Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1863-12-09

And that splendid creature looked through
him. Joye how she must have looked
through him
Home :, Mr. Nolan.l. | thought Won
We're the who ney n wanted 10 hear of
home again .n-and she walked directly up
the deck to her husband, and left~poor \ olan
alone as he always was. He did not dance
again.
/ cannot give any history of him in order,
nobody can now ard, indeed | am not try
ing to. These are the traditions. which |
sort out, as believe them, from the myths
which have been told about this man for forty
years. The lies that have been told about
him are legion. he fellows used to say he
was the Iron Mask - and poor George Pons
went to his grave in the belief that this was
the author of ''Junius" who was being pun
ished for his Celebrated libel on Thomas JEFF
terson. Pons was not very strong in the his
torical liIie. A happier story than either of
these | have told is of the war. That came
along soon after. | have heard this affair
told III three or four ways-and, indeed. it
NAV nave happened more than once But
which ship it was on | cannot tell However.
in one, at least, of the great frigate duels
with the English in which the navy was really
baptized, it happened that a round shot from
the enemy entered one of our ports square
and took right down the officer of the gun
himself, and almost every man of the guns
crew. Now you may say what YOU choose
about courage, but that is not a nice thing to
see. But, as the men who were not killed
picked themselves up, and as they and the
surgeons people were carrying off the bodies,
there appe AIRED Nolan, in his slirt-sleeves
with the rammer in his hand, and Just as if he
had been the officer, told them off with au-
thority-who should go to the cockpit with
the wounded men, who should stay with him.
perfectly CHEEKY, and with that way which
makes men feel sure all is right and is going
to be right. And he finished loading the gun
with his own hands, aimed it, and babe the
men fire. And there he stayed, captain of
that gun, keeping those fellows in spirits, till
the enemy struck; sitting on the carriage
while the gun was cooling, though he was ex-
posed all the time showing them easier ways
to handle heavy shot making the raw hands
laugh at their own blunders; and when the
gun cooled again, getting it loaded and fired
twice rs often as any other gun on the ship.
The Captain walked forward by way of en-
couraging the men, and Nolan touched his
hat and sau:
81 am showing them how We do this in the
artillery, Sir"
And this is the part of the story where all
the legends agree; that the Commodore said
81 see VI" do, and | thank you, Sir; and L
shall never forget this day, Sir, and you never
shall, Sir
And after the whole thing was over, and he
had the Englisbman's sword, i'll the midst of
the state and CEREMONY of the quarter deck
lc said = a
"Where is Mr.. Nolan? Ask Mr. Nolan to
come here"
And when Nolan came, the Captain said
Mr.. Nolan, we are all very grateful to you
to-day; you are one of US to-day; YOU Will be
named in the dispatches
nd ba old tnpiy ,,ffb
sword of ceremony, and gave it to \ olar, and
made him put it The old man told me
this who saw it. Nolan cried like Il baby
and well he might. He had not worn 4 sword
since that Internal day of Fort Adams. But
always afterwards, on occasions of ceremony,
he wore that quaint old French sword of the
Commodore'S.
The Captain did mention him in the des-
pitches 1t always said he asked that he
IN ght be pardoned. He wrote "A special let
ter to the Secretary of War. But nothing
ever came of it. As | said, that was about
the time when they began to ignore the whole
transaction at Washington. and when Nolan's
imprisonment began to carry itself on be-
cause there was nobody to stop it without any
new orders from home.
| have heard it said that he was with Por
ter when he took possession Of the Nukahiwa
Islands Not this Porter, Won know but old
the old Essex Porter, not this Essex. As
artillery officer who had seen service in the
W est, y Olan knew more about Notifications,
eInbrasures, ravelins, stockades, and all that,
than any of them did and he worked with u
right good Will in fixing that battery all right.
| have always thought it was a pity Porter
did not leave him in command there with
Gamble That would have settled all the
question about his punishment. We should
have kan tho islands nd at rbic
we should have had one station in the Pa
cifc Ocean. Our French friends, too, when
they wanted this little watering place, would
have found 1t was pre-Occupled But Madi-
son and the Virginians of course, flung all
that away.
All that was near fifty years ago. If Nolan
thirty then, he must have been near
eighty when he died. He looked sixty when
he was forty. But he never seemed to me to
change a hair afterwards. As | imagine his
life, from what | have seen and heard of it,
ne must have been in every sea, and yet al
most never on land. He must have known,
in a formal way, more officers in our service
than any man living knows. He told me
once, with grave smile, that no man in the
world lived so methodical life as he you
know the boys say | am the Iron Mask and
you know how busy he was" He said it did
not do for any one to try to read all the time,
more thdn 10 90 an IInng else all the time
but that he read just five hours day. "Then,"
he said, " / keep up my note books writing
in them at such and such hours from what |
have been reading; and l include in these
my scrap books" These were very curious
indeed. He had six or eight, of different
subjects. There was one of history one of
natural science, one which he called Colds
and Ends" But they were not merely books
OF extracts from newspapers. They had bits
Of plants and ribbons, shells tied on, and
carved scraps of bone and wood, which he
had taught the men to carve for him, and
they were beautifully Illustrated He drew
admirably. He had some of the funniest
drawings there, and some Of the most pathetic
that have ever seen in my life. | wonder
who will have Nolan's scrap-books?
Well, he said his reading and his notes
were his profession, and that they took five
hours and two hours respectively of each day
- Them said he s. every man should have a
diversion as well profession. Ny Natural
History is my diversion" That took two
hours day more. The men used to bring
him birds and fish, but on a long cruise he
had to satisfy himself with centipedes and
cockroaches and such small game. He was
the only naturalist / ever met who knew any
thing about the habits of the house fly and
the mosquito. All those people can tell you
whether they are Lepidopte1a or .Ster1topoterd