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About The Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Cherry Co., Neb.) 1896-1898 | View Entire Issue (April 9, 1896)
R k i i Kit I p - MY PLAYMATES K wind couios whispering to me of the country green and cool Of redwing blackbirds chattering beside a reedy pool It brings me soothing fancies of the home stead on the hill And I hear the thrushs evening song and llie robins morning trill So I fall to thinking tenderly of those I used to know Where the sassafras and suakeroot and checkerberries grow What has become of Ezra Marsh who lived on Bakershill And whats become of Noble Pratt -whose fattier kept the mill And whats become of Lizzie Crum and Anastasia Snell And of Roxie Root who tended school in Boston for a spell They were the boys and they the girls who shared my youthful play They do not answer to my call My play mates where are they What has become of Levi and his little brother Joe Who lived next door to where we lived some forty years ago Id like to see the Newton boys and Quincy Adams Brown And llepsy Hall and Ella Cowles who spelled the whole school down And Graeie Smith the Cutler boys Lean der Snow and ail Who I am sure would answer could they only heartily call Id like to see Bill Warner and the Coukey boys again And talk about the times we used to wish that we were men Ami one I shall not name her could 1 see her gentle face And hear her girlish treble in this distant lonely place The flowers and hopes of springtime they perished long ago Atd the garden where they blossomed is white with winter snow O cottage nea tli the maples have you seen those girls and boys That but a little whoie ago made oh such pleasant noise 0 trees and hills and brooks and lanes and meadows do you know Where I shall find my little friends of forty years ago You see Im old and weary and Ive trav eled long and far 1 am looking for my playmates I wonder where they are Eugene Field in Chicago Record THEY SAVED THE GUN It is not yet quite fifty years since the close of our war with Mexico yet the swift movement of modern life has nearly overlaid recollection of it among our people the colossal tragedy of the civil war intervening between now and then serving still further to dwarf the older and smaller event In its day it was one of the most remarkable mili tary events in history The battle of Buena Vista on the 22d and 23d of February 1847 was after the opening fights of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma the only con siderable conflict of the war in which our forces stood on the defensive if they may be said to have so stood in those opening battles After the cap itulation of Mantanzas General Taylor had moved forward with a strong col umn attacked and taken the fortified city of Monterey had advanced to Saltillo where he had been joined by the column commanded by General Wool which had marched from La vaca Texas by way of San Antonio and was preparing to push forward to ward the Mexican capital and a meet ing with the strong force which Santa Anna the Mexican president was col lecting to destroy the invaders when he was overtaken by the order from General Scott detaching the larger part of his force incluuing nearly all his regulars and the larger part of his seasoned volunteers This was done to strengthen the column destined to invade Mexico from the southeast landing at Vera Cruz The effect of this order was to re--duce General Taylors foree to less than T0U0 men made up of volunteers much the larger number of wktmi had been soldiers little more than six months and had hardly been under fire at all Most of them not at all There were left to him two or three batteries of flying artillery commanded by regu lar army officers but in large degree manned by men detailed from volun teer infantry regiments There were one or two squadrons of regular cav alry but other than this insignificant squad of trained soldiers his force was made up of green volunteers mainly from Indiana Illinois Kentucky Mis sissippi and Arkansas Before General Scotts orders had been carried into effect General Tay lor had advanced to Agua Nueva about twenty miles beyond Saltillo but the exasperating depletion of his forces made further advance impossible and here too he was met with intelligence that General Santa Anna had organ ized an army of more than 20000 men and was pushing northward with the purpose to destroy him and then turn his victorious forces to meet Scott wheresoever he might land There was no ground at or near Agua Nueva where an inferior force could hope to stand and General Wool was sent back to select a place where defense might be made Near Bueua Vista a dozen miles in the rear of Agua Nueva the mountains on the left of tire road along which Taylor ho CI nlvaiiced approached more closely than elsewhere to a deep and Impassable valley on the right of the road the sharp foothills running to ward the ragged ravine like the out spread fingers of a mans hand until at the Pass of Augastura there were but a few yards between the point of the rocky spur and the brow of the deep valley Thin was the ground selected for de mise and the whole of the small army