While the ninety-day men did their share, they were relatively
very few at that time and are quite as few to-day. This is not a
matter of mere assertion, but is strongly supported by the actual
figures. Some time ago Commissioner Davenport decided to
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 355
have the services of the pensioners as shown by his rolls col-
lated and compared, and he was astonished at the result, as all
other students of statistics are. We have all of us become more
or less affected by these exaggerated reports. At that time
there were 541,739 pensioners on the rolls, and the services of
those men were as follows :
Percentage. Number.
Served 4 years or more * 042 22,753
Served 3 years and less than 4 years 203 109,973
Served 2 years and less than 3 years 221 119,724
Served i year and less than 2 years 244 132,185
Served 6 months and less than i year 203 109,973
Served 3 months and less than 6 months 084 45,506
Served i month and less than 3 months 003 1,625
541,739
"A study of this table will be very interesting to everyone.
From this it would appear that the entire number of men who
served less than six months was only 45,506, or less than one in
eight of the whole. One man out of every five served less than
a year, and one man out of every four served less than two years.
About the same proportions served less than three years and
less than four years. Therefore , this blathering about the three-
months men is concentrating all the attent i on upon one man
to the exclusion of consideration of the seven men who ren-
dered much longer service and bore a heavy portion of the
war."
A GRAY TRIBUTE TO LINCOLN
HENRY WATTERSON MADE THE SPEECH OF PRESENTATION OP
\
THE STATUE IN THE STATE CAPITOL OF KENTUCKY,
ON NOVEMBER 8, 1911.
While the President of the United States and a large
assemblage of people, including many of those who wore the
gray in the conflict between the North and the South, looked
on, an heroic bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln was unveiled
in the Capitol building.
"Proof of a reunited country," said Governor Willson,of
Kentucky, in accepting the statue on behalf of the State, is
made evident in the selection of Henry Watterson, a Con-
federate soldier, to present this image of the great President
to the people of his native State. The greatness and the
goodness, the nobility and the sweetness of Abraham Lincoln
are recognized as earnestly by those who wore the gray as by
those who wore the blue." The unveiling of the Lincoln
statue in the rotunda in the Kentucky Capitol preceded the
dedication of the Lincoln Monument at Hodgenville, Ky., by
a day. Many of those who came from distant States to
Frankfort to attend the exercises continued their journey to
Hodgenville.
Near there is the Lincoln farm, where the cabin in which
Abraham Lincoln was born is now preserved in a monumental
structure, recently completed. It was the dedication of this
memorial which brought President Taft and others of note to
Hodgenville.
356
HENRY WATTERSON ON LINCOLN.
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES ADDED TO THE INTEREST OF THE
EDITOR'S ADDRESS.
[Frankfort, Ky., November 8, 1911.
Henry Watterson, editor of the Louisville Courier -Journal,
delivered an address on Abraham Lincoln at the unveiling of
the Lincoln Memorial. Mr. Watterson's oration was devoted
mainly to the personality, the origin and spiritual life and
character of Abraham Lincoln. He gave a minute account of
the Lincoln and Hanks families, derived from documentary
evidence; disproved the falsehoods touching Lincoln's birth,
and traced his noble qualities of head and heart to his mother.
In concluding this passage he said :
"To-morrow there will assemble in a little clearing of the
wildwood of Kentucky a goodly company. The President and
the Chief Justice and the rest will gather about a lowly cabin
to consecrate a shrine. Of him that was born there the final
earthly word was spoken long ago; but, Mother of God, shall
that throng pass down the hillside and away without looking
into the heaven above in unutterable love and homage with
the thought of a spirit there which knew in this world naught
of splendor and power and fame ; whose sad lot it was to live
and die in obscurity, struggle, almost in penury and squalor;
whose tragic fate it was, after she had lain half a lifetime in
her humble, unmarked grave, to be pursued by the deepest,
darkest calumny that can attach itself to the name of woman ;
the hapless, the fair-haired Nancy Hanks? »
"No falser, fouler story ever gained currency than that
357
358 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
which impeaches the character of the mother of Abraham
Lincoln. It had never any foundation whatsoever. Every
known fact flatly contradicts it. Every aspect of circum-
stantial evidence stamps it a preposterous lie.
" It offends the soul of a brave and just manhood, it should
arouse in the heart of every true woman a sense of wrong that
so much as a shadow should rest upon the memory of the
little cabin in which Nancy Lincoln gave to the world an
immortal son, born in clean, unchallenged wedlock, no thought
of taint or shame anywhere."
