The herald., 1897-08-18
STORIES OF THE WAR
The Part Poker Played in One Little
Incident

Fort Steadman incident when. Lieuten-
ant-General John B. Gordon undertook
to break through the lines and demoral-
ize Grants army, but have never heard
what to me seems to be the truth about
it, said o. E. Hand, of Company A,
! First Connecticut Heavy Artillery
Our company was stationed in Fort
Morton, some little distance from Fort
Steadman. You may not know it, but I
do. that poker playing was prominent
feature in that part of the army, partic-
ularly right after pay day. The night of
March "a 1865, / sauntered over to Fort
Steadman to sit in little game with
some friends of Company K, of our regi-
ment, then manning that stronghold.
| We played until a, te, or ] should say
an early, hour. Everybody around
/ there seemed to be playing. The office,
of the picket line in our imm ediate front
was in a game, and one of the men on
picket post where Gordon's troops made
their entrance into our lines told me that
the pickets were having a quiet little
game by the light Of shaded candles. 1t
had become SO common for Confederates
to come over to our lines to give them
selves up that the pickets that morning
paid no attention to the struggling men
until there was force enough to grab
them by the throat and prevent the CIV
ing of ali alarm. We knew nothir g
about their getting into our lines until
they had walked right into Steadman
without the slightest show OF opposition
The victorious Confederates made most
of us prisoners before we knew what was
going on.
Il guess that if it hadn't been pay day
about that time and the game of poker
hadn't been bit popular, General Cor
don wouldn't have gotten through our
lines, and would therefore have escaped
the loss of several thousand of his brave
men and the crushing defeat, the sever
est he and they suffered, until the sur
render at Appomattax fifteen days later.
"As the Confederates were taking
squad of us through our lines l dropped
out and found my way back to Fort Nor
ton from which I had gone without per-
mission.
"A funny thing occurred at Fort Nor
ton. The captain of our company real
lied that there was great danger of that
fort being taken by Gordon's heroic and
fearless men, and he and the men fought
like tigers While they were engaged
hotly, General Hartranft, the division
commander, sent word to our captain
by an aide to Immediately remove the
guns from Morton and abandon the fort.
The captain said: I cannot do it, sir
My teams are some distance from here
and cannot be brought here, now, as you
must see.' -'-
"'But you must, captain
"'But tell you canrot.'
THAT will not do; you must remove
those guns it is the generals order
"'You go to hell and stop bothering
me- was the captains response, and our
boys went on fighting as if the universe
depended upon the efforts of that one
company.
THE aide went back and reported to
the general what the captain had said,
That the good fighting of our company
cut large figure in the contest was
acknowledged, but after the battle the
captain was called to headquarters and
asked to explain why he had used un-
soldierly language in dealing with a
member of the generals staff
"I have no explanation to make,
was the captains reply.
Then you do not deny that you told
him to go to hell?
"'No, sir. But didn't tell hem to go
into camp in that hot place until had
made it very clear that it was impossi
BILE for me to get the guns away. Be
sides that, was confident that we could
hold our position. We did hold 1t. Wasn't
that better than trying to remove the
guns when it was impossible for us to
| iSia q T
plain about the matter.
Gen. Hartranft, who was stubborn
fighter himself, saw the point laughed
and let the captain go back to his quar-
ters without an explanation and apol
ogy.'
. Mr. Hand had a peculiar experience.
His command camped near Culpepper,
Va, the spring of 1864. Strict orders
had been given against granting fur
Ioughs The army was getting ready to
move. Hand received a letter from
home stating that his wife was very
sick; in fact, at the point of death, urg-
ing him, if he desired to see her alive
to come at once. His captain was will
ing that he should go, and so was the
colonel, but they were powerless under
the order to grant any more furloughs.
All Private Hand said, after the efforts
had failed and much precious time had
, been lost, was: "Well, l must go, and l
will CO.
He had been an exceptionally good
soldier, and was highly esteemed by all
his officers. They paid no attention to
his threat to violate army regulations
) BY some means he armed himself with a
paper that would enable him to reach
Washington. There he procured a suit
of citizens clothes, and had no diff
Guilty in getting out of the city He took
the fastest train for Connecticut. When
, he reached the little town where he had
, enlisted and where he had left his beau
: tiful young wife, he saw people coming
from the church. Among them were