fell back to this point Captain Wash ing ms battery in which the after roud famous General George H as was a lieutenant was posted im mediately commanding the pass sup ported by six companies of the First Illinois Infantry commanded by Col onel John J Hardin who was killed near the close of the battle and -whose oldest son General Martin D Hardin subsequently graduated from West Point was desperately wounded at the second battle of Bull Run where he lost an arm Two incidents of this extraordinary battle illustrate in a forceful way some of the peculiar qualities of the Ameri can soldier and as general history makes no mention of them being mere ly details hidden in the general event it may prove of some interest to recall them for the readers of this generation The lirst attack of the second day by a Mexican column of some four thousand men was delivered directly at the Pass of Augastura and was beaten off almost perhaps quite alto gether by the terribly destructive fire of Washingtons guns It was barely over when a second column of live thousand or more headed by a brilliant body of lancers moved out to attack the American line nearer its center Almost at the same moment a body of American troops only a few hundred in number moved out toward the front and advanced beyond supporting dis tance as if challenging the whole Mexican army It was composed of Colonel Bowies Second Indiana In fantry or a large part of it with a sec tiontwo guns of a light battery un der the command of Lieutenant OBrien regarded as one of the most brilliant and promising of the younger ollieers then in the army and manned mainly by men selected from volunteer regiments of infantry Orders had been sent to Colonel Bowles to take up a designated position and aid in repelling what seemed the grand attack of the day But the posi tion to be taken was not clearly speci fied or for some other reason he mis understood it and advanced his men 3 stijl hot and smoking gun and shouted Hold tight now for Im going off from here like hell And leaping like a fiend incarnate on the back of one of the horses with a defiant shout to the foe in a hurtling rain of bullets he did go off like he said he would Twenty minutes later from a new position with the nearest friends his gun was again hurling grape into the still advancing column And Flynn lived to tell the story long afterward at his home in Illinois The other gun which OBrien was forced to abandon was one which had been captured from Santa Anna eleven years before by General Sam Hous ton on the bloody field of San Jacinto where Texas independence was won Had Santa Anna won at Buena Vista how he would have vaunted the re capture But he did not win and after the battle was over the gun was found by some of our soldiers spiked and thrown into a ravine A few years later OBrien died in Tampa Fla sincerely mourned by the whole army Of such material have our American armies North and South been made up The other incident referred to affect ing more men but illustrating similar soldiery qualities followed on the heek of this f The misfortune that overtook the In diana men was full of the presage of defeat Another such disaster and the destruction of the little army outnum bered more than five to one from the first could hardly be averted The next force to feel the attack was the Second Illinois Infantry commanded by Colonel William n Bissell subse quently Governor of Illinois and also a member of Congress from that State who while holding this latter position gave pause to a fiery Southerner who sought a duel However thats an other story The fight of the Indi anans had left this full Illinois regi ment almost as far beyond effective support as the routed men had -been yet they calmly stood in line and await- - J W 5ftV - Jl II LIEUTENANT OBRIEN ORDERS FLYNN TO HELP HIM entirely beyond support The first shock of the attack by more than ten times their number fell on this little force and they stood in peril of being literally trampled under foot They were as good fighting material as there was in the army and they fought des perately until their officers seeing too late the error that had been made without deliberation gave a vague or der to retire and they did retire There was no limit to the order and it might have meant clear home to Indiana as one of them subsequently said Not to put too fine a point on it they liter ally ran off the field and though all or nearly all of them fell in with other troops or fought bravely through the day they did not regain their own or ganization Before this disaster many had been killed and wounded and the men of OBriens guns had more than shared their losses The trained soldier knew into what a shamble he had been led but he never wavered or grumbled and he -worked his guns with desperate en ergy every discharge opening long lines in the advancing column anu shaking it to the remotest ranks At last all the men and horses of one gun were disabled and all but the com mander at the other gun were stricken down even part of the horses And even as the supporting Infantry were melting from the field and OBrien stood alone within less than a hun dred yards of the head of the