Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-08-11

poverty by the profit of this soldiers
bet with Wall street. [Subdued ap-
plause. You may call it bet, and
morally wrong, if you choose. l am
willing to accept the responsibility of
it as it is. Applause. So l did
speculate in gold while | was actual
ly at the head of my division, and
that charge is true. Laughter
BURNING OF RICH REBELS HOUSES.
Another charge is that am a house
burner. The news that I 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 if am "the Gen
eral Tuttle whose troops, on the
march from Milliken's Bend to Grand
Gulf, burned so many fine houses on
Lake St. Joseph, among them the
finest residence in all the Southern
country, that of Col. Bowie, the in
ventor of the famous Bowie knife"
I am the man much laughter and
applause, the same Gen. 'ruttle, who
with his boys went along there.
Nearly all the houses were burned
before my command came up. The
Bowie mansion was not. Twas in it.
1t was the grandest house l ever saw
or read about. The house and furni-
ture are said to have cost 100000.
The upholstering was grand, beyond
all description. l found a number Of
Union soldiers in the house, belong
ing to Steele's division, which was
ahead of mine. They were lounging
around in their muddy boots, enjoy
ing the luxuries. l sent them on to
their command, and passed on with
the head of my division. My COM
mand was probably 5 miles long,
along the road. After about half of
the division had passed, and 1 was
about two or three miles away, l
looked back, attracted by an immense
blaze, and the Bowie house was gone.
suppose it was burned by some
of my boys. l do not doubt it. Some
of my soldiers of Iowa regiments,
too,-were just out of Rebel prison.
with all its tortures fresh in their
minds; and this was their first march.
They remembered we'll, and they
probably know something about it
Our orders were all against burning
the houses. I suppose we could have
prevented their burning, too, if we
had made 1t speciality. Laughter.
But we had another speciality on
hand just then. Renewed laughter.
This is my record as house-burner.
THE STEALING WOOD CHARGE.
They charge me, too, with stealing
wood, and name the amount twenty
cords. The amount is right. Great
laughter. 1 got the wood. Re-
newed laughter Philo, there [polnt-
ing to Mr.. Case, the drummer Of the
martial band present, sitting at one
side, and who was drummer of Com
pany d, OF the Second Iowa., knows
about that. Mr.. Moore, sitting there
pointing to Mr.. w. S. Moore, of the
SecondL 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:
was ordered to take my regiment
and proceed to Paducah, and join a
fleet going up the Tennessee River to
take Fort Henry. AT Caro-, l 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 steam
boat that l 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 Cumber-
land-River pilot, and couldn't go up
that river, I forced him to 60 at the
point of the bayonet, and placed a
file of soldiers in front of the pilot
house, with orders not to allow the
Captain and Pilot to live minute if
any accident happened to the boat
Cheers. Capt. Mills, of Des Moines,
afterwards Colonel, was officer of the
day, and had charge of the squad;
and all who knew that noble man
anl 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 steam
boatman, told me that the Captain
was "playing it on me-" that there
wasn't half a cord of wood on the
boat altogether; and that the purpose
was to run out of wood at some point
beyond the reach of fuel, and so pre-
vent our getting to Fort Donelson.
Ibegan to watch for wood. Laugh
ter. Soon | saw some-this same
twenty cords. l ordered the Captain
to land the boat for the wood. He
protested that he didn't need it; that
he had plenty of it. I told him he
could pull ashore or pull hemp
Laughter. He landed the boat
Cheers. A fussy old Rebel was on
the spot, the owner of the wood.
The Captain asked him if he would
sell it with n Rebel wink. The
owner of course said no. said we
would take it without making bar
gain. He said we couldn't take it,
| replied perhaps we couldn't, but we
would try. Laughter. We tried;
and every man in the regiment, Off
GERS 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
leaving, who was going to pay him
for the wood. told him that didn't
know, and that all l knew was, that
we were bound for Fort Donelson,
and no Rebels were going to stop us
on the trip if we could helpit. That
is the story of the wood. Cheers.
I don't know exactly how much |
stole. 1 didn't ask the price, and
didn't pay for it. This is the robber
that l was there. But we did get to