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
