Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1909-10-28
Stories HDout Governor $<ofIeId
BY COLONEL J. A. WATRoUs.

good deal I was in thirteen differ
ent prisons. By the time we reached
Florence | was very poor, exceeding
ly hungry and in rags. There we
learned that by giving what was equiv
aIent to a draft on a relative at home
we could secure a supply of cOnfed
crate money for use in purchasing eX-
ira food. I concluded TO make the at
tempt aud drew ON my father for one
hundred dollars in confederate money.
| bought a supply of goods, not forget
ting a cake Of soap, some pepper and
salt, a loaf of bread and few pounds
Of meat, a drawing Of coffee and lit
tie extra sugar, and hat day four Of
us had a feast. We ate up everything
[ bought, and | had paid my S10U
for the purchases.
''I have one record that I presume
very few soldiers have. I was dead
and my father buried me. 1t hap
pened this way: The correspondents
reported me dead when l was wounded
and made a prisoner. My father hur-
ried to the field and was shown a body
among the hundreds still unburied,
that was said to be myself. He dug
q grave and buried me. He did not
know that I was alive and that he had
buried another fathers boy until he
received that draft for 500. IN
| speaking of it afterwards, he told me
that his first thought was to pay no
attention to it. Then he reflected
that if it was not honored, they might
kill his boy, and he paid it. l have
thought a good many times what my
fathers feelings must have been when
he was shown that blackened blOated,
bloody body, On the battlefield, as he
proceeded to give it burial.
81 had q peculiar experience after
being exchanged and getting back to
Washington. Upon going to the war
| department 1 found that I had no
regiment, the 18th having been mus
tered out at the expira ton of it's term
/ of service Secretary Stanton issued
an order directing another Pennsyl-
yania regiment, with which / had
| fought in the Wilderness, to take me
up On it's rolls. That was done and
received nearly years pay. It had
! been decided to consolidate two Penn
| syIvania regiments and make me lieu
! tenant colonel and not long after
reached Washington I learned thar
the governor had issued commissions
/ in my favor as major and lieutenant
colonel. Very soon, the war was over
and my military service ceased"
Having known for many years OF
the splendid soldier record of the gov
ernor, it occurred to me that some
thing should be added to this cluster
Of stories Like a vast majority OF
the more than million Of boys and
young men who were mustered out OF
service in 1865, Major Scofield rea
lized the necessity OF prompt begin
ming for success in civil life After
taking many localities under consid
Grafton, he concluded TO come to Wis
4 cOnsin, where he began, in a small
wy, as a lumber man. He prospered
from the start and had large inter
ests> when those days of gloom uc
nearly all business men came in 1893
Through Major Scoffeld's tireless
work and boundless energy, his large
lumber enterprise, where great mum
bers Of men were employed, continued
in operation throughout the long per
iod of pinching, hard times, without
reduction Of wages, while all about
him and all over the country, thou
sands of business enterprises wen
to the wall and wages went down al
along the line. l have compared, al
times, Major Scofeid's persistent
courageous, determined efforts tc
weather that hard time storm, with
his magnificent fighting qualities dur
ing the civil war. Little wonder thai