Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1876-08-18


That's SO, general The second Iowa
can swear to that. The circumstances
were these
| was ordered to take my regiment
and proceed to Paducah and join fleet
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 going up the Cumberland
river to Fort Donelson. The officers of
the steamboat that | 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
we arrived at Smithland 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 bay
onet, and placed file of soldiers in
front of the pilot house, with an order
not to allow the captain and pilot to live
minute if any accident happened to
the boat. [Cheers.l Capt Mills of Des
Moines, afterward colonel, was officer of
the day, and had charge of the squad,
and all who knew that noble man and
heroic 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 steamboat man, told me
that the captain was "playing it on me, "
that there wasn't half cord of wood
on the boat altogether, and that the pur-
pose was to run out of wood at some
point beyond the reach of fuel, and so
prevent our getting to Fort Donelson.
| began to watch for wood. Laugh
ter. Soon saw some-this same 20
cords. ordered the captain to land the
boat for the wood. He protested that he
didn't need it-that he had plenty of it.
1 told him he could pull ashore or pull
hemp. [Laughter.] He landed the
boat [Cheers.l 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." 1 said we would take it
without making a bargain. He 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 it was on the boat speedily,
Yes, every soldier in the lot helped me
to do that stealing. Laughter The
owner wanted to know, as we were leav.
ing, who was going to pay him for the
, wood. l told him that ! didn't know
and that all knew was that we were
bound for Fort Donelson, and no rebels
, we're going to stop us on the trip if We
could help it. This is the story of the
wood. [Cheers.l | don't know exactly
how much stole. | didn't ask the price,
, and didn't pay for it. This is the robber
that | was there But we did get to
. Fort Donelson, and some of you have
9 heard of the fun that the second Iowa
, had there with that lot of Ben HilPs
: constitution huggers."
THE SECOND IowA's FIRST REBEL FLAG
They say am murderer. Well
I'll tell you about that Some anony.
, nous coward has sent me an extract
from paper in Missouri-name of the
paper not given, but the piece cut out,
charging me with having murdered a
man in Stuart, Mo-, 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 and St. Jo-
seph 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
bHo SSCOuu luduc tH6 WUOl6 Trip, anu
: we're the first Union troops that the reb-
els down there had seen. As we came
up to this little town a rebel flag was
streaming from pole in door-yard.
1t was the first flag of the confederacy
my boys had seen, and they said it must
come down. [Cheers. l anticipated
no trouble, but after the boys went up
there | heard some shots, and then
went up. A young rebel had heard of
our coming to the town and had raised
the flag, as defiance and menace and
said it should float if he had to protect
it with his life. He got chance. He
said, with his revolver drawn, as the
boys came up, that the first man who
laid hands on that flag he would shoot
dead. The boys proceeded to take the
thing down-and he got killed. How
he was killed, / don't know exactly.
Philo, there (pointing to Mr. Caseagain,
sitting near by, holding the same old
drum that he drummed through the
war can you tell more about that than