Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1910-05-06

| Youngest Soldier of the Civil War.
There was more than one Little
| Mac in the federal army during the
| war of the rebellion, but the hero OF
| this tale was not only the smartest
| ''Mac." but the youngest and most d.
minutive enlisted member of the army
| of the United States, and now for more
| than twenty-five years by far the
youngest comrade in the Grand Army
! of the Republic and frequent and a
welcome guest at many a reunion OF
the G. A. R. posts other than his own.
Never has this youthful veterans
| recital of the surprising incidents sur
rounding his remarkable enlistment,
| the exhibition Of the yellowed docu-
ments, filled in with ink now faded,
although clearly decipherable-h1s en-
| listment and discharge papers-falled
| to arouse enthusiasm among his older
comrades.
In the little Mississippi river town
of Fort Madison, Ia, the site of for
mer government frontier fort and the
scene of many skirmish and more
than one full-fedged battle between
the redskins on one hand and the sol
diers and pioneers on the other, there
lived in the late SOS a young and
patriotic physician, Abel Commins
Roberts, a graduate of the University
of Michigan, with his wife and two lit
tie sons.
In addition to being a physician DR..
Roberts was the editor and publisher
of a weekly newspaper, the Fort Madi-
son Plaindealer. He was strong ad-
vocate of policy of colonizing the
negroes and of having the government
reimburse the masters Of the colonized
slaves. He advocated this as the only
plan that would make possible the
avoidance of war.
However, partisan feeling was
strong in those days-so strong, in
fact, that q party of Fort Madison men
provided themselves with long, stout
rope and called on the editor one night
at his home and offered him the I'M
enviable choice of abandoning his
policy of advocating negro colonization
and of publicly apologizing for some
of the pointed things he had said in
print or taking a plunge in the Father
of Waters tied to his old Washington
hand press with the rope.
But DR. Roberts had heard that he
would be called upon and he had blood
in his veins, so after listening quietly
to the leaders of the mob he calmly
laid his Colts navy on the porch rail
and talked bluntly and forcibly about
the constitutional guarantees Of free
speech and Of free press and of his
steadfast determination to avail him.
self of his constitutional rights, mob
or no mob. He concluded by inviting
them to come on if they were still
dissatisfied They refused to accept,
and the editor did not change his pol
icy.
Later, when war began and volun-
teers were called, he forsook both the
pen and his advocacy of colonization
and became member of the Twenty
first Missouri Infantry Volunteers, as
surgeon major, and as Major Abel G.
Roberts served through the entire
period of the war with but one fur
Tough.
In 1868 the Twenty first was quar-
tered at Memphis, Tenn. Opposite the
camp grounds was the home of then
wealthy southern planter, DR.. Whea-
ton. The surgeon of The Twenty-first
found occupation plenty and seldom
left his quarters.
One day, however, while all was
ro Il
southern girl came rushing from the
old mansion of the Wheatons' and into
the camp of "the enemy Mary Whea-
ton was in deep trouble. She had been
left alone that day and something had
gone wrong. Two Of her fathers pet
pickaninnies had INDUCED in poison
berries and were in the grip of death.
The girl hastily told her troubles and
asked:
lis there not some one here who
will help me, please? For they sure
'nough dying"
Moved by the girls distress, Major
Roberts volunteered. An emetic was
given, a Bit of pummeling done, and,
after a brief while the tangles were
Strengthened and the children sprawl
ed themselves out in the sun, sadder
but wiser Africans.
Major Roberts and DR.. Wheaton
grew to be great friends. One day
the regimental surgeon betrayed an
anxiety concerning his wife, then i'll
in the north, to his southern friend,
and what did the old planter do but
command Major Roberts to send for
his little family at once There was
no disregarding such proffer of hos
pitality. The open door of a south
erner means Come in" and happy is
he who does as hidden
A few days later saw the little fam
lily reunited-the husband in his tent
and the little wife and two boys only