Recollections
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RECOLLECTIONS OF Pioneer and Army Life BY MATTHEW H. JAMISON, Lieutenant E Company, Tenth Regimf'nt, Illinois Veteran Yolunteer Infantry; Assigned Commander of F Company on the Hood f'hase au<l on tlie March to t,be Sea; Assigned Commanner of G Company on the Campaign through the Carolinas under General Wm. Tecum:-,eb ShermaJ.J. Peace is the dream of the wise; w~1r is the history of man. lVouth listens \\·ithout attention to those who seek to lead it by the paths of reason to happiness, and rushes with irresistible violence into the arms 11f thP phantom which lures it by the light of glory to destruction.---S('gur. TO HARRY F. lVIcALLISTER: THIS IS MY CONTRIBUTION TO THE "DBRISIVE SILENCE OF THE CENTURIES,n AND MY TI~STIMONIAL TO YOUR EVER F'AI'rH FUL FRIENDSHIP THESE FORTY-FIVE YEARS. PREFATORY. Gone are they all ! The tints of youth; the tumult of battle; the old and worn and tattered banners; the neighing horses ; the broken caissons ; the prisoners of war; the Mis sissippi flotilla; the defiant rebel yell on the 111idnight departure from Corinth; Bragg's broken colu1nns on the shifting field of Mission Ridge; the bloody repulse of Kenesaw and Marietta; the discomfiture of Hood be£ ore Atlanta; the exultant March to the Sea; the advance in storm and flood through the Caro linas ; the bloody hour before Bentonville; the Surrender of Johnson at Raleigh; and the pageant on Pennsylvania Avenue fallowing the funeral car of Presi_dent Lincoln. Gone are they all; and I too am soon gone t In the fleeting n1oment the aging veteran, hat in hand, waves a salute to the oncoming youth, bearing full high advanced the colors of his country to undreamed-of triumphs: for this is our war£ are; no battle; no crown of Victory t M. H.J. October I, 191 I. Battle Mountain Sanitarium, Hot Springs, South Dakota. CONTENTS Page. CHAPTER I. Our Family in the Early History of the Government .... 7 CHAPTER II. My Earliest Days Continued . ............... CHAPTER I I I. My Mother ........................................ 18 CHAPTER IV. Rachel T. Nicol. ................................... 23 CHAPTER V. The South Henderson Church ....................... 30 CHAPTER VI. Off for Oregon. Frontier Life in the Early Forties ..... CHAPTER VII. The Illusions of Childhood ........................... CHAPTER VIII. The Family Removes to the Yellow Banks ........... 44 CHAPTER IX. My Boyhood at the Yellow Banks ................... 50 CHAPTER X. Temptations of the Great River ..................... 56 CHAPTER XI. The Yellow Banks ................................. 61 CHAPTER XI I. "Gold! Gold! from Sacramento River"!. ............. 66 CHAPTER XIII. The Village Bakery ................................. CHAPTER XIV. The Presbyterian Chapel and Its l\1emories ............ CHAPTER xv. The Ghost and the Fink & Walker Stage Coach ....... 80 CHAPTER XVI. The School-teacher Descended from the Pilgrim Fathers, CHAPTER XVII. The Menace of the Great River ...................... 92 . 11 Contents . Page CHAPTER XVIII. A Ride with One of the Cloth . 96 CHAP1'ER XIX. The Bloomer Costun1e, the Crinoline Disturbance, and Other Matters.. 100 CHAPTER XX. The 11ysterious Stranger. 104 CHAPTER XXI. The Ghost. r 1 2 CHAPTgR XXI I. Overland to Fountain Green. I 15 CHAPTER xx I I I. A Glimpse of Horace Greeley. I I 9 CHAPTJ<,h. ' , ,~~'-..: X I\T . Lincoln and Douglas. 124 CHAPTER XXV. My School-days at l\Ionmouth and the Crozier-Fleming Tragedy . 1 30 CHAPTER XXVI. "T'o Pike's Peak or Bust" . 135 CHAPTER XXVII. Homeward Bound.. 1 45 CHAPTER XXVIII. A Volunteer at the Fall of l-i... t. Sumter................. 149 CHAP1'IiR XXIX. To Washington and Through New Englanr!. 156 CHAPTEI< XXX. R.e-enlisted for Three Years. 163 CHAPTER XXXI. Our First Encounter with a Contraband. 171 CHAPTER XXXI I. The Capture of Island No. 10 and Ne\\r l\laclrid......... 175 CHAPTER XXXIII. From Shiloh to Corinth under Halleck . 183 CHAPTER XXXIV. The March to Tuscumbia and Nash ville . 188 CHAPTER XXXV. Isolated at Nashville. I 92 CHAPTER XXXVI. Bridgeport to Chattanooga........... 197 ( ·o ntents. 111 Page. CHAPTER XXXVIII. Good-bye, Braxton Bragg ............................ 201 CI-L\PT.ER XXXIX. Relief of r,,;::noxville. 205 CHAPTER XL. On Veteran Furlough. 21 I CHAPTER XLI. The Knights of the Golden Circle ................ _... 215 CHAPTER XLII. The Confederate Can1paign in Henderson County...... 219 The Atlanta Campaign, or the Hundred Days Battle.... 220 Battle at Rocky Face ................................ 2 33-4 Battle of Resaca . 235 Adjutant Rice Vi/ oundcd. 2 36 Capture of Ron1e. 237 The Fight at Dallas . 239 Preliminary Fighting at Kenesaw l\,fountain. 245 The Charge of Our Division at l\tlarietta . 247 Fightin~ at the Rifle-Pits and on the Picket-Line ....... 250-1 Peach-Tree Creek. Major Wilson and Captain l\tlunson Wounded ...................................... 