USA > Iowa > Humboldt County > History of Kossuth and Humbolt counties, Iowa : together with sketches of their cities, villages, and townships, educational, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 44
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Spencer, who, unknown to us, had pre- served a little flour, perhaps half a pint for an emergency, now concluded that the time for using it had arrived. So halting, we kindled a fire, and, in the iron kettle before mentioned, we made gruel out of the flour. A generous proportion was dealt ont to Hatcher, and the balance divided between Spencer and myself.
Revived by the nourishment and a couple of hours' rest, Hatcher announced himself so far recovered as to be able to travel again, and we pushed on. But we had lost a greater part of the night by our delay at the village and the subse- quent sickness of Hatcher, so that day- light found us only about twelve miles nearer Calhoun than when we set ont the evening before. So anxious were we to push ahead far enough so as to be able to reach our lines By the following morning, that we decided to risk a few hours' travel by daylight, as the country through which we were then passing was heavily tim- bered, and there were but few signs of travel upon the road. Using more than ordinary cantion, we pushed on. We had ascended a steep hill and just commenced the descent, when, not a rod from ns, standing partially concealed by a large tree, stood a man armed with a long rifle. There was no chance to escape. True, we might plunge into the brush and fly, but it would be with a certainty of being
followed. Men, under snch exciting cir- cumstances, think quickly. It so hap- pened that I was in advance. Without hesitating an instant, I walked up to him and asked what he was doing there. To our astonishment his reply developed a fact that we should not have mistrusted from his complexion or general appear- ance. He was a slave.
"I's been down to Massa Gorman's plantation, and old massa let me take de gun along."
"Are you a-" I hesitated. The man was rather dark complexioned, to be sure, but not more so than hundreds I have seen that would feel insulted if thought to have a drop of negro blood in their veins.
"Where do you live?" I blurted out at last.
"De plantation is 'bout a mile from heal; just ober dar by de claim."
"Who do you belong to?" I finally mustered up courage to ask.
"I belong to Massa Jackson," he re- plied. During this conversation he was trying to make up his mind who we were and wondering what our business was.
Becoming convinced at last that his statement with regard to himself was true, I told him who we were, and asked him to assist us in procuring food. He listened attentively to all we said, was perfectly respectful, yet his manner showed that he did not believe a word we had told him. Noticing this, we com- menced talking over our adventures be- tween ourselves, paying no attention to him, but all was in vain; the man be- lieved that we were lying to him.
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We were nonplussed. It was absolutely necessary to our safety that this man should be our friend, and we were thor- oughly convinced that all that was re- quired to accomplish this desirable result, was to secure his confidence to the extent of believing that we were really Yankee soldiers. At length Spencer drew a letter from his pocket, written by his father and received by flag of truce just before leav- ing Charleston, and, addressing himself to the slave, said: "I see you do not believe our statements; can you read?"
"No dis chile has no larnin." "Well, this letter I received from my father who lives in the north ; I will read it to you."
He at once rapidly read the contents, which was of family affairs, condoling with him npon his imprisonment, among other things. The man listened to this attentively, thought it over for a moment or two, looked ns over again carefully, and finally said:
"Well, marsa, I believe now you is what you said you is. You could'nt make dat up as fast as dat; and if you is Union men, (looking again at ns sharply, to notice the effect of his words ) "If you is Yankees, you'ns is all right. 'Dar is a camp of home guards right close by." 1 could feel cold chills run up my back, and that peculiar feeling of the scalp, as if the hair was raising.
"Home guards!" I exclaimed. "Can't we avoid them? We have suffered too mnch, and are too near our lines to be captured, now, we would rather die. Can't you help us?
"Why, Lor' bress you, massa, ye don't want to void dem; dey is Union men, dey will help you."
"You don't pretend that there is an organization of Union men here in Geor- gia?"
"Yes sah ; de strongest kind of Union men. Dey is fightin' eb'ry day. Tell ye, marsa, 'you is all right.'"
