CHAPTER XXV.
Taken sick with the ague—Encounters his Satanic Majesty—The Devil afraid of General Grant—Expedition to Bogue Chitto Creek—Captures a rebel Colonel—Enlists as a veteran—Makes a speech to the soldiers.
From the time that I finished my trip to Yazoo City until the next November I had but very little to do, and nothing occurred of interest in my experience as a scout. About this time I was taken with the three-day ague, which troubled me more or less for a whole year. At times, when the "shakes" would leave me and the fever come on, I would have dreams or visions of a delirious character. I usually fancied myself engaged in some fearful and desperate encounter with the rebels. My fancies were audibly uttered, and to-day are as distinctly visible to my mind as though they were realities of yesterday. Indeed, they seemed like actual experience. In those delirious hours, officers and soldiers would visit me, to listen to my utterances of what was passing before me.
On one occasion, I fancied that I died and went to hell. There I found, in one corner of the infernal regions, an inclosure of several acres, filled with Federal soldiers. They were suffering intensely for want of sufficient water. A small rivulet made its way down a little hollow across the inclosure, but the stream was so small that its supply aggravated rather than diminished the thirst of the soldiers. Having placed me in the inclosure, the devil started back to earth after more soldiers. After a careful examination of the locality, I concluded that I could relieve very much of the suffering by damming up the stream. I set to work at once making a dam, and, by the time the devil made his appearance, I had succeeded in raising the water to a depth of four feet.
"Have you come here to interfere with my arrangements?" inquired the devil, angry at what I had done.
"No, sir; but I thought I would build a dam here and have as much water in it as there is in some parts of the Mississippi."
Whereupon the devil picked up a big cannon and punched a hole through it, which let the water out. Just then a twenty-two inch shell came into the inclosure, and exploded with a tremendous crash, completely enveloping us with the smoke. As it cleared away, two persons were seen coming through the regions of space directly toward the inclosure. The quick eye of his Satanic Majesty was the first to catch sight of them.
"Who are these?" he inquired. "A'n't one of them General Grant?"
"Yes," I replied; "that man in citizen's clothes is General Grant, and the man in uniform is General McPherson."
"I believe that is Grant," he said, after a more careful look.
"Yes, that's Grant."
"Then I must light out of this!" and away he went, as fast as possible.
I told my dream to General Grant. "I know," said he, "that I could run the rebels about, but I did not know that I could run the devil out of hell." He has asked me several times since if I had had any more dreams.
In the month of November, General McPherson made a demonstration with 14,000 men toward Canton, Miss., to draw the attention of the rebs while General Sherman, with his command, was moving from Memphis eastward to Chattanooga.
At Brownsville we came upon a small force of rebs, who undertook to check our advance, but we drove them from their position. The next day, at Bogue Chitto Creek, they made another stand, but were again driven from their position. General John A. Logan then sent me out to the front of our right to watch the movements of the enemy, and see which way they went. I was accompanied by a scout, by the name of James E. Bader. About a mile out, we left our horses under cover of the woods, and then, by ourselves, we ascended a rise of ground that enabled us to see the course the enemy had taken. While we were thus engaged in watching, we saw a man leave the rebel forces and ride toward a house that stood near by. As he neared us, we saw that he had on the uniform of a rebel Colonel. He unsaddled the horse at the house and then led it away to the stable, and then returned himself to the house. We then went to our horses, mounted, and rode to the house, dismounted and went in. We found but one man in the house, who said, "Good morning! You gave the Johnnies a good fleecing this morning!"
"Yes," said I, "we fleeced the Johnnies. But where is your uniform?"
"I ha'n't got a uniform, boys. I am no secesh. I have always been a good Union man."
We then searched the house for the saddle and uniform, which we found, hid under the floor.
"What uniform is this," said I, hauling it up from its hiding-place.
"It belongs to one of the boarders."
"It's my opinion that the boarder's clothes will just fit you. Take off the clothes you have on and put on these, and do it quick, too."
"I declare, gentlemen, that's not my uniform."
"No matter; you must put it on and see how it fits."
"Jiminy-pult!" said Bader, brandishing his revolver; "put this uniform on in a hurry, or we'll help you!"
"No more excuses," said I. "It a'n't but a few minutes since we saw you have it on."
The Colonel reluctantly changed his former dress for the uniform. "There—your military clothes fit well. Now go with us."
Bader saddled the horse and brought it to the door, when we made him mount and go back with us to General Logan. I told him the course the enemy had taken, and how we had captured the Colonel.
"Good morning, Colonel," said Logan. "Have you got any meat?"
"Yes, sir."
"Bunker, you go over and get some for our supper to-night."
I returned, accompanied by my partner, to the Colonel's house, where we found a nice flock of turkeys. Knowing that officers were fond of turkeys, I called a dog that was lying in the yard and set him to work. In a few minutes we captured six nice ones, which we carried to the General in lieu of meat.
"Here, Colonel," said Logan, showing the turkeys to the prisoner, "you shall have a nice supper in the Federal fortress. Boys, have you got any for yourselves?"
"No, sir."
"Here, take these," (handing me two of them.)
They made us an excellent supper; but whether the Colonel relished his own turkeys, and himself a prisoner, I am not so sure. The next day I was laid up with the ague, and was not able to scout any more during that expedition.
