The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1902-08-07
THE FIELD OF BATTLE
INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES OF
THE WAR.
The Veterans of the Rebellion Tell of
WhistlinG Bullets, Bright Bayonets,
Bursting Bombs, Bloody Battles,
Camp Fire. Festive Bugs, Etc, Etc.

doctor. have not been quite fair to
Gen. John Mcneil in regard to the
| Palmyra massacre 1t was ut Pal
myra in October. 1862. when Gen. Nc
| Nell ordered the execution of Il men
captured in the fight at kirksville. but
ii is a mistake To say that these men
We're ordinary prisoners of war. They
were guerriIlas who had been cap
| tured and released on parole not to
take any further part in the war
against the Union and who stood
charged with the murder of several
Union men.
| I'VE knew those fellows and knew
what they had been doing. Their old
neighbors We're the witnesses against
them. There was no doubt of their
guilt. The guerrillas had been perse-
cutting and numbering Unionists for
been arrested. tried. and sentenced.
but the Federal authorities had sus-
pended the sentence. This encouraged
the most reckless desperadOes to take
service under guerrilla leaders to for
ward their own schemes of personal
and private vengeance. This had gone
on for so long time that the Union
lists of the State We're furious. When
| these II men were tried before Gen.
Mcneil and identified as murderers OF
the Union men he ordered them shot
and they We're shot.
Mcneil had warrant for this in the
order of Gen. Halleck. which declared
that all persons joining guerrilla bands
will not. if captured. be held as pris-
orers of war, but will be hung. and in
the order of Gen. Schofield to the eff
| feet that 'guerrillas. when caught in
arms engaged in guerrilla warfare. will
be shot down upon the spot 1t is
significant that after the executions
at Palmyra, not a single outrage on n
Union man occurred in that part of the
State. Gen. Mcneil was a Missouri
general, and he acted without any ref
erence to the Federal authorities.
THE state of affairs at that time in
Missouri was worse than in any other
State because the country was ranged
over by recruiting parties from both
armies. McNeirs policy assumed that
Confederates had no right within his
lines and when he caught them he
treated all such intruders as spies. just
as they were treated in other States.
On one occasion four young men and
myself captured a noted guerrilla and
took him to McNeirs tent. We sur
rendered our prisoner on condition that
Mcneil never make public the names
OF the captors. He promised to do
this. but years after the close of the
war 1 found in the official records of
the rebellion n report of McNeil's in
which he gave our names, with the ex-
PLANTATION that he promised not to make
them public.
while New England was in an up
roar over the Palmyra executions and
while the London papers We're scor-
ing Mcneil as the most brutal of bar
barians, the Union people of Missouri
were receiving him with enthusiasm,
and thanking him for the suppression
Of guerrilla warfare. We who lived
there understood that guerrilla war.
as practiced in Missouri. was worse
than anarchy. 1t was bad in itself, and
it was disastrous in its educational in
fiuence. Missouri, as result of guer-
rillism. turned loose az the close of the
war scores of men like the James
brothers and the Younger brothers to
plague civilization"
There was Morgan l.. Smith," said
the captain, Colonel of the Eighth
Missouri, who, had n reputation for Sc
verify and cruelty. because he was
great swearer and rough in manner.
But, as a matter of fact. he was not
Il cruel man. On his return from the
war, his sister said: Morgan, you have
a reputation for being hard swear
err He turned and faced her and said
In his ordinary soldier tone. That's
d lie. 1 swear very little He
could not understand the look of con-
sternation on his sisters face until she
explained that he had sworn at her
He, In turn, explained with great care
that he would not swear in the pres
ence of a woman for all the world held
i'm the way of hOnOrs, but he did want
to say that the man who said he was
a hard swearer was d liar.
Il was in Missouri early in the war.
and was under fire for the first time
in the fight against JEFF Thompson ut
Frederickstown, October 81, 1861. You
have seen that picture of Verestchagin.
in which he represents men in battle
for the first time. l saw that day hun
dreds of men with that expression on
their faces, each looking inquiringly,
expectantly at the others, not afraid,
but under the strain of a new and
strange excitement. That morning, ]
was suffering with a lame foot, and was
in one of the company's wagons l
heard some cOmmOtion and an explo-
sion. and l raised the cover of the
wagon to see what was going on.
There l saw men with the Verest-
chagin expression on their faces, all
looking in one direction, and 1 saw
cannon ball bounding along toward the
wagon in which lay fiat on my back
The thought came to me that at last I
was face to face with actual war. for
got all about my lame foot, jumped out
of the wagon, caught up my gun, went
forward to where our own regiment
was In line, all atremble from head to
foot, but after five minutes that feeling
left me, and l was as ready for the
business of war as any man i'm line
Il remember that one of the older
men in our company. noticing the ex-
citement under which l was laboring.
asked me If wouldn't like to brace up
on chew of tobacco. l put it in my
mouth, but never knew what became
of it. l always supposed l swallowed
it. War in the Missouri of that day
was full of surprises. We captured at
Frederickstown number of prison