Owen County Indiana

Civil War Experience of a Private of Company B, 21st. Ind. Vol. Inf. and
1st. Ind. H.A.
for American Tribune of Indianapolis
by Vint Anderson



                                      Given to the Spencer-Owen Public
Library
                                                                  by the
                                                  Quincy Methodist Women
                                                                from the
                                                         Anderson House

Vint Anderson once owned and occupied the original house on this property
which stood on the north side
of the railroad tracks in Quincy, ( Indiana) and burned a few years ago.
(Note of this writer: Vint Anderson married Mary Jane Lyon  eldest daughter
of Valentine Lyon
I have done the best I can to faithfully re-type his articles published in
the Newspaper mentioned above,
for the sake of ease of reading.

Note: The reader may find the Owen Co., Indiana History of 1884 , pgs 642-3
of interest re;
Vint Anderson's military unit history.

Note: The following info comes from the Clay Co., Indiana biography web site
at:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~inclay/bios/anderson-w.htm

"Vincent Anderson, was born in Kentucky, July 26, 1813, and was named for
his uncle, Vincent Anderson,
who was killed in the war of 1812. But an infant when he was brought by his
parents to this state, he received
his education in the pioneer schools of Monroe and Owen counties, and early
became familiar with the various
branches of agriculture. In 1845 he purchased a tract of land in Washington
Twnshp, where he resided six years.
Selling out in 1851, he started with his wife and four children for Iowa,
making an overland journey to Lucas county,
where he entered government land about seven miles east of the county seat
and he built a log house. Iowa at that
time was very sparsely settled, and there were no railways in the state.
Four years later he sold out and moved to
Chariton, where he was for awhile employed in teaming to Eddyville, a town
twenty miles down the river. During
his residence in Iowa, Mr. Anderson made three trips to Minnesota, each time
going with a drove of cattle.
Returning in 1861 to Washington Township, Clay Co., In, here he was employed
in tilling the soil until 1864,
when he enlisted in the One-Hundred fifty-ninth Ind. Vol. Inf. with which he
served until the close of the war.
Receiving his honorable discharge, he returned to Clay county and after
farming for a time in Staunton settled
in Dick Johnson township, and was here a resident until his death, December

31, 1885. He married Mary Lyon,
who was born in Kentucky, a daughter of Valentine and a Miss (Payne) Lyon.
She survived him ten years,
dying November 7, 1895. She reared seven of her children, namely: William
Thomas, Lucretia, James F.,
Charles E., Anna Maria, George F. and Julia E."

The burial place and dates of Vincent Anderson's father and mother,
"Rev. Daniel Anderson  b. 9-8-1782 d.10-5-1851 and Elizabeth b. 9-23-1783 d.
11-9-1870" ,
Putnam Co., In "Old Salem Cem., Marian Twnshp on Max Jordan Farm"


The following information comes from the 1884 History of Owen Co., In p.
642-644

"Co. B, Twenty-First Ind. Vol. Infantry, 1st Heavy Artillery"

     "While Capt. John H. Johnson was recruiting Company I, Nineteenth
Indiana, at Spencer,
Capt. James Grimsley, of Gosport, was organizing Company B, Twenty-First
Indiana,
afterwards First Heavy Artillery. This was in the month of July, 1861. It
was mustered into the service
at Indianapolis on the 24th day of July, 1861, and was ordered East almost
immediately. It arrived at
Baltimore on the 3rd of August, and was stationed there until February 1862.
On the 19th day of February, 1862,
it sailed from Baltimore to Newport News, Va. from which place it embarked
on the 4th day of March,
on the steamship Constitution, and sailed with Butler's expedition to New
Orleans. A portion of the Twenty-First
was the first of Butler's army to touch the New Orleans wharf, which it
reached on the 1st of May. The regiment
was then quartered at Algiers, where it remained until the 30th of May,
making frequent marches into the interior,
and capturing many rebel vessels. On the 1st of June, 1862, it was
transferred to Baton Rouge, where it remained
until the post was abandoned. On the 5th day of August, the regiment
participated in the battle of Baton Rouge,
making a long and desperate contest with a whole brigade of rebel troops. In
this engagement, the Adjutant and
three other officers in the regiment were killed. Company B lost the
following soldiers killed and died from wounds:
Joseph Petty, John T. Strong, William Stone, Henry H. Ward, Jasper White."
     "After the battle of Baton Rouge, the regiment went into camp at
Carrollton, and on the 8th of September
it had a lively fight with Waller's Texas Rangers at Des Allemands, in which
twelve rebels were killed and thirty
or forty prisoners were taken. The Twenty-First then went to Berwick's Bay,
in October, where it remained until
the latter part of February, 1863, participating in frequent affairs with
the enemy on the river. "
     "In the month of February, 1863, the regiment was changed from infantry
to heavy artillery service, and was
thereafter known as the First Heavy Artillery. Company B was subsequently
transported up the Mississippi,
and bore an active part in the prolonged siege of Port Hudson, where
Alexander Stines was killed on the
24th day of June. He was the sixth and last man of the company killed in
battle. During the remaining part of the
summer of 1863, the regiment and portions thereof took part in numerous
expeditions on the river, but had no
severe engagements. In the winter of 1863-64, a large number of Company B

re-enlisted as veterans.
      The regiment was engaged in more or less active service until the
close of the war. It took part in the
reduction of Forts Morgan and Gaines and Spanish Fort, and in the capture of
Mobile.
     The veterans and most of the recruits of Company B, as well as those of
the rest of the regiment,
were not finally  mustered out of the service until January 13, 1866.
     Below is given the names of the officers and soldiers from Owen County
who served in this company:
Captains---James Grimsley, promoted Major; John W. Day, commissioned
October 21, 1863;
William H. Blankenship, commissioned October 1, 1864.
First Lieutenants--John W. Day, promoted Captain; William H. Blankenship,
promoted Captain;
William M. Connor, commissioned January 6, 1864; Thomas J. Raper,
commissioned October 1, 1864;
William P. Goss, commissioned November 1, 1864.
Second Lieutentants--William H. Blankenship, promoted First Lieutenant;
William P. Goss, promoted 1st Lieutentant; Thomas J. Raper, promoted First
Lieutenant;
Richard M. Stamper, commissioned October 1, 1864; James R. Henry,
commisioned November 1, 1864.
First Sergeants--William H. Blankenship; Sergeants, Henry F. McMillan,
Benjamin F. Card, J.H. Brown,
John J. Shear
Corporals-- William P. Goss, Wesley Acuff, Thomas J. Wilhite, James R.
Henry, Richard M. Stamper,
Parrot G. Harshbarger, Thomas P. Burt, Henry Demott.
Musicians--John Wilhite, Isaiah Long
Wagoner--Christopher Wilson
Privates--Luke Acuff, William H.H. Anderson, Vincent Anderson, Martin V.
Arnett, Thomas J. Ashley,
Thomas F. S.  Baker, Thomas E. Best, Eli C. Beaman, Andrew J. Brim, Tobias
D. Butler, George W. Chambers,
George E. Chrisman, Robert A. Davis, William R. Dagley, Joseph Dagley,
Freeborn Duncan, Newton Edwards,
William R. Finchum, George W. Hartsock, Elijah Hutton, Jacob Huffman, John
M. Kerr, Nelson A. Kegley,
John Keeley, John W. Massey, George W. Marksbury, Samuel A. Maulsby, William
M. Mull, Charles Myers,
Joseph Petty, George W. Perkins, James J. Phillips, Marcus L. Rogers, James
M. Seay, William B. Seay,
William B. Shumaker, Henry Simmons, Andrew J. Sink, William C. Smith, Isaac
N. Spangler, Samuel Stout,
John Stark, John T. Strong, Abner Tabor, David C. Thompson, Damarcus
Thompson, John H. Thomas,
William Thomas, Henry H. Ward, William H. Westfall, Jasper H. White, John W.
Wible
Recruits-- Robert D. Baker, John Beaman, Philip H. Blankenship, John M.
Cromwell, Anderson T. Evans,
John D. Fletcher, Simon P. Gibbs, John W. Green, Thomas M. Hollick, Benjamin
F. Hancock, Jesse A. Hays,
Silas Johnson, John L. Johnson, Harrison H. Jester, James E. Jewell, Jacob
Kiphart, Henry Kiphart, Francis M. Kiphart,
William Kiphart, Milo F. Little, Joseph M. Logan, John M. Logan, Eli
Mitchell, Jacob D. McGinnis, Philip Porter,
Warren P. Pierson, Alfred P. Redman, Cullin M. Redman, Alfred Runion, Josehp
A. Shuler, Joseph Wampler,
Thomas B. Wampler."

Table of Contents for  articles of Vincent Anderson


1. Leaving home, encountering the "enemy", meeting the "run-away"

4. Last breakfast at home, photo's in uniform, "Civil" war, three hundred
miles


5. Leaving Baltimore, Merrimac and Monitor, sea-sick at Hatteras

6. Winter 1861 in Baltimore, dog-tents and spooning, oysters and salt-water
crab

8. Ship Island, "Fish" story, Brandy cherries

9.      Pancake batter, and 25 cent donuts, Gosport Script, Storm at Ship
Island

10.  "Sow belly", "gray backs", "borrowing"

11. "Dear John",  Capt. Farragut

12. Slaves as contraband, "Algiers", A damsel in distress

13. Louisiana Governor at New Orleans, "Ladies" of the city

14.  Politics of the war, searching for contraband

16.  Leaving town "post haste", Train ride of Co. A. and B.

17.  "Steering the boat", Prohibition in Maine, Iowa, Kansas

18. "Spoons", "quadroon girl", "Uncle Tom's Cabin", revisionist history

19.  Capturing the "rebel paymaster"

20. "Friendly card game"

22. " The Colonel has got my gun"

23. The Battle of Baton Rouge, and premonitions

24. Civil Service Reformers, and Supreme Court Justices, the death of
brother Ben

25. The Battle of Baton Rouge continued, Whiskey and gun powder, casualties
of war

27. The wounding of the "black cloth breaches", "Buying cotton"

28. Making a "Dash for it"

29.  Guard duty, a two horse hack and more "contraband", "duck hunting"

30. "No privates need apply"

31. A boat ride up the canal

32. "Died in Defense of his country", Texas Cavalry

34. "Withdrawing from Baton Rouge"

35. Buying Cotton
36. Ben's ambulance run

38. A hospital visit, Negro spirituals, Dick Taylor

39. "...can I have your horse sir?", fighting the Indians

40. The bouncing cannon ball

41. Capt. riding the cannon, bright and beautiful women of the South, a
Confederate friend

43. Charges against Col. McMillen

44. Diarrhea, Officer contraband, entry at St. James Hospital

45. Recalling a familiar face, "Stuff lint clear through my head"

46.  Sisters of Charity, an "accident of war", "a couple of Irish ladies"

48.  Orders home

49. "Traveling companion?, sharks and the dead

50. "Good Samaritan of NYC"

51.  Draft riot of NYC, arrival at Gosport, more of "Southern Living"

52.  Slavery, a new "business partner"

53. "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Daughters of the Confederacy

54. "Former enemies"

55. "Preparation for the battle", premonitions


First article:
Owen County, Indiana

Leaving Home for the War

Experiences of an Indiana Comrade and the Last of Gen. Lockwood

I am aware of the fact, that with
many, the incidents of the war are as given, especially by the
privates as they saw and endured it, are rewarded as back numbers, but I
will venture a few sketches of army life.
   Our home leaving we will not attempt to describe, but our comrades
used to fully do so when they would say: "Leaving home was h--l".
   The next day after I got to Indianapolis, having donned my suit of
gray jeans, I marched into the city feeling very grand, for was I not
a brave soldier boy? I was close to the old State house, when a young
officer no older than myself came dashing up on a very spirited horse
and dismounting very hurriedly,  handed me the reins and very
politely asked me to hold it for a moment. I did so. He soon returned
and , thanking me, at the same time he reached out his hand, as I

thought, to give me a friendly goodbye, but in doing so, he dropped a
half-dollar in it.
This was the last straw with me on the camels back and I said to him
as calmly as I could under the circumstances; "young man I
volunteered to be a private soldier and expected to take a private
soldiers lot and obey my officers, but I want you to understand that
I did not volunteer to be a  D--D horse rack for money". By this time
he was on his horse and he leaned over towards me and asked me what
regiment I belonged to. I told him and he said: "Young comrade, I
fully appreciate your feelings, and whilst there was no insult
intended, I feel that I owe you such an apology as my time will not
allow, but I will hunt you up and I think we can be friends".
   On turning around, a comrade asked me if I knew what the governor
of North Carolina had said to the governor of South Carolina? I
answered," yes",
and I had in my hand fifty-cents in silver that I had just come D--D
near throwing at an officer, and was just thinking of throwing it
away, but on second thought I expected we could do with it what the
governor of South Carolina did. So off we went to a saloon.
  I am not made like most people for indulging in that "beverage of
forgetfulness" when being domineered over by officers with very
little brains and nobility as a soldier, which was frequently the
case during the War of the Rebellion.
  Our trip from Indianapolis to Baltimore, Maryland, as well as our
stay at Baltimore and our trip from there to New Orleans, via New
Port News and Ship Island, was of such nature that a great many
incidents were impressed upon our memory so strong that time, with
its relentless hand, cannot eface it. At the stations on the entire
route we were met with anxious and worried faces,
be our stops at large cities or small villages we were met on all
sides by kind friends, cheers and waving of flags and handkerchiefs.
Not infrequently would there be arrangements made to give us something
to eat and eager hands were there with sandwiches pies, cakes, coffee
etc. At one place in Ohio, a bright pretty girl of seventeen, or
eighteen rushed up to the car window where I was, and after I had
told her I was not in the need of anything to eat,she looked at me
and said: Oh do let me give you something out of my basket. I have but
two brothers and both have gone to war. I am only a girl but," I want
to do all I can."
   I looked down at that irresistible pleader and took a sandwich and
said;
   "I will place this close to my heart until I can eat it, for your
sake. " And, seeing her blushes, I tried to atone for my rudeness by
telling her I was in hopes her brothers would return to her and that
some other girls brother who went to the army would hunt her up and
be more than a brother to her. By this time the train was leaving the
station and the last I saw of that patriotic girl she was waving her
handkerchief at us. The train did not leave however, until that girl
with her smiles, blushes, tears and sweet self had crept under my
ribs on the left side and she was closely nestled there ever since.
   May the good God give to the grand patriotic matrons and their

babies of Ohio and other States his best joys, both in this life and
the hereafter.
   Some of the incidents of our trip from Indianapolis to Baltimore
have faded from my memory, but the kind greetings along our route,
the long tunnel through which we passed, the high bluffs we passed
over, the angry and kind faces we met at Baltimore; are still with
us.  Baltimore had, during the war, the warmest friends and the
bitterest foes for the Union soldiers of any city in the Union.
The soldiers could all thank God that they were not cursed with
mugwumps.
   Our first expedition into the enemies country was from Baltimore,
Maryland, late in the fall of 1861. The government furnished a very
excellent shoe to march in. They were heavy, broad heeled and soled,
and sowed. My brother and I had been wearing only such shoes and
boots as our shoe maker had made for us. When we drew those large,
awkward shoes, just before starting on the march,  we went into the
city and bought each of us a pair of cloth shoes and threw away our
heavy shoes, thinking cloth shoes would be much lighter to march in.
The result was that the whole of the bottoms of our feet were
blistered on the first days march and when the blisters broke, the
second day, the skin on the bottom of our feet all stuck to the
woolen stockings we were wearing, and left us in that condition to
march about one hundred miles. We were more than a month getting over
this very foolish act.
   The first night after we started on this expedition we landed just
at dark on the eastern shores of Virginia. The most of us made our
beds that night between some large ridges that had been thrown up for
some purpose. Early in the night we had a very heavy rain and our
furrows were filled with water.  We got very wet and very little
sleep that night. The next morning we took up our line of march. A
New York Zouave regiment took the lead and a running fight was made.
This regiment wore red bloomers and during the day we passed large
numbers of men, we being the third and last regiment in line. This
was the first time for any of us to hear a Rebel gun. The Zouave
patrol got so excited and ran about thirty-five miles that day. A
western regiment  took the lead, the second day after we had lain out
and three our four inches of snow had fallen on us during the night.
This regiment kept together during  the day and marched; over thirty
miles, notwithstanding the rebels had impeded our march as much as
theycould by cutting down and felling of trees across the road.  The
third and last day it was our time to lead; and we were ordered to
the front. This was our first time under fire.
The rebels had quite a force on the peninsula and were going back, as
we supposed, to their own selected and fortified positions. Now as I
said, it was our time to meet this desultory fire and not knowing at
what time an unknown force might open out on us, we took our
positions in front in double quick time, and just as we got there we
made a turn in the road and there in front of us stretched to our
view was the great Atlantic Ocean.  The sun was just rising. How
fresh and green in my memory is my first view of that great old

ocean, made more fascinating perhaps, on account of the thought that
I might be ushered before the God of the ocean, the God of the
Universe, by the unavoidable casualties of war! How my bosom heaved
with admiration, not unmixed with awe, as the sun came creeping out
of the blue waters, sending its bright rays and streaks of gold,
bathing the clouds in amber and gilding the crest of the waves. We
were halted that evening at the end of our journey, having marched in
the three days over a hundred miles. The creeks were mostly all full
and in our zeal we had waded the most of them, frequently being up to
our arms in the water. We went into camp close to the ocean.
   Seven comrades and I were placed on picket, about one fourth of a
mile east of the camp. We had had nothing to eat since early morning.
As we were in light marching orders and all foraging was strictly
forbidden, and we did not know the kind of a man  we then had in
command, and our commissary wagons were far in the rear.  Our picket
post was in a corn field, where "The frost was on the punkin,
And the fodder was in the shock."

That night the moon shone brightly. There was a plantation between
our picket and the ocean. You may judge of our fatigue and as no
enemy could attack us where we were placed, I told the rest of the
boys soon after dark that they could all lie down and I would stay up
awhile and then would wake some of them to take my place. They
carried up some shocks of corn and made their bed together, so as to
utilize all the heat they could and dry their clothes. They were all
soon in dreamland, enjoying home and the girls they left behind them.
   About midnight I saw someone coming from the east. He was in the
shade of some tall hedges which ran up close to where we were. He
would run a piece and then stop. He seemed to be trying to slip up on
us. I watched him closely and seeing but one, I cocked my gun and hid
behind a shock of corn, close to my sleeping companions. The stranger
kept advancing until he had gotten in close range with my gun. I then
halted him and he said, "For die Lord sake, massa, don't shoot.I knew
at once that I had  a friend we could all trust.I called him up to me
and found him to be a slave with more than usual intelligence. He was
in  perfect ecstacy on account of the war. He said "Massa I just knows
it will free our race." He had a wonderful idea of the capacity of our
cannon and made the remark to me when I asked if he wanted to be free:
"Massa, rather than have my people remain in bondage, I would much
prefer to see everyone of them rammed down your big guns and fired out
and I with them." I soon found he was a preacher and seeing his zeal
for our cause, which he considered more theirs than ours, I asked him
if he had anything to eat at his cabin. He replied: "I spects we alls
have got something, but don't spect you alls could eat such as we have."
I told him not to worry about that; that we could eat anything and he
could bring such as he had and I would wake up my sleeping companions
and I thought we could prove to him that we could eat with a relish
anything he would bring, and if he wanted to please me, to be quick

about it. He soon returned with a three gallon bucket full to the rim
with cold cooked fish and corn bread, of the roughest kind. When he
set the bucket down he said:" I went to everyone of the quarters and
they give me anything they had cooked."
   I aroused my sleeping companions and we all ate with an appetite
we had never had before. Some of the boys asked the old "darkie"
after we had eaten up all he had brought us, if he ever prayed for
the success of the Union Army? He answered:" Yes; I just know you will
win."
   I asked him if he felt like praying for us now. I told him I would
kneel down with him and I believed all the rest would do the same,
while he prayed for us; that I had not been on my knees since the
morning we left home for the war, and then my father had tried to
have our usual family prayers, but he choked up and could not say a
word, and we all got up in silence and in tears. We all knelt down
out on that picket post with that old "darkie". We could hear the
splashing of the great Atlantic oceans water against the Virginia
shore and see the starlit heavens above us, but what to us was still
more grand, was the earnest pleading of that poor old slave for the
freedom of his race.
How he prayed for us also, and the success of the Union army, still
rings in our ears, and now , after thirty-five years have passed, it
is my belief that the God of war and of nations never gave such an
ear or a more earnest one to a prayer, than he did to that old
"darkie". Every word of that uneducated mans prayer has been answered
to the letter.
   We remained for several days in camp at the end of the march above
described. A United States paymaster visited us while there and paid
us, with part in gold.


We could hear some of the very wicked, as was always the case after
payday, yelling: "Hear is your mule ! Chuokaluck! The more you lay
down the less you pick up, etc. "
   This was always the cry of some "Banker" when he wanted to start a
game.
   The evening before we broke camp and started back to Baltimore
quite a number of slaves visited us. They were not then made contraband
of war.I was talking to a squad of them and trying to convince them
that before the war closed they would all be free. While doing so I
saw a white man just back of the group paying  very close attention
to what I was saying, and taking him to be a rebel, I turned on him
and was giving him some very plain English, when an old "Darkie" said,
"Massa, he is one of us." I called him up and he showed me the back of
his hand and cheek where he had been branded. He said they were
placed there by his former owner and were described in the "bill of
sale" his present master got with him. I called quite a number of my
comrades up and made an object lesson of him. I told the comrades to
look at him close; that I had not and could not detect the first part
of African blood in him.  I also said: " The Aristocracy or the
general cussedness in man that would make a slave of this man, would
make slaves of us all if they could. It made a deep impression on all
of us, and when a young colored man twenty-one or two years of age

asked me if I would "help" him get to the north, I told him to wait
until he saw us breaking camp and then come to me and I would see
what we could do. I consulted with my brother and we decided we would
just as leave be shot for "stealing a nigger", and running him North
as anything else. So the morning we started back we gave him our
haversacks and told him to follow along to the right or left of us,
out of sight, in the daytime and come to us every night and if a pig,
goose, duck, chicken or sheep or anything else tried to bite him, to
be sure and kill it and bring at least those two haversacks full to
us of something good to eat every night. He said, "Yes, yes massies,
I understand", and he did; until we got back and ready to take the
boats for Baltimore.  The colored boys master knowing, I expect, the
kind of a man we had in command, came after his slaves and finding
him, " loaded down to the guards" with something good to eat for us ,
he took him in that fix to General Lockwood,  who ordered that a
squad of soldiers be detailed to give this boy a good flogging and
then turn him over to his master. This order was resisted and came
near ending in a general mutiny. Some said boldly that they had
enlisted to free the Negro, and not to lay on the lash for their
owner; that if they used the cat of nine tails, it would be on the
slave owners back and not on the slave.
   I never knew just how the matter turned out, but I heard that some
brutes who wore the blue, volunteered  to whip the slave and he was
then turned over to his owner.  This order of General Lockwood stunk
so loud that he was requested to resign, which he did., and I never
heard of him afterwards.
   My brother and I lost our haversacks with their contents and the
glorious right, at that time of being called D--d "nigger thieves" by
the slave owners and their allies, the old copperheads of the North.
We all won that honorable distinction later on.
Signed Vint Anderson, Quincy, In. Written 1900


In taking up my pen again to tell the readers of the American Tribune
as best I can, what the war of the Rebellion was as a private saw it,
I can but wonder, if I can give those who were not soldiers, in that
war even a faint idea of what a soldier's lot was, as a private.
   So much has been published about this and that general's
movements and of battles. Written up, much of it by men that seemed
to know nothing about the part taken by the great body of the army.
The private soldiers and our historians have written so much about
what the generals of our army have so bravely done and so little
about what the private soldiers saw, did, and endured, that it  leads
us to wonder if the general reader has any conception of what a
privates soldier's life was.
   We who were private soldiers in that war, at our age now, the most
of whom have passed our three score of years, have to when we try to
write of that war, not only live in the past and the present, but the
thought of what the harvest will be " In that sweet by and by" is
forced upon us.
   We can see and know what the past and the present has been and is,
but the future in God's economy is a sealed book; no mind has been

made strong enough, to penetrate into the future, to know what it is
or will be for us, we can only hope or desire. What a panorama stands
up before us as a private soldier as we look backward. A whole
lifetime seems crowded into the few eventful days of the war, our
home leaving for the war is still fresh and green with us. Ours were
only a counterpart of the homes all over the North. Our home was
humble but we were happy and contented with it until Fort Sumter was
fired on, boys-private comrades, don't you remember on that eventful
day how the blood went shooting through your veins and you resolved
to endure any hardships that the cause of such an insult to our flag
and country should be removed forever? Do you remember the last
prayer that went up in silence and tears the morning your family
circle was broken only to be united where all could answer at the
final roll call? Can't you still feel the quivering lips and the warm
embrace of a now sainted mother as she pressed herself to you in that
farewell morning when she gave all her boys to her country? If you
cannot then you are not made like I am.
   We know you can, for we privates were mostly made alike: made to
endure and willing to suffer for what we believed to be right without
hope of reward more than a gladness within us that our cause was just
and would prevail. Comrades don't you remember what we did when we
drew our uniforms and guns? I do: just as soon as our officers got
their shoulder straps on: Lord how they did strut. they went to a
gallery and had their pictures taken, and if their shoulder straps
did not show up in bold relief, they were condemned as entirely
worthless. The non-commissioned officers soon caught this disease and
if every stripe on their arms were not fully developed; their
pictures were at once condemned, and we must "fess up" for the
privates, for were we not very zealous in having our pictures taken
with our uniforms on? Everybody got these pictures that called for
them, mothers, wives, children ----- other fellow -----  comrades
---- large ---- of them; they seemed to be the most and best
remembered. We none counted the cost in sending out the pictures of
"these brave soldier boys." I remember of getting a dozen that proved
too loud for me after second thought and I destroyed them. It
happened this way: As soon as I donned my soldier suit I made, like
the rest, for the artist was alive to his business, and who kept some
guns and, swords to place in the hands of the soldiers who wished to
get  their pictures. He was also as expert in showing us how to take
the position of a soldier. When I went to get my picture taken and he
saw I was a private he took a musket with the bayonet fixed and knelt
down and showed me how to form a hollow square out of myself and
resist a cavalry charge. I at once took to his idea and down on one
knee I went, and with the gun and bayonet, as directed, my picture
was taken. I got a dozen of them as soon as I could and took them
down to camp, and about the first one I showed them to was Will
Westfall, our closest neighbor boy and my messmate all the time I was
in the service. When he got hold of one of them he hollowed out  to

the boys to all come here," and when a crowd had gathered around he
showed them that picture of mine and said: "Oh! hell boys, let us all
go home; it is not a bit worth while for any of the rest of us to go.
Just look at Uncle Dudley's picture! See how brave and fierce he is!
He can just punch hell out of the Southern Confederacy, and what in
the hell is it worth our while to go."  This was a cruel thrust, but
everything went then, but those pictures. It makes a creepy feeling
run up and down my back even now to write about the pictures that I
destroyed and got others less fierce to pass around.  However
thousands of these kind of pictures were sent home to loved ones and
how many of them have been taken by mothers, wives, sisters and
sweethearts to the bed chambers and placed before them and there on
bended knees a fervent prayer has gone up asking that their loved
ones be returned to them sound in body and mind? Many of these
prayers in the providence of God were not answered and we had a
nation of mourners, not many families, north or south,  but what was
so dressed in time of that "Civil War" --we privates could never see
where that Civil came in.
   I have often stood in the rear ranks and answered for a number of
comrades when their names were called on account of them being out in
the city on a bum. Frank Card and Will Blankingship, our orderlies,
used to come up to me after roll call and say, "Uncle Dudley there
were about a dozen of you last evening or this morning" as the case
might be, "were there not?" and I would answer --several and all was
well. Card and Blankingship are both now in the spirit world and were
they to call the roll there as they used to do in Co. B, 21st, Ind.
Vol. Inf. that first went out, two thirds of our Co. could answer,
"here Am I."
   It has been estimated that there were enough men that got killed
and died in the army of disease and wounds; were they placed in a row
two feet apart to make a grave yard three hundred miles long, and
each year this grave yard has grown longer by the death of our
comrades. This last year thirty thousand of our old comrades died.
How many miles longer would that patriotic dead make --- --- ---
being  them,--- ---
---. This host of comrades with outstretched hands to bid us a
comrades welcome. If we are right about this matter,  Oh what a
meeting that will be and how sweet it will be to be there. And yet,
we are in no hurry to go. This world is too bright to swap a
certainty for an unknown one.
   There are two many bright and happy children that go on Decoration
day, with flowers, flags and their sweet songs to the grave of "our
silent dead" to decorate their grave to want to  leave them.
   We would rather cry out, Oh! Time, won't you cease your rapid
ticking, as we go down your western slope to that bottomless deep so
correctly called that "Great unknown".
Signed Vint Anderson, Quincy, Indiana March 18, 1900



"Experience of a Private of Co. B., 21st Ind. Vol. Inf. and 1st Ind.
H. A.  Continued"

