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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1898)
8 'Che Conservative * niiuluko , General Cabboll find seven con federate colonels surrendered with over 1,000 men at Mine Creek , Kan. , in Oc tober , 1804 , some of their captors were Kansas men of my company and regi ment , who were prompt in according them fair treatment , and no spirit of revenge was manifested ; our men di vided the contents of their haversacks with the hungry rebels. So at Prairie Grove , Van Burcn , Newtonia , at West Port , and wherever and whenever wo met the regular confederate army ( an organization that wore the gray , sup ported and carried a Hag ) no regular confederate soldier had cause to com plain of ungenerous or unkind treat ment from Kansas soldiers. I might tell of deeds of individual heroism and bravery , of devoted loyalty to our country and our flag , loyalty to a wrong and losing cause ; sufferings in camp and on the march , short rations , no medicine and poor surgeons ( fully 80 per cent of the amputations at and im mediately after the battle of Prairie Grove , Ark. , December 7 , 1862 , were fatal ) ; of the 1100 miles tramped on foot bj * my company and regiment in ten mouths before wo were mounted ; of five days' and nights' scout of myself and twenty men on the front and ( lank of .Toe Shelby's command in October , 18(54 ( , with no sleep except in the saddle and yet wo were not at Vicksburg , Donnel- son , Nashville , Gettysburg or in any of the great battles of the war save at "Wil son Creek , Pea Ridge , Cane Hill , Prairie Grove , Van Buren and two Lexington fights , Little Blue , Big Blue , West Port , Mound City and Newtonia. We were regularly nmstercd and drew our pay , wore the blue and fought the grey , obeyed orders and after Lee's sxir- render fought Indians from the Missouri river to the crest of the Rockies and north to the Yellowstone. The soldiers constituting the largo armies east of the Mississippi were indeed fortunate in comparison with troops in the Army of the Frontier and District of the Border and others detailed on the fearful and thankless duty of fighting bushwhack ers. Were the former killed in battle and left in the hands of the enemy , an honorable burial and uumutilated body were awarded them. If they were wounded medical aid and some care were bestowed upon them. If cap tured the prospect of an exchange of prisoners was ever before them. Con trast this treatment with the unfortun ate fate of the Union soldier on the bor der , in the hands of the guerillas ! If killed their poor inanimate bodies were outraged and mutilated ; if wounded they were often forced to suicide or tor ture and death in the end. There was practically no captures , surrender meant death. No battle stained flags , no heroic pages in history , 110 honor or special credit. "Murdered by bushwhackers lulled by Indians" is the brief record to : > e found in the adjutant general's office. Don't forget that our enemy was as often clad in the Union blue , as in the jutternut or rebel grey. We met , some- : imes face to fo.ee with hands on our weapons , both parties in doubt , some short questioning , a faltering answer , a sign , a move , draw , fire and let the dead bite the dust. I quote from Quantrill's historian , Edwards : "From Jackson county to the Arkan sas line the whole country was swarm ing with militia , and but for the fact hat every guerrilla was clad in federal clothing , the march would have been an incessant battle. As it was it will never be known how ninny isolated federals , mistaking Quantrill's men for comrades of other regiments not on duty with rlieni , fell into traps that never gave xip "heir victims alive. Near Cassville , in Barry county , twenty-two were killed ; hus. They were coming up from Cass ville , and were meeting the guerillas , who were going south. The order given uy Quantrill was a most simple but a most murderous one. By the side of each federal in the approaching cohimn a guerrilla was to range himself , engage liim in conversation , and then , at a given signal , blow his brains out. Quan trill gave the signal promptly , shooting the militiaman assigned to him through the middle of the forehead ; upon their liorses twenty-two confident men laughed and talked in comrade fashion only a second before. " Edwards in his laudatory history of the guerrillas says on page 827 , speaking of Arch Clements who succeeded to the command of Anderson's company of guerrillas , that on one raid lasting but a few days he kept an accurate diary of each day's work , killing federals. Those shot to death numbered 152 ; killed by having their throats cut 20 ; hung , 70 ; shot and scalped 88 ; shot and mutilated , 11 ; a grand total of 292 a ten days' job for sixty men , something worth boasting of. In the same book , in describing 188 en gagements by the bushwhackers with federals on the border , Mr. Edwards reports a grand total of 0,888 federal and Union sympathizers killed. The re ports of these engagements are quixotic in the extreme. The actual nuinbei lulled by the bushwhackers could not have been more than 2,000 to 2,500 ( bad enough ) and fully 70 per cent of those killed are among the unknown dead. A picture of the horrors of border warfare - faro as painted by the enemy. Wo saved Kansas and Nebraska from the rebel hordes , saved our western set tlement from General Albert Pike's Christian scheme of annihilation bj his Indian allies , kept open and compar atively safe communication with the Pacific coast , and preserved the propei alignment of the right wing of that grand phalanx of army corps that ex ended from the Atlantic to the crest of ho Rockies , served where wo were com- nanded to serve , and have the con sciousness of having done our duty. Kansas furnished for the war in defense of the Union 20,097 soldiers out of a pop- ilation of 100,005 , ono out of eight a soldier. The census of 1800 shows 107,110. En- istinents from Kansas were 8,448 more ; han the quota no draft was ever s j/- sled. The proportion of deaths in ac- ; ion or from wounds was 2.79 per cent more than any other of the twenty-four oyal states , , and just 25.91 per cent xbovo the average of all the states. 10M * STATESMANSHIP. many journals and many citizens of the United States have leld to the illusion that getting money out of all of the people , to bestow upon a few of the people , is genuine states manship. This illusion is a very popu- ar one among people who believe in a pa ternal government. Such persons hold that the highest duty of a congressman or a senator is to get places which will : my money directly to constituents , ere : o secure general appropriations for com munities with which to build unnecessar ily commodious and extravagant court liouses and postoffices or to dredge and dam , and confine within banks , unnavi- gable streams. To loot the treasury of the United States in behalf of a city , county or state is considered sensible statesmanship , and the highest develop ment of practical patriotism by many populist newspapers in Nebraska. And a leading one of those organs of discon tent , of those promoters of antagonisms between citizens , on October 20 , 1898 , triumphantly and with fervid pride de clares : "A record of over JUO pension claim * allowed for old soldiers or their depend ents in Nebraska in u pretty yood evidence of the ctlicicncu of Senator Allen in look ing after the interests of his constituents , as well as of his sympathy with old com rades , " No decent citizen objects to pensions for disabilities incurred in the military service of the United States. But there are a large number of reputable citizens who will not admit that increasing the number of pensioners five hundred in the state of Nebraska thirty-three years after the close of the war is any tiling like "good evidence" that Alllen should bo reelected to the United States senate. Nor can adding five hundred to the lists of those to whom all the others must con tribute their stipends bo considered the most efficient way of looking after the interests of his constituents. All contemplated additions to the pen sion rolls which are evolved from the civil war of a generation ago ought to bo carefully scrutinized to prevent any more frauds upon a generous govern ment. The fact that the number now drawing pensions added to the number