advancing column with his own hands unaided he charged his own active gun double shotted with grape and canister and hurled its tempest of shot full in the faces of the foe with terrible effect Then as the column reeled under the blowr of his single gun he glanced swiftly about him Not a man of the little force was left on his feet but he saw one man a member of an Illinois regiment Flynn by name who was one of his command half lying half sitting against a small bowlder To him he spoke fiercely Get up here damn you and help me lijvber up this gun I cant Lieutenant replied Flynn Im shot through both legs Well replied OBrien you can lift a little and so saying he seized the man sat him down on the ground un der the limber prolong perhaps they call it of the old fashioned gun cut losse the harness f roin the dead horse and with superhuman strength rolled the body out of the way and while Flynn lifted despite the torture of his wounds the gun was limbered Then he dragged the man from the ground threw him like a saddle astride the ed the onset their Colonel sitting his horse silently watching the advancing foe The Mexican column recovered from the shock of OBriens guns moved steadily forward in perfect ordertheir lances glittering in the sun and the heavy column of infantry swinging sturdily up a gentle rise The jingling of spurs and the firm voices of officers preserving perfect alignment with the dull muffled sound of many feet could be distinctly heard Soon there came a dropping fire and when the column came within range the guns of Bissells men were heard not in a volley fol lowed by silence while reloading the old fashioned muskets but at first fir ing by file which began on the right and rolled steadily down the line and then every man loaded and fired as fast as he could The oncoming col umn was shaken for a moment but still moved sternly forward The Illi nois men stood in the open unpro tected Men dropped in the ranks but the cool command to close to the right was as coolly obeyed and not a man left his place except to lie down and die Far down the slope nearly a mile away could be seen Hardins First Illinois and McKees Kentucki ans running at top speed to join the fray and a little to their left the guns of Braggs battery leaped and bounded savagely forward as officers and men plied voice and lash and put their shoul ders to the wheels and raced onward with the hurrying guns Desperate and mad hurry it was indeed and yet it seemed that do their utmost they must be too late and Bissells devoted men alone under the tempest must be swept from the field Yet still they fought on their Colonel calmly watching the foe and the line officers firmly closing up the ranks as file after file the undaunted men went down Suddenly a mounted staff of ficerMajor Bliss a son-in-law of Gen eral Taylor bloody with spurring fiery red with haste dashed through the storm of bullets and addressed Colonel Bissell Colonel can you take ground to the rear without danger of another panic Bissell looked calmly into his blazing eyes and answered As surely sir as your regimental drill Then do so But do it at your peril Bissell rode closer to the right of his regiment and commanded Cease fir ing The command passed swiftly down the line and the firing ceased Then followed my his aid who carried his plumed hat in his hand his fingers clutching it rigidly the Impassive Col onel galloped to the center and rear of his line and his familiar voice rang in his mens ears bout face and the line turned in its track Forward Quick time Steady men steady march and the line swung steadily to ward what had been the rear following the Colonels uplifted sword and the aid with his crushed hat and his heart in his mouth while men dropped in the ranks as they moved awajr and some were caught and helped on by their un wounded comrades The aid measured with excited eyes the distance from the foe and that to where Hardins and McKees panting men and Braggs mad gunners pressed forward and presently said half un der his breath That will do Instantly Bissell wheeled his horse waved his sword and swiftly rang out the commands Halt Right dress About face On the right commence firing and once more Bissells guns poured in a storm tnat checked the cheer of the enemy even as it began The battles won by God shouted the excited Bliss as he clapped his bat tered hat on his head and dashing his spurs into his horse rode swiftly away to report And even as he spoke Hardins and McKees men opened fire and Braggs madened gunners poured in with in credible swiftness a tempest of grape that broke up the enemys column and shattered the grand charge of the day These are some of the little things the details which general history cannot pause to record but which vividly illustrate qualities of the Amer ican soldier and taken together make up and are indispensable to the great things the results which history does record RATTLESNAKE WINE It Is a Favorite Medicine in the West Indies Benjamin Gooch in his Medical and Surgical Observations published in 1771 gives a summary of different an cient therapeutic methods based on the use of animal poisons One of his observations relates to a