We were at Baltimore from August, 1861 to February, 1862, and left
with only kind feeling for all. Our friends were kind and good, and

our enemies were bold and generous.
The citizens of New Orleans many of them were of a very different
stripe, a great many of them were foreigners. Nearly every  land and
nation made up  that heterogeneous mass of humanity.  It was "good
Lord and good devil" with them. When we embarked at Baltimore for New
Orleans Via Newport News and Ship Island we did so in a drenching
cold rain. We will draw the curtain of charity over the acts of some
of our officers who seemed to have imbibed as much liquid matter (but
of a much stronger character) than we were all being drenched with
outwardly. We stopped a short time at Newport News. We landed there
in the mud without tents. Quite a snow had just melted making it very
sloppy and most unpleasant place to camp we had during our term of
service. We left there the day before the battle between the Merrimac
and Monitor. We could see the rebel Merrimac up the James river
without glasses. The monitor was a small iron-clad and staid close to
us and looked to be mostly under water. It seemed to say to that
great big rebel gunboat, "come on at any time and hit me if you
wish". I do not think the "Johnnies" were more surprised during the
war than they were when that little Monitor showed them her capacity
to give and receive solid shots. We were hurried away from there, I
always thought on account of our commanding officers being fearful of
the result of the pending battle between these war vessels that they
were hourly expecting.
   We got aboard at Newport News on the "New Constitution" the next
in size to the great republic. In getting from there out and into the
open water were in range only for a short time of a rebel land
battery. Our boat was steamed up to its fullest capacity and one
bright morning we ran the gauntlet. The enemy had brought the range
down to a fine point.  We were all informed that at a certain point
we would likely be fired on: I and comrade Westfall went up the
rigging on the ships together to get a better view of the rebel
battery. Soon we saw the white smoke rising and someone ---
"look out she is coming,"! ?And sure enough, we saw that large cannon
ball coming apparently right at us. Usually when you can see a cannon
ball that is shot at you, you can form some idea which way to dodge
but this was in such an exact line we could not if we had even been
in a position so we could, but the suspense was soon over.  It passed
just over the ship between the two smoke stacks not more than ten
feet from us. After it had went by, Westfall let all holds go and
dropped down on deck and I went down without orders. Another shot was
fired at us that struck the water only a few feet in front of our
ship. If there is such a thing as a born soldier I think we had one
on that boat. It was a little boy seven or eight years of age. If he
is still alive he ought to have a full share of the kisses of the
American girls with Hobson.
This boys father was on the ship; as soon as these two shots were
made this little hero ran up to his father and clapping his hands
said: "O goody papa, I am so glad they shot at us so I can have
something good to write home to mamma.: I looked at the little boy

and thought, what a happy child to draw nectar out of being cooped up
like a rat in a cage and shot at with such formidable guns without
means to return the fire.
   Our second day at sea we were in Cape Hatteras. This place is
always rough but to add to our misery there was a fearful storm
raging and we were all sea sick; us privates were all huddled in the
lower deck with no place to lie down, except the floor and it was two
or three inches deep in water and what we had thrown off our
stomachs; in this hole was a hogshead of water being just distilled
and warm enough to cook an egg; to get a drink of this miserable
stuff we had to stand in line for more than one half of an hour and
when we got to the guards who were issuing this stuff out they would
give us a part of a pint cup full of it. We took it, "hit or miss"
and after trying to quench our burning thirst once we would pass on
to give our place to another in the same fix were in. On account of
the plunging of the vessel very frequently we would not get a
mouthful to swallow. How intense  our thirst for water was no one can
tell but those that have been sea sick. During the storm I had hold
of one of the posts that supported the deck above and Saul Frits, a
great big good natured fellow in our Co. was holding to the same
post. I was bent over and he was standing up almost straight; we had
made several simultaneous heaves and the tears were in his eyes.
After he had made several attempts to speak to me in this condition
he succeeded in saying "Vint, if we have to go back in the d_ _ d
thing, I want it to be by land don't you?" He was always saying
ridiculous things and as his hair was long and uncombed and his face
and clothes were fearfully besmeared, he looked so comical I would
have laughed, I think if I knew the ship was sinking. The word was
given out at one time during the storm that the ship was sinking; it
was while we were so intensely thirsty and Frilts hollowed above the
roar and confusion so we could most all hear, "let her sink, I want a
drink any way Lord". After the storm the sun shone brightly and the
waves of the ocean were stilled and we who were over our sea-sickness
felt like new beings almost glorified, the change was so great. When
we got opposite Charleston, SC., all the spy glasses were brought to
bear on that Confederate City, and a gun boat started to get in
ahead of us and got so close to us that we could see it very
plain with the naked eye. There was a hurried consultation with the
officers in charge and soon the ship turned its course to straight
east and the rebel gun-boat seeing how rapidly we were leaving them
returned to its harbor. Nothing of special incidence happened to us
after this until we landed at Ship Island.
Signed Vint Anderson,
Quincy, Indiana December 24, 1898


Next issue: " As a Private Saw It, Not as History records it"

I will now ask the readers of these sketches to return with me for a
short time to Baltimore, where we were camped so long we gained the
sobriquet of the "Band box regiment". This term being applied to
other Indiana regiments that were in the field.  Our band boxes were

daisies. Our regiment was marched through that city of Baltimore when
we first went there, many of us without a cartridge. We were fully
apprised of the reception given Col. B. F. Butler and his mass
regiment a short time before. I have thought that we would have been
as viciously attacked had that frowning mass of humanity only known
the fix we were in. We camped first on Locust Point close to Ft. Mc
Henry; went from there to Drud Hill a beautiful park at the northeast
part of the city, and remained there quite a while and had a
soldiers' picnic whilst there. The winter of 1861-2 was  cold and a
good deal of snow fell. We had nothing but "dog tents, or as some
called them "wedged tents". This was a good name for them, as we
found out, for we privates were packed in them like sardines in a
box, some eight or nine to the tent. We were reminded of our lay out
during the late war by the kids kicking because the straw for them to
sleep on was sometimes delayed.  We would have been glad many times
to have had bricks without straw to line  down on. We put our rubber
blankets down on the frozen ground and would be packed so close
together when lying down that we all had to "spoon".  So crowded were
we that if one person in tent attempted to lie on his back, the fact
that could readily be told by all: My place to sleep was on the
extreme right and Will Westfall's was on the left side next to the
tent wall. In spooning we all had to lie on our right or left sides
at the same time, and when one turned over we all had to turn.  This
work caused many a scuffle. Can't I hear Will Westfall hollowing when
I would try to steal a rest by turning over on my back, "Hell, there,
Uncle Dandley (that was my nick-name), you are not spooning." and not
infrequently he would give the covers a kick  and come rolling over
the boys to me and get me by the ears if he could. This was always
his hold if he could get it in this kind of a scuffle. Our dog-tents
had "cat and clay" chimneys. Every tent had to furnish its own master
workman to build them, and what a sight they presented. Artists were
there to take pictures of our camp. Many of the boys got pictures of
our camps at Baltimore, when we were in our "dog-tents".
I sent home some, but in the shuffle of thirty-eight years, they have
all been lost. If any comrades or their friends have any of these pictures
and will kindly send them to me, as I have special use for them,
I will get a copy of them taken off and return them to them, and will
gladly reciprocate the favor whenever opportunity presents itself.
   To make our fireplaces we would dig a hole at the far end of the
tent 8 or 10 inches deep and about 18 inches long, and then dig
under the ground until we would be 8 or 10 inches outside of the
tent, then dig a hole down through this tunnel and build our chimney
over it.
There would be a space of earth left between the fireplace and the
chimney for the tent cloth to rest on, so as not to burn it. We
staked the tent down close to the ground, and banked the earth around
the bottom to keep the cold out and when we all got in and closed the
door, very little fire was required to keep us warm. Sometimes the

boys would stay late down in the city and go into the camp too much
enthused (owing to the very exciting plays, the theaters or something
else)to sleep and it became a source of great amusement to them
to get some broad boards and put over the top of the chimneys. There
would most always be a smoldering fire,  and the boys when they got
to sleep, would sleep very sound. The boards would send the smoke
down into the tent and they being so small it would soon smoke them
out to the great delight of those that would play this trick, who
would be hid away in some safe retreat.
The colder it was, the louder the boys would swear. The tent door
would have to be thrown open and the board taken off the chimney to
get out of the smoke, and to stand out in the cold with your pants and
coat off was enough to make our strongest saints cuss, if not
outwardly, up in their sleeves. Late in the fall of 1861, we were
moved over on a hill close where Ft. Marshall now stands, and we
privates wheeled the first dirt to build that fort. We stood this
work only a few days until our feathers all turned the wrong way and
we went to, "talking out loud in meetin'," so loud that it was heard
by the powers who ordered it, and they soon countermanded the order
and we were sent back to our drill.
   For some time after we went to Baltimore, during our round dress
parade we were visited by some of the best families of the city, but
the rude and vicious element got to coming out in vast numbers and
they ceased to come to the disappointment of some of us. The
change were as the noon day sun and the midnight darkness. While we
were at Baltimore, many of the regiment learned to eat oysters raw;
and they were not so much in general use then.  Many of our regiment
were farmers boys and had seldom seen fresh oysters. We used to go
down to the oyster boat where we could get all we could eat for a
"levy," with pepper sauce or vinegar; if we wanted crackers we had
to furnish them ourselves. Oh! How delicious they were when we were
hungry, some of the boys could not eat them raw unless they had
fortified themselves with an "eye-opener," a " tuner" or a "smile".
This fortifying had many different names with us if my memory serves
me right.
   I went one day into one of these small oyster boats to a bed to see
the oyster man fill his boat, but he fished up but a few tongs
full until the waves began to roll so high that he stopped and started
to shore. The waves would dash over us, and to keep from being washed
overboard, I tied myself fast to a large staple on top of the boat and
got badly rattled when I seen he was (rattled.)We made landing like the
foxes, went into their holes, " with a squeeze and a grin". My grinning
was all done after I got out of the boat.
   We had another delicacy while at Baltimore that was new to many of
us. It was a salt water crab. This belonged to the crawfish
family, and their nature seems to be much alike; They are shaped like
a turtle except their claws, which is like a crawfish. They are of a
brownish color, but when steamed they turn red, when full grown weigh
about a pound and are very voracious. To catch them we would tie a

piece of fresh meat to a long string and throw it out into the bay.
As soon as they took hold they would go to pulling the bait and would
run backwards. We would fish on the bottom of the bay for this crab;
we could frequently pull them up on the wharf before they would let
loose of the bait, but the usual way to catch them is to have a small
net on the end of a long pole and pull the crab gently up to the top
of the water and then place the net under it and lift it out. The
best way to cook them is to steam them, using vinegar and water. I
had quite an experience while fishing for crabs close to Ft. McHenry.
There was a small wharf that ran quite a distance out into the bay. I
with a comrade was fishing out at the end of the wharf; they were
biting rapidly; I was pulling one up and looked at my comrade and saw
him turn very pale; I went to him thinking he might fall in. I looked
down into the water and saw the top of a bald headed man. My comrade
had tied a large ball on his line to make the bait sink quicker, and
when the crab got hold of it he ran under the man's arm and when he
went to pull up the ball caught under the drowned man's arm. This way
was pulled up. We called some citizens that were in a skif nearby,
and they took him to the shore and sent for the coroner. The drowned
man looked very natural until the air struck him and then he turned
very dark. He laid on the bank most of the day, and as it was close
to our camp most all the boys saw him. This sea crab furnishes its
own lock to securely hold it where ever you place him. It has a long
round stiff prong not very large, that grows by the side of their
large claws; by placing these prongs in a hole that nature seems to
have placed by their claws  on purpose; it pins them fast: the prong
on the right has to be put in the hole by the left claw and vice
versa. The crab is thus pinned down alive and put in the steamer to
cook: after it turns red you eat what you want of it, as there is no
other cleaning.
Signed Vint Anderson, Quincy, Indiana, Feb 19, 1899

Next installment:
Ship Island and the Experiences of the soldiers stationed there.

Ship Island is a narrow strip of land southeast of the mouth of the
Mississippi river, in the Gulf of Mexico, where we landed with the
balance of Gen. B. F. Butler's forces, preparatory to our occupying
New Orleans and other places in the "Department of the Gulf". It runs
east and west and about three fourths of the western part is very
low, scarcely above high tide. The center is so low that not
infrequently the water dashes across and over it, making two islands.
The low part of the island is covered with a very deep and loose
sand, without any vegetation on it. On the eastern end  the ground is
high and rough, covered with timber. While there we got our cooking
wood by cutting the trees into long logs. We would roll them into the
gulf and wade or swim in after them and push them along the edge of
the water down to our camp. Oh, what fun we had, and never lost a
man.
   The porpoises would come along the shore in great droves bobbing
up out of the water, affording us much amusement in shooting at them.

Along close to the shore  were innumerable fish: a great many of them
catfish, weighing about a pound and a half. Our old Co., James
McMillen was very much opposed to our using these fish. His antipathy
towards them and what he did to prevent our eating them will be
treated on in another chapter. The fish were so numerous that we
could bait  a throw-line with a dozen or more hooks on it and throw
it in, as soon as the hooks struck the bottom we would have a fish on
almost every hook. How is that for a fish story? It was true, as all
the boys will attest.
   We had to dig a well whenever we wanted to get water, by going
close to the edge of the beach and digging with our hands a short
distance. We could get good pure water. It would be the gulf water
filtered through the sand. The sand was so loose that the well would
soon cave in and leave no trace of it.
   By some miscue of our quarter-master soon after we landed on the
Island, we were short on rations; so much so that we actually
suffered for something to eat. This was of short duration. Our
sutlers store was not in running order, but the 31st Massachusetts
was. They also had plenty to eat when we had scarcely anything.
During this famine two of my mess mates went down to the
Massachusetts sutlers and bought a bottle of pickled cherries, put up
in a very poor article of whiskey and called "Brandy Cherries".
   I do not want to tell tales out of school on any of our comrades
about habits they formed in the army, for I believe there has been no
more men out of our regiment according to number and location who
have had to take the Keely cure after they got home than to any other
regiment, but truth compels me to say that there were very few of us
but what could be induced to at least eat the cherries when  pickled
as above, and if my memory  serves me right, these cherries had a
very exhilarating effect on us after eating them; at least this was
the case with my two comrades spoken of above. They got back to our
tent that evening about dusk in the condition spoken of and when we
told them that we had nothing for supper but assured them that we
would be all right for breakfast, they said: " If the court knows
herself, we will not go to bed hungry".  They then went on to say
that they had just come through Co. A's quarters of the 31st Mass.
Reg.., next to our company on the right, and they saw their company
cook put a large pan of batter in their chest and lock it up, and
they are going to have it." When we tried to persuade them to let it
alone, they said: "Hell, do you think we will go to bed hungry and
let those Yankees go to bed with a full belly and then have batter
cakes for breakfast?" We had to let them have their way. They told us
that, " the mess chest was securely locked, But the chest was put on
with small hinges, and they had made a screw driver with an old knife
and just as it got dark off goes that lid, and then we would see who
has batter cakes."
   The night was dark and very cloudy, so the boys went down: they
had the place located so they had no trouble to find it, and soon
returned with that large mess pan filled with batter. We had no wood,

but the boys said they would fix that: that there was a barrel full
of something close to the mess chest and they would go and get that
and we could use it for fuel. They went back and staid a long while,
so long that we were fearful they had been taken, and were forming a
rescuing squad when they came rolling up with the barrel. It proved
to be full of potatoes. When they got to us, although they were not
Sunday school scholars, they quoted this text:
"Man cannot live by bread alone"
   The most of the night was spent by the privates and
non-commissioned officers in our Company in baking batter cakes and
roasting potatoes, but after we had eaten all the batter cakes and
the most of the potatoes, we took what was left and buried them in
our tent, putting our beds down over them. We then went to sleep and
slept the sleep of the just until roll call next morning.
   The Massachusetts sutler was more of a hog than a man, as many
others like him now, who seized every opportunity possible to extort
the boys. During our famine at Ship Island I remember paying him 25
cents for three small doughnuts. He sold them to us at 10 cents a
piece or three for a quarter. A hungry man could have eaten five
dollars worth of  them the way he sold them to us,but we got even with him
later on in this way: He had his sutler stand out West of New Orleans
sometime, I think,in the fall of 1862. A part of our regiment
was put close by and when we learned that the sutler stand belonged
to the same man who bled us at Ship Island and that he had gone to
New Orleans and left a young man fresh from the east to run the
stand, we held a council of war in our company and determined if
possible to get even with him. To do so we played this kind of trick:
when we first went into New Orleans, some person got into barkers
bank and confiscated a large amount of his money both signed and
unsigned. That which was not signed the boy signed up for him. We had
procured a large amount of this as well as a lot of individual
Gosport, In script that was not worth the paper it was written on.
One of the crowd went to buy something of the kid in command of the
sutlers stand and presented a twenty dollar bill of Gosport, and
asked him to give him change if he had it in Barkers money from New
Orleans. He not having it, one of the boys who just happened to be
there said he could give him four five's for it. Which he did, and
soon as barkers twenty dollar bill has wut at him  with the request
that he gave him Gosport money in exchange. This kind of work through
the kid off his guard and he took the money readily then the boys
went to buying most anything he had and by night they had all the
good money he had and nearly all the stock. When the proprietor came
and found his goods all gone and nothing to show for it but some
worthless script, he got in a white heat, and came down to us using
some very vigorous language, but we told him to keep cool and if he
ever caught the 21st Indiana regiment out of rations to do as he did
at Ship Island and go to frying donuts and sell them at 10 cents a
piece and he could soon get his money back.  He went off with some

bold threats but we never heard anything more about it. We presumed
he decided that "discretion was the better part of valor".
   Our time at Ship Island was mostly taken up in being drilled in
Gen. Williams, "Order of Combat". We were loaded down in heavy
marching orders morning and evening and run around in that loose sand
where we would sink ankle deep every step and kept at it as long as
we could raise a trot. Many of our vigorous young men are now going
down through old age hopeless cripples by breaking blood vessels in
their legs in this inhumane "Order of Combat".
    STORM AT SHIP ISLAND
   It has been the fortune or misfortune of the writer to have been
in two storms at sea where the great steamers were tossed about like
egg shells in a raging current, where these great ships would be
carried up on top of the waves that seemed to be mountains high and
there quiver for a moment and plunge down deep in the trough of the
sea, but neither one of these storms was as fearful and awe inspiring
as the storm at Ship Island, when the 21st. Ind. Vol., Inf. was there
in the spring of 1862.
   My pen can give the reader but a faint description of it. Just
after noon the wind began to blow at the rate of fifty or sixty miles
an hour, and by dusk the waves had dashed over the Island just above
Co. A., and cut us off  from the high land and rumor had it that a
few years before the whole of the western part where we were encamped
had been flooded, destroying all that was on the Island and wrecking
several boats. Just about dusk the storm cloud burst, not over us but
on us. The loud peals of thunder seemed to vie with the waves to make
the occasion more awful. The lightning played all around us. There
came a puff of the angry blast and took with it many of our tents,
our mess tent with the rest, but was kind enough to drop it within a
few rods of us. We hastily gathered it up and whilst we were holding
it down over our belongings we heard a noise in Co. A, of the 31st
Mass. Reg.; After the storm had passed over and we had staked down
our tent, some of us went over to the Massachusetts Regiment to see
what the trouble was, and found that the Yankee who was standing
guard at the guard tent had kept his gun in his hand during the
electric storm and lightning had struck the breech of his gun and
tore it to splinters, passing into the center pole of the tent where
a lot of guns were stacked, knocking them in every direction, and
killing several soldiers who were lying around them. The strangest
freak of this electric storm was that the sentry, who stood before
the guard house and had his gun torn to pieces was not even knocked
down.
   He complained of a headache and afterwards learned that he grew
worse and was discharged on account of it.
Signed Vint Anderson, Quincy, Indiana  (date obscured)

"AT SHIP ISLAND"
Experiences of a Private of Co. B., 21st Inf. and 1st Ind. H.A.

When we left Ship Island for New Orleans, the 4th Wisconsin and 6th
Michigan and our regiment were all put in one boat. Our trip from
there and while at the mouth of the Mississippi River, a part of the
time was full of want and hardships. Our rations were very scarce. We

were  confined for a while to a small slice of  "Sow-belly", raw, for
we had no way of cooking, and one cracker each for a meal. The
crackers were full of worms. The boys said the barrels or boxes were
branded 1776. My brother and I had one quart cup for both of us and a
spoon each, many of the rest of the privates were no better supplied.
The water was taken out of some old casks that was in the hull of the
ship and was very foul and offensive to smell. We had vinegar and
sugar and by these we could make the water bearable to a famishing
man only. Then we would break a cracker into our quart cups of water,
vinegar and sugar, very frequently large worms, "fat and juicy" would
come to the top, we would take them out but even this would not deter
us from eating what was left. It was that or nothing. For some cause
that has left my memory. The ship we were on was drawn by a tug boat
from Ship Island to the mouth of the Mississippi River. The rope that
the tug boat was pulling us with broke one day, and part of it came
back in our ship with great force, knocking one sailor off the front
part of the ship; the boat immediately passed over him. The cry was
raised, "a man over-board", but before a boat could be lowered he
went down to find the sharks. The end of the rope also struck a
soldier with such force that he soon died, and was buried at sea,
there to remain "until that great day when the seas shall give up
their dead".
   Being short on rations, was not all our deprivations whilst on
that ship. We were nearly eaten up by "gray backs", we could see
hundreds of men "lousing" both by day and by night. In spite of
ourselves we would be covered by vermin. If one was killed a thousand
would come to their late departed kinsmens funeral, that the boys were
continually preaching. These funeral discussions are still ringing in
our ears. The most of them were like this  ---- "gray backs". And now
after thirty six years have passed,when we think of that ship we can
feel in our minds, those self same "gray backs" crawling over and
biting us. "Gol darn em"
   We were told and left a part of the time before the bombardment of
the forts up to where the Mississippi river empties into the gulf,
and anchored over the seam between the salt and fresh water, . One
end of the ship was in salt water, the other in fresh. No sooner was
the fact found out that we could get freshwater, than every
available means was employed to do so, one of our comrades hollowed
out  "Run boys, run!" here is water you can drink, but the officers
will have a guard over it in five minutes".
   At this place a boat was brought along by the side of  our ship,
and the 4th Wisconsin and 6th Michigan got on it amid the wildest
hurrah I saw while in the army. We had scarcely room on our boat and
you may judge of our jam when we tried to sleep. The wind blew very hard
and frequently a hat or cap would be blown into the gulf, and as
we had no place to replenish our stock, we got to "borrowing" from
one another. the leader would always be approached very cautiously
when he was sound asleep. Our boys would never take from their
regiment. And I think the other regiments were equally as honest...

the 21st would go to a sleeper in one regiment and take his hat or
cap to another regiment and leave it in the place of the one he would
get there. One man would be hatless, and another who had lost his own
would have it. The boys  who had hats or caps would guy those who had
none. Often they would have their own snatched off their heads and
tossed overboard. By this means quite a number of men were
bareheaded. Our regiment had about as many caps of the other
regiments as we had of our own. Other articles such as canteens and
haversacks changed ownership during the nights. About the time the
4th Wisconsin and 6th Michigan regiments got on the other boat. One
of them held up one of our boys caps and said, very feelingly:
"Good-bye, Hoosiers, do take care of yourselves. See what I stole
from you?" No sooner was this said than there was a wild rush to the
edge of the boats and hundreds of men were holding up their trophies
and shouting, "Good-Bye, Badgers, Good-bye Wolverines, good-bye
Hoosiers, do take care of yourselves. See what I stole from you."
There was not a man in all that crowd but was shouting with laughter,
and the circumstances seemed to more closely unite the three
regiments.
   We received our mail about the time the Badgers and Wolverines
left us, and my usual love-letter, from whom others seemed to think
was my best girl, was very conspicuous in being absent; but her
cousin, who was a member of our company, and who always called me
"Cousin," received a letter from home, telling how frightfully bad
scared my best girl had got about me. She had become so scared....You
may think it egotistical in me in telling it, but is the truth, so I
will tell it; but I do it with the understanding that the reader will
keep it a profound secret; and I must admit here, too; that the dear
ones at home had cause to think those engaged in the  taking of New
Orleans were in great danger, but I have thought my best girl was
unnecessarily scared about me, for as a matter of fact we were only
silent spectators to the great naval battle. She was so badly  scared
that she married another fellow. Comrades, did your ever get  left?
My best girl was patriotic and all that, and had she made any
promises I think she would have been as true as steel, but
fortunately or unfortunately I had not called on her but once before
I went into the army, and the other fellow had her well sparked, but
in all seriousness, when I look at the little woman that has been
sleeping on my arm for twenty-five years and God made for me, and I
see our three healthy boys I am ready to thank God that the mere
flirtation went no further than it did. But where am I at?

Farragut's fleet was quite a while maneuvering around to get their
position. We had a very desireable place during the bombardment of Forts
Jackson and St. Phillip, Viz., just outside  of range of the enemies guns,
but close enough to see the whole engagements. Our fleet consisted of
forty-seven gun boats and mortars. At a signal given by the flag ship
would throw a continuous stream of messengers of death at the rebel forte
and gunboats. The panorama would begin about sun down and continue all

night long; for seven nights. In that time our fleet threw into the forts
and at their gunboats 16,800 shells, 15 inch and more. Fort Jackson had 75
guns, and Fort St. Philip had 53. The rebels also had 18 armed
steamers --rams and gun boats, besides in this engagement. Capt.
Farragut's flagship was struck 52 times during the engagement, so you
see the enemy was not a silent spectator. We could see it all and
hear the roar of that great battle.
   The rebels displayed  a courage worthy of a better cause. It was
reported that one gallant band of young men constructed a large raft
at New Orleans and floated down with the intention of boarding some
of our gun-boats and turning our own guns on us. It was said that
more than a hundred boy's engaged in this fresh enterprise, and one
shot from one of our gun-boats, sent boat and crew to the bottom of
the Mississippi River. At the final roll call, may the father of us
all forget and forgive the pride of these brave boys that so
recklessly gave their lives to secession and slavery, and may their
rest be sweet and their future state be bright, and happy, we are
glad we do not bear you any ill will now. Though as such you played a
sad havoc with our family as well as the families all over the North.
When I say I freely forgive the men who wrecked their lives for a
wrong cause, I voice the sentiments I believe of almost all the
private soldiers of the Union army, and they were the men that
endured the hardest hardships of the war. Let us have peace, but not
a sacrifice of any of the great principles for which we fought, and
may all politicians who try to keep up the animosities engendered
during the war for their own selfish ends, die, and cease to curse
the land and Nation. What sights presented themselves to us after we
past the forts? The river was full of wrecked and burning vessels,
and the shore was lined with burning Confederate property. It was
said they burned there fifteen thousand bales of cotton, besides a
vast quantity of sugar was destroyed; in fact, everything that they
thought would be seized as contraband of war, was destroyed. While we
were at Ship Island a refugee from New Orleans, brought over there in
a small sail boat the music and song that was in the mouths of all in
that city. It was sung there as deriding the idea of Ben Butler ever
getting past the forts and up into the city. Butler had procured
several copies of it and when we had passed the forts and were headed
for New Orleans, he gave it out to the different bands. Our band was
promised a treat by Butler if they would get it up so they could play
it well by the time we got to New Orleans, and as we were on Butlers
flag ship, it fell to the lot of our band  boys to start the music
and the rest to follow. When we got up to that seven miles of wharf,
packed as far as the eye could see, with that conglomerated mass of
all nations and tongue, on that bright first day of May 1862, our
band struck up the tune and all the rest joined,
Ploayune Butler is coming to town
Ploayune Butler is coming to town etc. etc.