Mr. Watterson told the story of Lincoln's friendship with
Joshua Fry Speed, an uncle of the donor of the statue, in the
early days at Springfield, 111. He added:
"It is of record that he stood closer to Joshua Fry Speed
than to any other. The ties of early manhood between the
two were never broken. To the end Lincoln could turn to
Speed, certain to get the truth, equally sure of sound counsel
and unselfish fidelity."
Mr. Watterson told a graphic story of the coming of Lin-
coln to Washington and his first inauguration. His narrative
took the form of a personal reminiscence.
" I was engaged by Mr. Gobright, the general manager of
the Associated Press in the national capital," said he, "to
assist him and Maj. Ben Perley Poore, a widely known news-
paper correspondent of those days, with their report of the
inaugural ceremonies of the 4th of March, 1861. The newly
elected President had arrived in Washington ten days before —
to be exact, the morning of the 23d of February. It was a
Saturday. That same afternoon he came to the Capitol es-
corted by Mr. Seward, and being on the floor of the House, I
saw him for the first time and was, indeed, presented to him.
"Early in the morning of the 4th of March I discovered,
thrust into the keyhole of my bedroom a slip of paper which
read: 'For Inaugural Address see Col. Ward H. Lamon.'
Who was 'Col. Ward H. Lamon'? I had never heard of him.
The city was crowded with strangers. To find one of them
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 359
was to look for a needle in a haystack. I went directly to
Willard's Hotel. As I passed through the long corridor of
the second floor, spliced , with J little dark entryways, to the
apartments facing on Pennsylvania Avenue, I saw through
a half-opened door Mr. Lincoln himself pacing to and fro,
apparently reading a manuscript. I went straight in. He
was alone, and, as he turned and met me, he extended his
hand, called my name, and said: 'What can I do for you?'
I told him my errand and dilemma, showing him the brief
memorandum. 'Why,' said he, 'you have come to the right
.shop; Lamon is in the next room. I will take you to him,
and he will fix you all right.' No sooner said than done, and
supplied with the press copy of the inaugural address, I grate-
fully and gleefully took my leave.
"Two hours later I found myself in the Senate cham-
ber, witnessing there the oath of office administered to Vice-
President-elect Hannibal Hamlin. Thence I followed the cor-
tege through the long passageway and across the rotunda to
the east portico, where a temporary wooden platform had been
erected, keeping close to Mr. Lincoln.
" He was tall and ungainly, wearing a black suit, a black
tie and a black silk hat. He carried a gold- or a silver-headed
walking-cane. As we came out into the open and upon the
provisional stand, where there was a table containing a Bible,
a pitcher and a glass of water, he drew from his breast pocket
the manuscript I had seen him reading at the hotel, laid this
before him, placing the cane upon it as a paper-weight, re-
moved from their leathern case his steel-rimmed spectacles,
and raised his hand — he was exceedingly deliberate and com-
posed— to remove his hat. As he did so, I lifted my hand
to receive it, but Judge Douglas, who stood at my side, reached
over my arm, took the hat, and held it during the delivery
of the inaugural address, which followed.
" His self-possession was perfect. Dignity herself could
not have been more unexcited. His voice was a little high-
pitched, but resonant, quite reaching the outer fringes of the
360 Recollections aof Pioneer and Army Life.
vast crowd in front; his expression serious to the point of
gravity; not a scintillation of humor. In spite of the cam-
paign pictures, I was prepared to expect much. Judge Doug-
las had said to me upon his return to Washington after the
famous campaign of 1858 for the Illinois senatorship, from
which the Little Giant had come off victor: 'He Is the great-
est debater I have ever met, either here or anywhere else.'
"To me the address meant war. As the crowd upon the
portico dispersed back into the Capitol, I found myself wedged
in betweenjjohn Bell of Tennessee and Reverdy Johnson of
Maryland. Each took me by an arm and we sat down upon
a bench just outside the rotunda. They were very optimistic.
No, there would be no war, no fight; all the troubles would
be tided overjithe Union still was safe. I was but a boy,
just one and twenty. They were the two most intellectual
and renowned of the surviving Whig leaders of the school of
Clay and .Webster, one of them just defeated for President
in the preceding election. Their talk puzzled me greatly, for
to my mind there seemed no escape from the armed collision
of the sections — secession already accomplished and a Con-
federate government actually established.
"There is in youth a prophetic instinct which grows
duller with advancing years. As I look behind me, I not
only bear this in mind, illustrated by the converse of those
two veteran statesmen that day in the rotunda of the Cap-
itol at Washington, but I feel it and realize [it, so that I am
much less confident, with a lifetime of experience to guide
me, than I was when, buoyed by the ignorance and bra-
very, but also the inspiration of youth, the problems ahead
read plain and clear as out of an open book .
