Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-04
A WARTIME MEETING

May, 1865. My recollection Of it as it was
then is that you wouldn't much feel like
taking a chance on kicking hat lying in
the middle Of a street. for fear that you
might kick the head underneath the hat
for Washington surely was pretty Doggy
matter of forty years ago.
my dad brought me down here to Wash
ington from Detroit to enter me at George
town University In the year 1860 I was
then a bit more than sixteen years old. l
liked the life at the Georgetown University
Until the war broke out. Then there were
too many rollicking soldier boys camped
around in the neighborhood of Georgetown
for me to preserve my contentedness They
all looked to me as II they were enjoying
picnic. and I made up my mind that I'd
have to get one of those blue uniforms on
myself or shrivel up.
SHORTY after the beginning Of the war
l wrote home to my dad In Detroft-he was
then organizing a Michigan regiment,
which he took all through the war, and 1t
was cut to pieces several times. too-and
told him that / thought I'd like to join the
army. The phrase wasn't in use then. but
he wrote back something to the general
effect that l had another think or two a.
coming. He wrote that didn't know when
/ was well off. and said that, as he was
getting together a thousand men for the
big conflict. he figured that he could come
pretty near doing all the soldering neces-
sary IN our family. remember thinking
that this was pretty selfish on the old gen.
tleman's part. 1 reflected that he had been
in the Mexican war. and that therefore in
wishing to do all Of the soldering in the
civil war. too. he certainly was showing
disposition to hog things
. However. studied my lessons and went
along all right at Georgetown University
until early in 1861. and then I couldn't
stand it any longer. So one afternoon /
just cut out through the big gate made for
the railroad station and established con-
nections with a freight car tackled on to
freight train that l found was booked to go
to western New York. Inside Of three or
four days 1 was incontinently dropped at
Lockport. N. Y.
''It didn't take me long there to fall into
the hands of a substitute broker, and two
days after l arrived at Lockport I was
duly logged out in a government straight
uniform that, as 1 remember it, was the
baldest kind of a joke as a fit. Somehow
/ didn't feel half so cheerful over the pros
with about a. hundred other young gos-
soons. l was herded in a corner of an old
storehouse near the railroad. and kept there
under guard until the train was ready to
take us to the front.
Naturally enough, I was pretty curious
to find out to what part of the front we
We're going. but never line Of informa-
ton could l get from anybody about it
until we were well past Baltimore. 1 don't
suppose any of the others knew any more
than did.
When we got beyond Baltimore. how
ever, l found out, all right, whittier we were
bound. and the news made almost
wther up.
We're going to Giesboro' Point! one of
the young officers announced when the train
got outside of Baltimore. Now only a few
days before I'd jumped the Georgetown
University I'd received a letter from my
dad in Detroit saying that he'd be over
to the university to see me presently, as his
regiment was going to be stationed only
little distance away from Washington-at
Giesboro' Point! None of the terrors of battle
or sudden death looked half fierce to me
in prospect as my dads discovering me in
mlsht uniform. and right in his own camp,
too, after he'd so expressly forbidden me to
have anything to do with soldering
Il well remember the night we were
dumped at Giesboro' Point. the little place
down the Potomac bit on the Maryland
slde-l drove over there yesterday to have
look at the old grounds. 1 made up my
mind that the best thing for me to do would
be to look up the old gentleman the very
first thing on the following morning and
take my incidence too tired to think
or anything but rolling up in blanket on
the first night we got In.
Il found my dad in his tent along toward
10 O'Clock on the next morning. He had
no ldea, of course. that I wasn't right over
the river at Georgetown conjugating Latin
verbs, and on that very day in fact, he
was intending to cross over to Georgetown
to look me up
Hello, pop said I, strolling into his
tent and endeavoring to look as rakish as
L could. How are they all at homer
We'll. the old gentleman looked at mo
steadily for good three minutes before ne
said word or before 1 knew what was
gong to happen to me. l put in the time
shifting from one leg to the other. Then
my dads countenance broke into a grin
That's queer-looking uniform, SON.
ne said You'll have to be looking up your
company tailor to have it whitfield down to
your proportions
That was all. He didn't roast me at all.
and l had been expecting him to swoop
upon me like a thousand of bricks Not a
question did he ask me as to why rd dis
obeyed him and jumped the university I'm
not certain that the old gentleman wasn't
Just bit tickled inwardly that one of his
cubs had taken the bit in his teeth in that
way.
We'll, pretty nigh four wears after that
In the month of March, before Appomattox.
l was dumped, along with many scores of
others that had been pretty badly hit, into
a boat on the James river bound from
there to Washington hospital. / had got
mine in skirnish, and yet it.w bad
enough piece of work for man to have get
IN the biggest pitched battle of the war
Down the James and up the Potomac was
the course of the boat. and when I came
TO found myself on cot in an institution
called Campbell's Hospital. that, I Think.
stood at the corner of It'll and streets as
those streets are named now
was still there when Lincoln was as
sassinated. and l can remember how I
pitched and tossed around in a hostile
humor because ] wasn't in shape to get IN
for the grand review of the army NV
DAD. who'd been through the entire war
with his Michigan outfit, came to see me at
the hospital| hadn't clapped an eve on
him since leaving Giesboro' Point, nearly
four years beforehand he inquired of me
which appealed to me the more-the life Of
a soldier or a student? He got me out o.
that place when 1 was just able to walk.
and, with lot of back pay and the like in
my rags. back to Detroit went with him
and that's the last I ever saw of Washing
ton until about four days ago. I'd like to
have brought the old gentleman along. but
he stood his last inspection and muster
long years ago That's how near I came
to getting what you call a college eddica-
ton My chance was gone, Of course.
when l got back from the war-things
weren't SO prosperous as they had been,
and it was up to me to go to work
But, all the same, when take a look at
Washington, the mraculously changed and
the marvelously beautiful Washington, as
1t Is today-well, dunno but what I have
a tendency to sort O swell up over the re-
Election that l chose to be one Of the no
matter how infnitesimal units that helped
to keep the little old place together at a
time when 1t looked like fair even money
bet that the capital might go out uf bust
ness"