In the month of December, 1863, the re-enlisting of soldiers as veterans commenced in my regiment. I at once re-enlisted, and set about using my influence to persuade others to do so. This I did, generally by private conversation. Once, however, Bunker was called upon to make a speech, of which the following is what he had to say:
"Fellow-soldiers and comrades in arms: It is with feelings of pride that I attempt to address you—pride because it is not often that an occasion offers for one to address a body of men whose deeds of valor have called forth such praise and such rejoicings as yours have done. Aye! I am proud that I have been a comrade in arms with you in such struggles as Donelson, Shiloh, Champion Hills, and Vicksburg! Such victories attest that you have done your duty well, and the glory is yours. Your country appreciates the value of such men, and, because of it, she now asks that you and I stand by that tattered flag for three years more. We know how it came by those shreds, and, as we gaze upon it, our hearts swell big with emotion in the recollection of the scenes through which we have passed. It is our blood that has spattered it, and our arms that have borne it and won for it glory. You know, by experience, the lot of the soldier. Your faces are bronzed in the service, and many of you bear scars from the battles that you've fought, mementoes of which your children and children's children will be proud to speak when you are laid away in the hero's grave.
"Our regiment has already taken part in nine battles and several severe skirmishes. In addition to my services as a scout and spy, I have taken part in all of them but one, and that was missed because I was sick and unable for duty. But, as much privation and hardships as I have experienced, and as much danger as I have been exposed to, I can not turn a deaf ear to the call of my country.
"Living and mingling, as I have, with the people of the South, and being with them at the time the war commenced, I was able to discern, with approximate correctness, the gigantic proportions of the rebellion. I well knew the feelings that had impelled them, and the obstinate and reckless determination with which they would hold out against the attempt of the Federal Government to bring them into subjection.
"In responding to the call of my country to sustain her noble prestige and glory, I had well counted the cost of the sacrifice that I was about to make; and, contrary to the general expectation of a large proportion of those that volunteered, I had no idea that the rebellion would be put down in a few months, but expected that years must elapse before our country would be restored to its former proportions, peace, and prosperity.
"Two years and a half have already passed since the first shot was fired at that star-spangled banner by the hands of traitors who had been reared under its protecting folds.
"During that period, thousands of patriotic hearts, that beat with love for their country, have ceased their pulsations in the noble effort to crush the traitorous arm that was raised against the most glorious structure of human liberty.
"Fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, wives and sweethearts have mourned the loss of the noble fallen.
"Some of the heroes of this war have dragged out a lingering, distressing existence by disease, breathing the hero's prayer as they closed their eyes in death. Others have died amid the clash of arms and the din of battle; others, smitten down by the hand of the foe, have spent days of horrible agony, without food, water, or shelter, and then—died, glorious martyrs of liberty, on the field where they fell.
"Still the war continues, and the distant boom of cannon announces that more martyrs are being sacrificed and other hearts are being broken.
"The page of history will never reveal the anguish and suffering caused by this unholy rebellion.
"The fond father and mother, who have invoked the blessings of Heaven upon their heroic son, as he was about to leave them to encounter the hardships, privations, and sufferings of the warrior, will never know the sufferings which that loved one has endured; nor will the loved one know the intense anxiety and the agony of the broken hearts of those aged parents, until they meet in the blissful bowers of a patriot and hero.
"No pen can ever portray the sighs and anguish of the devoted wife and tender children, whose husband and father, their solace and support, has been smitten down by the hand of the foe.
"It has been my lot and pleasure to be a comrade and a sharer with those that have thus freely suffered and bled to perpetuate the blessings of liberty; and I can testify that there has been no hardship so great, no suffering so intense, no death so horrible as to efface the calm smiles of satisfaction and love from the face of the war-wrinkled hero, as he closed his eyes in death, with his last lingering look upon the flag of his country.
"Notwithstanding the many narrow escapes and perilous adventures and sufferings that I have experienced, from long marches and from sickness, and from exposure to the weather by sleeping upon the ground, unsheltered by blanket or cover, during my travels as scout; and, notwithstanding the dangers I have experienced upon the field of battle, amid the roar of musketry and the crash of artillery, and the groans of my mangled comrades, wounded and dying, as they lay weltering in pools of blood, I prize my country no less than I did two years and a half ago, and my heart beats with the same patriotism that first prompted me to raise my arm in defense of the Union.
"So long as an armed traitor shall be found in rebellion against the Government, I shall continue my career as a soldier. I can not leave the field until this rebellion is crushed.
"The spirits of my fallen comrades are hovering about me, and beckoning me on to avenge their sufferings and our insulted flag; and their moldering bodies would turn over in disgust in the graves that inclose them, were I to leave the laurels that we have so gallantly won to the uncertainty of strange hands. Come, then, to the rescue!
"Your fathers and mothers, your wives and sweethearts, and all your loved ones at home, will cheer you on in the noble cause. Their thanksgivings and prayers are already encircling the throne of God in your behalf; and when you return to your homes, their kind hands will place garlands of flowers upon your heads as crowns of glory that you have won. Cast your eyes upon the sacred emblem of our country—to the flag which you have followed to the field of blood, and around which you have rallied in the din of battle, and beneath which your brave comrades have fallen, and remember the glorious victories that you have won, and that a nation's gratitude is yours.
"March bravely on, as you have already done, winning victory after victory, and but a few months more will elapse till you have planted the stars and stripes in every nook and corner of the rebellious states.
"Then will peace, happiness and prosperity shed their effulgent rays over all the land, and you will return to your homes, enshrouded with glory, to meet the warm embrace of friends, knowing that you have a country, and that a free country."