I was standing within a few feet of Ben Butler when the band began to
play that tune, and I am here to say that I do not think he is
happier in Heaven today than he was on that eventful first day of May
1862, when the band boys were playing that tune.
   Ben Butler was one of the brainiest, truest men the United States
ever had, notwithstanding his vacillating courses in politics. He was
the first man to declare the slave as contraband. Secretary Stanton
admitted after the war, that had Ben Butler's policy been strictly
adhered to from the time he promulgated it that the war would have
been of short duration.
   Never was there a man so despised by the rebel and their sneaking
allies of the North, the "Knights of the Golden Circle", and their
associates in politics, than was Benjamin Butler. Butler was a
Democrat up to the time the rebels fired on Fort Sumter, but he, like
Steven A. Douglass, was far in advance of his party and was for the
Union of the States at all cost and stood ready to wipe out the cause
of the war --slavery-- if it became necessary to maintain the Union
and crush out the rebellion and he was the first to advise the
abolition of slavery. As the ages go by, the grand and noble deeds of
Benjamin Butler will shine with increased brilliancy, whilst those
sneaking curs who were so ready to call him, "Beast Butler",
"Cock-eye Butler" and "Spoon thief Butler" will only stink the
louder.
Signed Vint Anderson, Quincy, Indiana, Jan. 8th 1899

"At Algiers"

Contrary to our anticipation's our regiment was landed across the
river from New Orleans at Algiers: we were quartered in a long depot
and placed over there without a cartridge for our guns. The most of
the boys were cussing mad and the only time we stampeded was our
first night there, and in telling this now after more than thirty-six
years has passed, I feel just like I was telling tales out of school.
   We were all so heartily ashamed of it  that we never spoke: not
even to one another about it, and I will promptly admit that it now
makes the cold chills run over me to tell it, and it is my first time
to. As I said we had nothing to defend ourselves with but our empty
guns, and there was a report circulated just before dark that there
was a large rebel force on the same side of the river  we were and a
prospect that we would be attacked before morning. We saw how
hopeless we were with no ammunition. The gun boats were our only
protection and they would be of no service to us in a night attack,
as all would be mixed up together  and their shells would be as
destructive to us as our foes.
   With our minds worked up this way, we were preparing to go to bed
and lights were out, when some one fired off a gun not far from the
depot an alarm was given and we gathered our arms, and almost to a
man went over the bluff next to the river some fifty or sixty yards.
There was some loud cussing for the neglect to give us ammunition,
but as no more firing was heard we all sneaked back to the depot and
went to bed. "Ouch", mum, is the word.
Five privates from our company and myself were sent the next
day a mile and one-half south of our camp to guard a small foundry,

and stayed there three or four days before we were relieved; had taken
rations for this time.  Late in the first evening after we had got
there a boy ten years of age came to me and said "his ma would like
to have me go to their house that night, but not to come until dark
and come alone," so I detailed myself to fill the order, telling the
rest of the boys if I did not show up next morning where they could
look for me. When I got to the house and rang the door bell, a tall,
fine looking woman answered the call and invited me in. She proved to
be a very estimable lady and an Indian by birth, the sister of one of
our leading attorneys and who was a Union man that I had a slight
personal acquaintance with, but knew him very well by reputation. Her
husband was dead and her eldest son, a mere boy, was in the rebel army,
but notwithstanding this fact her house had been fired into the night
before by some cowardly and villainous parties who suspected her to be
a friend to the cause of the Union.
   She showed me where a bullet had gone through her door and struck
the ceiling above her head and had dropped down at her feet. I became
very much interested in her report as to the treatment she and her
children had been receiving from those hot headed Southerners, and as
they were very much afraid that another attack would be made on them,
I staid with them through the night. One of her children was a  very
bright pretty girl about 16 years of age. Next morning I advised her
to move over in New Orleans, as I thought she would be better
protected there, which she did. A fast friendship grew up between
Mrs. Taylor ( that was her name), her daughter and myself, and I
spent many pleasant hours in their company.
   Mrs. Taylor supported herself and children with her pen. She and
her daughter Alice made quite a number of visits to our regiment and
gave us several flattering write ups which were published in daily
papers. Of what a relief it was to spend an hour with that motherly
woman. She was pure herself and trusted us implicitly with Alice.
   I went back to New Orleans after the war and called on them. I
found them the same kind friends, but her son had returned from the
Confederate army minus an arm, and was surly and unsociable, and we
drifted apart. A kind providence has led us to a path of contentment
and away from that wicked city. I, like most of men, am a chameleon,
with a nature "when in  Rome to do as Rome does".
So we are glad, but time with all its changes has not erased from our
memory those kind friends and "though lost to sight they are to
memory dear".
Signed Vint Anderson, Quincy, Indiana (no date)

Hanging of Mumford

The Governor of Louisiana was at New Orleans when we passed the forts
and took a steamer and went up the river. The Mayor Monroe assisted
by Mr. Soul refused to surrender the city. And sent for Gen. Loovel,
formerly a street commissioner of New York City, who said that "they
would not give up the town but meant to fight on shore"
   Armed men fired on helpless women and children for giving
expressions to their pleasure of witnessing the Old Flag. The troops
were assailed with a fury of epithets which no man that has not

experienced it can understand. Butler informed them that he would
speedily and severely punish the perpetrators of such outrages. The
Common council formally surrendered the city on the 26th day of
April, Commodore Morris then hoisted the flag on the mint. Guns
were turned on the flag staff, and if any man had been seen trying to
hall it down , he would have been murdered from the war vessels. Some
ruffians stole it, headed by one William Mumford. The new Orleans
Picayune the next day mentioned all their names as great heroes. It
cost Mumford his life for Ben Butler hung him. He was a gambler and
rather good looking, about forty years old and enjoyed for a while
his notoriety as an insulter of the flag until he was picked up on
the streets one day, sent before a military commission and condemned
to death, and on the 7th of June 1862, he was hanged. And near the
same time seven men were condemned to death for trying to get up a
riot. These men were finally sent to Ship Island. The gallows was put
up before the United States Mint, and an old preacher came in to
Butler and said: "Give me those men's lives General. It is but a
scratch of your pen." Butler refused.
As soon as Mumford was hanged the mob separated,
"The moral gizzard was all gone from the men". Then the women of the
city took up the  cue laid down by the men, and no opportunity
passed to insult the officers and men. Women, as soldiers came, would
throw aside their cloaks to display rebel badges. Secession colors
were worn in bonnets. When a soldier entered a street car, the women
would get out of it, or if one went to church (for a change), these
Christian ladies would all leave the pews. The female school teachers
kept their pupils singing rebel songs.
   About one tune was the only one discussed and that was:
" The Bonnie Blue Flag".
   Finally, women spit directly into the face of two officers who
were walking peacefully along the street. Butler then issued his
celebrated order No. 33 saying "As the officers and soldiers of the
United States have been subjected to repeated insults from the women,
calling themselves ladies of New Orleans, in return for  the most
scrupulous, non-interference and courtesy on our part, it is ordered
that hereafter when any female shall by her gesture or movement (two
lines obscured)
shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the
town playing her avocation. For this order he was called "Beast
Butler" .
   The boys were not slow in obeying this order. I remember some very
amusing incidents, the next morning after this order came out, the
effect was immediate. The woman nuisance in the grosser form ceased
to be. Butler was urged to resign this order but he refused. He wrote
to the Mayor of the city of New Orleans, when he asked him to do so.
   "I have not abated a single word of that order, it was well
considered. It will protect the true and modest woman from all
possible insult, the others  will take care of themselves".  Butler
suppressed the Mayor of the town, and sent him to Fort Pickens, and
his wife went with him. Payl Hayne wrote:


"Yes but there is one who shall not die in battle harness,
One for whom  lurks in the darkness silently
Another, and a sterner doom.
A warrior's end shall crown the brave,
For him swift court and filled grave."

   Butler during his six month's stay at New Orleans did not only
rule the viscious elements with an Iron hand, but he established a
free market to feed the starving. They were most all reduced to this
state when we went there. I have seen hundreds of women and children
at a time along ditches fishing for crawfish. They would get, or take
the tails of the creeping crustacean, and boil them, and make what
they called a "gumbo soup" out of them; not that they relished such
food, but they did it to sustain life. When Butler was to what
straits they were in, he proclaimed to them a free market. All were
fed regardless of the sentiments they entertained in regard to the
Union of the States and the hand they had taken during the war.
   " I was hungered, and ye gave me bread."

   No man was ever met at Heaven's door with a heartier shout of
welcome, and the hinges of that celestial gate turned further back
than when Ben Butler's exalted spirit knocked of entrance, and no set
of soldiers were ever more indignant than we of Ben Butler's command,
were at New Orleans in November 1862, when the cowardly order came to
him to turn over his command to Ben. Banks, not that we had any
enmity towards Banks for we had none, but we knew and felt the fact
that the Government at Washington had shown the white feather in
recalling him.
   I have often thought that the power that was at Washington, that
was responsible for this withdrawal must have had a sting of remorse
forever afterwards, when they thought about and read Ben Butler's
farewell address to the people of New Orleans. I will give it here,
he said:
"I'm not conscious of a single personal animosity, I found your
captured, not surrendered, and conquered but not orderly, relieved
from the presence of an army but incapable of taking care of
yourselves. The enemies of my country, unrepented, I hold that
rebellion is treason and that treason persisted in is death.
   I might have regaled you with the animosities of British
civilization, you might have been smoked to death in caverns like the
coventers or roasted like the inhabitants of Algiers during the
French campaign. Your wives and daughters might have been
given over to the ravisher as were the unfortunate dames of Spain, in
the Peninsular War or you might have been scalped and tomahawked as
were our mothers at Wyoming by the savage allies of Great Britain.
   The rebellion is a war of aristocrats against the poor, or the
land owner against the laborer. I shall now leave you with the proud
consciousness that I carry with me the blessings  of the humble and
loyal, under the roof of the cottage, and in the cabin of the slave,
and so am quite content to incur the sneers of the saloon or the
curse of the rich."
   This farewell address of Ben Butler's to the citizens of New
Orleans ought to be placed in our school histories, together with the
fact that he stopped the fierce chastisements of the colored people

by the whites, kept off insurrection, had fair elections and said
about slavery in his final message: " There is but one thing at this
hour that stands between you and the Government, and that is slavery.
The institution cursed of God, which has taken its last refuge here
in His providence will be rooted out as the tares from the wheat,
although the wheat is torn up with it."
   Benjamin Butler ought to have been President of the United States
during the War of the Rebellion. There were none of our leaders so
far seeing. No, not one.
Signed Vint Anderson, Quincy, Ind.

(Next issue:  As a Private saw it, not as History records it.)

Whilst we were guarding the foundry spoken of in a previous chapter,
a "darkey"  told us one morning that there was a large lot of rebel
arms and accouterments left at his master's by some Confederate
soldiers, who had disbanded for the present and hidden their arms
there. He was very skittish about giving information, and when
locating the plantation he left. So we called a council of war, and
we had no one in command, not even a corporal. We decided to press in
a "darkey, his dump cart and mule and go out and investigate the
matter. Four of us got in the cart and two staid to guard the
foundry. The "darkey: cheerfully drove us to the plantation, where
the old planter met us at his door and when we told him our business
he was very indignant, especially when he found out we were all
private soldiers. He asked if we had any instructions to search his
premises. We told him no. He then asked us, " By what right do you
search a French subjects premises?" and as I had been appointed
spokesman, I showed him our guns and said "Here is our authority, and
we have been told you have a lot of rebel arms hidden on your
plantation and we want to say to you we have four Enfield rifles and
some small arms loaded and we intend to search your premises, and if
you attempt to hinder us every one of us will empty them in your
carcass." This had a very soothing effect on the red-headed rebel,
and he called a slave and told him to show us through his premises.
   I staid with him and after the other three boys had made a
fruitless effort to find anything he became very sociable and ordered
his servant to bring out a basket of wine, and seeing our mouths
watering and hesitancy in taking a hold, he opened several bottles
and poured some out of each into  a large glass and raising it up said
with a good deal of pomposity: "Gentlemen, I never ask men in my own
house to drink that I will not drink myself", and then drank it all.
No sooner down than we filled our glasses to the brim and drank it to
our kind hosts health. He kept filling up our glasses and we kept
emptying them until he and all of us were "as full as  `bild' owls,
and when we were scarcely able to make our train or the old darkey's
mule and cart, we bade our host good-by with many thanks for his
hospitality shown us. I was not so full  but that I could detect a
gleam of gladness in his countenance. In thus dismissing us from his
plantation and while some of the boys were slobbering over him I saw
a darkey at the corner of the house motioning to me. I stepped to him

and he whispered, "Massey youens didn't look at the right place. Look
back in the meal house," and dodged back.
   I went  back to the crowd and told the French gentleman,  (The
planter claimed he was a French subject and not an American) that
whilst I had every confidence in what he had told us about there
being no arms of the rebels there, I felt it a duty to look some
myself. I saw a cloud and a very dark one too, pass over his
countenance, but we left one of the boys with him and took the rest.
I asked for and received the key to the meal room, and a darkey
whispered to me to look in a large box that was locked, which we did
and found it packed with guns, swords, etc.; among the lot was four
drums. We loaded the cart to the top and all got on top as best we
could; when one of the boys said: "Here boys, is a drum a piece, let
us take and beat them into camp, like hell beating tanbark. The old
planter fearing he would be arrested, sneaked off, we gave him
parting yell and a groan and then beat our drums up to the foundry as
suggested,
and sang as best we could: "Way down south in Dixie, etc."
   The darkies along the route were very much amused, but the
Johnnies did not seem to enjoy our sport. Our comrades enjoyed the
manner in which we had treated the would-be French subject, but it
was the cause of the squad getting into very close quarters in this
way.  When we got to the foundry with our captured  (our guns and
trappings) there was a man there from New Orleans who lived there but
was a Union man. He told us with a good deal of secrecy where a lot
more of army accouterment was stored, gave us the street and number,
said they were in the rear room of a hardware store.  When we went
back to camp, having sent our trophies in there in advance, we were
summoned before our colonel and asked to give a full account of it,
which we did, leaving out none of the details. It seemed to amuse him
very much. Geo. Harding, a private then, in our company and  a
correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial, colored this small
capture up in fine style, giving Colonel McMillen great credit for
it.  Privates were  never in it when it came to getting credit for
what was done. His place was that of a scapegoat to carry off the
sins of the officers, that was all. We told Colonel McMillen that we
knew where there was a large lot of rebel guns in New Orleans, and if
he would let us we would go after them. He readily consented, and
detailed a Lieutenant to go with us. He said we could press in as
many drays as we needed after we got across the river. He said, "all
you get bring over to my headquarters". So we started, seven in
number, six men and one officer. When we crossed over the river we
pressed  in  two drays with deep beds and  four "darkies" got in them
and drove up the street and number. When we told the proprietors of
the store what we were after they made a general denial but
immediately left the store with us. A sentry was placed at the door
and the rest took the darkies in and pointed out enough guns and
accouterments to fill the cart to the brim. We found some pistols,
bowie knives, dirks, etc. etc., in the front room. We did not

hesitate to take them also, especially the etc. etc. When all were
loaded up and we went to the door and looked out we found the street
packed as far in every direction as you could see, with frowning and
angry looking men. We expect many of the men that had stored their
arms there and put on citizens clothing were in that crowd.
   We called a hasty consultation and the lieutenant with us took
three of the boys and bayonets at a charge.  They succeeded in
climbing up the front cart, and two of the boys and I took the other
cart. The beds of the carts were very high and as they were filled to
the top, when we got up there we were out of reach of their knives,
and as we had a good view of the road and all had our guns ready to
return any shot that might be given, we felt pretty safe and no one
dared to shoot at us. The streets were so densely packed that even
though we had exhausted all our cuss words at them it took us a long
time to get where we could breath easy. I believe it would have been
impossible for us to have gotten through that street on foot alive.
We have been compelled to use our bayonets and that would have set
off the bums around us. I never felt before or since that I was under
the care of a mob. We put on a bold front and the lieutenant gave the
command in a loud voice forward, march, move out of our way --you, --
but with all we could do it took us a long while to get through that
sea of angry faces.
   Colonel Mc Millen got a big puff in the Cincinnati Commercial for
this. The private not being mentioned only as "so many".  The
privates were like the Irishmen that came to America and was very
much enthused about his new found home and wrote back to Ireland that
America was the best country to live in the world; he said all he had
to do was to carry the brick and mortar up on the building and
someone up there would do all the work.
   The private soldiers had nothing to do but take the hardest side
of a rail to sleep on.  The crackers with the most worms in them. The
front rank in time of battle. The exposure in camp and on the march
in what was much more, very frequently in the volunteer service be
ordered around by your inferiors at home, and by men of no military
experience and almost destitute of quality that make a true soldier,
but all such men always stood ready to rob the private soldier of
that which he had staked his life.  I am glad I was a private soldier
and do not have to answer at that final roll call for robbing brave
men of their gallant deeds. Officers from a private's stand point
were a necessary evils.
In our regiment we had the good and the bad, and I am glad to say
a great majority of them were good and brave men, the bad will be dealt
with further along and it is always in order with me to say kind things
of the good ones.
   The Captain of Company A and B of our regiment and Captain Whiskey
conceived the idea of making a bold dash into the enemies country,
whilst we were camped at Algiers and soon after we went there.  They
took engine, tender and a box or two and taking a detail from each
company of about one hundred men and piled them in and on these cars.

Then having plenty of steam in the boiler and themselves they headed
for Brashier city, eight miles west from Algiers, the place where we
were camped and about seventy miles further than the Union soldiers
had been from New Orleans. The Capt. of Co. "A" had been an engineer,
but the Capt. of Co. "B" only new how to get up steam himself and
opened and closed the valves on the engine. The Capt. of Co. "A"
took charge of the engine going out and soon after we got started he
threw the valve wide open and away we sped with almost lightning
rapidity, the whole length of that line out of Brashier City. That
was quite a shipping place by water.
   We found there a good many boats, both large and small, but we did
not capture or destroy any of them, not withstanding they were all
being used by the enemy. We captured one tender and a few cars and an
M.D. that hollowed for Jef Davis and the Southern Confederacy and one
pound of Louisiana rum a very strong stimulant made out of cane.
   We had no sooner captured it than it captured us. We staid at
Brashier City only a short time, and the Capt. of Co. "B" took the
other train and a part of the men and followed. Capt. Whiskey was on
both trains and took command as we were going along by a large swamp
where we could see hundreds of alligators from the largest to the
smallest. Capt. Whiskey asked the Capt. of Co. "B" if he did not see
Co. "A" trying to beat Co. "B" back to Algiers, and he leaned over,
having hold of the lever that they regulate the speed with and said
as best he could Co. "A" trying to beat Co "B" back home
"No never," and he pulled the valve wide open and bounced up against
the rear car of the train Co. "A" was on.
   We were knocked in every direction. One of our boys who was on the
tender was knocked over into the swamp close to a large alligator; he
got out of there-- not being hurt much-- without telling!
   Strange to say neither train was disabled very much -- a wheel or
so was knocked off the track. We got them back as soon as we could
and backed back to get those that were knocked off. The boys all went
cursing the Capt. of Co. "B" , but answered them crying, saying "boys
don't blame me, did you not all see company "A" trying to beat Co.
"B" in home?

One of the boys said, you d---d fool, they was before and had to beat
us". The Captain answered yes I know they were ahead but I seen two
tracks as plain as I ever saw anything, and I thought I could get Co.
"B" ahead. At this a shout went up and someone said, "Don't  curse
the Captain, but Louisiana rum for it had made them see two
tracks, where there was but one." We all got on the cars and went
into camp at a more reckless speed than we went. One man by pulling a
few railroad spikes and slipping a T rail at many places over which we
passed could have dashed the whole command to "kingdom come". These men
received loud praises for this foolhardy raid. One of our leaders was
brave and reckless the other timid and drunk.
Vint Anderson, Jan. 29, 1899


" As privates saw it-- Not as History Records it"
The reckless and and very foolish dash into
the enemy's country with no object in view, described

in my last chapter, very much enthused our colonel, and he
conceived the idea of even outstripping his two Captains, so he
procured a small sternwheel steamboat and loaded 75 or 80 of us
privates with nothing but our enfield rifles to defend ourselves, on
it and started up the Mississippi River in the enemies country. The
boat so small that a few more men on one side than the other would
careen it too one side and when in that fix we would make very slow
time. This enraged the colonel very much and knowing  very much how
to govern men only by abuse he went to using most vigorous language
we can still hear in our minds such as this: "Trim ship --- you."
There were an upper and lower deck and the boys were about
evenly divided, but for general cussidness sake as much as anything else,
when the colonel began rounds to "trim ship" we got to going from
one side to the other and as soon as the colonel would cuss  the boys from
one side of an  upper or lower deck, the boys on the other  deck
would all go  over on  the side  and would in this way keep the boat
corralled  all the time. He would get in a white heat, and we kept
him in that fix all the time.And we were two days and nights getting to
the mouth of the Red river.  We  went up it a short distance to a
steamboatlanding; the river was out of its banks and just before we
got to the landing we saw several men in skiffs out in the over-flowed
bottoms. We got close to them before they discovered that we were
blue coats and as soon as they did they made a hasty retreat to
shore. They were ordered  to come to us but would not heed the order.
We went to shooting to see how close we could come to them, not to
hit them; most all of them jumped out into the  water and dodged behind
some trees, and as we had no small boats to go to them, we left them.
When we got in  site of the steam boat landing we saw a large steam
boat tied-up; we approached it very cautiously, But seeing no one there
we pulled our small steamer  along by the side of it and the colonel
ordered a few of us aboard of it to see if there were any of the enemy
aboard.As soon as we got on it strange to say we visited the bar and
finding it well stocked we went to filling up our canteens and selves
and before the officers got in the boat we privates had the bar looted.
This was a breach of "my orders sir." That brought down on our devoted
heads a fresh stock of cuss words from the colonel and he ordered the
privates all down to the lower deck where a lot of cattle had just been
driven out. Enough men were left on the small stern wheel steam boat that
we had went up on to take it back and the rest of us stayed on the
captured boat. The fire was still burning in the furnace and we had plenty
of coal to last us to New Orleans. We soon got under way and made a hasty
retreat. The large boat we captured had a great many clean births on it:
enough for all of us, but the colonel was so indignant at the privates for
looting the bar that he would not let us stay even in the cabin; We had to
make our beds down on the lower deck where the cattle had been, and as
filthy

it could be. We made the mistake of our army life in not following the
wishes of many of us, and loud threats also, and that was to pitch
the old colonel overboard and all declare he was drunk and fell
overboard. It is  true the government would been short one man that
won his stars by such  work as this but the 21st Ind. Vol. would
have been much better off. Our Lieut.  Col. Keith was a brave
gentleman and consequently was not a tyrant; he was only mean to
himself, but this habit of intemperance was only contracted  in the
service, as many more were, and many brave generous men were taken
down to an early grave, or their usefulness destroyed by it. Our own
regiment perhaps was no worse in this particular than others, but
when we call the roll and so many have to answer "dead---whiskey did
it", let me ask my old comrades who survive these habits to join me
and whenever they get the chance to shoot this demon to do so as it
shot us in the army--"in the neck"---and to remember that the only
States that has ever given us wholesome prohibition are Maine, Iowa
and Kansas, and they were strong enough Republican States to do so.
That the so called "temperance cranks," so far, have only been a clog
to the great temperance cause. They have never given us any kind of
temperance legislation, and it now looks like they never will.
"Knowledge is power," but no more so than whisky is a developer of
character, and destroys those who stick too close to it. "Strong
drink is mockery".
   A great deal of our time whilst camped in and around, New Orleans
was taken up in making expeditions over the State of Louisiana and it
is claimed that  "our" regiment was not only the largest regiment in
the States army--- see 1st Ind. H.A.'s number on our soldiers monument
at Indianapolis, 3839 men --but we captured from the Confederates
more than  enough to pay the entire expenses of the regiment and
turned over to the government, besides some spoons and etc. that was
not turned over.  That we were "the spooniest regiment in the
service". Our boys wear a spoon as a badge of our regiment and a
rebuke to the calumny heaped on our choice leader, Benjamin F.
Butler.
   Our many expeditions over the State of Louisiana revealed to us
the habits and customs of many of the planters of the Southern
States. One case to which I was pointed, struck me with great force.
It was this. A planter was a politician of considerable note, had
been a State Representative and Senator, had bought in his young
days, from a slave trader a very beautiful quadroon girl, paying
which was customary in slave times: two or three times what such a
person or slave was worth, less favored as to form and looks. He took
her to his home and had two daughters by her and then it was said he
had children by them, and at his death all was put on the slave
auction block and sold, and the money given to distant relatives.
This crime was not uncommon in the cotton and sugar plantations,  and
yet our school histories do not teach even that the cause of the war
was slavery. Any man that has brains enough to count his fingers and
toes knows that slavery was the cause and the sole cause of The Rebellion.

I have been creditably informed that when the hoosier historian,
John Clark Ridpath, sent his manuscript of his history to
his publishers he put the cause of the war ---slavery, but they
returned it, telling him they could not publish it if he put this as
the cause of the war; that it would ruin the sale of it in the south
and sent him their substitute to give and,  as Ridpath had no money
to publish the history he tamely submitted. Our children are familiar
with these substitutes such as, " the railways running  east and
west," "Want of intercourse between the two sections" He gives on
page 416 more of the cause of the war or rather his publishers did:
They say: " A fourth cause was found in the publications of sectional
books. During the twenty years preceding the war many works were
published whose popularity, depended wholly on the animosity
existing, such books were generally filled with ridicule and
falsehood. The manners and custom, language and beliefs of one
section were held up to the contempt of the other section." He or
they say further " that the minds of the young were thus prejudiced
and poisoned", etc.
   At the head of the publications complained of, stands, "Uncle
Tom's Cabin." Did this publication depend wholly on " the animosities
existing between the two sections? And was it filled with ridicule
and falsehood?"
   "Uncle Tom's Cabin" has been published in every civilized nation
in the world, and in more different languages than any other book,
except the Bible, because it depicted the fact that the South, with
its institution of slavery, was given up to inhumanity and barbarism,
the very thing that Ridpath and his publishers complained of. The
next was, "Helpers Impending Crisis". He said: "The dark cloud that
was rising on account of the inhuman practice of buying and selling
men, women and children would burst, it would deluge our Nation in a
war and end in the death of slavery. To read that book now, sounds
more like divine inspiration than ridicule and falsehood:
   The say further, " The evil influence may be cited as the fifth
general cause of the war; It is the misfortune of Republican
governments (how mean they are, according to these mugwamps) that
they many times fall under the leadership of bad men.  In the United
States the demagogues have enjoyed special opportunities for
mischief, and the people have suffered in proportion. From 1850 to
1860 American statesmanship and patriotism were at a low ebb".
   Many ambitious and scheming men had come to the front, taken
control of the political parties and proclaimed themselves the leader
of public opinion, their purposes were wholly selfish. The welfare
and peace of the country were put aside as of no value, In order to
gain power and keep it". They say further, "the demagogues of the
North were willing to abuse the Union in order to accomplish their
own bad purposes". I want to say here that I am not very orthodox, do
not believe in a hell of fire and brimstone, but when I see such a
mugwamp lie as the above put in our school histories for the sake of
selling in the South or any place else I am frank to say there ought

to be a hell of the above description and made seventy times hotter
than before and made large enough to hold all such histories and it's
friends. " Think of it!" "Patriotism from 1850 to 1860 at a low ebb."
When all the brave boys that gave their lives for their
country were in their young manhood, and the mothers, wives, sisters
and sweet hearts gave to their country their most precious jewels.
These mug wumps that are thus sneakingly stabbing  in the back both
the living and dead some of them have been taken up by that party that
opposed every measure that was brought up to help put down the rebellion
and have tried to send them to Congress. Won't the fool  killer never
wake up? These "designing men that were willing to abuse the Union for
their own selfish purposes" were Lincoln, Douglass, et al, gentle reader,
If you attempt to read all  these men say as the cause of the war, in
Ridpath's History, my advice to you is to hold your nose with a firm
grip from beginning to end. For my part I am like the old Frenchman
that lived near Greencastle, In. His wife and he were wicked, had no
children and as is so frequently the case with such people they had
sowed and were in the habit of swearing at each other,  but the
Methodist held a practical meeting in their neighborhood, and had
quite a revival: the old man was induced to go, and to the surprise
of all, became interested and made a profession and joined the
church. The old woman refused to go and became more violent than
ever. Sometime after the meeting was over they had class meeting and
when it came the old Frenchman's time to talk he said: " Brothers and
sisters, I have a been a very wicked man, but as you all know I got
religion and I do want to live the balance of my days a good
Christian life and I want you all to pray for me," for says he "that
old woman of mine makes me so d---d mad I do not know whether I can
make it or not." When I see such school histories as we have thrust
upon our children, I feel like letting all holds go and do nothing
but cuss.
Signed Vint Anderson, Quincy, Ind Feb. 13, 1899.

