The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-06-26
THE PERSONS HE KNEW.
General Shields Tells Something About
Them and About Himself.
A Pretty Full Account OF HIS Own
Achievements I'm Military md Po-
lifical Life, Given 10 n Large
Audience az the Acad-
envy Of Mnsie.
milwaukee Sentinel

thusiastic audience which completely throng-
ed the lower portion of the auditorium. He
was escorted from the hotel to the Academy
by the Sheridan guards, preceded by band.
On entering the building the Sheridans
stacked arms, faced inward, with open ranks
and after the general had passed through,
followed him onto the stage.
Having been introduced by General II. G.
Hobart in fiattering speech, General Shields
took the stage. He desired to express his
sincere thanks to the gentleman who intro
duced hum, feeling at the same time thank
full for the kind manner in which he had
been treated here. He was surprised at the
kind treatment, the magnificent reception
he had received. He was glad he had come
to Milwaukee and Wisconsin.
PURELY PERSONAL.
AS for his own "reminiscences, they were
many. His life had been an eventfuI one.
Born in 1910, in Ireland in the wild, noun
famous region, he was himself as wild as the
country. 1t was remarkable year. the one
in which Bonaparte was at the summit of bis
power That was his first great "Reminiscences
of man who made the whole world trem-
BILE. One "reminiscences of his life he would
give:
When, after Waterloo, he determined to
surrender to the British government, he ex-
pected to be treated with magnanimity, but
he was not. The instance OF his reception on
the man Oh war Generdl On1elQ5 r6lALeQ mere,
when he exhibited his skill in the manual of
arms, causing the marines to exclaim,
That's Bony or the devil" Small things,
Napoleon then said, there were none in the
army. Nothing was too small for him In
any business he ever engaged in. And the
moral to be drawn from this was that what
ever should be done no small item should be
neglected.
The next reminscence OF General Shields
was OF an Irishman-Daniel O'Connell. The
man of whom Wendell Phillips had said,
that il one could take Webster, Clay and
Calhoun and combine them in one, it might
make a Daniel O'Connell. From 1910 to
1920 no man in human history performed
more work than Daniel O'Connell.
In 1928 General Shields came to America.
Then he had been in the mountains of ALL
more, hunting the hare, and as wild and
almost as feet as the hares themselves. In
1886 he was down in Vandalia, Illinois,
making laws. That was pretty good jump
for the Irish boy. He was a democrat then,
has been ever since, and is a democrat now.
The Irish people, when once having con-
viction, always stick to it. He was run for
the legislature then, because If beat it
couldn't hurt him. as he had no reputa-
ton. But to their establishment, be was
elected by 500 majority-and that was
good sep for the Irish boy. There he met
some other boys, among them
ABRAHAM LINCOLN,
boy with good head, and also Stephen A
Douglas, another good boy. He had the
honor then of occupying the same room
with Douglas. He then proceeded to relate
how himself and Douglas beat the landlord
of the hotel where they boarded, on a
whisky trade, by inducing him to cut hole
in a partition and put faucet on both
Sides
In 1916 General Shields was in Mexico,
fighting the MexiCanS, in company with
Scott, Twiggs and others, and in 1856 in the
United States senate, the compeer OF Web
ster, Clay, Benton, Douglas and Others
That was o strange career for an Irish boy to
run who had landed in the country penni-
less. Why, then, should he not be grateful?
And be was grateful to America, and was
proud to be an example of that fact that a
man can be born in Ireland and yet be IS
true to the flag as il born in Massachusetts,.
THE MEXICAN WAR.
But to return to Mexico. He took his bri-
gade from Illinois, and reported to General
Taylor. His first impressions of that general
were peculiar. A reugher face or figure he
never looked at He himself never was con-
sidered handsome man, but he wasa beauty
compared TO Taylor. But he soon found out
his superiority. Next came Wool, then Scott.
Scott was the reverse of Taylor splendid
looking man. and he was q magnificent gen.
eral, too. All the strategy the lecturer ever
knew he learned from Scott, who won all his
battles by strategy. That was what won the
battle of Cerro Gordo, on the 18th day of
April, 1S47. 1t was and is the strongest nat
ural position IN America. There were in
trenched that day 1900 Mexican troops,
under excellent leadership. Our army was
only 5000 men-but what an army Lee,
Johnston, Beauregard-these were the men
with us. The lecturer was assigned his
duty-to get within striking distance and
attack the enemy's reserve-the picked men
of the army. His men were all volunteers.
but General Scott preferred them. They
went around the foot hills, and in hearing
OF the enemy. They bivouacked there, and
some of his men came and said they would
like to put six-pound cannon on the top
OF Pico Alto, which had been deemed i'm
possible to intrench. They landed the can
non there, and then took up underground
cannon. But when they saw it In daylight,
they confessed they would not have dared
to attempt it could they have seen the
danger. But in the night they worked to.
gether with one will and one mind, and that
is the secret of power, social military and
| political. If the Irish had only learned this,
the five million Irishmen could hold that
little island against all Cnristendom.
| But the battle was fought. The enemy were
taken by surprise, even though they had
seen the preparations. The medical stan
were all captured, and even Santa Anna
himself was nearly taken; they got his
wooden leg. Well, with
HIS USUAL LUCK,
| he General Shields) was wounded through
the body with q grape-shot. The doctors
called his wound mortal. IL was even re-
ported he was dead, and be stands on the
war department records as dead, and be was
not sure the government had not believed
him dead, because it had never done any
thing for him till Ben Butler brought him
out Owing to his aide-de-camp, however,
the doctors finally tried their skill on him,
and in nine weeks he was again at the head
of his command. To night he stood here, in
the face of all science, by the laws OF which
he had ought to be in his grave.
Later he entered the City of Mexico, with
three wounds in his body, each received in Q
different battle-the first American general
who ever entered that place. The details OF
the siege of Mexico General Shields related,
describing how he went into the city, Gov
cred with blood, powder, no coat, Mexi.
can sombrero, in which uniform picture OF