Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1905-03-11
Mccook-Prentiee Duel.


McCook-Prentice Duel.
"a misleading statement said Capt.
Samuel A Harper of Peoria, in re-
gard to the so-called duel between Col.
Dan 'McCook and the son of George
D. Prentice is going the rounds. AS
l witnessed the fight 1 know more
about it than those who didn't see it
and who apparently never heard of it
until recently.
I'm December, 1862, 1 was in COM
pany H, Fifty-second Ohio infantry.
During the battle of Stone
River the left battalion of the
Fifty-second was detailed to guard
supply train from Nashville to the
army at Stone River. Col. Dan Nc
Cook was then commanding the bri-
gade on post duty as. Nashville, but,
eager to find excuse for going to the
front, he on this occasion took COM
mand of his regiment and we started.
when we reached the old asylum
on the Murfreesboro pike, about eight
miles out, Wheeler's cavalry attacked
us, and before the battalion could be
concentrated, cut wide swath
through the moving train. When COM
pany H double-quicked up from the
rear to the point of attack we met Col.
Dan coming to meet us from the head
of the train. At that minute we be-
came holly engaged, as did the detach-
ment with the Colonel.
I'm a few minutes l looked up to see
how Col. Dan was faring, and saw him
and Confederate officer riding in a
circle firing rapidly at each other with
their Colt revOlverS. 1t was what the
boys called a beautiful fight, and fin
ally the Confederate officer fell from
his horse. Col. Dan rode on to form
the arriving companies, but Capt. Ed
ward l. Anderson of his staff dis
mounted, placed the wounded officer
behind a tree, and gave him such as
sistance as he could render.
Col. Dan soon had his men in hand
and drove Wheeler off. He delivered
the train to the army in front and
with his one battalion participated in
the closing fight of the battle of Stone
River. Meantime Capt. Anderson
learned that the officer wounded in
the spectacular fight was the son of
George D. Prentice and he so reported
to Col Dan.
LAS the latter was a warm personal
friend and great admirer of George D.
Prentice and had written him the day
war, he was grieved beyond measure
that he had shot the son of the old
friend of his family and himself How
ever, he had young Prentice cared for
and used his influence to have him
sent home.
When Col. McCook next met Mr.
Prentice Unexpectedly at hotel in
Nashville), he hesitated to approach
him. Prentice noticing his constraint
and divining the cause, took the mat
ter in his own hands. He gave the
colonel the most cordial greeting, and
the two talked over the fight at the
asylum, the Colonel expressing his re-
greet that the fortunes of war had
made him the antagonist of his old
friends son. When Col. Dan fell at
Kenesaw no more touching tribute
was paid his memory that that which
came from the pen of George D. Prem
tice. Chicago Inter Ocean.
Expert Surgeon in the Ranks.
.You never could tell said the
colonel, what kind of a man you
were picking up when a man enlisted
in the first year of the civil war. All
sorts of men were eager to get into
the service, and most of them were
humble minded 1 remember that in
one of the earlier regiments mustered
in Ohio we found a college president,
three lawyers and four doctors among
the privates, and undreds of men
who were reticent as to their previous
standing in life. Much the same con-
6itions prevailed, 1 know, in Indiana,
Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. In
that day the best of us did not believe
that any man was too good to carry a
musket in defense of the flag
MANY of the men who enlisted in
cognito were not found out for months
Or years For example, when we were
going through the Carolinas in the
last year of the war Surgeon McCau-
ley of the Ninety-eighth Ohio over
took an Irish sergeant on his way
from the field hospital to the front.
Artillery and skirmish firing in front
Indicated that the brigade was having
a hard fight, but the sergeant, well
equipped as to arms and ammunition,
and well fortified with 'spiritus fru-
menti,' obtained at the field hospital,
where the surgeons were too busy
with the wounded to protect their
supplies, seemed Indifferent
Sturgeon McCauley, taking in the
situation, said: Pat, what are you
doing back here when the regiment is
having fight in 'front.' Pat saluted