(next  un corrected issue)
The beginning lines are obscured

---talk of--- was hurried-- placed on a --- transport--- and that had
ten cannon on it and the boilers protected by some rail road irons.
By some means not known to us privates, information had been received
by the parties on the gunboat that there was a Confederate cruiser
out in the gulf and they were very anxious to capture it, but not
knowing how many Johnnies there were  on it, they wanted a lot of our
men with the Enfields to help them. We had been lying in camp at
Brashear City for quite a while, and when the order came most all
were anxious to go, as it always was with us, anything for a change,
but  the detail called for was so small that only two or three men to
the company got to go. they traveled all night and soon next morning
sighted the coveted prize and the chase began, but as our steamer was
much faster, they soon came in firing distance, and as soon as our
gunners opened out on them they ran up a white flag. Our boat pulled
up by the side of the rebel boat and a lot of our boys were placed on

it, and captured a rebel paymaster, and two boys from our company
captured his large valise, chuck full of Confederate money. They, in
the hurly-burly got it back on the boat they went back on and knowing
there would be a search made for the money when the excitement died
down, they went to one of the gunners and made a confidant of him,
and as his gun was loaded they rolled up a large bundle of it and
pushed it down the muzzle expecting to take it out when they got back
to Brashear City, some night. They took the rest of it down to the
fireman, and there was a loose broad plank partially covered up with
the coal, they pried up the end of this plank and shoved the rest of
the money under it and pulled the coal down over it: and then put the
valise in the furnace and let it go up in smoke.
   Our old colonel was the senior officer in the expedition and took
command and as they were going back to Brashear City---had got most
there--- they saw some rebel cavalry on the opposite side of the bay
from where we were, and he ordered the gunners to give them a broad
side and all the Confederate money that was hidden in the cannon was
sent to join the smoke of the valise that it had been formerly stored
away in.
   When the captured paymaster reported his loss to the old colonel,
as the boys predicted he became very indignant, especially as there
were at New Orleans parties that were paying twenty-five cents in
greenbacks for one hundred cents in Confederate money. All the boys
were brought out in  line and questioned about the missing valise and
the Confederate money, but strange to say not one of them knew
anything about it. Then the colonel put out his "smelling committee".
This was a small band of his followers that for the hopes of being
promoted were willing to do any kind of dirty work to gain favor with
him, but although the boat was searched thoroughly and the boys; no
trace of the hidden treasure could be found. The colonel made his
brag that he would find it and threatened
the guilty parties that when he located them he did not care who they
were ----
(next ten lines obscured)
   As a last resort, when the boys got back to Brashear City and
landed, he had them all searched and found none of it, he then made a
proposition to them that if anyone of them would give him the
necessary information to find it he would not punish them nor any one
else for it, but his threats and pleadings fell on deaf ears. When
the two boys from our company that had secured the money got back
into our company's quarters they took my brother and I into their
confidence and said, if we would help them get rid of it they would
give half of it. They said the fireman who had the money in his
control  would come ashore that evening; the boat he was  on was
anchored out in the middle of the bay, so when we  --- him we told
him to lay low and to do nothing until the next evening, and we would
get our fishing tackle and a boat that would hold seven or eight
persons with a large box at --- end, and we would be fishing out on
the bay an hour or two before dark, but when it got good and dark, we
would get up close to the boat on the far side and he could get the

money out and tie it to the end of a rope and let it down to us. This
he agreed to do, but when he left us he said, "Now, remember boys, if
you are not there tomorrow evening, I will put the money in the
furnace and burn it up". We hired a darkey after dinner the next day
and my brother and I got in the boat, leaving the two suspects in
camp. We caught quite a nice  lot of fish before night and were at
the far side  of the ship at the appointed time---and a roll of
Confederate money containing many thousands of dollars was handed
down to us and we put it in one of the boxes at the end of the boat
and ordered the darkey to take us to the wharf, and bring on ---
guard,. We told him just as soon as we stepped off to pull the boat
back behind the ships and stay there for one hour, and then pull back
to a little round-house on the wharf, where we had our bunks. There
were some steps at it that went down to the water from the wharf,
made so as ---sult the high and low tides ,--- worked as we had
wished and we got out our fish and money ---in the ---night, and not
thinking it safe in our quarters we took it to a large sawdust pile
close by and buried it. We had wrapped it up in one of our rubber
blankets and fixed it so it would keep until the storm passed over.
   Then we made an arrangement with a very ardent rebel to go to the
city and bring out a buyer, but before he would do so we had to show
him our pile. So we dug it up one night and took it to his ---  ---
--- and let him see what --- ---- --- boys that captured it --- but
--- by the bulk to my brother and I after we got it hid in the
sawdust, said--- money was in ---- ---- ---- twelve bills printed on
one sheet ---- new found friend said he had a large pair of scissors,
just what we needed and we could have a room to ourselves where we
could have it --- --- own way after taps one night my brother and I
went to our sawdust pile and dug out our oil cloth and Confederate
money and went to the room pointed out to us and when we rolled out
that money and our Confederate friend saw what a pile there  was of
it he said, " I could get a man to come if we would take 26 cents to
the dollar in greenbacks for it: We spent the most of the night
there. We found some of the block of five-hundred dollar bills, some
one hundred, and some fifty, twenty-five, ten and five. If we counted
the pile I have forgotten how much there was of it; but there must
have been in the neighborhood of one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars in it.
The train left Brashear City in the morning and returned in the
evening. I went to the train with my Confederate friend and told him
that we were --- dry out of the sand if he found a Confederate buyer
of our Confederate money to be sure and ----- and john  full of good
---whilst we would pay him -- this------------- for this he said,
-------will be back this evening or by tomorrow. You can come to my
house and we will have a little game of draw. The 21st Ind. Vol. Inf.
and 1st Ind H. A. --- knew what that was  but--- ---- the word ---
possible to be the truth. The train was several hours late (but my
brother and I were there and saw our man step off with --- john and a

man with him, who looked as mean as God ever makes them. If God did
not make --- mean he did not know just how mean  he would be} if all
reports are true, but as I have indicated my belief on this subject
in a former sketch: I will merely say that ---- is a screw loose
somewhere about what is taught by the great religions---world as to
the ---- ---- of the old Bible especially one man that went to the
city as he passed us said: "All right : come tonight We went there
and had a night of it. And when I now think of it it makes me shudder
even now, for had we not met this black leg and cut-throat that came
out from the city to buy our Confederate money but to get us drunk
and win or steal it from us, and rightly judging the kind of a man we
had to deal with we took the precaution to take two of our comrades
with us and had the landlords wife who was as black as the ace of
spades, one that he had bought, and was raising a family by, to
conceal the boys in a room down stairs just below the one we were to
spend the night in, so if they heard a racket above they were to come
to us; we would have been in a bad box. One of the greatest horrors
of war of 1861-65 was the debauchery of it, and as this part is
omitted in our histories, I speak of it here as an object lesson to
tell those who know nothing about what I mean when I said "we had a
night of  it" Unless "nights of it" became more common as the war
advances. When we went to the old planters house  that night his
bought wife told us that her man and ---- gentleman was up in the
room we were in the night before we had ----- there after  evenings
there and all this gentleman of the house charged us was --- take off
when we had
----- ----Any of the survivors ----  (next four lines obscured)
found the table set: it was a large round table with a hole in  the
center to drop the chips or take off in. On the table was a large
bottle that had been filled out of the demi-john that was setting
close by, a box of cigars, four glasses a bowl of sugar, some lemons
and a deck of marked cards and seated at the table was the landlord
and the black leg described above, then we went into the room: my
brother was before  and the "pair of jacks" at the table rose up and
the landlord said to his cursed---"these are the two d---d nutmegs I
have been talking to you about". We had an arrangement with him that
he could call us what he pleased and we did the same with him, and
"---sir if they steal anything from you it will be your own fault: I
will give you fair warning." The black leg had offered his hand to my
brother and he took it---I would as cheerfully have shaken hands with
a snake, but in doing so he said: "You rebel: If you and your partner
will only look at yourselves in that looking glass, I am sure if
stealing is to be the game you will dismiss all fears as to you being
the loser:. But continued ---- it my understanding that we have met
to transact a little business and that is , that you are to give us
twenty-five cents of God's money or United States greenbacks for a
lot of Confederate trash, called money that we got from a Confederate
paymaster when he was looking the other way, and before we go any

further I want to say to you, that I left my best girl back in
Indiana, and when this war is  over I expect to go back and claim her
as my partner for life. I want not only for myself but for her and
our unborn to thank you Mr. Landlord for bringing to us a ---- rebel
that is fool enough to exchange good money for worthless scrip."'
   The black leg replied that "your bones and all your associates
would all be bleached on southern soil long before the North would
conquer the South. That there was not a man or boy in the Southern
Confederacy but would give their lives, rather than be conquered".  I
saw both were getting to a white heat, and I said: Gentlemen, we did
not come here to wrangle over our beliefs as to who would win , but
speaking to the black leg, we did come here to let you have
Confederate money at twenty-five cents on the dollar in greenbacks,
and we are now ready to supply you and I see you have brought a
demijohn as per our orders, the first thing in order is for  you to
say how much you want for it in Confederate money. He answered very
scornfully that we "surely did not know that a southern gentleman
never carried around whisky to peddle". and pointing at the demijohn
he said. "There is six gallons of the best whiskey he could get in
New Orleans and it is paid for and as free as water to this man's
invited guests". We insisted on paying for it but not a cent would he
take.
   Then we tried to sell him the Confederate money, but he said "not
now, we have met for a little social game of draw, and when we get
done, if you do not win all I have: I will buy your money as agreed
upon," We let him use his marked cards, but made him put up
greenbacks against our Confederate money. We had not gone far until
we caught him stealing cards and promptly called him down, but in
doing so we came near getting into a  fracas and whilst I was
quarreling  with him my brother was stealing out-----------
(next line is obscured)
until he got four of them, and in the meantime was betting very
reckless, always declaring he had four aces. He was indulging very
freely with our opponents in the black bottle on the table, finally
our black leg got a queen full and I saw him give the landlord a
wink. My brother had succeeded in discarding the hand that had been
given him and taking up his four aces, he tramped on my toe to let me
know he was loaded and when the jack-pot was opened I called it, but
the landlord raised it. My brother looked at his hand for some time,
but seeing them showing signs of --- the pot he said, "Well, I have
got four aces this time, but I will only come in".  They kept on
raising until we had several hundred dollars of our  Confederate
money up, and when we went to draw cards my brother pretended he was
going to draw three cards and then one, but finally after taking a
big drink said "Hell what is the use to draw four aces: and stood pat
with our black leg, who thought he knew all the cards that were out,
and when it came my brother's time to bet he raised the pot
five-hundred dollars, each in good money for our opponents to put up.
Then I went to begging to quit the game as my brother was pretty far

along, and letting on that he was much worse than he was, but the
opposite party kept insisting that he was all right, and kept putting
up, until I seen their good money about all up on the table. Then the
black leg saw some aces in my brothers hand, and knowing he had
stolen them he brought his fist down on the table with a slam,
swearing he "had a queen full and he would have it or he would have
hell right there and he put one hand back to his hip pocket and
started to rake the pile in with his other. I had my self-cocker on
my lap and was just debating in my mind whether I would give him a
dose under the table and then try to catch him in the head. At this
critical moment the two boys that we left down stairs broke open the
door and my brother reached over the pile and said, "hold on Johnny
reb I have got four aces" throwing them down and that beats a queen
full and the best hand takes this pot". The black leg swore he had
stolen them. If he had not been playing with marked cards he would
not have known so much. I answered that if he did he had done no more
that they had been doing all night. My brother raked in the pot, but
had it not been for the timely appearance of our two comrades we
would have gotten into a scrape that if it had not cost us our lives
we would have had to carry a load that would have haunted us to our
graves, even now after the lapse of thirty-seven years we cannot
think of the debauchery of that night without a shudder, and we
repeat, " War is hell".
Vint Anderson, Quincy, Indiana March 5, 1899

(next story)

Our regiment made a raid up the bayou from Brashear City and had
quite a battle with the enemy, all of which has gone into history
much better than I can tell it. We were very much exposed, as we
were taken up without tents and in light marching orders and during a
very cold rain. Two nights we were advanced up close  to the enemies'
lines in the darkness and was not allowed any fire or to even swear
above a whisper. We had lost a great deal of sleep  and as usual
under such circumstances it was my brother's and my time to go on
guard the first night after we got to camp. Not withstanding there
was one-fourth or more of the company that did not go on this
expedition, there was no need of camp guards there, as there were
soldiers and gunboats all around us, and the boys were so completely
worn out they wanted sleep more than anything else. My brother and I
usually had our beats joining and under such circumstances he very
often would sleep. I was so constituted that I seldom got much sleep
during the night. I would be on guard, but he lost very little sleep,
for as soon as he would lie down he would be off in dreamland. When
we were on camp duty he would come to the end of his beat next to
mine and sleep whilst I would watch over him and both of our beats.
This was not so on picket duty. On this particular night I was placed
on the end of a boat that was tied up to the wharf to watch up the
bay. It was expected of me with my Enfield rifle that should the
enemy pass the gunboats I was to shoot the stuffing out of them and
call for the corporal of the guard, and thus earn my thirteen dollars

per month. Our officers some of them were chuck full of brains, and
usually drunk, judging from their actions on dress parade. I told my
brother before I left him that he must not sit down on his beat, for
if he did, as near worn out as he was, he would be sure to go to
sleep and snore until the old colonel could hear him, and he knew he
would only be too glad to get such a hold on him.  It was our time to
go on guard again after mid-night. I had been at my post quite a
while when my brother came to me bare-headed and without a gun and
the only time I ever saw him badly rattled during the service and he
said:
" Vint, the old colonel has got my gun. I saw him looking at me when
I first went on guard and knowing how completely I was worn out he
watched his chance and stole my gun." This was not only "a hell of a
fix" as he expressed it, but it was one of Cleveland conditions that
confronted us as he would say. After studying a moment I asked if his
gun was marked in a way so others could tell that it was his, he
answered, "No only two notches filed in it, so he could tell it, but
that was all." Some of the boys cut their initials on their guns. The
guard's guns that were off of duty were stacked up on the wharf,
close to where his beat was. I told him to hurry back and get out a
gun that was not marked, and see that it was properly loaded and to
cut his initials on it and rub dirt over it so it would not show that
it was done lately and then get back on his beat; that more than
likely of McMillen would be there watching for him and if so would
be-----accuse him of ---- ---- had stolen his gun and all he did to
put the bullet in his gun where it would do the most good; that he be
sure to go to cursing you and would likely call for the corporal of
the guard and have you arrested, but to get him to say you was asleep
and he had stolen your gun from you and if he could get the old
colonel to make a pass at him it would be better and then shoot him
and make it a sure shot, for it was sure death to you if he could
make it so. That we could make every man in the regiment, when they
saw your gun with your initials on it and knowing the relations
between him and us, belie that he had lied and took that plan to get
a club over us so we would not prosecute the charges filed against
him. My brother jumped at the suggestion and hastened back, saying,
"When you hear me shoot come to me," which I agreed to do. The half
hour that passed before the relief came round was the longest half
hour I ever experienced and I am in hopes that no private soldier
will ever have to go through a similar trial and I might say
temptation, for I had fully made up my mind to shoot the old colonel
if he had my brother under arrest for going to sleep on his post and
take the consequence. If my brother did not succeed. I know he would
do his best, for his mind was fully made up.
   When the relief got to me I asked the corporal where Billy was and
he said he had told him he could go to his quarters to sleep and I
could do the same, and when your time came to go on guard he would
wake us up. I then asked him if Billy was all right and he answered

yes, at least he saw nothing wrong with him and was going to our
quarters. Oh, what a load was thus lifted off of me and I hastened to
him. He was waiting for me and as soon as he seen me he said:"  Vint,
I am all right and did not have to shoot the colonel, I thought when
I went on guard that I would keep on my feet and did the first time,
but when I went back I became so tired that I sat down thinking I
would rest that way for only a short time, but I must have gone to
sleep soon after and my gun was stolen, and a large stone thrown on
the wharf close to me woke me up, that after left me he got the gun
as suggested and cut the initials of his name on it, and started to
walk his beat whistling when a comrade that was on a beat next to his
said, "Hello, Billie, whose gun you got?" And when I told him it was
my own he said "O, hell, Billie don't be afraid of me, I stole you
gun long ago. You was snoring so loud I was afraid you would wake up
the old colonel and he would get after you, and to have some fun out
of you I stole your gun and threw a large rock and walked to the far
end of my beat and when  I turned around you were gone. I only done
it for fun and you know I would die before I would tell on you," and
my brother knew that he was made of just the kind of stuff and that
most of the privates in our regiment was just like him. My brother
told him then all about what he had done and had made up his mind
what to do if the old colonel had taken his gun; and he said, bully
for you Billie, had the worst come to the worst, I would have sworn
that I was next to you and I knew you were walking your beat all the
time and could not have gone to sleep." They got down together and
scratched my brothers name on the gun he had taken from the guard
---- night---  he got--- and
--- the guard came to relieve him--- case was a desperate one we
thought and decided to use a desperate remedy. "All is well that ends
well".

"The Battle at Baton Rouge, La.

this battle, as well as all the rest of the battles of the "Civil
War," (may the good Lord forgive the quotation) has gone into
history.
My object is merely to give some of the incidents that came under our
own observations as well as some other privates of our regiment, and
now after the lapse of more than a third of a century I can have only
what has stuck in my memory for these long years and will ask the
reader in advance to be patient with me whilst I speak of what I saw
and felt there. The student of the war knows only what history gives
of such battles, and as our historians seem to all be in the same rut
in giving all the praise to the brave general who  --- the battle, we
will confine ourselves to what we know to be the fact of this case at
least and in the outset I want to say that I have been on this
battlefield since the war and taken a few useful notes of the
generalship
dis--- there  and it convinced me --- right in what I told you."
--- from the enemy had gone --- his leg above his knee and shattered
the bone. I told him it was true that he had a very serious wound but
it need not be a fatal one, that he was young and vigorous and whilst

it was likely true that he would have to have his leg taken off, many
men had lost their limbs and lived over it, but he said it was no use
for the doctors to lose any time with him, that he would die: and
sure enough the next morning he did die. The next case of this kind
was my brother Ben, he was wounded at the battle of Resacca, Ga,
whilst making a charge that eventful morning of May 15, 1864. The
evening before this battle he wrote home and said they were likely to
have a hard time next morning, as the rebels were fortified and had
much the best positions. He told, should anything happen to him, how
he wanted his effects disposed of. Among them was a watch that he
requested our father to keep during his lifetime and if I survived
him I was to carry or keep it as long as I lived, and if my only
brother survived me, it was to go to him.
It has long since been handed down to me and it is my time now to
pass it over to my brother, the only living representation of our
family. My brother Ben was sent back to the general hospital at
Jeffersonville. I had been discharged at New Orleans on account of
chronic diarrhea some ten months before and was able to go to him. Oh
what a panorama of the dying and the dead flits over me as I go back
and live over those eventful days of war. I saw everyday whilst I was
at this hospital, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives and sweethearts
taking their loved ones to some Northern home to bury, and yet some
cranks--"Civil Service reformers"-- are constantly squealing about
the large pension appropriation made by a grateful government to
those who sacrificed so much. It has been estimated that there were
enough in dead alone that were killed in battle and died of disease
contracted by exposure in the Union army to make a graveyard were
they placed side by side two feet apart, more than three hundred
miles long. Let the --- -----  Civil service reformers --- tribute to
our government
(line obscured)
---- down to our posterity: the best form of government in the
world-- think of these sacrifices and cease their croaking.
Unfortunately we, as a republic, inherited slavery from our
forefathers, two national crimes against a republic-- slavery and
life terms for our Supreme Court. One is as fatal to a republic as
the other if persisted in and allowed to spread. One-- slavery---has
cost the nation rivers of blood and the other is now reaching out its
poisonous fange and whilst the great mass and soul of the nation is
sleeping, the office holding class is gradually pulling out the
foundation from under our republic, and dragging it down to a
monarchy. This work of trying to change our republic is called by the
mugwumps "the merit system,"  "Civil service reform, " etc. etc. ,
and the nations sleeps on. But I have faith to believe that our
glorious republic will soon awake and hurl from power all men that
think and advocate the doctrine that it is for the good of the nation
to keep a Democrat in an appointed office during a Republican
administration, or vice versa, and thus destroy the demand of the
people at the polls. Such men are too small to trust with any

position; but let us go back to the point in hand. The doctors at the
Jeffersonville hospital whilst was there, some of them were using a
great deal of whiskey to steady their nerves. I would not have blamed
them. Did it not to a considerable extent destroy their usefulness?
They made an examination of my brothers knee the first day I got to
him and said," He was all right, that the ball had glanced off and he
would soon  be able to take home." They told that lie after death had
struck him, I asked him one day after the hospital M.D. had made the
above statement why he (Ben)  had written  the kind of letter home he
did the evening before the battle and he said, "Vint, I was just as
strongly impressed then  with the belief that I would be killed or
die of a wound I would receive the next day as I am now,  (he had
been wounded twice before in battle.) I asked him if he did not hear
what the doctors had said about his getting well and he answered,
" yes, but they were drunk and did not know what they were talking
about; you will see that I will not live many days." This was the
first time he had told me that he would die and when he saw the tears
that I could not hold back he said, " Vint, don't do that; look
around you and see the many comrades that have given their lives for
their country (a boy had just died on a cot next to his from a wound
received in battle) and it is as much my duty to give mine as it is
theirs. "He remained conscious up to the time death struck him. I
cannot leave the death bed without saying that the Presbyterian
minister, who was the chaplain at the hospital, and his wife and
daughter who composed his family were of the kindest and were very
attentive to my brother. That dear patriotic girl in the absence of
mother and sister took their places and kissed my poor brothers dying
brow. Heaven above can reward such, if any of the readers of the
American Tribune know of any of this family living, I would be glad
to hear. I have heard nothing from them for thirty-five years, and if
any of them are alive I would like to renew our acquaintance with
them. I lost their address and their names have been faded from my
memory, but " kind words never die". I will not attempt to give my
reception at home with the corpse of my dead brother; such home going
was common all over the North during the dark and bloody days of the
Rebellion together with the fainting over the corpse of her first
born of the mothers. The mothers, sisters, wives, and sweethearts
were dressed in mourning and very few families in the North but was
so dressed then. ---In June 1864. My brothers promised bride was
there and ----- to suffer.
----mother-----------------------
to my brother for  a number of years. Then she wrote to my mother and
sent her all the presents he had given her, his picture and all,
saying she was so glad she was alive where there was no one but his
mother she felt now that ought to have them as she had accepted the
hand in marriage of an M.E. preacher and they were soon to sail for
China as missionaries and would devote their lives in missionary
work. She poured out her soul to mother and now, since then, mother,

Lucy and her husband have all joined Ben in the spirit world and the
question is whose wife is Lucy now? But I forgot---" in heaven they
neither marry nor are given in marriage". I have wandered so far from
my text, the battle of Baton Rouge that this article has grown too
long and I will take it up in my next.
Vint Anderson, Quincy , Ind
April 2, 1899

( next segment)
As a Private saw it, Not as History Records it.
THE BATTLE OF BATON ROUGE

I will now ask the reader to go back with me to the battle of Baton
Rouge. I was sent next morning after the battle out on picket duty,
and our rallying post or headquarters was on a small knoll just north
of our camp, close to where Simm's Battery had been camped. Our dead
and wounded had all been taken back in the city, but the Confederate
dead were piled up all around us. Where our camp had been was where
the hardest fighting was, as the rebel general had concentrated his
men there to break the center. I think I could have walked over our
entire camp without stepping off a Confederate dead. Our dead were
decently buried or embalmed and fixed to send north, but the rebels,
oh! what a sight I saw that day. The day of the battle, August 5th
1862. was very warm, and the rebels had been given, before they went
into the fight, Whiskey mixed with gunpowder. We found many of their
canteens with this foul stuff in them, and we all noticed how very
black they turned soon after they were killed. Our men did not do
that, and we attributed it to this as all of us were exceedingly warm
during the engagement. Though shocking sites that presented
themselves, time has been unable to erase from our memory, hard as we
have tried to banish them.  Men and horses were piled up together,
mangled in every conceivable manner. A lot of artillery horses of
Simms Battery, in the haste to get into the engagement, was left tied
to the heavy ropes that were placed in a circle, and when the rebels
drove us back past them they for some cause cut a number of their
throats. I never could see why this barbarous act was done, but
someone had done it, I suppose as they thought for sufficient cause.
A lot of darkies with dump carts were detailed to bury the dead
Confederates. We were hourly expecting another attack, and every
available man had to be at his post. The darkies seemed to enjoy
their gruesome sight. They had dug a long ditch deep and broad enough
to hold several hundred men and boys, and three would go with a cart,
or one would drive and one would load up. They would  drive "stiff""
and one would take it by the head, frequently by the hair, and the
other by the feet and give it a swing or two and then pitch it up in
the cart, and when the cart was full the driver would go to the pit
and dump his load in.
"As the tree fell---- would lie"
I look into that pit when there were two or three hundred thus dumped
in and one sight makes the shudder still go over me. It was a boy not
more than sixteen years old lying with his face upward. He was almost
colorless and across his neck and lying up against his cheek was the
foot of a large hideous looking man. He had on some old stodgy shoes,

very much worn and tied on his feet  by some large strings. I had
seen this boy (in our camp) lying close to my tent before the dead
haulers picked him up, and had taken particular notice of his bright
intelligent appearance. I also had noticed his wounds which had been
from a piece of a shell seemed to have been about three inches long
and not very thick or wide, it had struck him on his cheek in front
of his ears and passed through his head and came out at about the
same place on the other side of his head. Some mother's darling had
received this outlandish wound, perhaps without ever finding out the
true facts in his case; and it is well, for she had enough to make
her heart bleed and perhaps break, because she never knew just what
the fate of her boy was. Another shocking sight was a man lying in
the street just west of our tent; a cannon ball had struck him just
below his bowels and tore his hips all away, leaving nothing more
than a small strip of skin on both sides that held his legs to his
body. He was lying on his back and his bowels had dropped down in the
dust and the green flies covered them. This fellow was up in the edge
of the city about as far as any of the Confederates went, and was one
of the last to be gathered up. There were more dead bodies on the
battle field than the pit that was prepared would hold, and before
the burying party got through with their job, they became very
offensive to smell, so the darkies tumbled quite a number of them in
a ditch at the side of the road and pulled a few inches of dirt over
them; just enough to hide them from view, but before we left there a
heavy rain fell and washed the dirt all off of them. Some mugwumps
claim that Rebels did not stink, but I am here to say these men did,
and loud enough to reach to heaven. It is hard to speak despairingly
of the dead, but men holding the position Gen. Williams did, his acts
belong to the public, living or dead, and history ought to tell the
truth about him. I was reliably informed that after Col. Keith was
wounded and was being taken back to the rear, that Gen. Williams met
him and said "Col. Keith, we are whipped and had better surrender."
And the Colonel answered: "By G--d, sir, my men are not whipped and
will not surrender." We were giving  back slowly at this time, and
had been driven back through out camp, but were keeping up a rapid
fire. At this stage of the battle Gen. Williams rode up and shouted:
"Hoosier, do you want your camp? " We answered with a shout and a
charge. Gen. Williams went but a short distance until he was shot
dead off of his horse. It now looks to me that his charging our
regiment in the face of Breckenridge's whole army after we had,
through our Colonel, refused to surrender and that too with no
support, is just what a brave, reckless Confederate general would
have done, under all the circumstances. Up to this time Gen. Williams
had exhibited nothing to (entire line obscured)
Was thoroughly (lost line).....privates in our regiment (lost
line)...
   As I have said there was not a particle of Generalship shown
there. The Rebel general and his whole staff would have been

permitted under the guise of a citizen to visit our camp. And I have
no doubt but that army, knew where each regiment was camped just as
well as any of us did. I bought milk of a man the evening before the
battle, and the next day I saw him lying dead, not three rods from
the place where I had bought the milk of him with a Rebel suit of
gray on. The Rebels of the city had all moved out or dug "gopher
holes" in which to crawl in time of the battle. Even our old  colonel
James W. McMillan, who some time ago had received a small flesh wound
in the arm by a guerrilla, had moved my headquarters, sir, down under
the protecting care of the gun boats. George Harding told me after
the battle was over and the enemy was driven back by the gun boats
that he met our brave colonel with an eight gallon demijohn of
whiskey on his horse going out to us to give us some of the
oh-be-joyful, and he told the colonel to give that to him and go back
to his headquarters, for if he did not he would have a ------ of a
time explaining why it was that he was not able to go into the fight
and was able just after it was over to take that load down to the
boys, and the colonel conceded that George's point well taken and
handed the demijohn down to him and went back to his very dangerously
sick room where the gunboats could have a care over him, should we be
attacked again.  George Harding and some of the rest of us got a good
many long and strong  a pull all together out of that demijohn,  for
the colonel never seen it after handing it down. After we had thrown
up some temporary breastworks around the city and built a small fort
and got into it, Col. McMillan had George Harding write a long
article to the Cincinnati Commercial, describing the battle and all
our present surroundings, giving Col. McMillan great praise for his
heroism displayed in his wounded condition, and signed the Colonel's
name to it. This was not uncommon with George. He worked for
soldier's straps and boodle and got them. I remember he wound out
this blow hard this way:
   "My men tell me that if I am only able to sit on the field and
direct they feel confident they can successfully contend against any
foe that may be brought against us."
   Some others of the officers of the regiment showed the white
feather at this battle and richly deserve condemnation, but my pen is
not trained in that direction and will not work, so I will content
myself by again quoting that old adage: "All is not gold that
glitters" and none had a better chance to see this fact than the
private soldiers in the 21st Volunteer Infantry and Indiana Heavy
Artillery and especially in Co. B of that regiment.
Signed Vint Anderson
Quincy, Ind. Apr 10 1899

(next article)
First line obscured
(Johnnie had driven us back  to Baton Rouge and the gun boats had
poured destructive fire on his so far victorious host, he seeing, I
suppose it would be impossible to hold the city whilst our fleet was
there,  a retreat was ordered. Of course we can give no description
of that retreat back out of range of the gun boats, but we have
always thought when we think of that constant stream of hissing and

bursting shells that were thrown in amongst them, that the confusion
was great judging from the deplorable conditions we were in. Our old
Colonel James W. McMillen was safely housed at my headquarters under
the protecting care of the  gunboats. Lt. Col. Keith and major Hayes
were wounded and adjutant Lathrem, who was the real father of the
regiment and to whom we owed all our efficiency in drill, was killed
and quite a number of company officers were offered, I suppose,
hunting for a healthier place for their men, at any rate we were very
short for a while of shoulder straps, but there were some that stayed
with their companies and were willing to share the fate of their men.
There were some amusing incidents of this battle that came under our
own observations and were reported to us by some privates of our
regiment, and it is hard for us as we go back and live over those
days to withhold the facts, giving names, etc. etc. for we feel that
to give only circumstances without names would be doing an injustice
to those officers of our regiment that were brave and true, but after
first asking all such to remember that it is not my purpose to cast
any reflections on such, I will give one incident and will refer the
readers to Abner Taber of Quincy, Indiana  and John Keely of Coon
Rapids, Iowa, who were wounded and waiting to have their wounds
dressed when the circumstance came under their observation:
   A very gallant officer who was promoted I believe for brave and
meritorious acts on the battlefield, was lying on a cot close to the
above named wounded soldiers. He had fallen early in the engagement
and had left his men in the thickest of the fight and had been taken
to the hospital to have his very dangerous wound dressed.  When the
doctors got to him he cried out: "Oh, go to my men and attend to them
first, I can wait. " But they said, "no, we will dress your wound
next. "
And taking hold of him and pushing him back on his cot
( the battle was still going on), and on examining him closely they
found a great hole as big as the palm of a mans hand blown out of the
leg of his black cloth pants, but the skin on his legs was not
touched. These rebels as I have said in a former chapter, were
chucked full of gun powder and whiskey and were evidently very angry,
and seeing this ---- of breaches--black cloth-- and of the finest
material, in fact they were one of the very best pair of breaches in
the regiment, they in their wrath had evidently ran up to our brave
officer and pulled his pants leg out from the leg and putting a
pistol close enough to powder burn them and blowed a hole out of
them, as I have said, as big as the palm of a mans hand. ---- have
seen the desperately wounded breaches since the war and know that no
other ---- could those ----- .
have --- wounded  as --- and I want to say here that I know it has
become the practice among the blue and the gray when they meet to
shake hands, but as ---- me, if I ever meet that wretch--- that
wantonly, maliciously, and --- wounded one of the very best of
breaches in our regiment, I will ---- to him although I have long ago
quit swearing, d---n you, and --- some, and to shake hands with ----

---- wretch--- never, no never.  The wretch ought not to be forgiven
in this world nor the world to come, and what ought I to say about
those drinking doctors for saying to this much humiliated officer who
was wearing those desperately wounded  breaches, " that if he did not
get up and go out to his company at once they would report him." The
cruel wretches: I will leave the readers to pass sentence on them.
   After the battle we were ---- to work throwing up temporary breast
works around the city, in other words, " after the horse was stolen
we locked the stable door." This was soon done.  We also built a
small fort close to the river banks and our regiment was placed in
it. It was on a knoll and had quite a nice view of the surrounding
country, several large houses obstructed this view and some of them
were brick which would afford a shelter for an advancing army,  so a
detail of men was sent out to burn these barriers away. I was on this
detail and with two other privates went to a large brick house and
after breaking open the door, we made a raid on the side board,
strange to say, and although we found several demijohns with the
smell of the o-de-joyful on them, we could not get anything to drink.
The house was completely furnished  and among the furniture was a
fine piano. We piled tables, chairs, etc. , up in the floor and soon
had it all reduced to ashes, except the walls. A few shells from our
jack-ass battery soon leveled them. The rebel cavalry was keeping our
pickets close in, and kept us constantly on the look-out for another
general engagement, but had they come after we had fixed for them we
would have been able to give them a much warmer reception,
notwithstanding they had a great many more men than we had, but some
other hand besides General Williams had taken hold and arranged our
men so they could all have taken a hand.

