Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1863-12-10

the stofF, years alter
And what do you hear from home, Mrs.
Graf: i - II q : = y
And that: splendid creature locke Il through
tim. Jove how she must have looked
Home, Mr. soian,,, ! thought yon
were the man who never wanted TO hear of
home again and she walked direcflv up
the deck TO her husband, and left poor Nolan
alone as he always was. He did not dance
again. t,#f:sf So wv 70
: | cannot give any history of him in order,
nobody can now; and, indeed, I am not try
ing to. These are the traditions which I
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
ham are legion. The 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 scele brated libel on Thomas JEFF
tersOn. Pons was not very strong in the his
torical line. \ 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
may have 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 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 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 appeared Nolan, in his shirt-sleeves,
with the rammer in his hand, and, ust as if he
had been the officer, told them off with au-
thority-who should 60 &c TIE cockpit with
the wounded men, HhG 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 itloaded and fired
twice as 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 SAID:
~ am showing them how we do this in the
artillery, Sir" s.-as-
And this is the part of the story where all
the legends agree that the Commodore said:
81 see you do, and ! thank you, Sir; and
shall never forget this day, Sir, and you never
shall, Sir"
And after the whole thing was over, ard he
had the Englishman's sword, in the mid of
the state aud ceremony Of the quarter deck,
he said - IL
"Where is Mr. Nolan ask Mr.. Nolan to
come here"
Z 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" ~
And then the old man took off hi own
sword of ceremony, and gave it to Nolan, and
made him put it on. The old man told me
this who saw it. Nolan cried like "a baby,
and well he might. He hadno worn 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-
patches. 1t was always said, he asked that he
might be pardoned He wrote a special let
ter to the Secretary of War But nothing
ever came Of it. As 1 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, yon know but old
Porter his father, Essex Porter-that is,
the old Essex Porter, not this Essex. As an
artillery officer, who had seen service in the
West, Nolan knew more about Notifications,
embrasures, ravelins, stockades, and all that,
than any of them did; and he worked with
right good will in fixing that bastery all right.
have always thought it was pity Porter
did not leave him in command there with
Gamble. That would have settled all the
question about his punishment. We should
have kept the islands, and at this moment
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 it was pre-occupied. But Madi-
son and the Nirginians, of course, flung all
that away.
All that was near fifty years ago. If Nolan
was 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
life, from what have seen and heard of it.
he must have been in every sea, and vet al
most never on land. He must have known,
in 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 than to do anything else all the time
but that he read just five hours day. ''Then,"
he SAID, - keep up my notebooks, writing
IN them at such and such hours from what [
have been reading; and | 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.
" Then" said he < every man should have
diversion as well as a profession. My 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
about no hal Of