case of severe pains spasms etc of long duration Gooch says after speaking of the pa tients sufferings Not to appear in human to so wretched a being after telling him I could do nothing I sent him a bottle of rattlesnake wine to take a glass of frequently This was in the West Indies drank as the high est cordial Three nights after the patient walked in Sir said he you cannot be so much amazed as I am nor half so much pleased I am come to thank you and if not criminal to worship you Goochs account of how he learned the virtues of rattle snake wine is as follows A very wealthy old gentleman in the West Indies had long been afflicted with leprosy to a high degree which was deemed incurable by his physicians Apparently in a dying state he made his will leaving a large legacy to a female servant who had lived with him many years This circumstance being known to the servant she and her paramour studied and contrived how to make away with him in such a manner as to raise the least suspicion They put the heads of rattlesnakes into the wine he drank thinking it would prove an infallible poison on the con trary he grew better and the crimin als imagining the poison was not strong enough added more snake ve nom whereby the gentleman was re stored to perfect health Conscience finally put this servant upon her knees before her master confessing her crime Forgiveness was granted and the old gentleman gave her a sum of money ordering her to depart and never see him more An Oregon Frealc A curious physical freak has been dis covered on the tongue of the infant child of Mrs Carl F Wagner the wife of a railroad man of Albina Ore About a week ago when the child was but a week old the mother called the attention of the family physician to the fact that she experienced a pecu liar feeling when the child was nurs ing She had not investigated for herself but thought the babes tongue was ex ceedingly rough for one so young The doctor opened the childs mouth and was astonished to find its tongue cov ered with silken hair of short growth This was somewhat extraordinary and he could hardly believe that what he saw was a fact The attention of some of the most prominent physicians there has been invited to this freak of na ture They say it is an unparalleled case It is so extraordinary that a report of it will be furnished all the leading medical journals in the coun try and Europe A local museum man has already made Wagner who is a poor man an offer for the use of the child as soon as it can be safely taken from its mother Aluminum The production of aluminum in this country has increased from eighty three pounds in 18S3 to 850000 pounds in 1S95 and the estimate for 1S96 is 3G00 000 pounds the process for making it having been greatly improved The price at the reduction works ranges from 50 cents to 55 cents a pound Ap plied electricity explains the ease with which the light metal is now turned out Will Last a Lifetime Prof A C Totten of New Haven has issued a calendar good for G7713 230 years It is said to have a very sim ple key and is evolved on a cycle of 1000000 years A New York electrician has succeed ed in sending messages over a tele graph wire at the rate of 1714 words a minute Mamma Willie where are those ap ples gone that were in the storeroom Willie They are with the gingerbread that was in the cupboard Exchange MELD OF VICKSBURG A MOVEMENT TO MAKE A NA TIONAL PARK A Brief Review of the Military Opera tions Which Took Place in and Around the Confederate Stronghold in 1S62 and 1SG3 Consecrated Ground A bill is now pending in Congress to make the battlefield of Vicksburg a national park similar to that of Chicka mauga thereby preserving to future generations the scene of a great and bloody struggle In view of the pro posed change it is timely to recur to the military operations carried on around Vicksburg in 1S62 and 1SG3 Vicksburg was one of the Confeder ate strongholds on the Mississippi and with Port Hudson 120 miles further south also held by the Confederates prevented the free use of that water- Jptij GEX J C PEMBERTOX way by the Government while by it the Confederates were enabled to re ceive military support from Arkansas and Texas In May 1SG2 an attempt was made to capture it by changing the channel of the Mississippi thus 14 Jackson fell into the hands of the Union forces and after destroying whatever might be of aid to the Con federates Grant began his backward march upon Vicksburg At Cham pion Hills Gen Pemberton who had marched out of Vicksburg had taken a position with a force of 1S000 or 20000 and attempted to check the prog ress of the Union forces He was hurl ed back to the Big Black river where the battle was renewed the following day Again the Confederates were routed with a loss of 242 killed and wounded and 1500 prisoners and the Union troops passed on to the attack on Vicksburg On the extreme right was the army corps of Maj Gen Sherman next to it that of Maj Gen J B McPherson and on the left the corps of Maj Gen Mc Clernard who was subseqently suc ceeded by Maj Gen Ord On May 19 Gen Sherman began an attack on the city but was forced to abandon it Another and general assault was plan ned for the 22d and the