The tables were now turned on us with a vengeance. It was as hard for the slave to make us believe his statement as it had been for us to convince him that we were Yankees.
After an hour's conversation, and after questioning and cross-questioning him, we at length became convinced that he was telling the truth. It was finally agreed that he should accompany us to the house of a Union man, which he in- formed ns was located on the road, only about a quarter of a mile distant. One of the party was to take the gun, and one a club. We were to walk side by side, and at the first intimation that he had de- ceived us, we were to kill him.
In this order we arrived at a log house, situated a few rods from the road. The contraband knocked at the door. It was opened by a woman who seemed anything but self-possessed. Our friend inquired for the man of the house. The woman replied that her husband was not at home, in a voice trembling with excitement and fear. The contraband saw at once her state of mind ; he told her that she need not be afraid, that we were Union men and were going into the camp, and asked her to provide ns with a breakfast, and. told her to send for her busband.
This, after some hesitation, she conclud- ed to do, and dispatched her little son npon the errand. In the meanwhile she prepared us a good breakfast which we
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dispatched with a relish seldom excelled. We waited a few minutes after breakfast for the return of the husband ; but no husband appeared. At length the woman finally told us that it was extremely doubt- ful about her husband's returning while we were there. We then thought it very strange that our appearance should have cansed him to desert his house because of our entering it, the woman having frankly admitted that he ran from the back door when we entered the front, but we were too much excited at the novelty of our own position to be very much surprised at anything. She also informed us that if we were Union men the best thing that we could do would be to go to the camp of the Home Guards. This advice we acted upon at once, and taking our con- traband friend as a guide, started for the camp.
We had proceeded but a few rods from the house, when we discovered, in the road ahead of ns, a mounted picket, dressed in Confederate gray.
To describe our feelings at the sight is simply impossible. My first impulse was to turn and fly. I grasped my cinb with fierce energy, with the mental vow that if that negro had betrayed ns into the hands of our enemies, to send him to his long home, if my life should be the forfeit. Not a word was spoken until the sentinel challenged :
"Who goes there ?" Spencer replied : "Friends."
"Advance, friends, and give the coun- tersign."
"We have no countersign," I replied. "Who are you?"
My voice trembled as I replied : "Es- caped Union prisoners."
"All right; come in."
"Wait a moment; are you a Union man?"
"I just am that ; I belong to the Ilome Guards."
"Well, who are the Home Guards ?"
"Union men, belonging around here. Come along, and we will take care of you?"
"All right," we replied, and under his guidance we moved forward. We soon reached the camp, or rather rendezvous of the command. We found perhaps a dozen men, all armed, in and around a small but comfortable log house."
They were all safe now and here we will take leave of them. Col. Spencer was honorably discharged from the serv- ice at the close of the war, after gallant service, and refusing a position in the regular army, which was tendered him, returned, like Cincinnatus, to private life.
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF WAR TIMES.
The following reminiscence of the War of the Rebellion is related by D. H. Hutch- ina, late lieutenant of company E, 27th Iowa Volunteer Infantry. The lieutenant is at present one of the most prominent citizens of Algona, where he is engaged in the banking business.
"Our division was camped near Jefferson barracks, St. Louis, waiting orders, in Sep- tember, 1864, at the time of Price's last raid; when, on the 25th of the month, the division was ordered down the Iron Moun- tain railroad toward Pilot Knob, to watch the movements of the enemy, as it was probable that Price was moving his forces toward St. Louis as his objective point.
