The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1908-09-24
Civil War Stories


April, just three weeks after the battle
burg. | was taken to General Pope's
headquarters. and, after being thor
oughly interviewed by that commander,
| was forwarded to Hamburg and urn
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 a 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 n sutler at Hamburg
whom the Eightieth Ohio boys thor
oughly detested, but they could not talk
back TO him as they wished on account
If regulations. One evening early W-ag
staff came to me and laid the case be-
fore me, and said, Now. you are a
pretty good talker. / want you TO go
with me. I'll introduce you TO the suit
Ter. He has never seen a live rebel,
and he'll jump right on TO you. I'll
have a lot of the boys in ms tent. and
we want you TO give him the devil.
Well stand by YOU. and If you go at
him the right way you can scare the
hat off his head. Come on, now, and
give it TO him."
81 didn't want to go, but Wagstaff
insisted. We went to the tent, where
about n dozen of the Eightieth's boys
were waiting for the show, n / was
introduced to the sutler as one of the
worst of the whole lot of Bragg's out
laws. The sutler was q man from Yer
mont. a weazened-fsced skinfint, as
Wagstaff called him. He edged away
from me about six feet and sized me up
from head TO foot. lie slowly looked
around the group, drew a long breath,
and opened up all the valves of his lin
guistlc battery. He denounced me rs
II traitor, n 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 n sutler when
talking war, | denounced him as a 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 | 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
II pushed me out of the tent. After
we got away Wagstaff lay down in the
grass and roared until his sides ached.
The story spread. and for several
days the boys were coming down 10
shake hands with the reb who lad
dOwned the sutler. The next morning |
was taken down to camp by Wagstaff. |
was Il reb and Wagstaff was a Yank, but
he was as kind. as jolly. and as whole
souled a fellow as ever Ohio produced.
! wonder If he is alive. How | would
like to hear that jolly laugh again,
And yet there are people who will not
believe hat 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 II of the charges at Stone
River the first line of the C%Onfederates
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 n 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 I'm five minutes
we're chatting easily with the men who
had captured them. Among the pris-
Oners was n man who was very pale
and very quiet. and 1 judged from his
appearance that ne had been wounded.
In answer to my question he said he
had been struck two or three times, but
ii didn't matter. | looked M the wounds
myself, and, improvising bandages,
managed to stop the bleeding, and when
the prisoners were turned over TO the
guard TO De taken to the rear / ex-
planned to the officer In charge that
some consideration ought to be shown
| the wounded man. | thought | would
remember that face, but | didn't. Years
later the man did me a great favor,
and, In explaining his action, recalled
to my mind the incident @ that day.
AT Lookout Mountain said the cap
tain. our regiment was among the
climbers. We were not i'm the first line
that surprised the Confederate regi.
ment. in the in~trenchments, but we
came up In time 10 see the prisoners
as they were giving up their guns. Our
boys chaffed them a good deal about
their i%mpregnable position, and they
answered good-humOredly to the effect
that their officers had assured them
that nobody could climb up the precip-
itOus sides. and here they were. After
the battle Of Missionary Ridge one bat
TALON of our regiment was sent with
those prisoners down To Bridgeport.
The prisoners outnumbered us four to
one. but we went jogging along with
40 thought of trouble. and became well