BUYING COTTON WITH ORDERS ON JONATHAN
JONES OR DUE BILLS

   When we first took possession of Baton Rouge after the gun boats
had shelled the city and drove the Confederate soldiers out, we found
a vast lot of cotton on  fire back  of the penitentiary.
This place had been converted into a factory where there were tents,
etc., made for the Confederate soldiers. A vast lot of cotton had
been shipped in there and the bales --- marked C.S.A., and when they
found out that they would have to give up the city to us, they set
fire to all that was left. They gave us the citizens leave to take
this cotton to their homes: all they would charge them was to rip off
the balling and claim it as private property. The consequence was
that a great many private citizens  had their out houses full of this
Confederate cotton. I went down early one morning to the steam boat
landing, having on a citizens coat, and a darkie came up to me -----
----
( line obscured)
-------                        him to wait
a moment and I would pay him for it. I had seen a man buy a load a
few minutes before of a darky. I went to him and asked him how much
he would  take and he said all he could get to him , and would pay me
13 cents a pound for it and asked no questions. So I went back and

weighed out to him the darky's load, giving the darky only enough to
pay him for his work and gave him a due bill signed by Jonathan
Jones, for the rest.
I then engaged him to hunt up all the darkies he could get with teams
to go hauling in cotton.  The most of the houses in and around the
city then were deserted by the owners who had left with them such
darkies as they thought they could trust.
They, like us, were looking for another battle, and had taken their
families back in the country out of danger. After I got my darkie
started off I went back to camp and told by brother to get on his
citizens rig as quickly as he could and say nothing to any of the
boys and get down to the landing as soon as possible. Soon we were
both kept busy weighing cotton and paying for it largely with due
bills signed up by Mr. Jonathan Jones. We had a picnic of it until
almost twelve o'clock and had made several hundred dollars. Then some
of the boys dropped on our trick and went up to camp and reported,
and soon a host of the boys were there, some with stove pipe hats on,
and all kind of clothing went better than a soldier's for a cotton
buyer. The boys would go out and meet the darkies as they would come
in, and make all kinds of offers for it. So we became busted cotton
buyers, or at least we quit buying and watched the fun with the other
boys. Quite a lot of the boys made some pen money in this way. Not
withstanding every pound of this cotton ought to have been gathered
up and turned over to the government, we privates thought we had as
good a right to some of it as the boys that were buying it from the
darkies. They had the gauntlet to run and we did not. Some of these
got in trouble with our commander: we will speak later on, about this
matter.
   The next day after the cotton buyers had most all retired to
private life and many of us were squatted around indulging in a quiet
"game of draw", a comrade told me he knew where there was a lot of
loose cotton in a house just outside of the picket post, and if I
would go with him we would get it and I consented, we got a darkie
with the best horse we could find, and went for it. The house was at
a crossroads only a few hundred yards from where our old camp was and
three or four hundred yards past of our pickets headquarters, and
when we got there the pickets said they had seen some rebel cavalry
down the road and they did not think it was safe for us to go, but
after parleying awhile with them, James Spainhour of Co. C who was on
picket duty said if we would divide up with him  he would go down
with us and help load up, and as he was one of those jolly good boys
who could laugh and make a fellow feel good for a week afterwards, we
readily took him in as a partner, so we all three got into the cart
and had the darkie drive us down to the house.  As soon as we got
there one of the boys ran up stairs hollowed down to us " come up
there for there was a hells-mint of cotton up there." So when we saw
the amount of loose cotton stored in two or three rooms, we saw it
was much more than we could transport in the bed of the cart and as
there were several beds up there, we went to emptying the ticks of

feathers and straw and were going to fill them up full of the cotton
and put them up on top of the bed cart  after we had tramped in all
we could. We were having a picnic at this work at some rebels expense
and were laughing and talking in a high old way, when all at once
there was a volley of a hundred -fifty or two hundred shots from the
cavalry regiment not more than one hundred and fifty yard from us.
There was a large two story frame building down the road from where
we were and the rebel cavalry that the pickets had seen further down
the road had got in behind this house and crawled up to it and had
fired from there on our pickets. Strange to say we at once ceased our
laughing and Spainhour said, " Vint, what the hell will we do, I
expect a general attack will be made." Our pickets were behind trees
up on the hill and were rapidly returning the fire we all knew that
if the rebels came on us and saw the work we were at that it would
not be a very healthful place for us. So we told the darkie to stay
there until we got up on the hill and then to come to us. We looked
out and could see that we could keep the house. We were in between us
and the rebels if they did not advance for a while until we could get
up most to where our pickets were. So off we started and both of the
other boys wanted to run from the start but I told them to take it
slow whilst we were hid, that we would need all the legs and wind we
had when we got up where we would be exposed to view. We did not walk
by considerable and when we got up where the rebel cavalry I think
from the amount of bullets that were flying all around us that the
whole cavalry force was making targets of us, but as luck would have
it we got behind a large magnolia tree without being hit and about
this time the darkie came running up with his horse and I saw he was
so badly rattled that he would leave us and I ran out in front of him
with my pistol, all the arms I had, made him check up long enough to
get on the cart: he laid down on the horses neck and put him out as
fast as he could go. The horse was hit two or three times but was not
seriously hurt and the cart was struck several times by the rebels
bullets but neither of us were touched. This was our  last  raid
outside the picket lines for cotton after the rebel cavalry indulged
themselves by firing a few rounds at us and the pickets, they gave
----- . Our forces could have brought ----- general engagement any
day--- wished by going out from under the protecting care of the
gunboats.
This put the chips on their shoulders ---- ----- us to go out and not
get ------ but our officers preferred to let it stay where it was.
Vint Anderson, Quincy, Indiana
April 16, 1899

(next issue)

(part of first line obscured)

-----camp guard at Baton Rouge just before the battle there. To say
we had any discipline at that time, or an officer above ---- who did
not richly deserve drumming out of the service after a careful
examination of the ground since the war, and what was done or rather
what was not  done to vanquish the enemy would be to put it very
mild; but I will tell all the facts about this matter in another

chapter and let the readers of these sketches be their own judges as
to what history should ---of any of them. Suffice it to say that had
the proper caution been taken and temporary breastworks thrown up we
could have done five times the damage to the enemy with less loss of
life on our side, but to the point in hand. Our camp was just east of
the city in a beautiful grove, surrounded on all sides by roads out
of camp. Guard lines ran close to these public highways. One bright
moonlit night a while before daylight my brother was asleep, as usual
at the end of his beat, next to mine, and I was watching for both of
us when I saw a man in a two-horse hack pull out of the road and
start to drive into camp across my brother's beat at the far end from
where we were. I woke my brother and he went to him and caught his
horses by the bridle and asked the driver if he knew where he was
going. I could tell by his answer that he was very drunk or
pretending to be so. I told my brother to bring driver and team down
to where I was. The man aroused up enough to ask where he was, and
when we told him he wanted us to help him get back into the road he
had left. We told him before we did so we would have to search him
for contraband goods. He answered: "What the hell is contraband
goods?" We told him, quinine, gunpowder and whiskey. He swore he had
neither one. My brother told him that he evidently had a heavy load
of whiskey on his stomach and we would see if he had any more. We
soon found a large demijohn full of whiskey. We took it out of his
hack , and fearing it might be poisoned we poured out a quart of it
in a cup and asked him to take some of it, which he readily did. We
then poured the rest of what was in the cup on him so he could inhale
it. We then led his team out in the road and tied up his reins. He
was too drunk by this time to hold them and he gave his horses a cut
with a limb and started them down  the road and then went to sampling
the contents of the demijohn ourselves. By this time the relief was
fixing to come on, but we hastily sent our capture around the guard
line,  and when we  got relieved we went to our quarters  and got our
canteens and met the demijohn as it was passing around the guard
lines on its mission of wakefulness and after filling up our canteens
we left it with full instructions to keep moving around among the
guards as long as there was any life in it, which was done; I will
leave the reader to judge of the condition the guards were in by
guard mount next morning. The demijohn was a poor empty thing,
despised by all that tried to squeeze another drink out of it. The
old colonel came out and said: "what in the hell is the matter with
my men?" and when he found the empty demijohn he was very indignant
that this "contraband goods" was not turned over to him; he tried to
find out how , "the d----d privates" had got it, but not a man
squealed and he only knew that he had lost a good many straight
drunks for him and his "smelling committee."
Signed: Vint Anderson

(next issue)
Whilst we were camped at Brashier City my brother and three more of
our company saw a drove of ducks go under an old Frenchman's house to

roost and as they said, "that meant ducks for dinner next day." The
house was placed on posts three or four feet high and boarded up all
around except a small hole where the ducks went under and only large
enough for one man at a time. Our "freeze out" for who would crawl
under the house and catch the ducks and the other three were to stay
at the hole and take the ducks as they were handed out, also to
protect the one that was doing the catching from the old Frenchman
and his wife. It fell on my brother to crawl under the house, and
bitter as the pill was, he had agreed to do it if it fell to his lot,
so he was in for it and they all four started. The moon was shining
very bright and when my brother got under the house and had caught
two of the ducks they made a great quacking, and out came the old
Frenchman and his wife, jabbering much more than the ducks and
equally as intelligibly to the boys. The outside guards sized them up
as not being very dangerous, so to have the joke on my brother they
stepped off some distance to watch the fun. The old man soon found
out that they had treed a soldier, and he would do nothing but jabber
cuss words in French, but the old woman was bustling for a fight and
got a long pole and went to jabbing my brother with it, but he soon
got hold of the end of it and she could not hurt him. He hollowed for
his companions but they were seeing too much fun to interfere, so my
brother had to get out of there the best he could; he had two ducks
on one hand and a hold on the pole with the other and in this way
crawled out. The old woman seemed bent on punishing my brother, and
as the pole they  had hold of was too long to strike with she let
loose of it and gathered up a club and came at him, and to prevent
her hitting him he threw one of the ducks in her face and then the
other in the old man's and walked off, saying to the boys when they
proposed to go back and get at least the two dead ducks: "No, never;
I never did like ducks." So our duck dinner was minus ducks.

STONING COL. JAMES N. MCMILLEN BY  OUR REGIMENT

   While we were at Brashear city a woman from New Orleans came out
there and rented a large frame building and shipped out a lot of fine
furniture, and as soon as the dwelling was properly fixed up she
brought out from New Orleans a lot of "soiled doves." They came out
in fine feather and gave the word out at once that "no privates need
apply." We had patiently, up to then, endured all indignities
incidental to a private's life, but to have it given out boldly that
we were too low down to visit an assignation house was : "the last
straw on the camels back", and vengeance was ours in this way.  The
officers (some of them) would go there on nights and hold high
carnivals, frequently staying there all night. Col. James N. McMillen
was seen going in there quite frequently and he was  the worst hated
man in the United States service by us privates.  My brother and I
had been outspoken against him since his brutal conduct up the mouth
of Red River on a stern-wheel steamboat, the particulars of which
have been given by me in a previous chapter in the American Tribune

   A number of privates had reported to us about how some of the
officers were conducting themselves at the "fancy house," and were
ready for anything suggested. We would always tell them that we
thought the proper thing to do was to wait until we could catch Col.
McMillen there and then knock hell out of the house and him when he
made his appearance. A lot of us privates got together and appointed
a committee to watch and report when they saw the colonel go in,
then the alarm was to be given.  The colonel had a brother in our
company---placed there to get a promotion. The boys would have
thought well enough of him had it not been suspicioned that he
"carried tales" to the colonel. He was most all the time around with
us privates. I was appointed when the proper time came to engage him
in my tent in a game of some kind, whilst the rest got their work in
on the colonel and the assignation house.
   Soon after dark the first evening after " the smelling committee"
was appointed they reported that they had seen the colonel go into
the "fancy house" . I soon succeeded in getting the colonel's brother
into my tent and the boys gathered up three or four hundred strong
and with clubs and stones made a raid on the house, and I am here to
say that I never heard such a "hell-abellow" outside of a battle as
they made. The doors and windows were all knocked in and there was
not a whole piece of weather-boarding left. This was accompanied with
the screams and curses of the "soiled doves." The colonel contrived
to get out of the house and was quite a distance from it before he
was discovered. The boys then turned on him at long range, but "he
ran like a son of a gun".  He was struck several times in his gallant
flight, which only increased his speed. Some of the boys said, "His
shirt was flying behind him". Geo. Harding never wrote up this
retreat of the colonel's  and he wore his stars later on.
"All is not gold that glitters"
Signed: Vint Anderson, Quincy, Indiana March 13, 1899

(next issue)
While at Camp Parapet near New Orleans, our colonel was ordered to
take a detail of men, including three pieces of the  "jack-ass
battery" (some brass pieces we had  captured and was named by our own
men, so named I suppose because we used mules  to haul them around),
and about two hundred men with our Enfields, and go up to
Donelsonville, La., on a scout.
   The bayous in Louisiana are very deep and narrow, so deep that the
largest steamer can pass up them. I have been on them so narrow that
I could go out on the wheel house and jump off on the bank on both
sides. So narrow are they that they have to out looks in the sides
for the boats to pass. One of these bayous empties into the
Mississippi River at Donelsonville: close to the mouth of the bayou
there is a draw-bridge, which we passed over and started up it on a
reconnoitering expedition. We had not gone far until some fellow ran
up on the levee on the opposite side of the bayou from where we were,
and a small brass cannon and fired it at us. It was so small he could
mount and dismount his horse with it, and run his horse with it, and
run his horse with it under his arm at full speed. I think he used

blank cartridges for we never saw or heard a ball. This very much
excited our colonel, and he ordered us up on double quick, taking no
steps to guard against the trap set for us by the Johnnies. Every few
hundred yards this brass piece would be fired off. We kept up this
rapid gait for about three miles when we came to a short turn to the
left in the bayou and a large sugar house to the right. When we got
there a cavalry regiment passed not far from us on the right, so
close to us that we opened fire on them with our Enfields. This only
increased their speed. No sooner had we made the turn in the road ,
until a large battery opened on us. It was said Dick Taylor was in
command of the rebel forces, and that he had thirteen cannons ---the
unlucky number. We who had Enfields were ordered up against the
levee, which afforded us an excellent breastwork. The "jack-ass
battery"  unburdened  and returned the fire but their solid shot and
shell were soon exhausted and the men were ordered back for more, but
soon returned with the report that the cavalry regiment had cut off
our retreat, and we formed in line at the draw-bridge. We passed over
in going out, that they were formed along by the levee of the river
and bayou, which afforded them excellent protection from the two
gun-boats that had accompanied us (as Cleveland would say). The
colonel ordered a retreat, and we went back faster than we went down.
Our comrade, George Harding, did not keep up and was captured by the
enemy, making our only loss, which proved a great loss to our colonel
in the way of a long newspaper  article, puffing him up for his
bravery, etc. We could see by the cloud of dust that a large force
was in hot pursuit of us; we ran up within a few hundred yards of the
cavalry regiment that had cut off our retreat, so close were we that
some of us fired into them with our Enfield rifles, but
notwithstanding we knocked down some of their horses; they did not
return the fire, but contented themselves in cursing the Hoosiers
saying: Now d---n you, we have got you."
   The boys with the cannon had a charge each of grape shot and went
to unlimbering to break the line close to the bridge and then we were
to make a charge and all get over that could, but before they got
ready the rebels had ran several cannons up in less  than a half of a
quarter of a mile of  us and unlimbered. When the rebel cavalry saw
their artillery was ready to sweep us off of the earth, and they
being in line with us, they began a hasty retreat in front of us. The
ground was perfectly level and not a thing was there between them and
us. I was looking every moment for the smoke of their guns, but at
this critical moment one of the gunboats sent over a large shell,
with the sweetest music we ever heard, for it meant life or death to
us, and we watched it drop down and explode in the midst of the
artillerymen and knocked them, their guns and horses in every
direction, and then a rain of shells poured over among the
artillerymen and cavalrymen. Now it was their time to get up and
hustle, as these boats could shell them for four or five miles. We
never heard what the loses of the enemy was, but it must have been

considerable. We gained shelter across the bayou with no loss in
doing so. When we got safely over under the protection of the
gunboats, the officers in command (some of them) boasted that it "was
us that killed the bear", ---us--- when if it had not have been for
the gunboats there would not have been one of us left to tell of our
fool officers that so readily ran into the trap the Johnnies set for
us, but the sequel shows that rebels had not given credit to the
accuracy of the firing by our gunboats. If the rebels had surrounded
us three miles from the river where we made our stand they could have
easily killed or captured us, as the gunboats could not have shelled
them without being equally as destructive to us. The gunboats dropped
down the river and the dust the enemy raised told them pretty well
where to drop their shells. Our command remained behind the levees
until dark when the steamboat we went up on pulled up to shore after
they had hidden all the lights they could that the boat made, and
when all got aboard we steamed back to New Orleans, preceeded and
followed by a gunboat, and if history records the fact about the
Twenty-first Indiana Volunteer Infantry, right about this expedition
it will say: "Another fizzle that came near ending in the destruction
of the whole command caused by incompetency of the officer in
command".
   A very amusing incident happened as we went pell-mell down the
bayou to the trap set for us or rather at the trap. A private got out
of line and was to the side where a sergeant ought to be, and his
captain seeing him went to cursing him; he stepped back in his place
at once, but, even then the captain kept up his abuse, saying among
other things"----- ----- you, you are no sergeant, and by ----- that
is not all of it, you never will be". We were all thoroughly
disgusted with the captain and knew that he was so excited the he did
not know what he was saying. When we got down at the turn of the
bayou, and the rebel's solid shot and pieces of railroad iron began
to fly over us and among us, the captain turned very pale and his
knees began to bump against each other. This private that had been so
abused, noticed it and went up to him and bellowed out "Dear captain,
are you sick? You are very pale, and boys look at the captains knees,
see how they bump one another." The rebuke was so timely and given in
such a comical way that we privates gave a yell of delight and told
the boy to give him hell for he richly deserved it. The captain done
all he could to keep his knees still, but it looked as though the
more he tried the worse he got.
   Our old colonel was very much excited during the artillery fight
and seeing a lot of us privates with our heads stuck over the
embankment he squealed  out as no one else could; "Look at them d----
privates with their heads stuck up over the breastworks to get them
shots off. I say lay down you d----fools you."  This command became
common with the boys, and we could hear them at most all hours of the
night crying out in imitation of the old colonel as much as possible,
"lay down, d----- you." This cry was more general when the lights out

were sounded. That was very annoying to the old colonel but he had a
poor way of helping himself.

DEATH OF T.D. BUTLER

   "Died in defense of his country" while we were at Camp Parapet,
eight miles north of New Orleans. We got orders to be ready to leave
in ten minutes' notice. To pack up in light marching orders that
meant to leave behind our tents, utensils, etc. etc. At about the
same time the paymaster visited our camp and we were all anxious to
get some of the needful  before we left, and the paymaster went to
paying us off as rapidly as possible, but when he got to Co. "B" he
picked some few in the pay rolls and refused to pay us until this
error was corrected. Our captain was very much humiliated as he was
an expert bookkeeper and took great pains usually in having the books
of the company kept in apple pie order, but as luck would have it we
did not get marching orders until late the next day, and the next
morning after the rest of the regiment got paid off, Co. B"" got
their pay and as was frequently the case on such occasions some of
the boys got on a "high old lonesome". Some of my company came to me
and insisted that I go down to the captain's tent and watch the fun
and knowing I would not go in his tent they said I could see it all
by going  to the tent door which I did and found T.D. Butler and the
captain holding the center pole with this condition confronting them.
If they let loose they would fall, and if they held on they would
vomit. About the time I got to the tent door Butler said to captain
very feelingly: "Captain I am going and if I fall I want you to wrap
the Stars and Stripes around me and dig a hole--dig a hole captain
and put me down in it and then take a plank, captain, and write on
it, "T.D. Butler, died in defense of his country," and then go off
and leave me". This speech seemed to be too long for the captain in
the condition he was in and he made no reply. Butler noticing this
silence, hollowed to him, "Will you do it?" This aroused the captain
from his stupor and he said in his way, "I will, sir". Soon after
this incident a boat pulled up to the landing and in the scramble to
get aboard, Butler not being able to do so without help was left
behind, and never got to the regiment for several weeks. He was very
much humiliated over it and it was his last dead "drunk"  while he
was in the service. He was a No. #1 good soldier and never shirked,
and was of a nervous disposition; was profane and when he got in one
of his "big ways" all he had to do to call him down was to say:
"T.D.. Butler died in defense of his country?.
   This was a subject to which he could not give justice, even by
swearing. We knew nothing about such slang phrases then as,
"chewing the rag". Surely, "the world moves".
   A Texas cavalry regiment ran in a cypress swamp.This regiment had
been going up and down the Mississippi river, were operating on the
west side of it from Donelsonville to Baton Rouge, had frequently
fired on our steamboats. Gen. Butler had carefully laid this plan to
trap them. He ordered the 4th Wisconsin Regiment to take a steamboat
and our regiment to take another, and two gunboats to accompany us or

one was to go with each regiment. The rebels would not fire on the
gunboats. Butler thought he had the rebel cavalry regiment located,
so we were to pass by them in the night with our transport carefully
darkened. Our regiment was to go about three miles above the cavalry
and Col. Payne's regiment was to land about three miles below them.
There is a large cypress swamp running all along there about a mile
back from the river. The plan was for us all to slip to our position
as cautiously as possible, and at daylight to land and both regiments
to start to meet each other. The gunboats were to be on the lookout
and if they saw a chance after both regiments got in line, they were
to go to shelling the enemy. By some miscue we landed at daylight and
were told that Waller's Texas cavalry regiment was between us and the
cypress swamp. Not more than a half mile back there was another
condition that  confronted us. We did not have more than two hundred
and fifty men, and Waller was reported by some darkies to be camped
in a half mile of us a thousand strong and well mounted. The gunboat
with us could be of no assistance in a close engagement and Col.
Payne was six miles down the river. Our orders were to attack them as
soon as we could after getting off the boat. So we were in for it,
but there was a great deal of consultation among the officers
notwithstanding we had immediately fallen in line after we got off
the boat, thinking we were three miles above the rebels. Some of our
officers or one of them that came under my observation was very
active in getting us in line  when he found out the fix we were in;
he got back on the steamboat on a pretext of being sick. We do not
want to be hard on him now for the boys that are still alive will
most all swear that he "was always hell on dress parade," and he was
not alone. Finally we got started but the sun must have been more
that an hour high. We went on the north side of a large ditch that
ran out to the swamp. When we got out about half way from our landing
to the swamp we came to a road that ran south through a large rice
field or where rice had been grown.
The colonel called a halt and ordered the men to conceal themselves
along the ditch. This was not hard to do ---quite a levee was thrown
up and it was some tall weeds. All they were to do was to keep back
from the road. We saw fresh horse tracks going south and knew the
enemy was  ----. In less than half a mile from where the regiment
stopped south of us was another large ditch and weeds tall enough to
hide men on their horses. We rightly came to the conclusion that the
enemy was there. We waited in our concealment but a short time until
he came to our part of our company  and called for three men to go
out on a reconnoitering expedition. My brother, Comrade Massey and
myself were chosen. So we started down to the ditch south of us. When
we got down about half way between the two ditches there was a
Johnnie reb stepped out from behind the woods into the road and
raised his gun to fire and another man stepped up  with him and
pulled him back, but soon he made another appearance again, and we

saw he was going to shoot. The wind was blowing very hard from the
west and we knew from our target practice in Baltimore on the bay
that the wind blowing at that rate and at that distance he was from
us, that the ball would be carried by the wind some feet, so when he
was going to shoot, we all three turned our sides to him, so as to
give him as small a target to shoot at as possible, and he blazed
away, the ball striking the ground several feet to the left of us. We
went to shoot at random down through the weeds where this fellow
stood dodged back behind, and advancing, we had fired three shots
apiece, when we heard our old colonel's sweet voice saying "come back
here---- ---- you." He could not give a command when excited without
swearing. We got back to our concealment with the rest and had been
there quite a while, when one of the boys from Co. K took it upon
himself to slip out in front and see if he could see anything of the
enemy. He had got down as far as we had went, when three of the rebel
cavalry conceived the idea of taking him --- and , thinking perhaps,
that the rest of our force was back at the landing they put spurs to
their horses  and came full speed after him. As soon as he saw them
he got out in the road and started for us as fast as he could . The
three cavalrymen came after him one after the other, when our boys
got within thirty or forty yards of the rebel in front was hollowing
Halt! Halt, you d---d Yankee, and reached around for his gun; as our
man knew where we were he would not halt worth a cent. We were all
watching the chase through the weeds and without any orders had
cocked our guns awaiting developments, and when we saw the fellow
getting ready  to shoot, we all fired as much together as we could
had we been firing by platoons on practicing. At the sound of our
guns all three of the cavalry men that was after our man with their
horses fell. I went to the foremost man and saw he was perfectly
riddled with our bullets, and the boys said the other two were
equally as bad. The old colonel then ordered  -- two pieces  of the,
----- ----- ------that we had with us to shell the enemy which we
then knew was behind the ditch, south of us. After throwing a number
of shells down there, and having no response from the enemy the
colonel sent the same three  --- down there. When we got down --- the
ditch we found one dead  Confederate soldier ---- ---- ----
him in the center of his forehead and close to him was laying the
rebel flag, which we gathered up and went back to the road and
signaled to the colonel. They all came down but we were unable to
tell in what direction the rebels had went. Us scouts were put up a
tree forty or fifty  feet high to try to determine where the enemy
were, but we could not do so. Some of the boys went out towards the
swamp and came back and reported that they had taken to the swamp. A
few shells were sent over there. We all went down there and what a
sight presented itself. We could see hundreds of horses, raring and
plunging among those cypress knees that are large at the bottom, but
were sticking a foot or two up out of the water. these knees grow up

to a sharp point. Many of these poor horses had been disemboweled by
raising up and coming down on them. It was said that there was an old
road that was used when the water was low, to cross this swamp. These
excited men had ran their horses out there as far as they could and
then abandoned them, many going afoot; some had crawled upon logs and
were waiting to surrender. The colonel seeing so many fine horses,
(they had some fine ones) told us boys that all that would get out a
horse could do so and have it to ride back to the landing. So we most
all stripped for the fun. Those that had side arms took them and
those that did not took their guns. As I went out I was close to some
of Co. K boys when they shot a large alligator. These fellows are
much like a turtle, about holding on to life after receiving a blow
that will kill them. I passed on quite a distance from  there before
I got the kind of a horse I wanted; when I did he was a beautiful
black, with energy enough left in him for two horses; he had only a
piece of a rein to lead him with. There was a darkey with me, and I
told him to lead the horse back for me, which he started to do but
had not gone far until he threw up his job. I tried to persuade him,
but to no purpose. When the horse would mire down he would come up
with a lunge, and had come near trampling the darkey in the mud, and
had thoroughly frightened him. I tried threats, drawing my pistol on
him, but he finally told me to shoot that he would rather die that
way than have  "dat thar hoss kill him". So I had to take him myself
and when I got up to that wounded alligator, the horse mired down and
came plunging over at me. I made a jump or plunge and came close to
that alligator that was  buried down in the mud. I had let go of the
horse's rein and crawled up on a root to rest, when one of Co. K boys
came wading along by the side of the alligator with a large club,
and, thinking the alligator dead he gave him a punch with his stick
in its side, saying, "Wake up". At that the old alligator brought his
tail around with terrible force, bringing with it almost a bushel of
mud that struck the comrade in the face with such force that it
knocked him down, and he went "all over under" in that mud and water,
and when he came up he gave a yell  and looked so comical that I
tried to laugh, but my tickle was over charged and it blew my breath
away and it staid so long  that I was afraid I could not catch it,
but when I did, and some comrades that were close by joined me, we
soon made up for all lost time, and then some.
   We captured a number of prisoners and took them with us back to
New Orleans. When they saw our small number they seemed to be very
much humiliated. One fellow asked me how many there were of us, I
answered him one-hundred: I will never forget his looks when he said:
"Is that  all?" I replied yes, and that was seventy-five more than we
needed of the 21st. Indiana, to clean out Walker and his brave one
thousand. It was a cruel thrust, but everything went there. Their
flag is at Indianapolis and ought, with all the rest of such rags be
burned. To give them back would be only furnishing them with fuel to

kindle another hell; for war is hell, especially when among
ourselves.