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Gen. A. J. Smith, with most of the divis- ion, halted at a town named De Soto, while the 14th and 27th regiments, Iowa troops, went on to Mineral Point, at which place we went into camp. The next morning, quite early, a countryman came into camp. The officer in command was notified by some of the citizens that he had the reputation of being a bad man, and a guerrilla. He was at once placed under gnard to prevent him from carry- ing information to the enemy, as it was believed that he was a spy. He was guarded that day and the next night. On the morning of the 27th he requested per- mission of the sergeant of the guard to go to the house of a citizen and get some breakfast, to which Sergeant Treat con- sented. Taking an armed private as guard, the three went forty or fifty rods to the honse, where the prisoner got what he wanted to eat. On the return to the guard-house the three were going along together, when suddenly the prisoner grasped the gun from the guard, cocked and snapped it at the sergeant, but not being loaded, the prisoner was disap- pointed in not killing him. He then threw off his coat and hat and ran for the timber, which was close by, but was stopped by the pickets and brought back to camp, where the command remained until evening, when we were ordered to fall back to protect a high bridge over the Merrimac river. As soon as the train halted the troops were ordered to get off on the right of the train, which consisted of box and platform cars. The prisoners, of whom there were several, were on a platform car under guard. Company K occupied a box car, next in front of that
was occupied by my company, E, most of whom were on the top of the car, as was company K behind us. As soon as the order to get off was given, it was a per- fect bedlam; those on the box cars had to descend by the ladder attached to it, and could not get down with their accou- trements, so there were many shouting at the same time, "hand down my gun, my cartridge box," and some one thing and some another; so there was much noise and confusion. Sergeant Penny, of com- pany K, and myself sat opposite, he on the front lett hand corner, and I on the left rear corner of the car in front, which brought us close together, and there be- ing such a crowd and so much confusion in getting off on the right, he suggested that we get off on the left side, which we did, he being in advance, both going down on the same ladder. As soon as we reached the ground he started to the rear, some ten feet in advance of me, when I heard the cry, "catch him, catch him," which caused me to hurry up to where I saw two men, one apparently on the back of the other trying to hold him. As it was dark I could not tell who the men were, but concluded one was Penny, and that he was trying to hold the other from behind. I threw down a sword in its seab- bard, and thought to hold the one trying to get away by seizing hold of his coat collar, believing I could hold him until help would come, as the men were so near, but I found he wore no coat. I then felt for his hair for a hold of him, and I found that as short as though just out of prison. I then stepped in front, and as I did so, Penny, as it was he, let go and stepped back, and the other man straight-
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ened up. As he did so I threw my arms around his, reaching clear around him and pulled him on to me. As I struck the ground, he being upon me, I felt a hurt near my right shoulder blade. I could feel a motion and a pricking as though my man was trying to get something into me. I immediately shouted, "Help! help!" and squeezed him with all my might, and still I could feel that motion of his hand and the pricking. I shouted again, "Help! help!" I could not discover any attempt to get away from me, or any motion even, except that continued motion and prick- ing at my back as though he was trying, as it afterward proved, to get some in- strument into me so as to disable me thinking that he could then get away. I once more shouted, "Help! help!" feel- ing that my safety and perhaps my life depended on my holding him so he could not use his arms. His weight and my own pressing on his hand, he could do nothing unless he could get his arms loose
I began to feel somewhat exhausted by the .effort to hold him tightly, and it seemed, as I lay there with him alone on that side of the train, in a dark ent five or six feet deep, as though it was a very long time from the first shout to the last. Very soon after the third calling for help, Jake Shannon, of company G, came from the front where I had got off the car, and immediately belabored my man over the head, and, I think, broke his gun at the small of the stock at the first blow. He then took out his bayonet and pounded him on the head until he seemed to wilt, as it were. His head dropped by the side of mine, and thinking him used up, I re- laxed my hold and he slid off and got up