254-5 Battle of July 22nd. Death of Gen. l\1cPherson....... 255 Our Division, the Victim of a Shan1eful l\1iscarriage on July 28th . 257 Our Regiment Exchanges the "Acorn'' for the "Arrow," 264 Resignation of Commissioned Officers . 267 Assigned to the Command of Company F. 2 68 The liood Chase .................................... 268-9 Dea th of Gen. Ransom . 2 74 The March to the Sea. 2 78 Tear Up, Burn and T·wist . ·,· . 284 Prisoners from Fort McCallister. 288 On the Gulf Railroad . 2 89 The City of Savannah . 2 90 On Ocean Transports to Beaufort, S. C............... 293 Campaign Through the Carolinas . 296 Fighting at the Crossing of the Salkahatchie. 300 Assigned to the Command of Company G. Capt. Wilson of "G" Wounded . 302 Midnight Crossing of the Edisto. 304 Passing Through Orangeburg. 306 On the Saluda, Opposite Columbia . 308 The Burning of the Capitol of South Carolina. 309 . 1V Contents. Page. At \Vinsboro. 31 1 Capture of Cheraw . 314 Arrival of the Army at Fayetteville, N. C. 318 Our Divi~ion at Bentonville. 321 Our Arrival at Goldsboro.. 323 Grant Has Taken Richmond.......................... 325 Dispatch that Lee Has Surrendered. 32 6 Arrival of Sherman's Army at Raleigh ................. 32 6-7 Assassination of President Lincoln. 32 7 I 7th A. C. Reviewed by Gen. Grant, She rrnan and 0th er Distinguished Officers.. 328 Interview with Mrs. Stewart.... 329 Homeward Bound via Richmond and Washington .....·. 330 In Old Virginia, Petersburg.. 332 "On to R.ichmond," Libby Prison and Belle Isle. 333 Richmond to Washington. Scene of Sheridan's Cavalry Engagements. 334 Ride Over Spottsylvania Battle-Ground ... \ . 335 Ride with Surgeon Ritchey and Acting Q. 1\1. Hughes to Mt. Vernon.. 337 President Johnson at the Entrance to the White House . 338 Letter fron1. Mary F. Hamilton of the Treasury De partment. 339 By Rail to Parkersburg--Down the Ohio River to Louis- ville . 340 On Fu lough. Ride \\ ith Gen lVIorgan on Front Platform of Cars from 4 J>. :w. until l\ili<lnight.. 342 Home! .......... _.................................. 343 A.PPENLJIX. 17th A. C. Badge . 344 Congratulatory Dispatch fron1 Governor Low, of Cali- fornia ...................... ,.................... 345 The Pot-Trammels of 1690. 346 Patriotism of Illinois-Joe Hooker and John Pope..... 347 Heroes Given to Strong Drink.... 348 The Rebel Paper's Libel . 349 Capt. David R. Water's Explanation of the Movement of Our Division on July 28th, 1864.. 352 The National Tribune's Tabular Statement of the Union Soldiers' Services . 354 Henry Watterson's Tribute to Lincoln. 356 Copyright 1911 By MA'ITHEW H. JAMISON, Kansas City, Mo. CI-L-\PTER I. OuR F.\:\IlI.. Y 1~ 'l'In: E.,RI.Y H rs'rURY ot: THI~ GOVERN i\H:NT. To bear ·willing testi1nony to the vi rtnes of 111y honored parents, ·whose 111e1nory I hold in unfeigned love and rever ence, is 1ny first duty as ·well as 1ny chief est pleasure in the preparation of these pages. ~[y father, \Villja111 R.ollin Ja1ni son, ,vas born in Grayson County. l(entucky, in 1808, the year in which the Congressional Act was passed prohibiting the slave trade, and in which ~--\aron Burr, after his trial a: Richn1ond, left his country for EuropeJ an outcast, to wander a discredited 111an. 1Iy father's long and useful life con1passe<l three-quarters of a century. :VI y in11necliate fore bears and 111yself were born on our 1\111erican frontier. S01ne branches of our family were represented in the arn1y under \Vashing ton. one of then1 a quartennaster. and others were usefully employed in different bt anches of the military service. One of these, a young n1an of eighteen years, left his widowed mother in the north of Ireland and escaped to this country as a stowaway, and under an old law or custotn of the ti1ne, dis charged his obligation to the n1aster of the vessel by enlisting · in the patriot arn1y. A. grand-uncle was a tnerchant high in repute and of considerable ·wealth in the city of Baltimore dur ing the first thir<l of the nineteenth century. and his descend ants are now citizens of l\if aryland. l\,f y great-grandfather. John Jan1ison 1 from across the ,vater in the north of Ireland, settled in Lancaster County. Pennsylvania, the richest agricult- ·ural part of the State. in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. He it was who named the township "Little Britain"; 7 8 Recollect-ions of Pioneer and Ar11iy Life. and my grand£ ather, Sarnnel J an1ison, 1noveJ f ron1 thence to Kentucky at the beginning of the century, where n1y father was born as aforesaid. The axe, the plow and the rifle were the im plements used by the three generations of my ancestors to sub due the ,vilderness. 1~hey chose the route into the Mississippi Valley taken by the Lincolns-namely, fro1n Pennsylvania an<l Virginia into Kentucky, thence across the Ohio River into Southern Indiana, and f ron1 thence directly to the Father of Waters.