Ottumwa weekly courier., 1876-07-26

the houses were burned before my
command came up. The Bow ie man.
sion was not. was in it. 1t was the
grandest house l ever saw or read
about. The house and furniture are
said to have cost 100000. The up
holstering was grand beyond all de-
scription. l found number of
Union soldiers in the house, belong
ing to Stecle's division, which was
just ahead of mine. They were
lounging around in their muddy
boots enjoying the luxuries. sent
them on to their command, and pass
ca 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
| was about two or three miles away.
L looked back attracted by an inn
mense blaze, and the Bowie house
was gone.
I suppose it was burned by some
OF my boys. L do not doubt it.
Some of my soldiers-of Iowa regi-
ments, too.-were just out of rebel
prison, with all its tortures fresh in
their minds--and this was their first
march. They remembered well, and
they probably know something about
it. Our orders were all against
burning the houses. ! suppose we
could have prevented their burning,
too, if we had made it speciality.
Laughter. But we had another
speciality on hand Just then. Renew
ed laughter.] This is my record ms a
IhOuse-burner,
THE STEALING WOOD CHARGE.
They charge me, too, with stealing
wood, and name the amount-twenty
cords. The amount is right. [Grcat
laughter Igot the wood. Renew
cd laughter.l Philo, there, (pointin q
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 Mr.. w. S. Moore, Of the
Second knows about it too, and was
there. Both of you helped load The
wood, helped me steal it. lMr. Case
That's so, General. The Second
Iowa can swear to that. The cir
cumstances We're 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 Cairo learned
that Fort Henry was taken. MY or
ders 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 ! was OH, with my regiment,
were bitter rebels, and sought every
opportunity to delay us, so that we
could not reach there in time. When
we arrived at Smithland, the fleet
had been gone six hours. The Cap
tain of the boat said he had no Cum
berland River pilot, and couldn't go
up that river. forced him to 60 at
the point of the bayonet, and placed
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.
lCheers. Capt. Mills, of Des Moines,
afterwards Colonel, was officer Of the
day, and had charge of the squad
and all who know 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 steam
boatman, told me that the Captain
was s'playing it on me-" that there
wasn't half 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 us reaching Fort Donelson.
I hn IN fo1, 60 =,
teri Soon l 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. l told him he
could pull ashore or pull hemp.
Laughter He landed the boat
Cheers A fnssy old rebel was OH
the spot, the owner of the wood. The
captain asked him il he would sell il
,, with rebel wink. The owner, OF
. . course, said no. said we would take
|, , it without making a bargain. lie said
we couldn't take it. I replied per
, haps we couldn't but we would try
! Laughter We tried, and soon ev
! cry man i'm the regiment, officers ant
all, were all loading wood, and i
W'N ou VIC uouu SICCuIlN. Ss. cNCl
q soldier in the regiment helped me I
y y do that stealing. Laughter VI,
:, owner wanted to know as we wer
= : leaving, who was going TO pay hir
= for the wood. and told him that
y didn't know, and that all knew wa
: that we were bound for Fort Donel
= son, and no rebels were going to sto
. us on the trip if we could help i,
That is the story of the wood. Lou,
= Cheers. / don't know exactly hoy
: much stole. | didn't ask the pric
= and didn't pay for it. This is the rob
: Der that was there. But we did &c
to Fort Donelson, and some of yo1
: have heard of the fun that the Secon,
. Iowa had there with that lot of Be
. Hills Constitution huggers."
, THE SECOND IowA's FIRST REBEL FLAG
: They say am murderer! Vel
I'll tell you about that. Some anon
q ymous coward has sent me an extrac
from paper in Missouri-name o
!, the paper not given, but the piece Gu
I out-charging me with having mur
. dered man in Stewart, Missouri
, and with shooting men after they hat
! surrendered. AS to the first: Tha
was an incident of our trip as we frs
, went to the front. The town was OF
. the Hannibal & st 10 Road. TIL,
! Second Iowa was the first Union reg
I iment that made the trip along til,
E whole length of that line. Others hai
. gone part of the way, but the Seconi
Q made the whole trip, and were thu
first Union troops that the rebel.
= down there had seen. As we came uI
+ to this little town rebel flag wa'
q streaming from pole in door yard
1t was the first rag of the Confeder.
acy my boys had seen, and they said
il must come down. Cheers Ian.
ticipated no trouble, but after the
boys went up there i heard some
! shots, and then l went up. A young
I rebel had heard of our coming to the
town, and had raised the flag as a de-
fiancc and a menace, and said it should
float if he had to protect it with his
life. He got a 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
got killed 1 don't know exactly. Phi
10 there, (pointing to Mr.. Case, again,
sitting near by, holding the same old
drum that he drummed on through
the war;, can tell you more about that
than l can.
/ Mr.. Case-The fellow said he
would shoot the first man who dared
even to touch the flag or the staff, and
the boys went for it. He tried to
shoot, swapping his revolver twice.
lie didn't get chance to snap it
again. His flag came down and SO
did he. Cheers.l
The General-Wcll, that's the story
OF it. l didn't see that part of it. /
saw the flag after it was down, tho,
and saw the foolish young rebel ly-
Ing there dead. That's all / know
about it, and perhaps l am RESPONSE
BILE. II so, l have nothing to take
back. Our business down there was
to put down the rebel colors, and of
course we commenced as soon as we
: saw where the work commenced.
Cheers. The boys in taking down
the rebel flag had to shoot the rebel