and walked back toward the rear of the train, appearing to stagger as he walked. When he had got about fifteen feet a man of company H jumped off the platform car on which the prisoner had been, and was going up the side of the cut, when the prisoner turned out of his way and struck him in the side; and as he turned to defend himself the prisoner struck him a second time, cutting out the right eye. He then crawled under the train, and found himself right in the crowd on the opposite side, who took a jack-knife from him, tied his arms behind him, doubled his guard and placed him on a platform car, which ended the picnic for the night. But the sequel must be told to make out the story. It seems the prisoner never re- covered his coat or hat when he attempted to get away in the morning, and as it was quite cold, Sergeant Treat had taken off his own overcoat and let the prisoner have it to wear, although this same prisoner had attempted to take his life in the morning. The sergeant had also divided his rations with him, and the prisoner was just done eating. As he got up from a sitting posture he turned to the sergeant and said, "Here, take your coat." "No, no," said Treat, "you keep it, you need it more than I." "I'll not have it," said the prisoner, and at the same time threw it on to the sergeant, and at the same time struck him with a jack-knife that had been loaned him to eat with, cutting one of the large arteries in the neck, killing him almost instantly. Then he jumped from the car, was caught by Penny, whom he struck in the neck with the knife, ent- ting a fearful wound between the jugular vein and wind-pipe, cutting from just be-
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low the chin to the collar bone. At this time I put my arms around him and he his around me, and I, falling to the ground, fell on the point of the knife, cutting a gash two and a half inches long from the edge of the shoulder blade to- ward the backbone. Besides the main cut, he had pricked my back in numerous places, but could not get force enough to do damage. Besides, when I fell on the knife it shut on his forefinger, cutting it half off, but he managed to open it some way, so that when he got up he struck me twice-once in the left arm, and again on the left breast; the first went to the bone, while the force of the other was stopped by a row of pins across which his knife passed, making a very small hole above the pins and one three or four inches long below, not going through the lining of the coat. He also stabbed Shannon in the back, killing one sergeant and wounding two others, and wounding two privates, neither of whom knew he had a weapon until he felt it. The dead sergeant and the wounded were put on the cars, and the train moved on to De Soto. The next morning I found the prisoner, whose name we had found to be Shelby Cole, lying on the ground near the dead sergeant, sur- rounded by a crowd of soldiers, while standing not more than two feet from his feet a soldier came up to the head of the prisoner with his gun at order arms, and looking down into the prisoner's face, said to him, "Why did you kill that man? He treated you like a brother; he divided his rations with you, and took off his coat and suffered with the cold that you might be comfortable. To pay him for his kind- ness you killed him. Why did you do it?"
The prisoner answered, "I thought he meant to impose upon me." The soldier ground out a fearful oath from between his teeth and at the same time raised his gun two feet or more and brought it down with great force across the prisoner's fore- head, causing the blood to spurt from the nose several feet. Immediately after, Gen. Smith was informed what had happened, . that the prisoner had killed one man and wounded four others, and was asked what they should do with him. His answer was characteristic of the general, who answered "bury him." "But general the man is not dead." "Damn the difference, bury him." The soldiers understood the order, and immediately brought a long rope and putting it around his ankles, dragged him about ten rods when they took the rope off his feet and put it around his neck, threw it over the limb of a tree and drew him up. During these different operations he boasted that he had killed thirty Union men and was sorry he could not kill as many more. If he could he would then be willing to die. Hanging by the neck did not seem to hurt bim. After dangling some time one of the men walked up and taking his feet under his arms ran ont one side as far as he could raising his own feet he swung his whole weight on the neck of the prisoner, back and forth, but even this did not seem to affect the prisoner. Then two men, one at each leg, raised him up, then jerked down on him and this ended the life of Shelby Cole. Then the general's order was car- ried out and he was buried. In the after- noon his wife and sister came to town to find that the husband and brother was dead. The wife shed some tears, but the sister said she was glad he was dead as he was an awful man.
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CHAPTER XII.
REMINISCENCES AND EVENTS OF INTEREST.
