The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-02-09
GEN. JOHN Nj. PALMER.
Scraps of Military History Never Before
Published.

Some time ago, says the Illinois
State Register, among party of US on
| an excursion, were ex-Gov. Palmer,
Gov. Oglesby and Judge jesse j.
Phillips, of Illinois. They have al
been generals in the army, and, OF
course, spent the most of their time in
talking over some old army expert
ences. Among other "reminiscences
Gen. Palmer gave the following:
II had command of a CORPS before
Atlanta on the 10Th of July, 1854. We
were at that time about five miles
from the city on Peach tree creek.
Davis division had passed over the
creek. About 5 o'clock in the after
noon our boys brought in citizen
they had captured on that side of the
creek. He was brought before me
and questioned him closely. He did
not appear to know much but he said
he had read in an Atlanta paper that
Gen. Johnson had been relieved of the
command of the opposing army, and
had been succeeded by Gen. j. B.
| Hood. Col. Mckay of our side soon
happened along and asked me if there
was anything new. told him of the
| change of commanders on the part of
| the enemy, that johnson had been
succeeded by Hood. He appeared
greatly alarmed and exclaimed My
God; general, that means trouble
tell you Hoods a fighter l was
somewhat alarmed myself and asked
Mckay what he knew about Hood
fighting qualities
mckay said, We'll, general, 1 was
in San Antonio, Tex, once before the
war, and L saw that man Hood bet
$4,000 on a hand in a game of poker,
and he didn't even have a pair of
jacks.
"Wen, 1 didn't say much in re-
Spouse, but decided in my mind that
man who would bet $4,000 on hand
in friendly game of poker when
he didn't even have pair to back him
would be bad man to meet on the
field of battle when he was backed by
several thousand able-bodied confeder-
ate soldiers and the sequel proved
that Mckay was not wrong in his esti-
mate.
at was then about dark, I got my
men together and told them l ex-
pected we would have to fight to-
| morrow. | threw my lines across the
creek and commenced that night to
build Notifications, and the next MORN
ING our forces were all across the creek
and we had plenty of earthwork for an
emergency. / ordered dinner to be
served to the men Dy II o'clock About
| that time Gen. Thomas came along,
| saluted me and asked What's the
matters? saying at the same time we
| no " n nd |,
| Hooker's men have had their dinner.
and expressing the opinion that we
would now march into Atlanta with
out opposition.
Il said, General think we are GO
ing to have fight. l had scarcely
ceased speaking when we heard terri
bic firing to our left. l Immediately
| dispatched a messenger in that direc-
| ton, who soon returned with the in
| formation that Hood had made a terri
| BILE charge on our left and had already
| broken through two lines of Davis
| division and was now charging in our
| direction, and, sure enough, he was
| soon down upon us. But with nv pre-
parations already described we were
ready to meet him, and you bet we
| gave him warm reception and we
defeated him after hard fighting,
| and soon thereafter marched victorious
| into Atlanta. Had it not been for Me-
| Rays story of the 1900 bet he would
have made it very uncomforta BILE
for us. As it was we were ready for
| him.
Another story comes to my mind at
| this time that / am sure has never
hppn in print and rafarS tn tho /, to
Senator Logan:
Col. and Mrs. Distin, of Quincy, H.,
were always intimate friends of Sem
ator Logan and of course when the
general went to Quincy he stopped at
Col. Distin's. Last year when the
| Soldiers home was dedicated at that
place the general spent about a week
with his old friend Distin. The
colonels latchstring is always out, and
| his friends are generally in, so that
| they usually have pretty full tables,
averaging about eighteen persons. But
it happened that one day for dinner
there was just the unfortunate num-
| Der of thirteen.
Mrs. ID. asked the general if he OBJ
jected to eating with thirteen at the
table. The general said he would
| rather not sit down-thirteen at table,
| and suggested that he would eat at a
| side table that stood in the room. The
matter was flnally arranged by one of
the family eating at the side table and
the dinner proceeded. The supersti-
tious may say this was an evil omen;
who can say that it was not?