Who got the cotton taken from Baton Rouge I do not know, but I do
know that a few speculators ought not to have been allowed to buy it
up from every Tom, Dick and Harry at a nominal sum, and from parties
that they knew had no right to sell it, and that Uncle Sam was the
proper one to claim it by right of conquest.  The privates felt that
to claim it and turn over to the proper authority was the business of
the officers and none of ours. Officers that received the  applause
of the world and have gone down into history as brave and honorable
men, after all were only mortals in this case, and I expect many
others were only plain thieves. History says that our forces were
withdrawn from Baton Rouge after the battle there, but if my memory
serves me right, it was a hasty retreat to avoid another attack. The
truth about the matter was Breckenridge and his army had us cooped up
like a rat in a trap, and I think after they retreated back outside
of the range of our gunboats they saw the mistake they had made in
not following up and capturing all of us, and that had we remained
much longer, that was just what they would have done: our retreat
when begun was made very hastily, boats were placed for us and it was
on these steam-boats that the stolen cotton was being placed.
Benjamin F. Butler was in command at New Orleans, and now I want to
say here that I was afforded an opportunity there to make me believe
that General Butler did all he could to stop this stealing but it was
said his own brother and other officers close to the throne were into
it up to their eyes and this is the way I got a peep behind the
curtain.
   My friend Saul Fultz, spoken of in former chapters, had found down
at the penitentiary two or three thousand dollars worth of batting,
had made arrangements with a captain of a steam-boat to take it down
to New Orleans, and wait for his pay until he sold it. The whole
Negro brigade seemed to be at Saul Fult's command, so he had no
trouble in getting it hauled and put on the boat. After we had left
Baton Rouge, Fultz came to my brother and I and told us that two of
our officers had offered him fifty dollars for his cotton and that
they had told him if he did not take that he would get nothing and he
believed that they were trying to beat him out of all of it and if we
would help him he would divide with us. We told him we thought he had
better do as we did--sold it at the city for what he could get: that
"a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"-- but he was very
confident that if we could keep the officers off of it we could get
much more for it at New Orleans, but he said if we would help him we
could sell it as we thought best to anyone except the two officers
that were trying to steal it from him. So we went to the captain of
the boat and offered it to him, but he declined to buy and when we
pressed him for his reason he said it was a pretty ticklish business,
and besides, some of our officers were claiming it and as one of them
was getting very drunk he was fearful that if he bought it off us
that they would raise such a disturbance it might be the cause of his

not only losing it but all the rest of the cotton he had bought of us
boys. I saw that he was getting very nervous about the whole matter,
or seemed to be. I reported to Comrade Fultz all I had heard and told
him to go with me to the captain of the boat and tell him that he had
employed me to sell this cotton for him, and for him to let anyone
have it I said." The captain said all right but he thought we had
better sell it to our officers for just what we could get, that he
was sorry now he had invested anything in it, that he was fearful
that he would not only lose all he had invested but he was afraid he
would get into trouble for what he had done and lose his job of
captain of the boat. After holding a consultation with my brother and
Fultz it was agreed that I was to stay with the boat and sell the
cotton if possible. The regiment was landed eight miles above New
Orleans and went into camp. We landed when it was raining very hard
and it was very muddy. Fultz had told the boys what the officers were
trying to do and that he had my brother and I to help him. The
arrangement was for me to get off of the boat at our landing if our
officers both did and go from there down on the cars. Our orders
leaked out through Fultz, so when the boat landed the two officers we
were watching, got off the boat and followed, the one that was drunk
as common came staggering up to me and said, "sir, I order you to you
quarters and to stay here".
   I saw through his trick and went back at him with my strongest
adjectives, telling him that I would obey his orders if it was not
for one thing and he asked me what that was and I told him that I
would see him in fell first, and then I would  not do it. He started
like he was going to strike me with his sword and I placed my bayonet
on my gun, but was caught by the orderly sergeant and one or two
others before I could do anything. The officers in falling back fell
down in the mud and rolled over in it, and presented a most ludicrous
appearance. Many of the boys shouted with laughter and left them to
scramble out of the mud as best he could. He made some loud threats
against me, but when he sobered up he came to the conclusion that the
less said was the best for him. During our quarrel the other officers
that were trying to sell Fultz's cotton stepped on the boat and
before I noticed it the gang-plank was hauled in and the boat was
backing out into the river and was soon puffing away to New Orleans,
leaving me behind. My messmates and brother told me to go to the
railroad station so as to catch the first train and they would see to
putting up our tent ---not a very desirable job in the mud and rain,
so off I went, the officer who had ordered me to my quarters, ---you
sir, had became too full for utterance by this time and was past
giving any orders, so I went to the depot got there about 10 a.m. but
got no train until 4 p.m. When we got to the city I called a cabman
and told him to take me to the wharf and the sooner he got there the
better he would please me. I found our steam boat and went to the
captain, and as soon as he saw me he said: "O hell are you here?" I

answered yes for  the war, he then took  me to one side and told me,
"General Butler was raising hell and advised me to go back to my
regiment; he said that two of Butler's staff officers had just left
the boat and had looked at the amount of cotton on it and had given
him special orders to not move the boat or allow any of the cotton
unloaded. That the officer was one of them we were suspicioning was
there claiming the cotton and that I had better take his advice and
get the $50 they offered, for we now would not get anything, that he
saved up several hundred dollars and had it invested in our cotton
and now he did not believe he could get one cent back." I told him
that I was there to stay and watch Fultz cotton and would stay just
as long as the officers that was claiming it did. That if Fultz could
not get it, I would see that no shoulder strap gentleman did. He
warned me that I was liable to get into deep trouble and said I could
go back to my company and General Butler would never find out that I
had had anything to do with it, that he only wished that he could get
out of it by losing all the money he had invested, etc. I told him in
reply that I had no shoulder stripes to lose and was not afraid of
losing my job as a private soldier, so I would stick to the job I had
come down to do. I stayed down in the city two or three days and then
sent word to my brother and Fultz that it was my opinion then that I
had as sure a thing of being translated to heaven like Enoch and
Elijah was as I had of ever realizing one cent out of the cotton and
all we had left for us was to make the officers who had tried to rob
us of that cotton smell as much hell of Gen. Butlers wrath as
possible, that that was my very next move, etc. so I bought me a
"biled shirt" and paper collar and a white necktie--I always thought
that kind of a necktie looked most saintly---took a bath, and after
getting my shoes blacked and the "fuzz"  cut off my face and hair
trimmed in the most approved style and thus rigged up I sailed forth
to Ben. Butler's headquarters, not having my mind fully matured as to
what I would do when I got there but I had this resolve, that I would
fully expose the officers that were trying to sell the cotton Fultz
had loaded on the steam boat. When I got to Gen. Butler's
headquarters I told one of his orderlies that I was a private soldier
of Co. "B" 21st, Ind.
Vol. Inf., and had a special message for Gen. Butler and he said that
"the general had some very important business on-hand and could not
see me then, to come some other time", I told him my business was of
importance and I thought the general ought to know it as soon as
possible so as to prevent an outrage being perpetrated against the
Government. So persistent was I that he went to the general with my
request and soon one of his staff officers came out and he too told
me that the general was very busy now investigating a matter that he
was very much interested in, that he could not see me, but I kept on
insisting until I thought of the widow in the parable as recorded in
the 18th chapter of St. Luke, and I remodeled it so it would read: "

And there was a private of Co. B. 21st, Ind. Vol. Inf., wanting to
see his Lord and master Gen. B. F. Butler saying, avenge me of mine
adversary. "
   The staff officer would not for a while: but afterwards he said, I
will speak to the general about you, though I fear not God, or regard
a damn private,  yet because this one troubled me, I will take his
request to see the general, to him, lest he worry me, and when he
went into the general's sanctum and told him I was persisting in
seeing him in person he said, "Hear what this darn private has to
say."
   So this staff officer came out to where I was at and requested me
to follow him. I did so to a private room and after we locked in by
our selves he gave me a chair at a table and took up his pen and
asked me for my message, said he would take it down so as to show it
to the general after he got through with the job he was at, but was
particular in telling me he would do this if he thought it was of
sufficient importance to call his attention to it, and now here was
an other of Cleveland's conditions that confronted me. I was anxious
to put a hole in it if I could.
   The two officers were trying to sell Fultz's cotton, but how to
get at them and screen Fultz was the question. The staff officers had
kindly given me a chair at the table, but had not made any special
arrangement for my hands and feet and they were all very restless and
seemed to have no abiding place. If the gentle reader will allow me
here to express myself as I did when I got back to my brother and
Comrade Faults I will say that I felt like I was in one hell of a
fix. I did not know how to break the ice or to begin my story, and
the officer only said, "Well, go on".
   I finally said I wished to make a report to the general about a
large lot of cotton that had been bought in at a nominal sum at Baton
Rouge and loaded on some steamboats by some speculators, that they
evidently intended to sell and pocket the proceeds, and I thought as
it was captured cotton, that it ought to all be turned over to the
government to help pay the expenses of the war. When I spoke of this
cotton he said this was the very thing General Butler was now looking
into and for me to wait there a moment until he went to the General
and reported the capture of my message, that he perhaps would like to
see me personally about this matter; so I waited a long time. There
was nothing else left for me to do. When the staff officer returned
he seemed thoroughly thawed out, and said very pleasantly that the
general had sent his compliments to me and said that he was now
investigating this very matter and would be glad to get all the facts
I could give him. He said further that the general wanted to get my
name, company and regiment, and for me to tell him everything I know
about this matter and he would take it down, and later on when he had
time he would likely send for me, so at it we went. I did all I could
to screen Fultz, making him out very illiterate, but a number one
good soldier. I gave the names of the officers who were claiming the
cotton, and the rank and the company and regiment they belonged to .

He was very particular in asking where they could find the men who
were there trying to sell Fultz's cotton.  The staff officer made two
or three trips into the generals private room. I told him when I went
to leave that I would be blamed should anything be done with them and
they would seize any pretext to punish me, but as I had endured this
treatment for a good while I guessed I could still stand it, but he
said, "wait a moment and I will speak to the general about that." He
soon returned and said that the information I had furnished them was
very important and he was very glad to get it, for me to go back to
my company and if I was put under arrest or annoyed in any way to
send him word and he would see what he could do. I expected as I had
been gone two or three days to be arrested as a deserter, and after
Gen. Butler had sent me this word I courted this arrest, but the
officers I was after were arrested and one of them was confined to
the limits of the regiments guard line for a long time. A while after
I returned from this trip to New Orleans, my brother and I got a pass
to go to the city or rather our pass ran for the day, or I believe it
expired at eight PM. This was the kind of passes that were given out
to the boys, many of them going on them to the city and returning on
the train that came in a few hours after the pass had expired. This
practice had become common and nothing was said about it, but we were
watched, and the next morning the orderly came to my brother and I
and told us to get ready for guard mount, and when we told him it was
not our time, he said he knew that and felt it was a d--d shame, but
the captain had ordered us on three days extra duty for staying out
later than our pass allowed. We asked him if he ordered the boys that
were with us on extra duty, and he said no, that was where the
cussedness set in, and we told him so, but he had commanded him to
put us on and he expected we had better take our medicine. I told him
I would go but my brother sent word to the captain that he was sick
and he would see him in hell before he would go on extra duty for
doing just what all the boys were doing. When the orderly reported
what my brother had said the captain said; "All right sir as soon as
guard mount is over, you make him pack up in heavy marching orders
and take a squad of guards with you and march them down to the
regiments hospital."  It was about a mile from camp on a boat, and
says he, "if the doctor says there is nothing the matter with him to
bring him back on the double quick time with bayonet at his back."
When the orderly ordered this message to my brother, he sent his
compliments back to the captain and told him he was a very sick man
but was not so d--d sick but what he would go on guard if it was his
time but as it was not he would go to his bunk and lie there until he
sent an ambulance to take him to the hospital, that he did not
believe there was any military law that would compel a sick soldier
to march a mile in heavy marching orders when there were plenty of
ambulances doing nothing, and he was willing to test this matter with
him, that he would not move a foot from his tent until the ambulance

was sent around. So the captain ordered an ambulance for him and when
it drove up to the tent the boys that were not on duty carried my
brother out very tenderly and requested him to sit upon the seat
beside the driver who was a warm friend of ours. When all was ready
my brother took hold of the lines. The captain's tent was set off by
itself and he was standing at the door watching the fun the boys were
having with the very sick comrade. My brother gave the horses a sharp
cut with the whip and started them in almost a run around the
captain's tent, yelling at them like an Indian. As he made the second
circle around the tent a wheel of the ambulance dropped into a hole
and broke to pieces. The boys were both thrown out but neither
seriously hurt. the boys all crowded around and when my brother told
he was not a bit hurt on account of his sickness he would be
compelled to get back to his tent and wait for another ambulance, as
the horses that were hitched to the one he had run off and torn it
all to pieces, so the boys gathered him up and carried him back to
his tent, and he sent word to the captain that he was gradually
sinking and to hurry up another ambulance so he could get to the
hospital. The captain saw that the boys were all on my brother's side
and not wishing to get this feeling too hot he ordered another
ambulance and driver with special instructions to let no one have
hold of the reins except himself. When the ambulance drove around the
boys placed my brother in as tenderly as they did before and my
brother told the driver to drive him very slow past the captain's
tent which he did whilst my brother sang:

Show pity Lord, oh Lord forgive.
Let a repenting rebel live: Are not thy mercies rich and free may not
a sinner trust in thee?

   When my brother got down to the boat where the hospital was, our
regimental surgeon said: "Hello! Billy, What is the matter with you?"
and told him not a thing but went on and gave the doctor a full
account of our difficulty with the captain and what he had done when
he was ordered on extra duty. The doctor took a good laugh and said,
I see Billy you are in such a fix that you will need your medicine
regular and whilst you are under me I out-rank them all, as far as
you are concerned, and you can stay with me just as long as you wish
and I will defy any of them to take you away from me until I say go,
and now I shall prescribe loaf sugar, lemon and whiskey, and I have
plenty here for the sick and when ever you feel a spell coming on and
feel you need a dose come to me. My brother thanked him and told him
there was a good hotel close and if he did not care he would board
there. The doctor told him he could do as he pleased, but he could
stay with him and save that expense, but my brother was not caring
for expenses then, so he went to the hotel and stayed there for
several weeks and frequently had the old doctor over to "get a square
meal" and take some of the landlords medicine, which consisted of
"peach and honey". My brother said he would have stayed there the
balance of his enlistment if the regiment had. He had a pass to go
when and where he pleased.


   CONTRABANDS AT CAMP CARLTON

   While we were camped at the above named place the contrabands
flocked there by the thousands. I believe they claimed as high as
fifteen thousand at one time. They were of all ages, from the infant
in its mother's arms to the oldest former slaves. It was the first
time for any of them to taste of being free and oh what a joyous time
they had. They held meetings every night. I used to steal away to
myself and enjoy the melody of those thousand Negro voices: how soft
and musical their united voices still sound as I go back and live
over those nights with those uneducated people. I can give no part of
what they sang as every word has banished from memory,
notwithstanding I learned many of their songs at the time or parts of
them, but all has gone glimmering, as much of our army life has. The
ruthless hand of time has rubbed much of it out.
   The name of the boat was Mollie. I have forgotten the rest. The
crew would all get together when this large boat would leave a
landing and all sing this song until their voices would die in the
distance. The songs and their meetings would sound to me much like
this one but on a larger scale.
   My brother and two of our comrades went up close to the speaker's
stand one evening and staid there until the darkies swarmed around
them so thick they could not get out. These contrabands would jam
themselves up so close together that no one could press themselves
through the crowd and when they would sing that  whole sea of people
would swing back and forth as they would sing their plantations
songs. To realize what it was one had to be there and see and hear
them. No one, can tell of it so a person can form a correct idea of
it.
   The boys said that when the old preacher saw them right up under
the drapings of the statuary he thought he would pray for them and
they repeated the following:
   "O, Lord, bless Gen. Lincoln and all our officers and all our
soldiers so that when Jeff Davis comes he will be disappointed and
then after a long pause he said very rapidly, be disappointed by a
hell of an expectation".
   The boys all hollowed amen, which seemed to amuse them all.
Signed Vint Anderson (date obscured)

(next issue)

   Soon after the death of T.D. Butler, which I have given in another
chapter, our regiment and --- --- --- other soldiers, artillery, ----
and cavalry was ordered to --- --- Dick Taylor, with quite as news
--- thrown up some --- --- from the boys to the --- ---- ..sides.
They had  --- --- ---  to front  of the breastworks, and had quite a
formidable gun-boat a few miles below Franklin. A part of General
Bank's forces who was in command were sent to Brashier City, and the
rest were sent around with the intention of getting in the rear  and
cutting off a retreat.  We were left several days at Brashier City
before we were ordered across  the bayou and to advance on Taylor in
his entrenchments. Our regiment had then been given a few "parrot
guinea" a very formidable cannon that used a 32 pound shell. These
shells were both the fuse and percussion: we usually had both. The
fuse shells were made so we could cut them so that they would burst

in front and above the place we wanted to strike. The percussion
shells were made with a piece of brass screwed in the end of a shell,
so when it would strike a solid object the thread of the screw could
break loose so as to let the brass piece drive in and strike a cap
that, when busted, would explode the shell with  its missiles of
death packed within. Part of our regiment had the above named guns,
part were manning the jackass battery and the remainder at this time
had small arms. One night whilst we were waiting at Brashier City,
Dick Taylor sent a battery down opposite us and opened out on us. We
had been looking for such an attack and had been practicing at some
chimneys across the bay and had our guns pointed and everything ready
for an emergency, but when the enemy's shells went flying over us one
night about one o'clock a.m., we were most all sound asleep, but we
all got up without telling, many of us going to our guns with nothing
but our pants on, and soon were returning shot for shot. The rebels
were like  the Spaniards in the late war, viz: "Could not hit a d---d
thing," all went over us, and our shots soon silenced them and they
went scampering back up the bay. The moon was shining brightly and it
was very dusty so we had a good target as long as they staid in reach
of us, I was the only one hurt and I thought it slight at the time
and this was not by the enemy. I was No 1 at one of the parrot guns
when it was fired off before I reached a safe distance from the
muzzle and the concussion came near knocking me down and created a
deafness in my right ear, which has grown as I have grown older to
total deafness in that ear and had very much effected the other, but
"where am I at". One amusing incident of this short artillery
engagement  came under my observation . One of the officers who as
usual under such an occasion was on a "high old lonesome" and when
the rebels fired on us he came out of his tent and yelled out
"Lieutenant Day, can I have your horse sir?" The lieutenant came up
to me and said, what in the hell does he want a horse for?  I told
him to hunt a healthier place for his men. He got away from there as
soon as possible, and never returned for an hour after we had ceased
firing, when Gen. Banks thought our forces had got far enough around
he crossed the bay and we marched on the enemy. The plan was for us
to engage them, but we were not to storm their breastworks until our
forces got around and made an attack in the rear. For some  cause not
known to us the force that was sent around to attack in the rear was
delayed, so our fighting was mostly by artillery at long range. We
had a little amusement while laying back. On our left was a large
cypress swamp; a regiment of Indians attacked our flank on the left.
Two of our parrot guns were placed above a large sugar house and was
ordered not to fire unless the rebel gunboats came down the bayou.
Soon after we had taken our position Gen. Banks came up where we were
and ordered the infantry part of our regiment over to the left. Quite
a number of our company were with small arms , my brother among the
rest. Gen. Banks

and some of his staff officers got on top of this sugar house and
some of us privates went, too, as it gave us an excellent view of
both ---- -----
had not been there long until the rebels sent a shell flying after us
and a piece came flying over the sugar house, missing Gen. Banks more
than three or four feet. Most of us dodged, but I noticed he stood as
stiff as a poker; he did not seem to move a muscle. The staff
officers told the general that they thought he had better get down
off of the building, as they thought the enemy had discovered them
with their spy glasses and might send out their artillery and bring
on a general engagement. The very thing we did not want to do until
our forces attacked them in the rear. After some parleying the
officers all went down, but as our infantry force was being sharply
engaged and many of our boys in it, my brother among the rest, I
staid on top of the sugar house. I could see the Indians advancing on
our boys. They came running up in the mud and water, firing from
behind the trees and had our forces at quite a disadvantage, as they
were on an open field. I could  see a man fall from our side
occasionally, but could not see that any of the Indians were being
hurt. Soon an orderly from General Banks went running up to some of
our artillerymen and ordered them to shell the woods, and as soon as
the first shell burst among them they broke and ran; they looked from
where I was at like a great drove of porpoises bobbing up and down
out of the water. In their haste hundreds of them would fall down in
that mud and water that was up to their waists. I do not think they
fired a gun after our cannoneers  threw among them the first shell.
Soon after this a rebel battery on our right was run up on knoll in
short range of us, they got on top of the knoll before we discovered
them. They thought, I suppose, that they could steal up to us and
knock the stuffing out of us before we could get at them, but it was
a race to see who would get the first shot. We had two cannon there,
I believe the gun I was on would have gotten the first shot had it
not been that in our haste the trunnion dropped down in a hole and
the comrade who was sighting the gun ordered the trunnion over to the
right and the man whose business it was tried to throw it over out of
the hole and could not and asked the comrade on the opposite  side to
step over and help him, and to the surprise of all he answered: "No,
I will do nothing of the kind, that is not my side." Some of us who
had hand spikes hastened to the one that had called for help and
before we could get it properly pointed, the rebel artillery got two
shots at us; one ball passed over our heads and looked like it would
cut Comrade Walsby in two who was sitting on one of the mules that
helped haul the cannons, but he laid down on its neck and the ball
almost grazed his back. The other ball, which was a solid shot,
struck the ground between our two cannons digging a hole large enough
to bury a man in, and throwing the dirt all over us; but  it was not
our time, and both guns fired about the same time. One of the
percussion  balls passed through the crowd on the knoll and the other

struck the carriage of one of their cannons just under the gun and
exploded, throwing the cannon loose from the carriage and knocking me
and horses in every direction, and those that were not killed or
mounted got away as fast as possible. Some of our men were sent over
and captured the wounded, guns and another cannon  they had left in
their flight. A pontoon bridge was placed across the bayou close to
us for our boys to cross over on, and after they had captured the
cannons and were coming back General Banks started to meet them, and
about the time he got started on the bridge, the rebels evidently had
been watching for him with one of his best guns.  They shot at him
when he was alone on the bridge, some of his staff officers had
passed over and the rest were waiting until he got across, the ball
struck the water close to the bridge and went hissing over it with a
bound. We could all see that large shot coming and held our breath
until it went by. The ball struck close enough to the general to
knock the water over him and his horse,
but neither seemed to notice it. I expected them  to keep up their
firing but they made but the one shot at us then; a while after that
, one of our boys had strayed up the  ---- hundred yards or more and
the rebels sent a shot down our way; it had struck the ground above
us and came bouncing back toward our stray, and looked like it was
going to hit him, it was almost spent but was coming faster than he
could run and we finally got him to under stand if he did not turn to
one side it would get him, he had got most up to us before he made
the turn and just as he turned the ball struck something and bounded
after him; but we got him to make another turn just in time to keep
from being struck. The ball went only a short distance and stopped,
and he said: "Well, my --oney, you have been doing all you could to
make me your meat, now you are mine", and went to pick it up. We all
hollowed to him to come away that it might be a shell and explode and
blow him all to pieces. He then came running down to us and when we
told him he had made a very narrow escape, he said he had not
realized the fact that he was in any danger until he went to pick up
the ball and we had hollowed shell at him. "Then", says he, "I was
scared nigh to death."
   He waited a while for the shell to explode, and as it did not,
some of the boys went and brought it down to us. It was an 18 pound
ball. I do not think any of our forces went over in that swamp to see
what effect our shell had on the Indians but it must have been
considerable as the swamp was thoroughly shelled and the Indians made
slow progress in getting away. I saw lots of shells burst among them;
all would go down in the mud at such times, but we could not tell,
from where we were, how many staid down. This was the wildest retreat
I ever saw: No worse, perhaps, than when we drove the Texas
cavalrymen in the cypress swamp recorded in a previous chapter, but
we did not get a good view of them whilst they were retreating as we
did of the Indians. It is said Indians are good fighters with small
arms but they invariably run when being fired at with cannon. It

makes a tickle run all over me now when I look back and see them
"skedadeling" through that swamp. After all, thirty six years is only
a step for our memories but sometimes it is hard to make, as I have
found out in giving these sketches without any memorandum except what
was recorded on our minds at the time and has been burned away, for I
have seldom spoke of them. All these things are in the past, are back
numbers and we most all live in the present, so we find it very hard
to make these incidents readable to the most of us. I realized this
fact at the beginning and as I advance it is being stronger impressed
on us. Will not some of the boys of the 21st Ind. Vol. Inf. and 1
H.A. pitch in and give me a rest? "Second relief fall in". However
the Battle at Franklin Louisiana, will be finished in another chapter
as I saw and remember it.
Signed Vint Anderson (no date)







(next issue)