"The duty Lincoln had been commissioned to do was to
save the Union. With an overwhelming majority of the peo-
ple the institution of African slavery was not an issue. In
his homely, enlightened way, Lincoln declared that if he could
preserve the Union with slavery, he would do it, or, without
slavery, he would do it, or, with some free and others slaves,
Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. 361
he would do that. The Proclamation of Emancipation was a
war measure purely. He knew he had no constitutional war-
rant, and, true to his oath of office, he held back as long as
he could; but so clear-sighted was his sense of justice, so
empty his heart of rancor, that he wished and sought to qual-
ify the rigor of the act by some measure of restitution, and so
prepared the Joint Resolution to be passed by Congress ap-
propriating 400 million dollars for the purpose, which still
stands in his own handwriting.
"He was himself a Southern man. All his people were
Southerners. 'If slavery be not wrong,' he said, 'nothing is
wrong,' echoing in this the opinion of most of the Virginia
gentlemen of the Eighteenth Century and voicing the senti-
ments of thousands of brave men who wore the Confederate
gray. Not less than the North, therefore, has the South reason
to canonize Lincoln; for he was the one friend we had at
court — aside from Grant and Sherman — when friends were
most in need.
"If Lincoln had lived, there would have been no era of
reconstruction, with its mistaken theories, repressive agencies
and oppressive legislation. If Lincoln had lived, there would
have been wanting to the extremism of the time the bloody
cue of his taking off to mount the steeds and spur the flanks
of vengeance. For Lincoln entertained, with respect to the
rehabilitation of the Union, the single wish that the Southern
vStates — to use his homely phraseology — 'should come back
home and behave themselves'; and if he had lived, he would
have made this wish effectual, as he made everything effectual
to which he seriously addressed himself. Poor, insane John
Wilkes Booth! Was he, too, an instrument in the hands of
God to put a still deeper damnation upon the taking off of
the Confederacy and to sink the Southern people yet lower
in the abyss of affliction and humiliation the living Lincoln
had spared us?
"Tragedy walks hand in hand with History, and the eyes
of Glory are wet with tears — 'with malice toward none, with
362 Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life.
charity for all' — since Christ said: 'Blessed are the peace-
makers, for they shall be called the children of God,' has the
heart of man, stirred to its depths by human exigency, deliv-
ered a message so sublime? Irresistibly the mind recurs to
that other martyr of the ages, whom not alone in the circum-
stances of obscure birth and tragic death, but in those of
simple living and childlike faith, Lincoln so closely resembled.
Yon lowly cabin which is to be officially dedicated on the
morrow may well be likened to the manger of Bethlehem,
the boy that went thence to a god-like destiny, to the Son
of God, the Father Almighty of him and of us all. For whence
his prompting except from God?"
Mr. Watterson paid a tribute to President Taft and con-
cluded with a stirring peroration, in which he said :
"'Let us here highly resolve,' the words still ring like
a trumpet-call from that green-grown hillside of Gettysburg
dotted with the graves of heroes, 'that these men shall not
have died in vain; that this Nation, under God, shall have
a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people,
.by the people and for the people shall not perish from the
earth.' Repeat we the declaration. As we gather about this
effigy in bronze and marble in this the Capitol of Kentucky,
of Kentucky, the most world-famous among the States of
America, whose birthright carries with it a universal and un-
challenged badge of honor; of Kentucky, which gave to the
longest and bloodiest of modern wars both its chieftains, Abra-
ham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, and to each of the contend-
ing armies a quota of fighting men larger than was contrib-
uted by any other State singly to either Army; of that Ken-
tucky whose Clay, antedating Lincoln in the arts of concilia-
tion and eloquence, tried to effect and did for a time effect by
compromise what Lincoln could only compass by the sword,
and whose Crittenden was last seriously to invoke the spirit
of fraternity and peace ; of our own Kentucky, 'dark and bloody
ground.' of the savage, beloved home of all that we hold gener-
ous and valiant in man, graceful and lovely in woman, wherein
Recollections of Pioneer and A nay Life 363
when the battle was ended the war was over, and, once a
Kentuckian always a Kentuckian, the Federal and the Con-
federate were brothers again — let us, here, whether we call
ourselves Democrats or Republicans, renew our allegiance to
the Constitution of the Republic and the perpetuity of the
Union."
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA
KL&S OF PIONEER ANO ARMY LIFE,-
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