Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1876-08-03

twenty cords. The amount is right.
[Great laughter 1 got the wood.
[Renewed laughter.l PhiIo, there,
lpointing to Mr.. Case, the drummer
of the martial band present, sitting
at one side, and who was drummer
OF Co. ID, of the Second Iowa. knows
about that. Also Mr.. Moore, sitting
there, pointing to w. s. Moore, Of
the Second, J knows about it too, and
was there. Both Of you helped load
the wood, helped me steal it. Mr..
Case-That's SO, General. The Sec
ond Iowa can swear to that The
circumstances were these:
I was ordered to take my regiment
and proceed to Paducah and join a
feet going up the Tennessee River,
TO take Fort Henry. At Cairo |
learned that Fort Henry was taken.
My orders were changed to proceed
to Smithland, and join the fleet 60
Ing up tho Cumberland River, to
Fort Donelson. The officers of the
steamboat that 1 was on, with my
regiment, were bitter rebels, and
sought every opportunity to delay
us, so that we couldn't reach there
in time. When wearrived at Smith
landing the fleet had been gone six
hours. The Captain of the boat said
he had no Cumberland River pilot,
and couldn't go up that river. /
forced him to go at the point of the
bayonet, and placed file of soldiers
in frontof the pilot house with orders
not to allow the Captain and pilot to
live minute if any accident hap
pened to the boat. Cheers Capt.
Mills, of Des Moinss, afterwards
Colonel, was officer of the day, and
had charge of the squad, and all
who knew that noble man and hero
ic soldier know that he would have
performed his duty. But we had
not been going long till one of my
soldiers, who was an old steamboa t.
man, told me that the Captain was
"playing it on me-" that there wasn't
half cord of wood on the boat al
together, and that the purpose was
to run out of wood at some point be-
yopd the reach of fuel, and so pre-
vent our getting to Fort Donelson.
I began to watch for wood.
Laughter. Soon saw some-this
same twenty cords. 1 ordered the
Captain to land the boat for the
wood. He protested that he didn't
need it, that he had plenty of it. /
told him he could pull ashore or pull
hemp. Laughter. He landed the
boat. [Cheers.I A fussy old Rebel
was on the spot, the owner of the
wood. The Captain asked him if he
would sell it-with a rebel wink.
The owner of course said no. / said
we would take 1t without making a
bargain. lie said we couldn't take
it. / replied perhaps we couldn't
but we would try. Laughter. We
tried, and every man in the regi-
ment, officers and all, were soon
loading wood, and 1t was on the
boat speedily. Yes, every soldier in
the lot helped me to do that stealing.
[Laughtor.l The owner wanted to
know, rs we were leaving, who was
going to pay him for the wood. /
told him that / didn't know, and
that all / knew was that we were
bound for Fort Donelson, and no reb-
els were going to stop us on the trip
If we could help 1t. That is the sto-
ry of the wood. Cheers. / don't
know exactly how much / stole. /
didn't ask the price and didn't pay
for 1t. This Is the robber that was
there. But we did get tn Fort Don
elson, and some of you have heard
of the fun that the Second Iowa had
there with that lot Of Ben HIPS
observation-disclosures"
THE SECOND IowA's FIRST REBEL
FLAG.
They say am murderer! Well !,
I'll tell you about that. Some anon
ymous coward has sent me nh ex-
tract from paperin MISSOURI name
OF the paper not given, but the piece
cut out--charging me with having
murdered man in Stewart Mis-
souri,, and with shooting men after
they had surrendered. AS to the
first: That was an incident Of our
trip as we first went to the front.
The town was on the Hannibal 81 st.
Joe road. The Second Iowa was the
first Union regiment that made the
trip along the whole length Of that
line. Others had gone part of the
way, but the Second made the whole
trip, and were the first Union troops
that the rebels down there had seen.
AS we came up to this little town,
a rebel flag was streaming from a
pole I'm a door-yard. 1t was the first
rage of the Confederacy my boys had
seen, and they said 1t must come
down. ICheers.l / anticipated no
trouble, but after the boys went up
there l heard some shots, and then /
went up. A young rebel had heard
Of our coming to the town, and had
raised the flag, az a defiance and a
menace, and said it should float Ii he
had to protect 1t with his life. He
got chance. He said with his re-
volver drawn, as the boys came up,
that the first man who laid hands
on that flag he would shoot dead.
Tho boys proceeded to take the
thing down and he got killed.
How he was killed don't exactly
know. Philo, there, pointing to
Mr.. Case, again, sitting near by,
holding the same old drum that he
drummed through the war; can tell