Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-11-24
IN CAMP AND FIELD.
4 MEDICAL MANS MEM0RY
OF WAR TTNE

OF WARTIME
''her'' bonnet looked the eagle syes Of
Captain Nathaniel Lyon of the United
States army, who carefully took in the
whole situation.
Shortly afterwards body Of armed sol
jiers were marched cat to Camp jackson,
halted in front Of it, when their comman-
Ier, Captain Lyon, demanded and promptly
received the surrender of the Confederate
camp with its twelve hundred embryo SOL
diers.
This bold and sagac- Jus act caused great
rejoicing throughout the West, but
specially in such pArts OF Illinois as were
tributary to st. Louis. The newspapers
of the day were filled with accounts of the
affair and Captain Lyon at once came into
prominence. But his cfr:ar Of glory was
doomed to be short. he fell precisely
three months lat 81 ut Wilson's creek.
Our little county, as stated in q previous
paper, furnished company of three
months men at the first call in April, 1851 !;
these, before their time had fully expired,
came home on furlough, preparatory to
entering the three years. service, for
which period they had re-enlisted. Those
from our community came walking in
from toward the railroad station one
bright June morning, dressed in their
fresh, new uniforms: Coats Of dark or
navy blue, with bright, brass buttons,
pants light blue, neat caps with long
visors, and their blankets of gray wooden,
neatly rolled and thrown gracefully over
their shoulders. Thus seen, soldering"
10 lied inviting to q boy not yet eighteen.
turing the summer Of 1851 a man came
a.pnG and hired out upon the farm where
ihc writer was working He stated
that he was from near Springfield,
Mo-, where he had owned a well-stocked
farm, but that the country being overrun
by the contending armies every thing had
been stripped off," and he was glad to get
away. His family had gone to some rela-
tives in Indiana while he sought to earn a
little money by hard work. He was the
first Union refugee seen by the writer
The battle of Bull Run in the East, and
Wilson's creek in the West, were the prln-
cipal engagements during the summer of
1861
The writer remembers anxiously watch
ing the papers during the summer and
autumn of that year, instinctively hoping
to read of the Confederates being over
whelmed by our forces But his hopes
were not gratitied; that bit of philos.
ophy: 1.-THE mills of the gods grind
slnwly but surely;" he had yet TO learn.
During the winter of 1862 the writer
taught district school in a remote and
sparsely-settled section, seven miles from
post-office, where papers week old were
not considered stale.
Not till long after it was fought, January
10, 1862, Mill Spring, General Thomas first
battle, was read an account of the whole
matter. Here the Confederate forces were
beaten and put to flight General Zolli-
Golfer killed, their lines penetrated and
broken at Bowling Green. Even in this
early period every peighborhood had one
or more representatives in the army, and
during the winter the writer remembers
serving upon several occasions as amanu-
ensis to some of his employers, who were
poor penmeu, answering letters from sol
dierS at the 'front.'.
Towards night one dreary, foggy day in
February, 1862. the boom of cannon was
heard away off to the southwest. Next
day it was learned that great victory had
been won. That Fort Doneson, on the
Tennessee river, had fallen. Fifteen thou
sand Confcderates were reported captured,
with all their arms and accoutrcmcnts.
The cannonading heard proved 10 be tn @
firing of National salute ut st. Louis
more than forty miles distant. Meeting a
party next day who had seen the papers
and read an account of the whole affair,
the writer inquired the name of the Union
commander.
The answer WAS: "Gemerat Grant"
"Grant 2" ''Grantr' said the writer,
'never heard of him, who is hea what's his
rank where's he from 90
Don't know just who he ISL was the
reply, except that he is Il Brigadisr- Gen.
eral and is from Illinois"
The writer remembers feeling a shade of
disappointment at the time that an en-
tirely new and unknown man should all at
once come into such prominence and, so to
speak, eclipse men with familiar names
Fort Donelson surrendered February Ia,
1862, and it must have been the evening of
February IA that the salute was heard.
1t is unusual for cannonading to be heard
forty miles and more distant, but the damp,
heavy atmosphere of the time together
with the level prairie over which the sound
wave traversed had much to do with the
long distance reached.
In singular contrast to this experience
was that at Perryville, October 8, 1862,
when in the afternoon severe and
bloody battle was fought by McCool's
corps of the army of the Ohio two and
one-half miles from the headquarters of
the Commander, but he notwithstanding
failed to hear the sound of battle.
In a recent article on the battle of Shiloh,
General Buell. expresses surprise that the
Commander of the army should unwilling.
ly permit the foe to approach with large
force, encamp over night within one and
onehalf miles of his lines and next morn.
ing attack with largo armyl Not stranger
is it, that another Commander should re.
main quietly at his headquarters for
whole afternoon in blissful ignorance of
the fact that one wing of his army was en-
gagged in perilous battle, but two and one
half miles distantl
But that the latter circumstance hap
pened, Buell. himself testifes and offers in
explanation the peculiar CONFORMATION of
the country and the prevalence of strong
wind from his headquarters toward the
corps engaged. War as we'll as peace has
its anomalies.
In the autumn OF 1861 the people began
to be impatient with what was deemed the
needless inactivity of the Army of the Po-
tomac under Mcclellan, and concerning
him and that organization the phrase:
"AH quiet on the Potomac" first used as an
expressive indication of no demonstration
by either friend or foe in Virginia, came
as the period of inaction heightened, to
have a satirical meaning.
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