"I was in the Ninth Army Corps, under Burnside, and was transferred around, in front of Richmond, Virginia.
"General Butler went down to Fort Fisher and failed, which was the last open port of the Confederacy. Another expedition was organized and General Terry given command. We embarked on the night of December 31, 1864; landed the morning of January 13, 1865, on the peninsula. On the night of January 15, 1865, we captured Fort Fisher.
"We had a terrible, terrible time landing! There was an awful storm! I was told to jump overboard, and oh my! I swallowed a good deal of the Atlantic!"
He sat still a moment, living over in memory the thrilling events of that night at Fort Fisher, then, saddened by the pageant of the past evoked from memory's storehouse, he said:
"I want to tell you of one of the tragic things that happened during the war, and I was there and saw it.
"It was at the Southside railroad, at Petersburg, on September 27, 1865. I was put on picket duty. The 'Rebs' had built a fire and the wind was driving it toward us. They began to holler and cheer, very happy over the fact.
"All at once we could hear someone coming toward us. The pickets opened fire on what they thought were 'Rebs', and found out to their distress that it was a bunch of recruits from our own lines. Many were killed."
The shadow of this past grief faded from his countenance and in a brighter mood he exclaimed:
"If I could choose my weapons for the next war, I would choose doughnuts, to be thrown at each other across the Atlantic."[4]
| [4] | Bibliography: E. Miller, W.H., "History of Jackson County, Mo.", Kansas City, Mo., Union Hist. Co., 1881. 1006 pp., illus., map. Consultant: Pearly Smith English, Service Officer, American Legion, (colored), Nineteenth and Missouri Street, Sedalia, Mo.] |