The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1905-03-02
THE FIELD OF BATTLE
INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES OF
THE WAR.
The Veterans Of the Rebellion Tell OF
whistIinE Bullets, Bright BayonetA
Bursting Bombs, Bloody Battlss

that General w. L. sherman put
Foraker forward as a presidential
candidate fifteen years ago? he dld
at a meeting of the Army OF the
Tennessee at Cincinnati in 18S9-and
a good many of the boys will remem-
ber 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 OhioaIs 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 a boy of Is.
"Rosecrans was AZ when he was
appointed colonel of the Twenty-third
Ohio; Hayes was 80 when he entered
the same regiment; Crook was 81
when commissioned colonel of the
Fourteenth; Lytle was 35 when he
was made colonel Of the Tenth; Bob
McCook was "a when he took charge
OF the Ninth; William Sooy Smith II
when he was appointed colonel Of the
Thirteenth; Alex. NJ. McCook was 30
when given the colonelcy of the First;
Garfield 80 when he became colonel
of the Forty-second, and Foraker was
16 when he enlisted in the Eighty
ninth in 1862. He was a boy soldier
when all the others were brigadiers
or major generals, and twenty-four
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 1S, and was in
command of his company. Then he
went to the staff of General SlocuIn,
and it 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 a Christmas
gift, from the army headquarters to
the fleet. Remembering this, General
Sherman, in his address in Cincin-
Foraker riding through the pine
woods with a message from General
Slocum-riding up to him, horse in
lather and man and horse covered
with mud, like knight errant, 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.
I wish you may rise to 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 very few others survive.
Mckinley, more nearly a contempor-
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 Cen
eral Sherman fifteen years ago."
Speaking Of General Steedman,"
said the captain, 81 came to know him
| very we'll after the war, and he told
a good many stories Of his campaigns.
| He was an aggressive, hide-bOund
Democrat, but he used to laugh over
his first meeting with Andrew john
son. When he was at Camp Dick
| Robinson in 1861 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-
ters, and took him over to his tent.
| AL Olu IciiO", oViN uS toOh
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
derly carried message from General
Steedman at Nashville to Governor
Andrew Johnson at the State house.
The Governor was the pesonification
Of neatness, formality and dignity,
and when the orderly entered the
executive office was pacing to and fro