The National tribune., 1909-06-24
"REMINISCENCES OF THE WAR.
Fl. 28
A Maryland Cavalry Captain Tells Many
Interesting ThihHgs.

| Editor National Tribune. Gen. Grant
in Memoirs says that, if You go down
! south and ask nah of tile proper age
If he had been in the army. he takes 1t
as an offense. and tninks you ought
to know that he had beeh in the army
and performed his duty. and 1 have no
doubt that today YOU could go down
South and find 100000 men still living
who would claim that they had served
as soldiers of the G Confedsracy. and. in
my opinion. if they had not deserted
and given up the struggle. the war
would not have ended as soon as it did.
Speaking of deserters, remember
that the last Winter OF the war. altho
I was a Captain and commanding my
company, / also filled the position OF
Acting Assistant Ad5utant-Geheral for
the Colonel commanding my brigade
(the commander of the brigade was
| Col A. w. Evans, Colonel or my regi-
menD and during thar whoie winter
it was a common thing for rs or 80
deserters to come in every morning
! (our Headquarters were on the Charles
City road). About every second morn
ing there would be a man, who told me
that he was telegraph operator in
| RlcnmOnQ, VINO WOulu -DIlHe III vi
80 deserters. / asked that man what
made him bring in so many of them,
and he told me that he charged them
from $25 to $50 in greenbacks to bring
them in, and / was always under the
impression that he had an understand
ing with the pickets' ana paid them
something to have them passed thru.
When the surrender took place, had
command of Sheridan's body guard.
and rode out with him to meet the flag
of truce. He, Sheridan, then told me
to send my men around to notify our
army that hostilities We're suspended
and that the war was over, and then
to report to my regiment. Of course.
| | know that Sheridan in nis book says
that Co. l, 1st U. s. Cav, formed his
body guard. He made mistake. The
1st u. S. Cav. was not within 1000
miles of Appomattox at that time. as
the 1st L. S. Cav. was Gen. Harney'S
regiment, at that time fighting Albert
Pike and his Indians out in the Terri
tories. l wish you to note the similar
ity of names. L commanded Co. /, 1st
Md. Cav, Russelrs old company, SO, in
my opinion, they put 1st U. s., when it
should have been 1st Md.
On the evening of the surrender /
was ordered to take my squadron and
form line of patrols about two miles
long. When the campaign started, Gen.
Sheridan ordered the cavalry to save
their rations, and subsist on the coun-
try. The intention was that if we did
not capture Lee. the cavalry would
continue on south until We met Gen.
VIM. T. Sherman, and bring him up on
the other side. Consequently we had
all got in the habit of foraging and
taking everything eatable. But as soon
as the surrender took place we wanted
to stop this foraging. and threw a line
around the whole army, with orders
not to allow anyone to go out without
a pass, but to allow anyone to come in.
My line reached from Capt. Floods
| mouse, where l made my quarters in
his yard. UP to Mr." BocoGks house, who
had been the Speaker of the Confeder-
ate Congress. Both of these men were
sons-in-law Of Hon. Charles Faulkner,
of Martinsburg, w. Va, and Mr.. Faulk-
ner was at Bocock's house at that time,
and his single daughter. Miss Mary, was
at Mr.. Floods house, and. by the way,
am pretty sure that the Member of
Congress from Apppmattox District is
a son of the Mr.. Flood that I am writ
ing about. Mr.. Flood-tqld me that he
was a Captain in the, Black Horse Cav
! airy at the first battlea of Manas-
sas, but that he bought Ifs way out Of
the army by, paying a. certain amount.
! remember distinctly that he said his
assessment to get rid of military duty
was $500 pounds of bacon and a GER
tain number Of bushels of corn each
year The amount of corn / do not
remember SO you viii perceive that
these aristocrats We're not any more
patriotic than some of US people of the
ordinary class.
In 1904. while ! was at Annapolis,
vhere boarded at the same house a Mr.
Amiss. of Gaithersburg, Montgomery
Co, and there was, scarcely q meal but
what he would say something about the
war, and tell of killing a. man at this
place and that place, until it became
very annoying to me, and 1 requested
lseveral of the boarders to keep an ac-
curate account of the number of men
he had killed. 1 remember distinctly
OF his killing three of the Jessie Scouts
F'remont's body guard, in about two
seconds. He said they were dressed in
. Confederate uniform, but he knew that
they were spies, so he managed to let
one of them get in front few feet, and
he got between the other two and rein.
ed his horse back a few feet, took the
reins in his teeth and with pistol in
: each hand blew their brains out sim
ultaneously, and as the one in from
, turned around to see what was The
matter, he killed him instantly Sc
you see these three men were disposed
of in few seconds. So one morning
these gentlemen told me that they hat
a record of 16 sure. In few minutes
, to him, ''Mr. Amiss, what was youi
: rank when you entered the army p
/, He replied:
: "Oh. l was only private"
, 1 said, Mr.. Amiss, what was YOU
+ rank when you came out of the army?'
: He replied, "Oh, I was only a pri
= vate." / then said,
Mr. Amiss don't you think tha
S your Generals were an Internal set ol
ingrates?
l He bristled up at once and said
What do you mean by saying that m.
:: Generals were ingrates?" 1 said t
. him,
!, Il viii tell you what / mean. Mr.
Johnson and Senator Devilbiss hav,
kept account of the number of Yam
+ KEGS you killed, and they tell ms> the,
;. know of Is sure. and perhaps more
a Now. I went into the army as a private
g and l came out a Captain. 1 dom
know that / killed a single man. II
y did kill one. 1 don't want to know it
8 I think I sleep better by not knowing
:. It, but IL I could have proven to m,
). Generals that I had killed one-half a
n many as you killed. T would have beer
10 CnInnaI and Dr;.o