Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-10-02
Civil War Stories



IF the Eightieth Ohio Infantry. I often
think of Wagstaff. l was taken pris-
oner by Captain Botham Of the Third
Michigan Cavalry on the 2Sth day Of
| April, just three weeks after the battle
Of Shiloh, down the ridge toward Ham
burg. | was taken to General Pope's
headquarters, and, after being thor
oughly interviewed by that commander,
was forwarded to Hamburg and turn
ed over to the provost guard, the com
mander Of which was Wagstaff. That
night Wagstaff came around to look
over his new recruits and l had talk
with him. In that first meeting | form
ed a friendship which has never died
out SO far as l am concerned. Wag-
staff came around to see me every day,
and often brought along cigars or other
things which were not dealt out to the
prisoners promiscuously.
There was sutler at Hamburg
whom the Eightieth Ohio boys thor
oughly detested, but they could not talk
back to him as they wished on account
Of regulations. One evening early W-ag
! staff came to me and laid the case be-
fore me, and said Now, you are
pretty good ta1ker. l want you to go
with me- I'll introduce you to the suit
and he'll jump right on to you. I'll
have a lot Of the boys In his tent, and
we want you to give him the devil.
Well stand by you, and II you go at
him the right way you can scare the
hat off his head. Come on, now, and
give 1t to him"
Il didn't want to 60, but Wagstaff
insisted. We went to the tent, where
about a dozen Of the Eightieth's boys
were waiting for the show, and I was
introduced to the sutler as one Of the
worst Of the whole lot Of Bragg's out
laws. The sutler was a man from Yer
mont, weazened-faced skinf1int, as
Wagstaff called him. He edged away
from me about six feet and sized me up
from head to foot. He slowly looked
around the group, drew long breath
and opened up all the valves Of his lin
guistic battery. He denounced me as
traitor, thief, a murderer, a horse
thief, and flung at me every bad name
contained in the vocabulary Of wicked
ness. All this time Wagstaff sat behind
the sutler, motioning for me to talk
! back to him.
"By this time was pretty mad, and
taking that advantage Of him that a
soldier always has over a sut1er when
talking war, denounced him as mon
ey shark, a leech, robbing the men for
whom he professed friendship, and
then, when the battle was fought, talk
ing about what we did. In all my
life I never saw so mad a man. He
seemed paralyzed for a moment, but
think he was preparing to spring upon
me when Wagstaff stepped between us
and pushed me out Of the tent. After
we got away Wagstaff lay down in the
grass and roared until his sides ached.
1.-The story spread, and for several
days the boys were coming down to
shake hands with the reb who had
downed the sutler. The next morning
was taken down to camp by Wagstaff.
was reb and Wagstaff was Yank, but
he was as kind, as jolly, and as whole
souled a fellow as ever Ohio produced
I wonder if he is alive. How I would
like to hear that jolly laugh again !.
And yet there are people who will not
believe that friendship can exist be-
tween men who were opposed to each
other in two different armies"
II never could make people under
stand" said the major, "how it was
possible for men who were fighting
against each other furiously one hour
| to fellowship with each other the next
| hour In one Of the charges at Stone
River the first line Of the Confederates
and the first line Of Union trops struck
each other with such force that full
one-half Of the Confederate regiment
came over our first line and turned
back to mingle in a fierce hand-to-hand
struggle. Just then our second line
caught them and they were compelled
to surrender. When they realized the
situation and when they heard the
order to drop their guns they were in
the very act of striking with dubbed
muskets or with bayonets.
II can see now the change in the
expressions Of those faces as the men
comprehended that they were helpless
and must surrender. They lowered
their guns, turned toward the men who
had the drop on them, and with an air
that was the very opposite of desperate,
threw down their guns, took off their
cartridge boxes, and in five minutes
were chatting easily with the men who
had captured them. Among the pris-
oners was one man who was very pale
and very quiet, and | judged from his
appearance that he had been wounded.
In answer to my question he said he
| had been struck two or three times but
| it didn't matter looked at the wounds
myself, and, improvising bandages,
managed to stop the bleeding, and when