Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1911-05-10
THE SIMPLE LIFE OF A COMMONER
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

mad taken the entlre DAY 10 rGdcn
| the river, and the distance could not
| have been much over half to three
| quarters of mile. 1t was late in
the evening when | reached the
river. / was soon discovered by my
friend, Conway, who was greatly
astonished to find me there. / told
him / wanted to get away on that
boat to a hospital somewhere if pos
sible. He Immediately went to the
captain to obtain a passage for me,
| but soon returned to say the cap
| tain had declared with an oath that
he would not have any sick men
aboard his boat. "Well, Joe,"
said, 81 am going on this boat, they
can do no more than throw me into
the river and if / am to go to hea-
ven new, it is just as near by water
as it is by land" YES" he replied,
that's SO, and I'll tell you what
we'll do. You stay where you are
till after dark, then I'll get you on
board unseen by the officers of the
boat .and you can hide under that
canvass Indicating some tenting
| stuff that was piled upon the bow of
| the boat) till she pulls out and after
that we must take our chances" So
| concealed myself under the tent
stuff until the boat backed out into
the river and headed down stream,
then crawling out of my hiding place
l appeared among the boatmen very
weary and very hungry No man
knows how much he can endure un-
till he is put 70 the test. Disheart-
ened utterly, he may be confronted
with difficulties apparently insur-
mountable; he may time and again
be tempted to yield before them and
give up in despair, but if he possesses
good courage and holds to the an
chor of his soul, he will eventually
overcome them all and then the vic
tory will be the sweeter because of
the severe struggles which were con-
stantly required to master them.
1t was fortunate for me that the
,steward of the boat was good
Union man and that he possessed a
kind heart, for he took pity on me
as soon as my condition was made
known to him. He made me some
excellent soup which did me much
good, and l felt very grateful for It,.
When we reached Paducah | was
transferred to asother beat and sent
down the Ohio river to Mound City,
Illinois, where temporary hospital
had been provided in an old packing
house, where / found quite num-
Der of sick and wounded soldiers,
, who, like myself, had been tempor-
arily left there until some other dis
} position could be made of us. | was
detained at Mound City only until
word could be sent to my father,
, who Immediately came after me, and
!, obtaining a furlough took me home,
: where l soon regained health and
strength.
During the period of my GONZALES
: ence, the battle of Shiloh was fought
and as / knew the Second Iowa must
have been in the battle l was greatly
troubled about it until news from
the field reached us. The people at
home seemed to think | would know
all about it and | was bombarded
with all sorts of questions, none OF
which | was able to answer, as
knew no more about it than they
: could only say that l thought II
highly probable great battle had
I taken place. Reports from the field
2 soon came in however, from which
{. it was learned that two privates OF
r Company "I' had been killed anC
e Captain Cox and another private
: wounded. Immediately after the bat
4 tie Captain Cox rendered his resigna
I tion and came nome. upon recelV
$ ing the news from Shiloh, hasten
: ed back to the regiment to learr
e that during my absence / had beei
I promoted to the Office OF Orderl.
d Sergeant of the company. | fount
s the boys in good spirits and cage
I: for an advance farther into tn
Il enemy's country
r There is little to be said of tn
i advance south from Pittsburg Land
t ing so far as active operations wer
: concerned. All the forces in tha
e section were concentrated unde
: Major General IL. w. Halleck, wit
t Grant second in command. Halleck
/ while possessing many soldierl
), qualities, was not great field com
d mander Had Grant been given com
| mand of all the forces in the Yves
e at that period the immediate result
d would have been different. The ad
e vance from Shiloh to Corinth, TWEEN