The record-union., 1897-12-09
DISAPPOINTING PRICES.
IN "COPPERHEAD" DAYS.
How They Were Treated in the
Army-They Still Exist.

Whats become of all the copper
heads?" asked a young fellow of a med
al-of-honor man the other day. There
were plenty of them in the North when
I was born, and many must be living;
for, in spite of occasional repression,
their expectation of life was greater
than that of the veterans of the war, of
whom a million are left
The medal-of-honor man paused
minute well, / don't know" he fin
ally said. ST came from the State Of
Vallandigham, and there We're copper
heads enough there for a long time
after the war; but it's fact, we don't
hear much Of them nowadays. / came
East fifteen or twenty years ago, and
one Decoration Day l returned home in
time to see that the head men in the
civil management of the parade, the
speaker of the day and all the other
notables, except the veterans who did
the decorating, were the self-same old
scallawags who, while not daring to risk
their precious skins fighting for the Con-
federates, denounced from their North
ern homes all the efforts of the Govern
ment to put down the rebellion. A
change of heart? i guess not. BY nerve
and mpudence, aided. too, by the for
getfulness of the American public, they
had managed to live down the record of
their war days.
'In my regiment when the votes were
counted on election day, 1864, there
acre just seven ballots for Vallandig-
ham, who was running then for Cover
nor of Ohio. We knew just who those
men We're. and every one of them were
in Company G. l was only a slip of
boy then, but owing to the loss our reg
iment had sustained in battle I was
commanding two companies and was
acting as Adjutant as we'll When we
were in camp, as we We're that winter
the Colonel was inclined to drink bit.
Whenever he felt like it, he would call
out:
'Adjutant! Bring up those damned
copperheads.'
Then the detail from Company G
would march up. looking very sheep
ish.
You're a fine lot of patriots, you
are he would go on. Nice. soldierly
skunks. Don't you think you're
credit to your country This was the
starter for ten-minute TRADE, to all
OF which the copperheads had to listen.
The raking down invariably wound up
with this:
'Adjutant, Never put one of these
men on picket duty. Don't let them do
a single tour of guard duty. They'd be-
tray us to the rebels sure as gun is
iron. And, Adjutant, every time we go
into battle, put these damned copper
heads in front of the front rank
do you know what the copperheads
did in Ohio during and after the war?
At election time they loaded up hay
wagons with girls dressed in white
their own relatives, reckon-with big
white banner on the wagon, on which
this sign was printed: How would you
like to have your sister marry mig
ger?'
'Those We're exciting times, the cam
raigns in the latter part of the COS, and
we'll along in the 10's. / was on the
stump a good deal of the time. and the
Democrats worked their hardest to
break up our meetings. There was
quiet little fellow who went through the
war with me. always doing his duty.
and more. without any fuss. One night
he was speaking at Republican gath
ering, and was continually interrupted
by flights of cabbage heads. potatoes.
eggs and things. Finally he drew big