Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-10-15

with Secretary Seward by his side, lust
as he used to come to nearer Kalo-
rama, and, after he had chatted with
| the general a while. he would drive
through the regimental camps to re-
ceive the tumultuous greeting of 'the
boys, to wave his hat and smile at
them, and sometimes, when they
crowded about him. to stop and shake
hands with the nearmost, and once or
twice to tell some whimsical story
that would set his hearers shouting
with glee.s
But If the rugged features beamed
with kindness and sympathy early in
the December days and had ever a
smile in return for the greeting of the
shouting boys in blue, senior officers
who best knew him became aware Of
growing anxiety and Impotence on
his part ere Christmas came in, and
the crowded camps were jubilant with
feasting and good cheer. The beloved
little commanding general had been
taken i'll with a fever and confined to
his bed. The president to whom he
information as to that generals plans,
and, strange as it may seem, the two
or three men in his. McClellan's. con-
fidence were strangers at the white
house and the departm When,
in his anxiety and sympathy, the pres
ident called in person at the invalid's
house, he was neither asked to the bed
side nor given information as to when
the general would be able to resume
duty. AS consequence the president
had to turn to other sources, and
Fred's division commander, Mcdowell,
was the first he sought. He was for
ever asking questions as to the con-
dition of the roads. the possibility of
moving guns and trains, and showing
not little eagerness when told that
through January. at least, they ought
to be hard and firm, but rough.
And yet, save for more drills and
ceremonies, and in spite of the clamor
of the nation, the press and the gov
eminent, the army moved not, and the
fine weather of December was gone
and January came, and stories went
from fire to fire that the president and
the people had become irritated at the
long delay, and that Little Mac was
being urged and importuned and even
blamed. Let Little Mac alone" said
the boys. HE knows what he's
about" for even IN their impatience
nothing could shake their loyalty.
At last the president took the law
into his hands and issued his first or
der directing the advance of an army
in the field. And at last, it's corps Or
ganization completed now-though
with generals not of McClellan's choice
to the glorious music of tic innumer-
able bands, in splendid weather and in
splendid spirits, the long blue columns
filed out from the shelter of the cir
cling fortifications and took the road
to Centreville.
Promotion had by this time carried
Fred's division commander to the head
of corps and his brigade commander
to the head of tho fine division, in
which until now the wild western.
ers had been numbered as the
First brigade. Now they became
the Third, and were both aston
ished and disgusted to find that
their numerical destination de-
pended not, as they were inclined to
say, on their soldierly superiority, but
upon the relative rank of the brigade
commander. 1t CALLED them, to tell tho
truth, to find that the promotion to
division rank of the West Point SOL
der who had organized drilled and
taught them from the start, involved
a corresponding Setback for them
selves. Some Badgers took the matter
the general should have declined pro-
motion-let somebody else step up to
the command of the division rather
than see his old comrades moved from
the right to the left of the line, from
front to rear of the column In vain
were they assured that it really made
no earthly difference, that the brigade
would take turns at the head of the
column on the march, and, as for the
line of battle, they would get just as
much fighting on the left as on the
rigk:
However, the brigade strobe away
most vigorously on the march to Ma
masses, was one of the first to reach
the stored stream that wound along
at the foot of the heights, was one of
the most Disguised to find the "impreg-
nable system of powerful works" held
only by Quaker guns and abandoned
impedimenta, but to Fred Benton and
his general there came lively sensa-
ton in the report from the lips of the
bearded colonel Of the BLACK Hats"
His men had stumbled on lot of let
tiers and luggage unaccountably left be-
hind even in the calm deliberation of
the confederate withdrawal-the prop
erty of certain officers of the Eleventh
Alabama.
Continued in next issue.)
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