Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-03-04

up my mind that if my wife, who was
way up in Vermont, had been there l
should have gone with them. They
went off feeling pretty well, promis-
ing to be back in a very short time,
as they had no doubt they could
knock the spots off of those fellows
out there in a very few days. But
they were doomed to disappointment,
as the spots would not come off read
lily. After the troops had gone and
| went back into the shop to work
cooled off to some extent, and made
up my mind that it would be much
better for me to 60 up to old Vermont
and see my wife and little ones before
l enlisted. l did so, and when | got
home / did not feel near as much like
going to war as | did in Massachu-
setts, and said to myself, "guess /
will work on the farm awhile and see
how the thing turns" But when
news came of the first battle of Bull
Run it set me on fire again. Up TO
that time there had been nothing said
about sending any cavalry from this
state, and not being blessed with any
too much in length of what people
call legs | thought | could not 60 in
infantry. But l made up my mind
then that when a chance came to 90
and do my fighting on horseback |
would do so. Some time in Septem-
ber, '61, the chance came. | was in
formed that +. b. Sawyer of Hyde
Park was raising a company of caval-
ry in Orleans and Lamoille Counties.
Z. p. Cotton was recruiting officer in
Irasburgh. / did not talk the matter
over with my wife at all, l knew it
would be no use; but L thought of it
all the time for week or so. | had
a large amount of work to do that
fall one day, think it was the 9th
of September, was reaping grain on
a twelve acre piece on farm now
owned by my brother; had six men
working for me, viz: Rufus Bean,
Alphronus Bean, Henry Chamberlin,
Almond Priest, William Currier and
III. Davenport-one. II. Bean, was not
of age; we had been talking war free
ly and talking cavalry, l said, "Boys,
why don't some of you enlist in this
company of cavalry" One replied,
Il will if you will?'' Then l asked,
elbow many of you will enlist if |
will pa remark have always been
sorry for. To the last man they said
they would. They thought was in
fun; but 1 said, "boys, you will go
| mean what | say; | shall 60" 1t
was known by two men that l was
not sound; that | had bad hernia
or rupture, and they said / knew that
l would not be accepted. / told them
that nothing would stop me from
going to war. They knew me pretty
well, and knew that l meant just
what | said. Rufus Bean was at
work by the month, the rest by the
day. After doing our chores and
eating supper, went to the barn to
hitch up a team Rufus came out and
asked me if | was going to the COM
mon | told him / was; he said he
would go if | was willing; | told him
he better not 90, but he said he guess
ed he would. | went direct to the
recruiting office, which was in the
hotel where :. Stanford now lives,
then kept by Kellam, and put my
name to the roll. Young Bean came
in about that time and when he saw
what | had done he said he was going
to enlist. | said every thing | could
to keep him from enlisting, but it was
no use he put his name to the list.
The next thing was to break the
news to my wife as gently as possible.
All of the men that agreed to enlist
kept their word, except one. Currier |
and the two Bean boys went in the |
cavalry with me Priest and Cham
berlin went in infantry; Priest was
killed at Cold Harbor, Chamberlin
died prisoner, and Rufus Bean was
drowned in Broad Run River.
When the time came we went to
Hyde Park and organized with +. b.
Sawyer, Capt. +; II. c. Flint, lst
Lieut.. j. Grant, I'd Lieut.. Chas.
Woodbury., orderly myself I'd Sergt.
We stayed at Hyde Park few days
and come the "hay-foot, straw-foot'
some. We went from there to Bur-
ington and went into camp on the
DID fair ground, where we received
the name of Co. /, lst VI. Cav. Vol.
The boys that enlisted with me felt
somewhat hard toward me up to the
time we were examined for getting
them into the scrape when they felt
SO sure that / should be inspected
put. But by little deception on my
part / passed the examination. We
had been in Burlington doing some
foot drilling for about three weeks
before we received our horses. Very
soon after they came we began drill
ing mounted, which we considered
great fun at first, but soon found
there was something else to it. If
there were any ugly and vicious horses
in the state, they were sold into the
lst VT. Cavalry. But they made the
very best ones for that place. As
was never afraid of horse i had some
g