   Our maneuvering and firing at long range lasted several days. The
forces that were sent around, and which we were hourly expecting to
attack, as I have stated, from some cause, not known to many of us
privates, failed to get in behind Dick Taylor. We made a point or two
as though we were going to make a charge. One evening we were all
advanced up some distance and confidently expected to make the charge
next morning, but when morning came we found that all the infantry
and artillery of the enemy had "skedaddled" early in the night,
leaving only a few cavalrymen to keep up the fires and deceive us,
which they effectually  did. Our cavalry was put in hot pursuit but
Taylor's Cavalry would occasionally make a stand and hold ours back,
so we were unable to get at the rest of Taylor's army. There had been
a heavy rain a while before this retreat, and when we with our heavy
artillery got on the prairie above Franklin we found the ground so
soft we could not keep up with our army and was ordered back to
Brashier City, we passed several dead Confederates that our cavalry
had killed as we went up and several of them were still lying in and
beside the road as we came back, some of our forces that were sent
around had a small brush with Dick Taylor's retreating army but it
did not amount to much.
   As we went back through Franklin we were drunk, or the most of us
had joined our Captain and if not drunk were overflowing. It was
"surging whiskey" we had got hold of and as we went back through
Franklin, we were most of us astride our long guns; our captain as
well as the rest as he was too full to ride his horse and had to be
held on the cannon to keep him from falling off, we were all holding
to each other and swinging our bodies first to one side and then to
the other. Singing as best we could.
   As we were passing close by a dwelling in the above fix, reeling
and singing I caught the eye of one of those bright and beautiful
women of the south that makes a fellow's gizzard flop every time a
man thinks of them even though they were ardent rebels. I caught her
eye and she looked so sad and beautiful: she made such an impression
on me that it seems but yesterday; although old time has ticked off
thirty-seven years. Just as we got up in front of her I caught her

eye again and she threw up her hands to her face and dropped back. I
think she would have fallen but for another woman, a mother, perhaps
caught her and pushed the door to. I was  sobered and my song was
ended at once, and I have often wondered what caused that sudden
burst of grief. Perhaps it was the thought that in that cruel war she
had lost a brother or perhaps a lover, but we will never know and all
is mere speculation. We do know that she was a sweet, pure girl and
God never made  a mistake in recording her as such. Innocence and
purity always leave their unmistakable mark. This is just as  true as
God is love and love is God. When we got back to Brashear City with
our heavy artillery we went into camp close to the hospital used for
the wounded Confederates that had fallen into our hands in this
engagement. I went there one day and formed the acquaintance of a
very bright and ardent Confederate soldier that had been severely
wounded. He belonged to a Mississippi regiment and told me his
father's plantation joined a Mr. Simmons' who had a son attending
I.S.U. before the war who was a class mate of mine  and we were
particular friends, but he had gone to join the Confederate army and
I had left  the same institution to join the Union army. I do not
believe that had we met in battle, even though we were very zealous
partisans, that either one of us could have shot to kill. I know I
could not and I believe he would not.  Our duty in this case would
have been thrown to the dogs. This Simmons was a very eccentric
fellow and this wounded boy knew all about his eccentricities, we
often talked about him and when I told him my name, where I lived and
where I had next met Simmons, he said he had heard Simmons speak
often about me. I had told Simmons  that if the worst came to the
worst that I expected to volunteer the first drum tap in our company
and he said he would do the same.
   This boy told me that Simmons had kept his word to me and I sent
him my compliments and word that I had enlisted in Co. H, 14th
Indiana volunteers, the first company that had been raised in our
county for the war, but owing to the regiment being reorganized and
taken for three years instead of one, and I having a very severe case
of measles at the time, I had gone home, until I would be able to do
duty as a soldier, and that was why I had waited until the 21st
Indiana Volunteer Infantry was organized, that I was looking forward
to the time when slavery with all its entailed curse on our land
would be wiped out for ever and we would have a united country. At
this my new found confederate warmed up and quoted a number of
passages of scripture to prove up the divine institution of slavery;
said it was an institution organized by God, and the gates of hell
could not prevail against it. I remember his referring me to Genesis,
that gives an account of old Noah making wine from his own vineyard
that he had planted soon after the flood, and getting so drunk on it
that he kicked the breeches off himself  and one of his boys told two
of his brothers about the nakedness of their father, and these two
modest brothers walked backwards with garments on their shoulders and

covered up the nakedness of their father, etc., and  when  old Noah
awoke from his drunken slumber and found out that one of his sons had
merely told the other two the condition he was in, and took no part
in covering up his nakedness, he was mad as a wet hen, (I am not
trying to quote the exact language of this narrative in the old
Bible) and as old Noah was a particular friend of God's, He, God,
stepped in and gave old Noah supernatural power to curse the boy that
had told on him, and make him and his posterity slaves forever for
the other two good little fellows that had gone back to cover up his
nakedness." May the good Lord help us is my prayer, for being
compelled to swallow such stuff and call it "God's Holy Writ." There
is a screw loose some where, that time and those who revise the Bible
from time to time will tighten up, but what blood and misery such has
cost. This boy was thoroughly imbued with the belief that they would
succeed because slavery was ordained by God, and God would be with
them, but why say this boy The whole South went into the war
believing this and we of the North sang "Let this be our motto: In
God we Trust." Thus the line was drawn between the  two sections. The
South always having the advantage when they went to the old Bible in
the argument, but the sequel showed that the institution of slavery
was not of divine origin for  it was not ordained by God and he was
not with the old Bible and the South for if  he had been they would
not have come out at the little end of the horn, as they did, and
slavery would now hold a firmer hold in the United States than ever
before. There is but one cause  why the South lost and that I believe
they are at last finding out and that is , that secession and slavery
were wrong, and this thought brings to mind this fact  that very few
men ever in the Union Army knew the real cause of the war and what
the result would be at the beginning of the war. Our regiment was as
patriotic as any of the rest in the Union but I believe if they had
known that the war was for the almost express purpose of freeing the
slave at any time for the first two years of the war, that three
fourths of them would have deserted, I can still hear ringing in our
ears such expressions from them as this: d---d the Negro. I never
enlisted to free them, etc. "
   They builded better than they knew, and when we read Lincoln's
inaugural address, the first one, where said "The administration had
no intention to interfere with slavery where it now (existed) (?),
etc."  the thought is forced upon us that even he was led in a
strange path by an Omnipotent hand, the bringing about his purpose
which was the destruction of slavery, but where am I at? But I must
say that I am willing to advertise the debauchery of army life and my
own shame to show up the real horrors of war, but I cannot discuss
the question of the divinity of slavery from the Bible standpoint,
further, a great deal of that book is crowded with mysteries to me
and I find life too short to try to explain them away. I became very
much interested in that wounded boy and my brother for I visited him
every day for quite a while, and bought  every day we went to see him

some delicacies  that the hospital did not furnish. But one day he
seemed very much depressed, I think now the wind must have been from
the East, for I, to, was considerably off. I had not been with him
but a short time until he drew a long breath and said he "was getting
very tired of being confined there especially as his country needed
his services so badly that he did wish he could get well and be
exchanged so he could get back to his post of duty." It made me mad
and I told him that he was not any more anxious to get back into the
rebel army than I was for him to do so, for I had become thoroughly
convinced that we had to kill every d---d  one like him before the
war would end and we could get back home in God's country, and the
sooner we could get at it the better. He made no reply, and I left
him and never saw him afterwards. I feel now that I did wrong in
making such a reply, and would gladly ask his pardon if I could see
him. He was only a boy 16 or 17 years of age, was wounded and
captured. I was on top and had no right to heap coals on his head; he
had enough to endure, but I still think he made a bad bed under all
the circumstances, but is was only the natural longing of a boy that
was brave and true to his section of the country.
   Brave boys were they and yet we cannot forget that many of these
brave boys did fall, felt that secession and slavery would follow
after them.
   I made no secret of the fact, not even to Henry McMillen, our
colonel's brother, that was in our company, that I was doing all I
could to get some officers in our regiment to file charges and
specifications against our colonel, but all expressed a willingness
to follow but none were willing to lead. Some endured his high-handed
debauchery as long as they could, and rather than file the charges,
and not willing to soldier under such a man, resigned and went home,
among them were Charles More, a lieutenant in Co. B, and Capt. Rose
of Co. C, Both of these men were good warm friends of mine. Capt.
Rose had been one from my early infancy, and as he was a No 1 good
lawyer, before he left he said that if I had filed the charges he
would have staid and volunteered his services, but I thought the
charges have more weight if filed by an officer, as the military
court would be made up of the soldier straps gentry alone, who as a
rule measured the man solely by the rank he filled, and a
private--well, to say the least of them, they were only "d---d
privates to do our bidding, sir."
   I consulted Capt. Rose before he left as to my filing these
charges, and he said: "Vint, I know of no law that bars you from
doing so if you wish, and the relationship is now such between you
and him that I do not think you can make it any worse, and he is sure
to seize any opportunity to punish you he can get, and as a soldier I
would rather attack than be attacked, but be very careful, Vint, and
make no charges you cannot sustain, for you know the position he
occupies gives him a great advantage over you; that I never heard of
a private soldier filing charges against his colonel, but the law
gives any soldier that right."

   I thanked the Captain for his advice and prepared and filed  (sent
it to the mail to the proper officer) the following charges and
specifications:
           CHARGES
   Conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman; and prejudicial to
the fair name of an American soldier.
      SPECIFICATIONS
   1st. In this that James W. McMillen, a colonel of the 21st Ind.
Vol. Inf.., did on or about the ---day of --- 1862, in the city of
New Orleans and State of Louisiana, whilst he was drunk and whilst
playing a game of poker for money with an officer of said regiment
and an officer of the day at said time strike, curse and beat said
officer
   2nd  That the said James W. McMillen did on or about ---1862,
whilst he was drunk kick and curse one--- a private soldier in Co.---
in said regiment.
   3rd. That the said James W. McMillen, whilst drunk did gamble at a
game of cards called "draw poker" on or about --- ---, with a private
soldier in the presence of a large number of officers and men in said
regiment.
   4th.  That the said James W.  McMillen did on or about --- ---, at
Brashear City, in the State of Louisiana, curse and accuse one Wm. H.
H. Anderson, a private soldier in Co. B, in said  regiment, of being
guilty of an act -- not a crime--- which was denied by the said
Anderson and without any proof as to the act charged, demand and
receive the sum of thirty dollars in lawful money and keep and
appropriate said thirty dollars to his own use. That the said James
W. McMillen did to secure the said money, notwithstanding that said
Anderson did deny the said trumped-up charge and there was no proof
of said alleged charge, and to secure the said money from the said
Anderson the said Col. Jas.  McMillen threatened to send the said
Anderson in irons to the Parish Prison at New Orleans, and keep him
there the remainder of his time of enlistment if he did not give to
him the said thirty dollars.
   5th. That on or about the --- ---, at Brashear City, in the State
of Louisiana, the said James W. McMillen did curse one Thomas Baker,
a private soldier in Co. B, of the said 21st. Ind. Vol. Inf.., and
demand of him thirty dollars for an alleged crime that the said Baker
was not guilty of, and there was no proof that he was guilty, and
under a threat to send him to the Parish Prison at New Orleans if he
did not pay him thirty dollars, and did take, keep and appropriate
ten dollars of said Baker's money without any legal right.
   6th That the said Colonel James W. McMillen did while he was
drunk, strike, kick and curse an old woman in the presence of a large
number of enlisted men of the 21st Ind. Vol. Inf. at the same time
yelling at her in his way.
   "Catfish you fried in grease, enough to kill a mule," (this ,
catfish you fried in grease, enough to kill a mule," was frequently
hollowed at him by the privates and it would always bring him to a
white heat but he never dared to have any of the boys arrested for
it.)
   7th That the said James W. McMillen did gamble at a game of
chuck-a-luck with two privates of Co. B. of the 21ist Ind. Vol. Inf.
on or about ---1862. in the presence of a large number of the

officers and men of said regiment.
   I consulted and placed as witnesses 125 men in  our regiment all
of whom had been eye witnesses to some or all of the charges filed. I
received notice from Headquarters that my charge and specifications
had been received, and placed on file and when the military court
convened that I would be duly notified and that I in the mean-time
could look up all the evidence I could or wished to present. Just
what became of these charges and specifications will be told in
another chapter.
   When Captain Rose resigned, he came to my brother and I to bid us
good bye and said "boys I do wish you both held commissions and could
resign and go home with me so as to be away from Colonel McMillen."
Said "he had endured him just as long as he could and he was afraid
we would get into deep trouble with him, before we get from under
him." I then told him that my mind was fully made up to try to get
him dismissed from the service, that I had no shoulder-straps to lose
and would just as leave be in hell as soldier under him, so I had no
fears as to worsening my condition, Captain Rose was not only an
attorney but he was a M.E, preacher and was a credit to the bar and
to the church, was a good kind man, and loved and respected by all
whose love and respect was worth having, but he has some time since
gone to his reward; his rest is sweet and his memory dear, rest
Captain rest.
Signed Vint Anderson

(next issue)

   Soon after the incident recorded in my last chapter, I was
attacked with chronic Diarrhea in its worst form and became very
weak. I staid in my tent for several days and foolishly lost one of
the richest treats we had during our term of service. It was in this
way:
Bank's commissaries, or the sutlers rather, of his army had a great
part of their stores side-tracked, at Brashear City. Nothing was
forwarded but what was absolutely needed. There were very few
soldiers left there to guard the goods side-tracked, and when we got
back there we found them of that good easy kind that could enjoy
"officers
provisions" as well as we could. Our boys after being told by these
guards that "mice had been smelled" in some of the cars that were
side-tracked, got some crowbars and "just went for those mice" They
pried open a number of those car doors, and got a very strong object
lesson on the deceitfulness of man. Barrels, boxes and kegs were
found marked pickles and such, but when opened they were found to
contain all kinds of liquors and wine. It was mostly in bottles. They
got large quantities of it and brought it to our tents. The same saw
dust pile we had formerly used to hide Confederate money in was used
very extensively to hide these goods in.
   There was an order from Gen. Banks forbidding the transportation
of such, but the sutlers knowing what a great demand there would be
for "eye openers" of such mornings, and smuggled in this way large
quantities through that far but could get it no further. they were in
a vary bad fix to kick and our boys did not care if they did, so they
got what they wanted of it. I was offered of the best  of it as my
mess mates were in it up to their eyes, but refused to touch it,

thinking it would excite my disease and make it worse, but what a
time the rest of the boys did have, I will leave the reader to
imagine. They did not confine themselves to the liquors but eagerly
went for canned goods of all kinds and sutlers stores in general.
They left large quantities of it that they were unable to take
away--left it in our famous sawdust pile. There was no use to try to
hide it from any of our boys, for there was an abundance  for all. We
had no conscientious scruples in skinning a sutler and they had none
in skinning us. This was evidently our time to skin them. The
privates of our regiment never lived higher whilst we were in the
service than we did then, but I was afraid to drink or eat any of it
as I said before. When General Banks and his command got back to
Brashier City after some delay we were ordered to Port Hudson via New
Orleans and when we got to the city I was left  at the St. James
Hospital. This had formerly been the St. James Hotel, but General
Butler for some cause which has slipped my memory had seized and made
a hospital of it. . This was my first experience in being left behind
when there was an expedition taken by the regiment and I had not
missed a guard mount when it was my time up to the time of my taking
the chronic diarrhea. It was particularly annoying to me as my
brother and I had not been separated at any distance since we went
into the army and knowing there would be a long contested battle, I
knew the tortures of suspense as to what would be the fate of my
brother and other comrades that had become almost as dear to me as a
brother. I found the hospital very clean and orderly, and presided
over by Dr. Avery whose kind face could almost make a death bed
sweet.  The hospital nurses were exceptionally good and kind, some of
them were soldiers who had been sent there for repairs and when they
became convalescent they had been retained as nurses. One of this
class was a young man that was detailed in the section of the ward I
was in and he particularly attracted my attention.  He looked very
familiar to me, so I asked him one day where we had met before I came
there and he said: "I have no recollection of ever seeing you
before," but I was sure I had seen him and told him so, and when he
told me he belonged to the 75th New York, it confused me the more as
our regiment and theirs had never been camped together and I had no
acquaintance in that state that I could not readily recognize. We
spoke of this matter several times and I would always insist that I
had met him some place. One day when we were talking about this he
said, "maybe this will explain this matter," and he opened his shirt
and showed me where he had been shot in the breast by an ounce ball,
it going through him above the heart and coming out at the side of
his backbone; as soon as I saw the scar, I said you got that up the
tash above Brashear City and he said, "yes our company were sent as
advances guards and your regiment followed close behind. When I was
shot I was carried back to your regiment with several that had been
killed  and they dug all our graves and buried the dead, and after

waiting all day for me to die, so they could bury me, they sent me
back here. I heard all of you say, "He can't live long, he will soon
die."  I knew it was a lie and so here I am and have been trying to
get back to my regiment, but the doctors say "Not yet; we will let
you go bye and bye." But "bye and bye" never comes, but if it does
not do so soon I am going to kick out of the traces. The doctors know
I like to wait on you boys that are not able to help
yourselves, and I believe that is why they keep me here, but much as
I like to  do so I did not volunteer to stay in a hospital and I
won't stand it much longer." He had been wounded several months
before. This bright and cheerful boy was shot early one morning and
was laid under a tree close to our company and  staid there all day.
I saw him several times and his countenance was indelibly imprinted
on my memory. This is why I was so sure I had met him some place
before I went to the hospital and he had no recollection of ever
seeing me. I might have been able to place where I had seen him had I
not been so sure the boy would die.  The truth was he was such an
excellent nurse the doctors did not want to lose him. There was
another class, but I did not meet them at that hospital, that grunted
to get this soft place as they considered it. That was as worthless
as nurses as they were as soldiers.  Our boys in the field looked on
hospital nurses as being next to the deserters if their disabilities
to do field duty were not known. There were plenty of men after they
found out what was would hunt for such safe retreats as I have said
before. Dr. Avery when I first went to the hospital gave me ten
ounces of whiskey for a day's rations. I told him one day what a lot
the boys had captured from the sutlers at Brashear City and that I
was afraid to touch it. Oh, how my mouth watered "for the flesh pots
of Egypt" when I thought of what I had missed after he told me that
it would not have hurt me and I actually needed it.
   We lost more men by chronic diarrhea than by all other diseases,
especially in a hot climate, and there the doctors can do but very
little towards controlling it. Great knots will form on the bowels:
they will discharge ulcerated matter and go to eating into the bowels
until they eat great holes into them, when the patient is bound to
die. There is no great pain attached to it. A person will gradually
but rapidly ---- ---- ---- die as easily apparently  as they could go
to sleep. When I first took it, I was strong and vigorous and when I
left the hospital after a three or four weeks stay, I was only a
wreck of my former self without vitality enough to stand on my own
but a moment without assistance.
   When the siege at Port Hudson began every day or two our hospitals
would have recruits from there, of boys that  would get  wounded.
None from our company came, but one day they brought in a young
Irishman that had been struck in the eye and the ball had passed
under the brain and gone out at the back of his head. Though
fearfully wounded he was full of life and would swear that he was not
going to die and as he was placed close to me, we talked together

frequently. The morning I left for home he was sitting up on the side
of his cot and the nurses were dressing his wound by pushing lint
through his head. It was an ounce ball that he had been struck with.
I said to him, good bye Pat, and he answered "Luck to ye, you will
get well now that you are going to God's country. I will be going
there by and by," they can't kill me, if they do stuff lint clear
through my head". Some men would die with very slight wounds whilst
it looked like others were not born to be killed and this boy was one
of the latter. When a soldier made up his mind that he would not die,
they did not, but if they believed they would die all they had to do
was to stick to that belief and they always got there.

SISTERS OF CHARITY

   I was raised to have a prejudice against the Catholic Church, and
had read, "Danger in the Dark" and other works that have been
published to poison the mind against them and being raised on a farm
where I seldom saw a catholic and knew nothing of the great work the
Sisters of Charity are doing, I was of the opinion that there was  no
good in them, but let a person get away from home and acquaintances
and on a sick bed and their opinion will change about the catholic,
especially about the Sisters of Charity. At least my short stay at
the hospital in New Orleans caused a complete reevaluation about
them. Others may make louder professions, but it is my opinion now
that there is no sect or creed doing more religion than the "Sisters
of Charity" in the Catholic church. It is never to cold or wet for
them to administer to the sick and poor that are in need. No night is
too dark for them to go to the above classes and help them.
   The hospitals at New Orleans were hourly visited by large numbers
of these Sisters of Charity, and how quietly they went around doing
their errands of love among the dying and the dead.
   One sweet girl in particular called forth my strongest sympathies
for her. I say sympathies for I do not believe a just and a good God
requires the sacrifice these nuns make for others.  There was a young
Catholic that was on a cot close to mine who died there: this sweet
girl stayed by him the most of the time for several days before he
died, and her kind face seemed to be  a feast for him. I often looked
into her sad and sweet face and wondered if it was really right for
her to deny herself of all of woman's best joys in this life, such as
being a wife and mother, for others. If they are right, I am wrong,
for I cannot believe that such sacrifices are required, and yet we
cannot deny that such makes the world better, and we believe that the
man that can look into the eyes of these sad, sweet girls without
falling in love with them ought to die, he has lived too long
already. This will hold good with other good pure women let them be
old or young, however, the little woman that has been sleeping on my
arm for twenty-five years (and she ought to know) told me that she
believed she could put a calico dress and a sun bonnet on a fence
rail and call it a woman and I would fall in love with it, and I told
her if they were hers I knew I would; and the cloud passed over.

   One day a man was brought in my ward from the siege at Port
Hudson, having been wounded there, with very sad news for me, by the
careless thumbing of one of our gunners he had allowed the fire to
stay in the gun. A wet swab is used to swab them out after each
discharge. The gunner is provided with a leather thumb-stall. This is
to be pressed down over the touch hole hard so as to prevent any air
passing out at the touch hole. when the wet swab is run down the guns
after a discharge is put out, but if air is allowed to pass out at
this touch hole, it only fans the fire and when the powder is rammed
down it makes a premature explosion. This gunner was thinking more of
his own valuable self than his two comrades at the muzzle of the gun
and neglected to thumb the gun properly. The consequence was it
exploded while the powder was being rammed down and one of our boys
was killed and another had both eyes put out and is compelled to go
through this beautiful world in darkness. These comrades were both
good, dear friends of mine, and when I heard of their death and
injury I could not refrain from crying. This is an odd dose for a
soldier, but I could not help but take it.
   The next day after this sad occurrence, to my great surprise, my
brother came in where I was. It gave me quite a shock when I first
saw him. I was sure he, too, was wounded, but he came up to me
smiling, and I asked what was the matter. He said the old colonel
came to him the evening before and said he had a pass for me to go to
New Orleans, that he had been told that the doctor at the hospital
had said that :" Vint was in a very critical condition", that my
disease had reached a stage that he could not  get any control over
it, and the prospect was that I would not live many days. The old
hypocrite was very solicitous about me. He told my brother when  a
boat would go down to the city and said "You come to my headquarters
in plenty of time and I will go down and tell the captain of the boat
to take you down and bring you back when you wish to come." My
brother said it did not look just right for him to leave in time of
engagement but the colonel insisted, saying he had plenty of men to
man his guns and it was his duty to go to his brother.  So he called
at the appointed hour, and my brother said when they got down to the
boat the old colonel said very feeling, "Billy, if you or the doctor
thinks a change of the climate best for Vint, you stay with him until
you can get him off home and I will see that you are not molested
until you can get back." I asked my brother if he had told him that
he had received the same kind of notice from headquarters that I had,
that a military court would soon be convened to try him on the
charges and specifications I had filed against him. Billie answered,
"No, but you can bet your bottom dollar that that is what is hurting
the old cuss".
   The hospital  I was ---- ---- ---
the ward was in --- --- --- visited almost daily --- couple of Irish
ladies who were very bright and witty and my brother soon got up a
flirtation with them. They were very ardent Catholics. They
frequently came to me and I enjoyed their Irish wit as well as I

could under the circumstances. One day I said to Dr. Avery, Dr. you
are giving me whiskey enough to keep me drunk all the time. If I was
at myself but I do not feel the effects of it more than to make me
sweat after taking a large dose of it.  I asked him how that  was
and he said, "in the fix your system is in I doubt whether you could
drink enough stimulants to get under the influence of it very much."
I asked him if it would hurt me to try and be answered, "not in the
least". So the next morning when my nurse left me my 10 ounces of
whiskey, I told my brother to go get me a quart of French brandy as
strong as lye if he could find it. He brought it to me and I went at
it with a determination to get drunk if I could. I would take a
tumbler half full of that strong stuff at a time and feel no effect
of it more than it would make me sweat profusely. During the day our
Irish ladies called on us, and my brother told them the amount I had
drank and said, "my brother could not get out to have a spree so he
has concluded to have one here: I expect we will have a time with him
after a while; ladies won't you stay and help me hold an Irish wake
over him? Show me how it is done. I was never at a wake, one of them
said:
   " Sure and it is a wake you want to be at is it?" He told her he
had always wanted to attend a wake, that he had frequently heard of
them but it never was his good fortune to be at one. Then both ladies
joined with  a hearty invitation  for him to go with  them that night
to a wake, and said if he would go with them they would take him to a
real live Irish wake, and they knew he would be welcomed. He said he
could not  leave me but they insisted that he could not have any fun
there, and an outing would do him good." I went to begging him to go
and finally he consented, and they said they would call for him in
their carriage that evening. When they left he said: "Vint, I am
going to get as drunk as hell if the rest does tonight, but if the
women do not, I will keep still." I cautioned him to go slow and
watch which way the cat jumped, that I wanted him not to get so full
but what he could tell me all about it.
   True to their promise, one of them came to us that evening and
said their carriage was waiting for them and away they went. He got
back to the hospital next morning and made this report:
   "Vint, I have had a hell of a night of it. The driver took us to a
very fine house and the ladies told him to call for them about 8
o'clock next morning. I thought then they were expecting a time of
it. One of the ladies was married, the other a relative and widow,
neither more than twenty-five years of age and they were both as full
of fun as an egg is of meat. They were all three cordially welcomed
aboard when they went in the house. He said eveything looked neat and
orderly and indicated wealth and refinement. The corpse was a
beautiful, little girl of nine or ten years of age and had been
placed in a fine coffin in a large drawing room, with a profusion of
the most costly flowers on and around the coffin. They first
---taking ------------ went in and

looked at the deceased and my brother said: "When I looked around and
was introduced to the well-dressed ladies I thought my chance for a
time there was slim and that I was brought there ostensibly to attend
an Irish wake when, in fact I was thrown in the society of the very
elite of the city, and I would have to be on my P's and Q's if I
showed up respectable." He was introduced to all and finally the host
started the ball to rolling by bringing around a large tray with wine
of different kinds for the ladies.  He said he noticed there were no
men in the room where he was, and the host had passed to all the
ladies and each had drank heavily of the kind of wine she preferred
and as my brother was offered none he began to feel that he was not
welcome and he said to the host: "How is this? I fear  there has been
a mistake somewhere." and the host asked why? He said I was told I
would be welcome here, but I have not been invited to drink. The very
best thing that was then dearest to his heart. The man of the house
said, "You are wrong; any one,  my friends bring to my house are
always welcome, and that he thought you understood that I had
something better for the men. Come with me," and he took him back
into a side room where a few men were, and going to a sideboard he
opened it and said, "Gentlemen, here is most any kind of liquor you
may want: all of you help yourselves whenever you feel like it." He
asked my brother what he would have, and he said, "Peach and honey,"
which meant to the initiated peach brandy sweetened with honey, a
very common drink at  that time in New Orleans. The host waited on
all of them  and said, "Gentleman, here is a man, though a Yankee,
after my own heart, and let us all drink to his health," Which they
all did. This drinking to each other's health was repeated in quick
intervals until most of the men were in a perfect state of
forgetfulness as to the sad loss sustained by the kind host. Wine, if
my memory serves me right, is not as quick in its effects, but is
more lasting when it gets there. Then the men had filled up to their
necks and were spread out over the house in every conceivable manner.
The women were only in a high state of hilarity. My brother went
there to see the fun and knowing his weakness he had gauged himself
accordingly. So he had only keyed himself to a point that he would
say most anything and still watch which way the cat jumped. So after
the men had thus gone to rest and were only dreaming of the loss
sustained by their kind host, he went into where the ladies were and
went to drinking wine with them and when they called on him for some
of his "bloody experience" as a soldier he said: " I am a very poor
soldier and have nothing in that line that would be interesting to
you, but I am here to say that I am a number one wrestler and could
throw down a whole brigade of women. At this they all made a dash for
him and soon had him stretched on the floor with a dozen or more
sitting down on and about him. They made so much noise that the
police came in, and seeing the fix they were in they  threatened to
arrest the whole posse if they did not keep quiet.  They let my

brother up and pressed something on the police to drink. The police
made several calls during the night not so much as my brother said to
quiet the disturbance, as to get a nip of their favorite drinks, but
they would always say when leaving, the very next time we have to
come in here we will arrest everyone of you for disturbing the peace.
   After the police the first time, the women began to "guy" my
brother about saying he could throw down a whole brigade of women and
they said, " There was not a woman in the house but what could throw
him down," to get out of it he said he was placed in such a fix he
could not take the hold he had learned when a boy and that was the
cause of his downfall. They all asked him at once ," what holts do
you want?  He told them leg holds. At this they all made another raid
against him, shouting and laughing and hollowing,  and it is leg
holts you want is it?"  You can do nothing, and  soon had him
stretched out again on the floor as they did before. He said they
came near several times in their scuffles to upsetting the table
that held the child in its coffin. In this way they spent the night.
The next morning, when the coachman called for them he went to hunt
the old man of the house to thank him for his entertainment and to
sympathize with him in his sad loss of his sweet little girl. He said
he looked down stairs but could not find him there, so he went
upstairs and looked in several of the rooms but could not find him.
Then one of the servants told him he was out on the portico to look
there; he found him there lying on his back, the sun beaming down on
him and the mosquitoes had evidently been biting him on the face, he
had pulled out his shirt tail leaving his belly and stomach perfectly
bare  and they were covered with this ravenous insects that had been
biting his face. They had raised great knots on his belly and was
swarming over him, but he was past fighting them off. He said he
tried to arouse him with no better results than the mosquitoes had
had. These good people do their mourning after they take their drunk,
others do the same but not over the corpse of their friends; I
suppose it is only a matter of tastes of previous training. This was
my brothers report of an Irish wake in New Orleans in 1863. Who can
conceive of a more ridiculous thing over a corpse? One who knows
nothing about these people would think that my brother was with the
low and vicious, but he was with a class of women that are just as
virtuous and true to their marriage vows  as any woman on the face of
the earth, except perhaps the Jews.
   The honorable Jessie H. Reno of Owen County, Indiana, told me
this: "My parents are Irish, my mother used to tell me this: two of
our neighbor women had a falling out, soon after this there was a
wake at one of their houses and the other one watched a neighbor
going to the wake and knowing what a good time she was missing she
drew a long deep sigh and said: " Well we will have a wake at our
house some of these times, and I will not invite one of them."  How
sweet revenge is, I have no patience with anyone that can love an
enemy. I was not born that way and am glad of it. My love is all for

my family.
Vint Anderson, Quincy, Indiana

(Next issue)

