The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1876-09-09

a. thew are now-tinmense applausel-..
and they bet against Us. That was all
there was Of II. We knew We could take
Vieksburp, and knew when II would be
taken before Wall street did. We knew
he Mississippi would 30 down, 20 We
could land on the rebels side-Ee had al.
ready landed on the other side-and
Knew that when we did land on their side
there would be trouble. So In April We
organized together, number Of our Off:
GERS, and formed club, Laughter, ] and
ali drew our pay and got all the money
we could. put in this all my money,
and everything that / had, and borrowed
every dollar that / could.
We all put in this money, Our pay -
soldiers, and made purse Of il, and sent
q man 70 Wall street TO sell gold short at
sellers option on ninety days, and put mp
our money as margins. 1t was simply q
bet on our part that we could take vicks-
burg, and that we would do 1t, aud bet
on Wall streets part that We couldn't and
wouldn't We staked our lives, too, on
top Of the bet. We did take Vicksburg.
TGreat cheering, frequently repeated
The river went down, and we vent up.
Renewed cheers. We won our bet and
Wall street lost. Laughter. We made
money; l made money, lots OF Il, and / am
glad Of II. It served good purpose 70
the Union, too, Is well aS to our pockets.
II was not known the day our gold was
sold whose il was. But the next day 1t
was announced in the New York pres
that 1t was the money Of the Union officers
before Vioksburg, their bet virtually that
they would take Yicksburg. In twenty
four hours gold went down fifteen cents.
(Cheers.l Some Of the noble men who
fell in the capture Of Vicksburg were in
"the' club and their families to-day are
saved from poverty by the profit Of this
soldiers bet with Wall street. Subdued
applause.1 You may call it % bet, and
morally wrong, il you choose. / am
willing TO accept the responsibility Of it
as it is. [Appfause.l So | did speculate
in gold while / was actually at the head
OF my division, and that one charge Is
true. [Laughter.l ~ ~
THE BURNING OF RICH REBEL HOUSES.
Another charge is that I am a house
burner. The news that / have left the
Democratic party seems to have got away
down in the old rebel country, and some
one down on the lower Mississippi writes
to ST. Louis paper, wondering II I am
the General futile whose troops, on the
march from Milliken's Bend TO Grand
Gulf, burned 80 many fine houses on Lake
st, Joseph, among them the finest resi.
dence in all the Southern country, that OF
Col. Bowie, the inventor OF the famous
Bowie knife. j am the man, much
laughter and applausel the same Gener-
al futile who with his boys went along
there. Nearly all the houses were burned
bAiore my command came up. The Bow
lie mansion was not. / was in II. It was
tie grandest house l ever saw or read
about. The house and furniture are said
to have cost 100000. The upholstering
was grand beyond all description. i found
u number Of Union soldiers in the house,
belonging TO Steeles division, which was
Just ahead OF mine. They were lOupging
around in their muddy boots, enjoying
the Injuries. ! sent them on TO their
command, and passed on with the head
OF my division. My command was
probably five miles long, along the road.
After about half Of the division had
passed, and l was about two or three
miles away, looked back, attracted by
an immense blaze-the Bowie house was
gone.
I suppose it was burned by some Of my
boys. / do not doubt il. Some Of my
soidiers-of Iowa regiments, too-were
just out Of rebel prison, with all its tor
lures fresh in their minds, and this was
their first march. They remembered
well, anil they probably knew something
about it. Our orders were all against
burning the houses. suppose We could
have prevented their burning, II we had
made it a specially. Laughter. But
we had another specially on hand just
then. Renewed laughter This is my
record as house-burner.