preceding night Admiral Porter kept up a steady bom bardment of the place At 10 oclock on the 22d an assault by Grants whole line was begun and was joined in by Admiral Porter and until night the battle waged with virtually no ad vantage to the Union treops but with a heavy loss in killed and wounded The failure of this assault determined GRANTS HEADQUARTERS Grant upon a regular siege and the arrival of reinforcements under Maj Gen Herron and Gen Lauman which swelled his forces to 70000 men en abled him to closely invest the place For a month the investment of the city grew closer and closer while day and night with little intermission the guns of Admiral Porter and of the land forces hurled shot and shell into the city and its suburbs Many of the inhabitants left their homes and took up their abodes in caves dug in the steep bank where streets passed through the hills Here they lived practically secure from the iron hail that plowed up streets and demolished houses Many of these caves were neatly furnished and had carpeted floors Meantime mining was actively carried on by Grant and June 25 a mine under Fort Hill bastion was fired Part of the fort was thrown down and through this breach the Federals sought to enter while the Confederates sought to keep them out Hand gren ades were used and the conflict waged was desperate with the advantage on the side of the Confederates Another mine was exploded July 1 Meantime Gen Pemberton shut up in Vicksburg and with no hope of be ing relieved by Gen Johnson who was CAVES NEAR VICKSBURG USED AS HOMES leaving Vicksburg several miles inland but it failed In June Admiral Farra gut bombarded the place with no bene ficial result and thereafter for several months no effort was made to possess the city In Decemner Gen Grant at the head of 40000 troops moved against the city which was defended by Gen John C Pemberton with 34000 men Gen W T Sherman was selected to attack the place but after difficult and costly operations in the swampy region of the Yazoo river to the north of the city he was forced to abandon his efforts In January 1SG3 Grant took com mand of all the forces operating against Vicksburg and marching the bulk of his army down the western bank of the Mississippi crossed to the Vicksburg side several miles below the city In this movement he was aided by Ad miral William D Porter Grants ob ject was to reach and capture the State capital Jackson and then fall upon Vicksburg in the rear The first en gagement fought after the crossing of the Mississippi was near Port Gibson where the Confederate force was rout ed by the Federals under Gen Mc Clernand At Richmond still further on the road to Jackson the Federals gained another victory over a small force sent out from the capital by Gen J E Johnston who was in com mand of all the Confederate forces in Tennessee and Mississippi On May CHAMPIOX HILLS BATTLE GROUND unable to collect a sufficiently strong force was placed in the position of either surrendering or starving July 3 he proposed by means of a letter to grant the appointment of a commission to arrange terms of capitulation arid the following day the surrender was effected The Confederate forces to the number of 27000 were paroled CAVE UOUSE INTERIOR During the entire operations from the crossing of the Mississippi by Grant to the surrender of Vicksburg the Union loss in killed wounded and miss ing is placed at 8575 and the Confed erate loss at 10000 Father Is Cominjr The Nineteenth Indiana had for its first commander Colonel Solomon Meredith famous as a stock raiser at Richmond Ind before the war He was tall awkward unmilitary bur grave His son Samuel was a lieuten ant in the Nineteenth He was as tall a little more awkward and a little less military than his father but like his father brave Lieutenant Sam Meredith was officer of the division guard one day early in tile history of the regiment The custom was then as it is now to have the guard fall in and salute when a field or general offi cer approached Colonel Meredith sud denly came upon the guard without being noticed As soon as Lieutenant Saw saw him he called out in a loud voice Turn out the guard fathers coming Poor Sam never heard the last of Turn out the guard fathers coming The balance of the brigade would call out s 11 along the line when ever Sam put in an appearance and occasionally when Meredith Sr was seen and afiter he became a general and had command of the brigade he would hear Turn out the guard fathers coming and indulge in one of those Sol Meredith grins the boys used to enjoy Both father and son died long ago For years one of Gen eral Merediths daughters-in-law was an extensive raiser of and dealer in blooded stock on the Meredith farm near Richmond and it took a sharp Yankee to get the best of the bargain when dealing with her Lonsrstreets Book Gen Longstreets book has provoked a storm of Southern criticism but the fact remains that his statements are backed by personal knowledge of the events that he describes and by a rec ord of military service that is not sur passed by that of any other Confederate commander The greatest forces npon which our wills can act are those within V t VJ r K