    A few days after the Irish wake recorded in a previous chapter,
Dr. Avery, a man whom I had become very much attached to came to my
cot and said he thought it best for me to have a change of climate as
there was a very poor chance for me to ever be able to do duty as a
soldier: he thought I had better be discharged and go to my northern
home. I told him for several reasons I could not think of doing so.
The first and greatest was leaving my brother and other comrades who
had became almost as close to me as a brother, and there was another
very great reason why I could not take a discharge. I then told him
about filing charges against our Colonel and the nature of the
specifications. That I had received word from army headquarters that
the charges and specification had been received and filed and a
military court would soon be convened and for me to get ready with my
witness, etc. Dr. Avery said "My dear boy as much as I would like to
see you have your Colonel dishonorably discharged, for I believe
every word  you say about him,  but, it is my duty to tell you that
you do not have the least shadow of a chance to be able in this
climate to prosecute your case in the condition you are in. I have
done all I can for you and have not checked your disease in the
least. Don't you hear the band now playing the death march, and cnn't
you hear them every morning?  That band heads a procession of your
comrades the most of whom are of your disease of from eight to twenty
every morning since the severe hot weather set in.  The sea breezes
and a northern climate may help you by using proper care in the way
of keeping quiet and dieting yourself, but if you stay here, I nor no
one else can cure you."
My brother urged me to take the discharge and go home; said "The Dr.
ought to know best, that for me to get well and we could see old Col.
McMillen later. I consented. My brother said he had found a young man
that was out of money and had agreed to take care of me until we got
to New York City if he would pay his passage there. Dr. Avery told
him to have my nurset  there next morning by nine o'clock as he
wanted to give him some special instruction about how to care for me,
that he would have my discharge prepared and everything ready to take
a steamer next evening that would leave for New York City at five
o'clock. All was arranged as per the program marked out by the
doctor. The nurse came and I seen at once he could do to trust. My
discharge was brought to me next day and I bade adieu to my kind
nurses, Dr. Avery and a few acquaintances that called to see me off.
I was carried and hauled  to the steamer and was made as comfortable
as could be.  The doctor had told my nurse to help me every morning
and evening I was able to the end of the boat, so I would be rocked
by the waves as much as possible. I asked him what that was for and
he said, "So you will get seasick." I told him I must have a terrible
disease if it required such a remedy as that. He said, "You get sea
sick if you possibly can, it is the very best medicine that can be
given you." My brother, after helping me on the boat and seeing I was

fixed as comfortable as I could be, made some excuse to get away from
me. I saw his lips quiver as he stepped away. I thought he would come
back and bid me good-bye, but he did not return and it was just as
well, for we were neither of us loaded for such a signal by the
engineer for all to get aboard. The gang plank was pulled in and that
great ship's engines began their trip from New Orleans to New York
City.
   I found my nurse exceptionally kind and attentive, and when I
would thank him for his kindness he would say, "Don't thank  me it is
my place to thank you, that if he had not been broke and was ashamed
to write home for money, he would not have taken one cent and would
have gladly done for me all he could."
   He would help me out on a chair at the end of the boat mornings
and evenings and I would stay there as long as possible courting that
dreadful sea sickness, but with all my efforts I could not bring it
on. I thought if I could only get a small dose of what I had once at
Cape Hatteras I would be satisfied, but Dr. Avery's prescription
could not be taken.
   One evening after I had been placed in my accustomed place I saw
some parties bringing a corpse out toward me. A little girl eight or
ten years of age had died the day before and they were bringing her
out to bury her at sea. They placed her on a long wide plank that
ships always carry for such purposes, and after some one had offered
up a prayer, they having already placed the necessary weights at her
feet, they pushed the child's lifeless body out over the gunwale of
the ship, they raised the plank and dropped the child down into the
ocean. I heard the chug as it struck the water. The mother of the
child was standing close by me, with not a tear in her eyes, and as I
looked in that sad face I thought I had never seen depicted such
misery on the countenance of anyone. The mother was young and
beautiful. I thought, oh, what relief tears would be to her and how
many sad hearts have been kept from breaking by them. They are the
great source through which grief trickles from the soul--blessed
tears flow on.
   The sailors have a belief that a shark can tell when a ship has a
dead person on it. This is in keeping, as I always thought, with
their many superstitious beliefs they have. They will all tell you
that a shark can tell when a ship has a dead person on it and will
follow it until the dead person is thrown overboard and then they
will follow no longer. This was true in this case, but it does not
look reasonable that they would be given such instinct.
   Soon after I got into my chair at the end of the ship after the
death of the child a shark jumped up out of the water close to the
ship and the sailors gave the passengers notice that it would
continue to do so until the child was thrown or dropped overboard. I
sent my nurse for my pistol and was joined by most of the male
passengers and some of the ladies in a watch for him. The hideous
monster would frequently jump up out of the water close to the ship
and we would all fire at it. Sometimes when it would jump, it would
look to be miles away, but frequently it would show almost its entire

body close the the ship. This mother had been told that this sea
monster would follow us no longer after her child was buried at sea.
I thought no wonder her eyes and grief was past tears when she
thought of her dead child and the fate its lifeless body was about to
receive. When we got to the wharf at New York City, that to be known
had to be seen, I saw that surging mass of humanity and wondered if I
would ever get through it if not for the arrangement with my nurse to
take me to a hotel before he left me. But as soon  as we stepped on
the wharf a very kind gentleman stepped up to me and asked if I had
been a soldier. I told him a very poor one; was discharged and was on
my way home.   He said, "I am here to look after just such as you and
have conveyance waiting for us, and it does not cost you one cent." I
told him  I had money to pay my way and I thought he had better look
after those less fortunate, but he insisted and said I need just such
help as they were prepared to give me. I told him that I had a very
kind and attentive nurse that had been with me since I left New
Orleans, and would see me to a hotel and I could go along then, but
like Ruth he kept entreating me not to leave him. He said: "You come
with me and see what a nice, quiet, clean place we have for you. I
know that it is a better place for a man in your fix than any hotel
in the city; you go and see for yourself and then if you would rather
be at a hotel, I will take you any place you may want to go." So I
bade my nurse goodbye and he stepped out in that throng of humanity
to be lost until the final roll call. He gave me his card and I was
to write, or have some one write, when I got home, but I lost the
card, and could not remember his street or number and now his name is
faded from my memory; only his kindness to me has stuck.
   My new found friend ordered my trunk sent to the home, and after
helping me into his carriage he drove very slowly to the home; which
was only a few blocks from the landing. I was his only passenger.
When we got in the home I saw at once that I had made no mistake in
going there, they had a lot of trained nurses, whose whole soul
seemed to be wrapped up in their calling. The beds were clean and
looked very inviting. I was shown one and advised to lie down and
take a nap, which I did. My new found friend said: "Here are bath
rooms, and anything you may want to eat or drink, don't hesitate to
call for it. I told him that Dr. Avery, who had been doctoring me,
had prescribed soft boiled eggs, milk, crackers and whiskey--mostly
whiskey. I told him before I  would lie down I would take a dose of
that, and I gave the young lady nurse the key to my trunk and told
her to please bring me a large dose of it. She handed the key back
and said there was plenty there in the home and she hastened after
it, brought me a large glass more than half full and I drank it all.
I saw her eyes twinkle and I knew she thought she had caught a
tartar, and I told her not to be uneasy, that I was in such a fix
whiskey had very little effect on me. I laid down in one of their
nice clean beds and was soon in

dreamland. The home seemed to be rocking like a ship on the ocean
waves, I could then account for the swaggering gait a sailor always
has on land and why people say, "He staggers like an old salt." After
my nap my good Samaritan came to my bed and taking a seat close to me
told me all about the home he had brought me to; he said a few in the
city had seen the necessity of such a rest for discharged soldiers
like myself that were not able to go on home and had chipped in  and
rented and ---- ----with -----------everything--- turn in looking
------ ----- -----time and  that day was ----
--- then they watched the steamer--- ----- ----- ----- South.
When he got through I told him I wanted to buy some clothes that
evening and he said, " I had better rest for a day or two at least, "
but I told him I must get ready to start home the next day, when he
said, under other circumstances he would not consent, " he was as
kind to me as a father", but says he, " it may be best, for we are
just on the eve of one of the worst riots that has ever been in the
city on account of the draft and we are hourly looking for the storm
to be on us and it is hard to tell what the results will be. Our home
may be looted and there is evidently going to be blood shed but we
are ready and thousands of them who are refusing to go to the war
after being drafted will bite the dust but it will be a desperate
effort as the rioters were being urged on by the leaders of the
Democratic party." He felt like a crisis was at hand that would
determine almost the result of the war and that the authorities at
Washington city looked on it as a very serious matter and had made
preparations to meet the emergency. He took me to a clothing house
that evening, close by, said the proprietors were good Union men and
would treat me right and contrary to their rules they allowed me a
percent off. I told them I did not ask it of them but they insisted
on doing so. I bought me a Prince Albert coat, white satin vest,  and
a pair of black cloth pants and some shirts. My friend then drove me
to a shoe store where I bought me a pair of shoes, he then took me to
a barber shop where I got a shave and a hair cut. After we got back
to the home I got all the soldier clothes I had with me and went to
the bath room, and after being helped to take a bath I piled all my
soldier clothes up in the corner of the bath room and said to them
what the Quaker did to his Quaker clothes when he donned his suit of
blue viz: "You lie there until this d---d war is over" or, I said
until I get able to do duty as a soldier. When I stepped out of the
bathroom I was met by my good Samaritan, who noticing my new rig ( I
had on a white neck tie, I always thought they looked most saintly)
he said to me, "Brother Anderson, you look more like a preacher than
a private soldier." I told him that if so I surely deceived my looks,
for if I had been cut out for one my life as a private had played
hell with the pattern, that I was as far from that calling as a man
could get. He advised me to go to bed and stay there until he called
for me next morning to take me to my train for home. The word home

had never sounded sweeter to me and I tried to sing:
  ":What is home without a mother, What are all the joys we meet,
etc."

   But that home was a friendly oasis that has stuck very close in
our memory. My new found friend said, " I will get your ticket and
get you to your train tomorrow morning in good time. I told him I
thought he was only there one day at a time, and he said, "Yes, but I
will be after you in the morning". I offered him my pocket book and
told him to take out enough money to pay for my ticket, but he said
"No, I do not know what it will cost, you can pay me tomorrow. Next
morning when he helped me into his carriage he said. "I have started
with you before with time so I could show you some of the holes where
those who are contemplating a riot are congregating; I do not look
for them to break loose today." So he drove me past some saloons
where some hideous looking men were congregated and said, "These low
down saloons is where the copper heads stay." he said, as we passed
some of them and heard their loud oaths. "they are about ready but so
are we and there will not be so many of them when we get through with
them." He helped me in the train and when he went to leave me I tried
to thank him, but there was a lump in my throat and I could not
speak. He held my hand for a while and then handed me his card and
said "be sure and let me know how you stood the trip home." I could
only nod my head and the train pulled out of that metropolis the day
before the great draft riot of New York City that has gone into
history. I must have slept the most of the way home for I cannot call
to mind a single incident after I bade my friend goodbye on the train
at New York City until I arrived at Gosport within five miles of
home, and worst of all I lost that Samaritan's card and could not
remember his address, but he has been lost only in name for I
remember him still as one of the kindest strangers I have ever met
and often think of that warm generous man. The world though is full
of noble souls and New York City had and I hope, still has one of the
very best, who was my friend in need. "God be with us, till we meet
again."
Signed Vint Anderson, Quincy, Indiana

(next issue)

   During my stay in the honorable major's sleeping room, I noticed
two very bright mulatto children. After watching them a while I
remarked that they were very bright. The major spoke up very quickly
and said:
   "Yes, they are bright if they are mine by this woman," turning  to
the black woman  who had brought me up there. "I gave two thousand
dollars thirteen years ago for this woman: she was but thirteen years
old. I bought her to keep in the house with me.
   I thought what wretches the Abolitionists were---regular nigger
lovers to want them to be free and have the right to life, liberty
and the pursuits of happiness and to have the right to have the
product of their own labor, and to protect their own persons, which
is the first law of nature.
   The South believed they were a despised race, cursed by God from
the day old Noah got drunk and kicked the clothes all off himself and
because Ham did not cover up his nakedness. When he aroused from his

dead drunk and found out that Ham had only told his two brothers of
the nakedness of their father, this "man of God" cursed his boy and
God stepped in and gave him power not only to curse Ham and make him
a slave for his brothers, but God helped Noah make Ham and his
posterity slaves forever. This is one of the beautiful stories  the
ancient monks put down in the old Bible and the South believed it to
be the word of God!
   We pause to ask how  long, oh, how long will all such stuff be
allowed to remain in the Bible and be claimed by intelligent persons
as God's word?
   We are also told that God was grieved that he made man. What a
being to worship!  One who knows all things; what is to be as well as
what has been, and brings us into this world without our knowledge or
consent, and then grieves in his heart that he ever made man!
   We have got away  from the subject, but before we drop it we must
say God is love and love is God.  May we have another revision of the
grand old Bible with all such stuff---
(eight lines obscured)
in all amount of colored blood --- in their veins. All this was
sanctioned by the people of the South. They allowed their own
children to be raised by their slaves. After their death these
children were allowed to be put on the auction block and sold to the
highest bidder, for all were  subject to be thus sold if they had the
least trace of colored blood in their veins.
   The mothers of the South, many of them made wet nurses of their
slaves, giving them exclusive control of their offspring,---- I have
seen children run to their Negro nurses to be caressed with the
mother was standing near by.
   Many women of the south were raised in idleness on account of the
institution of slavery. They took no care of their own children and
spent their time in flirting with men who were only the butterflies
of the nation, who toiled not neither did they spin.
   Is it any wonder that the God of nations drenched this land with
blood to wipe out such iniquity? Yet our historians tell that ," the
cause of the war was a want of intercourse between the two sections:
the railroads running east and west, instead of north and south."
They not only put up such frivolous excuses but they go on to allege
that some of the causes of the war were "sectional books filled with
ridicule and falsehood about slavery." God pity the wretch living or
dead, who attempts to give the cause of the war as anything else
except slavery.
   As we look back and contemplate the mysterious way the northern
soldiers were led by the God of nations to bring about his purpose---
the destruction of human slavery---we can but wonder what a dark and
mysterious road we were lead to bring about this end.
   The northern people were not ready even when Fort Sumter was fired
on, to go to war to destroy slavery and they had to be led to bring
about this result. How often have I heard my comrades say they did
not volunteer to free the damned niggers. They went to war to prevent
the south from withdrawing from the Union. They cannot realize the
fact that the cause of this attempt to withdraw from the Union was
slavery and the war was for the purpose of destroying slavery.

   It is true that when Abraham Lincoln said in his debate with
Stephen A. Douglass just prior to the war that a house divided
against itself must fall and that this nation could not live half
free and half slave states; that he electrified the abolitionists of
the country. They hoped and prayed until he delivered his first
inaugural address in which he said:
   "My administration will have no disposition to meddle with slavery
where it now exists!"
   Was Lincoln willing to let this nation die, half free and half
slave country as he declared it would if it remained as it was?
   The future historians will say that Lincoln was a factor in the
hands of a great God to prepare the minds of  the northern people to
accept the emancipation proclamation when it should come. But to the
text in hand. If a man had lived in open fornication with a black
woman as Major --- and thousands of others were doing in the slave
states, they would have been mobbed, but there it was no bar to keep
a man out of the best society. It was no uncommon thing in the
extreme southern states for men to pay two prices for young, plump
Negro woman to take to their homes as Maj. --- Of New Orleans did,
and raise families by them.

(next partial issue)
    When I had gathered eighty hands I reported the fact to Mr.
Alexander who invited me to go with him the next day to a steamboat
that was to take the mules his commission merchant had bought for
him, together with a lot of supplies to his plantation.  He said we
would have a good chance to see the mules as they were taken on board
and he wanted my opinion of them. After they were loaded he asked me
what I thought of them. I told him I thought they were all first
class, and asked him what he paid for them. He looked at me in
surprise, and then remarked:
   "Oh, I don't know anything about it, I haven't seen the bill!"
   The class of mules he had were then worth about three hundred
dollars each (there were thirty-two of them) and the boat was loaded
with various other plantation supplies also. And that fat old planter
had been laying around New Orleans for three or four weeks while his
plantation niggers and supplies were being gathered together, with
nothing to do but catch up with the distilleries; a ---- task that he
had been at all his life. He could tell nothing about the  ----
twelve or thirteen thousand dollars worth of supplies he had
contracted for.
   I decided at once that, much as I had been thinking about going
into partnership with his big ----, I didn't want to put in with him
on shares if that was his mode of doing business.
   I despised  a man who is always mistrusting everybody, but in a
business relationship of this kind and size it didn't hurt anybody to
know something about it as you go along.
   That, "I have not yet seen the bill" kept ringing in my ears until
it drove out my desire to become a partner of this ---- ----."
   After I collected and shipped to his plantation  the eighty head
of ---- I told Mr. Alexander that I had changed my mind about going
home with him or staying in the South. I --- the feeling among the
people --- bitter against those who had been in the Union army. The

southerners --- those carpet baggers as fair  --- of the Union
soldier, making  -- -- the good and ---- especially during the war,
but now we have to confess that we are between the devil and the deep
blue sea.
   But in spite of the fact that we are now in the hands of mugwumps,
who believe it is best to take our officers out of all parties and
then put them under the civil service law and keep them there during
their lives or while they are able to perform their work, and then
pension them the remainder of their lives. If this civil service law,
this merit system is good for one branch of our government, why not
have it operate in every branch of it?  And what then have we left
but a monarchy? God pity the wretches  who want to destroy our
republic and create a monarchy out of it this way. But I have faith
to believe that the great wave of mugwumpery that is now clouding our
republic will pass over, and I shall go on singing:
  "Not fearing or doubting,
   With the Lord on our side:
   I hope to die shouting,
   The Lord will provide."
     This great leader that so successfully led us through the dark
and bloody days of the rebellion will roll this mugwump cloud away by
and by and the sun will shine with renewed brilliancy and we will
have a government "of the people, for the people, and by the people".
   Then we can declare our principles in our state and national
platforms and have all our officers elected by the successful party.
The mugwumps who are continually crying out for the "merit system",
and thus insulting the intelligence of the American people in all
parties, will have to fold up their big ears, crawl in their holes
and cease their braying.
   The South has a different element with them now. The Northern
people have gone among them, backed by unlimited means and great
factories are springing up, phoenix like, all over the country. But
they do not seem to appreciate the development of the wonderful
country, for they are still fanning the flame of hatred of the great
Republican party, that has made it possible for them to step in the
ranks of northern progress and make their land "blossom as the rose".
They are taking their spite out by burning the colored race at the
stake. They are driving out from among them the Republican party,
their best friend, and hugging  to their bosoms the old copperheads
of the North. The longer these traitors of the North, traitors both
to the North and the South ,[prolong the great struggle between the
North and the South, the better the South seems to like them.
   The question is, "What will the harvest be?" Shall they reap what
they are sowing? Will the North or for that matter, the whole
civilized world, continue to calmly look upon these things? Have we
no one except Gov. Durbin of Indiana, to call a halt on these
---headed Southerners?
   I see in the daily papers, that the Daughters of the Confederacy
have petitioned the Legislature of Kentucky to stop the play of
"Uncle  Tom's Cabin".
   Such societies may succeed in having Gov. Taylor hung if they can
get hold of him, without one particle of proof except the bought
evidence with that one hundred thousand dollars appropriated by the

Kentucky Legislature for this express purpose, but they will never
stop the sale of  "Uncle Tom's Cabin". It has been published in more
languages than any other book with the exception of the Bible.
   Did these Daughters of the Confederacy spend more time in hunting
up the genealogy of their own family and publish to the world the
number of their half-sisters who have been bought by slave buyers
from their state and taken to the auction block such as I have
described in a former article, and help "Uncle Tom's Cabin" depict
the horrors of slavery they would be happier, live longer and die
easier.
   When we look around us and remember the crime of slavery, and that
one-fourth of the freed slaves the South fought to keep in bondage
were half-brothers and half-sisters of these Daughters of the
Confederacy, and the rest of these people of the South, we are led to
believe that Darwin was right in his theory as to the origin of man;
that we all spring from the monkey, and the Daughters of the
Confederacy have not advanced one inch from their original mothers.
They have not one drop of kindness left in their natures for  their
Half-brothers and  sisters who were slaves.

(next issue)

   It was in the spring of 1866, at New Orleans, La, while I was
collecting Mr. Alexander's hands spoken of in former chapters, that I
got a peep behind the curtain as to the feelings of the
ex-Confederate soldiers towards those who had fought on the opposite
side during the war.
   I was passing along a street not far from the St. Charles Hotel
and was edging my way through a crowd of them dressed in their gray
uniforms, when I was grabbed by one of them who was considerably
under the influences of whiskey, and pulled into a large saloon
before which they were congregated. When we got into the saloon the
inebriate yelled out to his comrades.
   "Boys, fill your glasses to the brim and drink with me to the
health of Captain ---, of the 4th Mississippi Infantry; the best
friend I ever had. Had it not been for him, at the risk of his own
life, I would not be here today to ask you to drink with me to his
health."
   At least a hundred of the ex-soldiers went to filling up their
glasses. Perhaps a little explanation would be in order here.
   A colonel of the Louisiana regiment had opened up the saloon that
day and ---- ---- ---
(next line obscured)
as I said ---- I did not come to here of my own free will, nor be
--------------------------------------
----------            As far as I am
---- nothing would afford me more pleasure than to have  you drink
to my health, and then have you all drink a toast with me. But I
ought not ask such a thing on an occasion like this, and if you will
kindly step to one side so I can pass out from you, you can enjoy
yourselves without having a damn "Yankee among you".
   During the entire time I was talking they gave me the strictest
attention and when I had finished, one of them said:
   "Well by ----, I never did drink with a Yankee, but I believe I
will with this one."
   Others refused, and finally the one who had pulled me in said:
   "Comrades, I was responsible for this man coming in here, and I am

going to drink with him and want you do the same."
   "You surely would not want me to drink with only a part of you,
and I insist  that you let me out."
   At this the ones who were ready to drink said that some of the
boys had taken a little too much and did not fully take in the
surroundings, and that this matter must be fixed. They finally all
came around by drinking my health. And then I proposed a toast. When
they had all filled their glassed I raised mine and said:
   "Here's to the rooster  that fights for his own barnyard, whether
right or wrong."

   They all drank and I handed the bartender a twenty-dollar
greenback and he gave me back ten dollars of the same kind of money,
which spoke louder than words as to which side had come out on top. I
always thought that was the best ten dollars I had spent on that
trip, for it made me at least one hundred friends, warm and true. I
could not recognize all of them when I met them but they all knew me
and I could not pass them without being taken by the arm and say to
me, that which was so dear to most of the ex-soldiers of that time:
   "Let's take something."

   Many a wild night have I spent with those ex-Confederates and felt
just as safe with them as with my own brother.
   I had promised Mr. Alexander to make him a visit before I went
back home, but after staying down there six months I was taken
suddenly with a home fever and did not call on him. We kept up a
correspondence after I came North for quite a while, and I was fully
convinced that he would have dealt honorably with me, but it is
better the way it is. I might have gone in partnership with his girl,
also and my life might have been an unhappy one.
   While I was down South I met Captain Roy (afterward promoted to
colonel of the 1st Ind.) and he introduced me to his wife and
mother-in-law.
   "We have just come down to New Orleans,: said he, "Why, I scarcely
know, and more than that I have no idea what I can or will do."
   He then went on to say that before the close of the war he had
married the widow's daughter who owned a large plantation on Red
river. He had saved his wages and invested all in a cotton crop,
going in debt for a part of his supplies. The cotton was baled and
ready to ship down to his commission merchant of whom he had
purchased his supplies, but the day it was to -------

(The following information is copied from the same news articles
preceding this. Unfortunately it does not seem to have a beginning or
end.
It seems to me however, that  it is written of a time 135 years ago,
by a man of 100 years ago and therefore deserves to be included in
this glimpse of the past,  and of a man's experiences, observations,
and opinions.)

---stranger than before that there was not an officer from a colonel
up in command there but what ought to have been court-martialed and
drummed out of the service and I want to tell the reader just why I
say that, it is this: There was not one bit of generalship or
discipline shown there.
The Confederates had it all their own way for weeks before the battle
and were allowed to pass in and out of our lines at will and no

preparations made to resist an attack. If our forces had been placed
there by the rebel's best generals they could not have placed us
better to their liking. The regiments were scattered and when the
rush was made to break the center there was absolutely no reserves in
line or brought in line to strengthen that part of us. The 21st. Ind.
Vol. Inf. and Simm's Battery had to hold the center as long as they
could. It is true an eastern regiment was placed behind us, but
instead of coming to our support they waited in line until we were
driven back close to them when they fired one volley into us and all
ran like scared deer. Gen. Butler said of us in a general order,
"That had it not been for the gallant stand made by our regiment we
would have lost the day and that is the way this battle has gone into
history. The truth about this battle is that had it not been for the
gunboats, Breckenridge and his army would have killed or captured
Gen. William's whole command.
    The evening before the battle, Aug. 4, 1862, our adjutant took a
detail of men and went out on a reconnoitering expedition and when
they returned they reported that Gen. Breckenridge with his entire
army was marching on us and was within less than five miles of us,
and right here is where the general cussedness set in. We had
sufficient warning to have thrown up temporary breastworks and to
have been able to have inflicted five times the damage with less than
one-half the loss, but not an order was given and we went to bed and
slept as sound as if we were going on a picnic next day and slept
until our pickets were fired on , not more than a half mile from our
camp. It is my opinion now that had not Gen. Williams got killed, he
would have been court-martialed and dismissed from the service,
which--- (end of copy)

(next partial article)

--- and all the rest of the --- that said--- the lives of others in
their hands richly deserved that, did not make or cause to be made
any preparations to resist this attack. The morning of the battle was
dark and foggy, and after a few rounds had been fired, it was so dark
you could not see but a few yards from you. When the long roll was
sounded we all dropped into our clothes as soon as possible and
gathered our guns and started out to strengthen our picket and what a
hell of a view it was. I remember of  ---- our boys hollowing out
this prayer as we were falling in line:
   "Oh, Lord, be with us. If you can't be with us don't be against
us, but stand back and you will see one of the d---dest fights you
ever saw."
   I speak of this here to show how reckless men become in the army.
I shall perhaps have something to say further along about this
matter. There is another matter I wish to speak of here and that is
the strange impressions some men have before going into battle. I am
no crank, but I am here to say that it is my opinion that men are
sometimes told by a hidden power what their fate will be in a battle,
and although it is digressing I will speak of two instances of this
kind: A private in our company before the battle of Baton Rouge
(Jasper White) was impressed two or three weeks before the battle

that he would be wounded and die of the wound. He would go off to
himself and seemed to be in a deep study. I saw him at this several
days before the battle came off and went to him. When I saw him in
this fix and he would always tell me that he would get wounded when
this battle went off and die of the wound, I would try to get this
notion out of him, but when I did he would say: "Now, Vint, you
remember what I tell you and you will see that I will get wounded and
die of the wound."  I talked to him the evening before the battle and
he was strong in the belief that he would be wounded next day and die
of it, and that morning when the long roll was being beaten and we
were hastily falling out in line, I ran up against him in the
darkness and asked him how he felt and he answered: "All right, but
you will see that I will get wounded and die of it." The evening
before the battle when I found him so firmly impressed I tried to
persuade him not to go into the fight, though it was said of Napoleon
that he made it a rule before he took men in battle to have drawn up
in line and then have all those that were impressed as he was to step
out of line and excused them from going into  the fight, but he said,
"No, I am not going to shirk my duty, but you remember, I will get
wounded and die of it." Late in the evening after we had thrown up
temporary breastworks and the gunboats had shelled Breckenridge and
his army several miles back from us, Capt. James Hambrick, of Company
E., came to me and asked if I would  not like to go back and see the
boys that were murdered, and I told him yes if we could be spared and
he said for me to come with him and he would see me through, that
there was no danger of another attack before morning and we could be
back in an hour or two, so off we went. The hospital was a long two
story brick. The boys were placed on cots below and above. I found
Jasper at the far end of the hall up stairs and soon as he saw me he
said, "Vint, now you can.....

Footnote: I received my copy of this story from Jack Lyon of
Greencastle, Ind. Jack sent a note along with it as follows:
" The original story was sent to an Indianapolis paper and clippings
of the story were posted on a piece of cardboard. Mrs. Zollinger (
the history writer for the Spencer, Indiana newspaper in the year
2000) had to remove them from the cardboard to zerox them. "


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