The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1898-04-23
Veterans History.
Personal History of Lorenzo Seerles.
Superior Wis.


county, New York, and at the age of
seventeen enlisted with several of his
friends as prlyates for thirteen dollars
! per month.
| Among those who enlisted with Mr.
Searles were John and Charles Whea-
ton, Gideon Baker. Allen Wells, and
Jacob Smell.
Several meetings were held, but Mr..
! Searles does not remember who adj
! dressed them.
After the speakers had aroused, by
/ their speeches the spirit of patriotism
= in the men, they would cali all who
wished to enlist to the front of the
stage, where they would sign their
names to the enlistment roll.
/ After Mr. Searles enlisted he was sent
/ to Malone, New York, to be mustered
/ into the army, but the officers wo,lld
not take him on account of his youth.
He had to go back home and get his
/ mothers consent, ana in tins he sue
ceeded.
| From Malone the recruits went to
Harris Island, N.Y., then to City Point
Here the soldiers could hear Grants
army cannonadIng at Petersburg. Here
they stayed about FIVE hours. Then
they were sent to Camp Distribution,
where they were assigned to their diff
| ferent regiments. They stayed two
days at this place.
They were then sent to the barracks
at Washington, DC, where Mr.. Searles
ate his first regular army meal, which
was composed of pork and hard tack.
Here he sold his vest and then he
and chum went out to the city and
bought square" meal for themselves
Then they were put into box cars AMI
sent to IIarper's Ferry, where he
spent his first night camping without
tents and in heavy rain storm.
The men took fence-rails and laid
them up against log, or stump, so that
one end would be higher than the
other, then they would spread their
rubber blankets over them and sleep
Oh tlllS rough btu all night.
From here they were sent to Bolivar
Heights, opposite Maryland Heights,
near Harper's Ferry, where they went
into camp. On the second night some
of the company, who camped next TO
him, robbed suffers shantv and buried
the goods and provisions which they
stole, in a hill near camp. In the morn
ing some Of the soldiers went over the
hill and dug up the booty and brought
into camp Here they drew their guns.
tents and ammunition. and then
marched up the Shenandoah Valley,
where they found no rebels, but farther
on up the valley they made their first
charge, but this charge was not made
on rebel soldiers but on rebel pigs.
There were about fifteen hundred men
In the regiment chasing fifteen or twenty
pigs. MIR. Searles was one of the lucky
ones to get a pig, which he caught by
running his bayonet through it, He
and a chum split it in two and each
took half, which they put into their
knapsacks. 1t WAS while roasting his
half pig for supper that evening that he
first heard the rebel bullets whistling
around him and the canuns roaring.
But az lie was in the reserve corps, he
did not fight, but kept on cooking
supper as he was very hungry. Soon
after the firm. began soldiers carrying
men on stretchers passed the tent. One
of his tent mates called his attention 10
the many strctcherS, and to the men
with their arms and legs shot off, but
he replied that he was hungry and
wanted supper, and that he would look
afterwards.
1t was here at the front and in line of
battle that Mr.. Searles learned the
drills, and attended the School Of the
Soldier" His drill masters were the
captain, lieutenant, and non-commis-
stoned officers. Here, at Cedar Creek,
they built breastworks at night and
building the breastworks the men would
go into the woods and cut down large
trees, then bring them into camp where
the breastwOrks were to be built, and
made a pile OF them covering them with
mud. On the morning of October 10th.
1861, TIE signal corps Of the army i'll the
valley reported that the Confederate
army had suddenly disappeared and
could not be located.
The members Of Mr.. Searle's regi-
ment, which was the 18th y. Y, were
awakened by the commanding officer
and told to get their breakfasts and go
in search of the Confederate army, when
Suddenly they heard firing along the
plCket-line, winch IS 4 number OF men
scattered in a circle around the camp at
distance Of about two miles, and very
soon bullets began to make known their
presence in camp by killing few men
in their tents. Soon after the rebel
army came upon the breastworks and
surprised the Union army, which was
composed of the Sixth, Eighth and
Nineteenth corps, of which Mr.. Searies
was a member. before the soldiers
know what had happened they were
nearly surrounded 10y rebels, Behind
the camp and directly in the path Of
the rebels. were two suffers shanties,
and only the attention which they
gave to these saved the Union army
from being surrounded.
There was an open place on the right
side of the camp, and through this place
the army escaped. leaving everything
to the rebels and taking with them
nothing but their arms and the clothes
wiIiCn they wore. After the battle some
of the men had no hats and others no
shoes. The rebels drove them about
four miles and on their retreat they
passed through a small town, called
Now Town As they marched through