Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1865-10-25
From the Atlantic Monthly for October.
JOHN JORD AN.
From the Head of RaIne.

| taken part IN lnls Waf,-WnoSe dying en-
bers are now being trodden out by poor
white man, nome, perhaps, have done
more service to the country, or won less
glory for themselves, than the "psor
whites" who have acted as scouts for the
Union armies. The issue of battles, the
result of campaigns. and the possession of
wide districts of country, have often de
pended on their sagacity, or have deter
mined by the information they have gath
cred; and yet they have seldom been
heard of in the newspaper, and may never
be read of in history.
| Romantic, thrilling, and sometimes
laughable adventures have attended the
| operations of the scouts of both sections;
but more difficulty and danger have un-
doubtedly been encountered by the par
/ tisans of the North than of the South
| Operating mostly within the circle of
their own acquaintance, the latter have
usually been aided and haTbored by the
Southern people, who, generally friendly
to Secession, have themselves often acted
as spies, and conveyed dispatches across
districts occupied by our armies, and in
accessible to any but supposed loyal citi-
Zens.
The service rendered the South by
these volunteer scouts have often been of
the most important character. One
stormy night, early in the war. a young
woman set out from a garrisoned town to
visit a sick uncle residing a short dis
tance in the country. The sick uncle,
mounting his horse at midnight, rode
twenty miles in the rain to Forests
headquarters. The result was, the i'm
portant town of Murfreesboro, and a
i r.. r. Al.
hands of the Confederates; and all be-
cause the said Major-General permitted
a pretty woman to pass his lines on "a
mission of mercy"
At another line, Rebel citizen, pro-
Tossing disgust with Secession for having
] the weakness to be on ''its last legs" took
the oath of allegiance and assumed the
Union uniform. Informing himself fully
of the disposition of our forces along the
Nashville Railroad, he suddenly disap
peared, to reappear with Basil Duke and
John Morgan in a midnight raid on our
Numbering outposts.
Again a column on the march came
upon a wretched woman, with child in
her arms, seated by the dying embers of
of a burning homestead, burning. she
said, because her sole and only friend.
her uncle, (these ladies seldom have any
nearer kim stood up street fur the ken
| try" No American soldier ever refused
''lift" to a woman in distress. This wo-
man was soon lifted" into an empty
saddle by the side of a staff officer, who,
with many wise winks and knowing mods.
was discussing the intended route of the
expedition with brother simpleton. A
little farther on, the woman suddenly
remembered that another uncle, who did
not stand up quite so "stret fur the ken
try" and, consequently, had a house
still standing up for him, lived plumb
up thet 'ar' hill ter the right o. the high
road" She was set down, the column
moved on, and-Streight's well planned
expedition miscarried. But no one vast
ed thought on the forlorn woman and
the ssllow baby whose skinny faces were
SO long within earshot of the wooden /
hearted staff-officer.
Means quite as ingenious and quite Ls
curious were often adopted to conceal
dispatches, when the messenger was in 4
danger of capture by an enemy. A boot 1
with hollow heel, fragment of corn I
pone too stale to tempt starving man, /
a strip of adhesive plaster over fostering 1
wound, or ball of cottonwood stuffed 4
into the ear to keep out the west wind. /
often hid a message whose discovery
would cost life, and perhaps endanger /
an army. The writer has himself seen
the hollow halfeagle which bore to Burn |
sides beleaguered force the welcome ii |
dings that in thirty hours Sherman would |
relieve Knoxville.
The perils which even the native"
scout encountered can be estimate ed only :
by those familiar with the vigilance that /
surrounds an army. The casual meeting
with an acquaintance. the slightest act
inconsistent with his assumed character, |
or the smallest incongruity between his
speech and that of the district to which I
he professed to belong, has sent many q
good man to the gsllows. One of the |
best of Rosecran's scouts a native of
East Kentucky-lost his life because he
would "bounce" (mount) his nag, pack"
(csrTy) his gun, eat his bread dry So"
without butter, and ''guzzle his peck O.
whiskey" in the midst of Bragg's camp, |
when no such things were done there, |
nor in the mountains of Alabama, whence |
he professed to come. Acquainted only !
with a narrow region, the poor fellow did
not know that every Southern district
has its own dialect, and that the travelled
ear of a close observer can detect the
slightest deviation from its customary
phrases. But he was not alone in this
ignorance. Almost every Northern wri-
ter who has undertaken to describe
Southern life has fallen into the same
error. Even Olmstead, who has caught
the idioms wonderfully, confounds the
dialects of different regions, and makes
Northern Georgian fright smart" when
he had been only powerful stupid" all
his life.
The professional scout generally was a
native of the South,-some illiterate and
simple minded. but brave and self-devo-
ted 'poor white man." who, if he had
worn shoulder-straps, and been able TO
write Interesting" dispatches, might now
be known as hero half the world over.
Some of these men had they been born
at the North, where free schools are open
to all, would have led armies, and left
name to live after them. But they were
born at the South, had their minds
cramped and their souls stunted by a sys-
tenn which dwarfs every noble thing; and
30, their humble mission over, they have
gone down unknown and unhonored,
amid the silence and darkness of their
native woods.
hope to rescue the memory of one of
these men-John Jordan, from the head
of Baine-from utter oblivion by writing
this article. He is now beyond the hear
ing of my words; but l would record one
act in his short career, that his pure pat
riotism may lead some of us to know
better and love more the much abused
and misunderstood class to which he be
longed.
Early in the war the command of an
important military expedition was intrust
ed to the President of Western college.
Though young man, this scholar had
already achieved a character" and a his
tory. Beginning life widows son, his
first sixteen years were passed between a
farm, a canal, and blacksaltern. Being
an intelligent, energetic lad, his friends
formed the usual hopes of him; but when
he apprenticed himself to canalboat,
their faith failed, and, after the fashion
of Jobs friends, they comforted his
mother with the assurance that her son
IL a IL