The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1876-08-03

Street did. We knew the Mississippi
would 60 down, SO we could land on the
rebel side-(we had already 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, num-
Der of our officers, and formed a club,
| laughter all drew our pay, and got all
the money we could put in this all my
money and everything had, and borrowed
every dollar that | could.
We all put in this money, our pay as
soldiers, and made purse Of it, and sent
a man to Wall Street to sell gold short at
sellers option on ninety days, and put up
our money as margins 1t was simply q
bet on our part that We could take Vicks-
burg, and would do it, and bet on Wall
Streets part that we couldn't and wouldn't.
We staked our lives, too, on that bet. We
did take Vicksburg. [Great cheering,
frequently repeated The rebels went
down and we went in. Renewed cheers.
We won our bet, and Wall Street lost
Laughter We made money, made
money, lots of it, and l am glad of it.
1t served good purpose to the Union,
too, as well as to our pockets. 1t was not
known the day our gold was sold whose it
was. But the next morning it was an
nounced in the New York press that it
was the money of the Union officers be-
fore Vicksburg, their bet virtually, that
they would take Vicksburg. In twenty
four houres gold went down fifteen cents.
Cheers. Some of the noble men 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. TSubdued ap-
plause. You may cali it a bet, and NOR
ally wrong. if you choose. I am willing
to accept the responsibility of it as it is.
[Applause.l So did speculate in gold
while / was actually at the head of my
division, and that one charge is true.
| Laughter.
THE BURNING OF RICH REBEL HOUSES.
Another charge Is that l am 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 il am
'the Gen. 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 resi-
dence in all the Southern country, that Of
Col. Bowie, the inventor of the famous
Bowie knife" | am the man, much
laughter and applause,l the same Gen.
Tuttle who with his boys went along
there. Nearly all the houses were burn
ed before my comrades came up there.
The Bowie mansion was not. l was in
it. 1t was the grandest house ever saw
or read about. The house and furniture
are said to have cost $5O0,OOO. The up
holstering was grand beynod description.
l found a number of union soldiers in
the house belonging to Steele's division,
which was just ahead of mine. They
were lounging around with their muddy
boots enjoying the luxuries / 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, l locked back attract
ed 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 tor
lures fresh in their mind, 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 a specially. Laughter. ]
But we had another specially on hand
just then. Renewed laughter. This
is my record as house burner.
THR STEALING WOOD CHARGE.
They charge me, too, with stealing
wood, and name the amount-twenty
cords. The. amount is right [Grea,
laughter. Phile, there, (pointing to Mr.,
Case, the drummer Of the martial band
present, sitting at one side, and who was
drummer of Go. ID, of the Second Iowa, }
knows about that, also Mr.. Moore, sitting
there, (pointing to w. s. Moore, of the
Second,) 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 Second Iowa can
swear to that The circumstances are
these:
l was ordered to take my regiment
and proceed to Paducah and join feet
going up the Tennessee river, to take Ft
Henry. At Cairo / learned that Fort
Henry was taken. My orders were chang.
ed to proceed to Smithland, and join the
feet 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 op.
portunity to delay us, so that we could
not reach there in time When we ar.
rived at Smithland, .the feet had been
gone six hours. The captain of the boat
said he had no Cumberland river pilot,
and could not 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 il
any accident happened to the boat
(Cheers.l Capt. Mills, of Des Moines,
afterwards Col, ,-was officer of the day
and had charge of the squad, and all who
knew that noble man aud heroic soldie:
knew that he would have performed his
duty. But we had not been going long
till one of my soldiers, who was an old
steamboatman, told me that the captain
was playing it on ME, that there was
not u half cord Of wood on the boat al
together, and that the purpose was to run
out of wood at some poiut beyond the
reach Of fuel, and SO prevent US reaching
Fort Donelson.
} began to watch for wood. Laugh
ter Soon | saw some-this same TWEEN
ty cords. l ordered the captain to land
the boat for the wood He protested that
he did not need it, that he had plenty oi
! wood. told him he could pull ashore
or pull hemp. [Laughter.l He landed
the boat. [Cheers.l A fussy old rebe
was on the spot, the owner of the wood
The captain asked him if he would sell
the wood-witha rebel wink. The own
er. of course, said no. | said we would
take it without making bargain. Ht
said we couldn't take it. replied that
perhaps we couldn't but we would try
Laughter We tried, and soon ever,
maa in the regiment, officers and all, were
loading wood, and it went on the boa
speedily. Yes, every soldier in the regi
ment helped me do that stealing Laugh
ter. The owner wanted to know, as W,
were leaving, who was going to pay hin
for the wood, and / told him l didn'
know and that ALI I knew was that vv