Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1905-03-04
THE FIELD OF BATTLE
INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES OF
THE WAR.
The Veterans of the Rebellion Tell of
Whistiing Bullets, Bright Bayoneta,
Bursting Bombs, Bloody Battiss
cazp Fire. Festive BuGs, Etc, Etc.

that General w. T. sherman put
Foraker forward as a presidential
candidate fifteen years ago? He did
lat a meeting OF the Army of the
tennessee at Cincinnati In 1SS9-and
good many of the boys will remem-
Der with what warmth and earnest
ness Uncle Billy spoke Foraker was
not of the same generation as Sher-
man, Sheridan, Rosecrans, McCook,
Hayes, Cox, Steedman. Garfield and
other 0hioans who won high rank
and distinction in the Civil War.
Sherman was Al years old when he
took command in the Union army;
Grant was 80, and Foraker at the
same date was boy of 10.
"Rosecrans was AZ when he was
appointed colonel of the Twenty third
Ohio; Hayes was 80 when he entered
the same regiment; Crook was 33
when commissioned colonel of the
Fourteenth; Lyle was 35 when he
was made colonel of the Tenth; Bob
McCook was "a when he took charge
OF the Ninth; William Sooy Smith 81
when he was appointed colonel of the
Thirteenth; Alex. NJ. McCook was 90
when given the colonelcy of the First;
Garfield 30 when he became colonel
OF the Forty second, and Foraker was
l6 when he enlisted in the Eighty
| ninth in 1862, He was a boy soldier
when all the others were brigadiers
on a lon. tc
years after the close of the war Sher-
man spoke of him with the pride of
the old man in the achievements of
the young
! Foraker had lots of solder expert
ence before he was Is, and was In
/ command of his company Then he
went to the staff of General Slocum,
and 1t was as the fine horseman, the
| dashing officer that Sherman remem-
/ bered him. 1t was Foraker, by the
way, who carried Sherman's dispatch
announcing the capture of Savannah
/ to President Lincoln as Il Christmas
gift, from the army headquarters TO
the fleet. Remembering this, General
| Sherman, in his address In Cincin-
natin in 1889, told the story of young
Foraker riding through the pine
woods with q message from General
Slocum-riding up to him, horse in
/ lather and man and horse covered
with mud, like a knight Grant, a boy
in years, but In appearance, in bear
ing, in speech, every inch the soldier.
SHERMAN said that from that hour
he had loved Foraker, because he had
come to his commanding general as
fair a picture of the ideal soldier as
his eyes had ever looked upon. Then,
| turning to Foraker, he said, in words
that not any one who heard them
ever forgot. I wish you, Governor
Foraker, all honor. all glory, all fame
/ wish you may rise 20 the highest
position the American people can give
YOU
Sherman died in 1891, Sheridan,
Hayes, Garfield, Rosecrans, Crook,
Steedman, and others of the old Ohio
soldier circle are gone. Grosvenor,
Keifer and a very few others survive.
Mckinley more nearly contempor-
! airy of Foraker, is gone. Foraker, the
most distinguished of the boy soldiers
of the war, the officer who was not
of age until two years after the close
of the war, seems to be now in the
line Of promotion marked out by Gen
cral Sherman fifteen years ago"
Speaking of General Steedman."
sand the captain, II came to know him
! very well after the war, aud he told
good many stories of his campaigns.
He was an aggressive, hide-bound
4 Democrat, but he used to laugh over
his first meeting with Andrew John
! son. When he was at Camp Dick
| Robinson in 1861 a number Of East
| Tennesseeans, after long period Of
wandering. came into camp. Among
| them were Andrew Johnson and Hor-
ace Maynard.
They had been roughing it for
some weeks, and Johnson, In clothes
and in general appearance, was very
much the worse for wear. Steedman
at once invited him to share his quar-
tiers, and took him over 10 his tent.
An old fellow, serving as orderly, took
the general aside and said: Good
Lord, General, you are not going to
bunk with that old tramp, are you?
Steedman explained that the tramp
was Andy Johnson, and that he was
TO be treated with the greatest con
sideration The orderly retorted that
Andy Johnson or Andy anybody else
made no difference with him. He
would bet money the old fellow had
graybacks.
Several months later the same or
derby carried a message from General
Steedman at Nashville to Governor
Andrew Johnson at the State house
The Governor was the pesonicati0n
Of neatness, Formally and dignity,
and when the orderly entered the
executive Office was pacing to and fro
with a look on his strong face that
made him very forbidding The old
soldier presented his message. and was
agfOunded to hear the Governor say: