St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-11-25
HERO OF THREE WARS
A ST. Louis Nan los Years
Old With a Great
Record.
Fought Through the War Of
1912, the Mexican and
Civil Wars.
At the Age OF 1913 He Was
Earning His Own Liv-
ing.
The Hottest Fire He Was
Ever Under Was at
Vick5b burg.

There is hero of three wars living in
st. Louis, says the GlObe-DemOcrat.
On Christmas day he Will be 105 years
of aye. During his century and a
twentieth Of life this remarkable man
has guided the throttle of locomotive
over 100000 mites of rail. has fought Tor
his country in three great conflicts, has
undergone some of the most thrilling
adventures ever experienced by an
American on flood and field. has used
tobacco for eighty wears, and has never
been sick day. His name is William
Jack Haynes.
Up to within couple of years Mr..
Haynes was working regularly at his oc-
cupation of engineer. He stands
straight as an Indian chief, six feet one
!nch in his stockings; his eyesight %
fair, his hearing is tolerable, and his APP
petite makes the cooks grOan.
First and last I've seen considerable
Of this earth" said he to a Globe-Demo-
crat visitor. my battles? l was i'll the
middle of the scrimmage when Gen.
Jackson licked the British, TOOK little
hand in the Mexican war ana run the
blockade and had lots of fun at VickS-
burg during the last miX-up. You see, |
was born in the Cumberland mountains
OF Tennessee. Christmas, 1857. | lived
there till | was quite boy. Then along
here comes the war of 1872 Gen. Js elk
SOP was at New Orleans. When we got
down there Jackson was intrenched be-
hind the cotton bales. The British
thought they wanted those bales, and
came right ahead. But do you guess
jackson was afraid? Not much.
BY the eternaln he yelled to us,
Give 'em round, boys. Every one
fetch his maui
I'VE waited till we could see the
whites of the redbreaSts' eyes. When
the smoke cleared away the British
ranks looked as ragged as the wrong
rooster after main. Before we got Or
derS to give 'em another white flag
was raised on the other side, showing
that they had surrendered.
After the battle of New Orleans had
wound up in 1912 got rather rowing in
my ideas.
when the Pacific railroad was built
l ran the second engine brought into
Missouri.
II didn't cut much of a figure in the
Mexican war. was just on the edge
of it, you might say, but guess L saw
All Cdreu 10 see, anyhow.
The hottest quarters ever | got into,
though, was in the Rebellion at Vicks-
burg. | was aboard the Sumpter as en-
gineer. We were waiting fer the Con-
federate Arkansas TO come down
stream. At length we sent little
transport boat up to see where she
was.
Running tRae Batteries.
"The transport found cut very quick
ly, you bet, for down the Arkansas
came tearing around the bend. The
little boat got out Of the way in double
quick, and the Arkansas came down on
us. She just fired one gun our way,
then closed her portfolios and went
right past us. She fell down stream till
SIC got under the protection Of bat
terry from shore, and then tied up. Adj
miral David Farragut was below her
with his wooden fleet, and was afrai1
that the Arkansas would drop down on
him, and break him to pieces with her
ram. So he ordered the Sumpter to run
into her that night and try to sink her,
taking the Essex along to draw the fire
from the battery. We made the trial,
but, as the night was dark, missed our
meat, and ran our nose iuto the bank.
There were 1000 bags of sugar lying
on the levee at Bayou Sara. which Gen.
Porter wanted to take to New Orleans.
He loaded part of this upon the Anglo
American and left the Sumpter guard
ing the remainder. AS luck would have
if, we got aground there, and the RebS
began to accumulate altogether too
lively. We sent yaWl down to Porter,
telling him Of our fix and begging that
he send up big boat and get us off. III
stead he sent little transport not big
enough to pull mesquite off its nest.
We saw thai we couldn't do anything
but get shot il we STAYED on board the
Sumpter, and left her Before we got
out of sight the Rtbs had set her atire
and blown up ner magazines. After
that | went down the river on a trip for
coal.
Porter had fooled away such length
of time i'll letting us have the coal that
when we started up the river we found
ii fortified where before all was plain
sailing. When We came up the stream
the ConfederSteS opened fire on us and
rakpd Us pretty nigh clean. In all,
seveuty-eight shots struck that precious
boat, | was in the engine room.
TO make bad matter worse, shot
struck the man-head of the boiler, and
she began to leak, Steam gave out all
of a sudden, and the old craft began to
swing about for run back down cur
rent. Throw on some TeSin,' yelled to
the one man who still kept his post with
me, and while he did this turned off
the flow OF water into the boiler. At this
heroic measure steam accumulated
quickly again, and we managed to get
out OF the shot and to the Essex without
further miShap. Just before we run into
I foly off ioo yat
hang it up. After we got through l
looked at my garment and found eight
holes through II.
Never Had an Accident.
"ln all my experience as an engineer
] never had an accident nor an explo-
sion, and in all my experience in the
war never received scratch. | used
tobacco steady, sometimes chewing as
much as a l0-cent plug every day. up to
within year or SO ago. But l never
could smoke. not even cigarette,
though L tried to learn when on the
river. A couple of years ago had to
stop wOrk-nrt on account OF old age.
however. l was engineer at the Fagin
building, OH Olive street liked the
place all right, but the sewer gas was
awful. 1t just seemed to undermine my
constitution. and | had to quit"
ut seems SO strange that he can't
earn my living as he used to do" said
Mrs. Haynes with a sad smile. 1t
doesn't seem natural at all"
Mr.. Haynes does not look day older
than seventy five.
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