The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1905-02-02
THE BOOMING CANNON
RECITALS OF CAMP AND BAT.
TILE INCIDENTS.
Survivors Of the Rebellion Relate
Many Amusing and Startling Incl
dents of Marches, Camp Life, Forag.

There is a good story" said Colonel
]. A. Watrous, about Professor Rob-
ert @. Spencer, president Of the Com
mercial College Teachers Federation,
which met in Chicago recently. Presi-
dent Spencer was in charge of a COM
mercial college in st. Louis In 1861,
his assistant being Virginian named
Stewart Spencer enlisted under the
call for three months men, and served
under General Lyon. At the end of
three months, with health much brok-
en-, he left the army and returned to
his college. Three months before he
had left a large number of pupils. The
morning he reported for duty he found
Assistant Stewart in charge of less
than half as many.
THAT was depressing to the half
sick ex-soldier, but the next thing that
attracted his attention was very much
more depressing. Fastened to the
desks Of all but one Of the students
was a small Confederate flag. One
lusty young German displayed the
American flag. For a minute or two
the professor did some fast thinking.
These are some Of the thoughts: If
1 remove those flags my st. Louis en-
terprise will collapse; I am poor, and
that would be a hard blow. How
ever, my duty is plain He made a
short speech, in about these words:
L am for the Union. This city Is for
the Union. This is Union, not a Con-
federate college, Then he quickly
passed through the room and gathered
In the Confederate flags, called the
janitor, and told him to destroy them.
"Whereupon the dignified Virginia
assistant put on his hat and walked
out, followed by all but the German
student. The Chamber of Commerce
and the loyal press of the city made
much of the incident, and a week later
Mr.. Spencer had more scholars than
when he followed Lyon to Wilson's
Greek.
Professor Spencer was born at Ash
tabula, Ohio, June %, 1929. His faith
er and all of his brothers were teach
ers in commercial colleges. That has
been his calling since 1851, when he
established college in Cincinnati. He
has been connected with the same
work in Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago,
st. Louis and Milwaukee. A pupil of
his in Chicago was Lyman ]. Gage,
and another the late Captain Fred
Pabst"
by the way" said a Thirtieth Iowa
man, Ibid you know our chaplain? He
was fighter and was promoted from
the ranks to chaplalncy under very
notable circumstances. At Lovejoy's
Station, Ga, in September, 1864, Hen
ry Wusinger of Company e. Thirtieth
Iowa, was shot through the body. Re-
alizing that his wound was mortal, he
asked the boys to carry him to Orderly
Sergeant Thomas w. Hyde, who
placed him in an ambulance and had
him taken along with the marching
regiment. During the fight Wusinger
sent a message to Hyde asking him to
come to the ambulance.
when the orderly greeted the
wounded man Wusinger said: They
are sounding the reveille. Come into
the ambulance and pray for me- Hyde
climbed in and began to pray. 1t was
a clear moonlight night, almost like
day, and as the men Of the regiment
saw the ambulance and heard Hyde's
words they halted, and with Colonel
Roberts and the other regimental Off.
GERS gathered about the ambulance
and stood with heads uncovered.
| Hyde, under the influence of love
and comradeship, prayed as few men
ever pray, and in the midst Of his fer
vent appeal General Peter ]. Oster-
haus rode up, halted, and uncovered.
| Hyde's voice trembled and broke and
the men knew Wusinger was dead.
| For several minutes there was an i'm
pressive stiffness. Then General Os-
terhaus called Colonel Roberts to him
and asked If he had a chaplain in his
regiment
| "The Colonel said he had not, and
explained that the man who made the
prayer was one of his sergeants. Make
him q chaplain, Colonel. 1 assign him
| to duty right now SO it happened
that Orderly Sergeant Tom W. Hyde
was commissioned in the field chap
lain of the Thirtieth Iowa Volunteer
Infantry by the bluff old General who,
on another occasion, said he would
make the rebels hell schmell The
Rev. Tom Is now living at Oska,oosa,
Iowa, with as good a record as chap
lain on the firing line as any regularly
commissioned chaplain ever hadT
There were many Christian soldiers
in those days." said the Captain, mod
est, undemonstrative men who kept
the faith and did their duty. 1 was
shown q diary the other day In which
was this entry, under date of Nov. "a,
1864: This is Thanksgiving day up
in Gods country and there comes be-
fore me in imagination the old home
stead back In Jefferson County, Ohio.
There are gray haired father and
mother and our only sister. The broth
ers, where are they?
John and Emory are In the Second
Ohio and James and are in the Eff
ty-second. can see father as he
opens the family Bible, reads chap
ter, and kneels to offer a prayer for
the four absent boys. In the same