Ambrose A. Call, to whom we are in- debted for so many items in this history, gives the following account of the Spirit Lake massacre, and the consequent panic that followed, throughout all this part of the State. Mr. Call says :
"In the spring of 1857 the massacre of the settlement at Spirit Lake occurred. A small settlement of six or seven families had claimed the timber and built cabins around the lakes. The snow was so deep that they had been unable to get out dur- ing the latter part of the winter, and con- scquently their provisions had run low. One family, Robert Ridley, lived on the Des Moines river, fourteen miles east, near the present site of Estherville (the town took its name from his wife, Esther Ridley), and four families at a settlement called Springfield, in Minnesota, on the west fork, near the present site of Jack- son. A small band of Indians known as "Inkpadutah's Band," had also got snowed in at the lakes, and were subsisting on fish. There is no doubt but these Indians had, for the three years that had elapsed since the massacre of a part of Five Fingers' band, by Lott, been watching an opportunity of revenge. Blood for blood, is the sum of an Indian's religion. No Indian would ever reach the happy hunting-ground of his fathers if his string
did not number the scalp of an enemy for every kinsman slain. The small stock of provisions and the few animals, owned by the settlers, had donbtless aroused their cupidity, also. There is no doubt but the attack was premeditated and pre-arranged. The sequel is well known ; the whole set- tlement with the exception of the women, who were taken prisoners, and a small boy who escaped by concealment, were massacred, and one of these women be- coming foot-sore and stubborn, was killed and thrown into the Big Sioux river ; the other two were ransomed by traders on the Upper Missouri river,and returned to their friends in the eastern part of the State. These women stated that the Indians pro- fessed friendship up to the day previous to the massacre, when a difficulty had oc- curred about some hay which the Indians took for their ponies. The settlers were doubtless surprised, as there is no evidence of any resistance except on the part of one Granger, a well known frontiersman, who fought desperately, as evinced by the numerous wounds he received before he fell, and the bullet and toma- hawk marks in his clothing and on the tree, at the foot of which his body was found. He carried two heavy navy re- volvers, and was fought from his cabin to a tree, one side of which had been burned
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ont hollow. Two dead Indians were sub. sequently found stuck up in a tree about thirty miles northwest of the scene of the conflict, supposed to have been killed by Granger. After the massacre at the lake a part of the band attacked the settlement at Springfield, but the settlers, having had their suspicions aroused by the actions of the Indians, had gathered at the houses of Messrs. Thomas and Church and success- fully repelled their attack. Here is where Mrs. Church, a woman of muscle and nerve, distinguished herself in the defense of her cabin.
"Many versions are given of the Spirit Lake massacre, but the above is believed to be the correct one. Persons living at Spirit Lake, the scene of the massacre, all of whom have come in since it oe- curred, know less about it than those who were near at the time of its occurrence. The people of this settlement got the first news of the massacre from the Fort Dodge mail carrier some two weeks after its occurrence; imunediately following came reports of a general Indian war, the near proximity of large bands of Indians, other massacres and fights on different parts of the frontier. The snow was mostly gone, the streams and sloughs all bank full of water, with no bridges or boats, which made travel almost impossi- ble, and added to the fear and panic of the settlers. Placards were posted up in the older parts of the State, calling for volunteers and stating that Algona and Fort Dodge had been laid in ashes, and a company was actually raised at Des Moines and another in Boone county to march to the relief of Webster City. The settlers north and west of ns had all
fled, and some for 100 miles south and east. The air was filled with rumors, every stranger was viewed with suspicion, and if seen on the prairie was run down and captured as an Indian spy. Cranes were magnified into Indians, prairie fires were mistaken for Indian camp fires, and the very howling of the April winds sent a chill of horror to the hearts of mothers as they clung closer to their babes and strained every nerve to catch the stealthy tread of a savage. Under these circum- stances it is not strange that a large num- ber of the settlers, who had families, tled, and some never returned. Those who re- mained got together and decided to forti- fy and fight it out. A stockade was de. cided upon to be built under the direction of Judge Call and H. A. Henderson, both of whom had seen service in the Indian country. Couriers volunteered to go be- low for a supply of ammunition; these were Abe Hill, H. F. Watson and W. Skinner. Experienced frontiersmen on fleet horses were sent out beyond the settlements, as scouts, to warn the settlers of the ap- proach of Indians. Some of our best scouts and frontiersmen, including W. H. Ingham and A. L. Seely, were absent when the news first reached our settlement.
"The settlers living in the southern end of the county also built a stockade at Irvington. This was built of two inch oak plank, doubled, the end set in a trench. This stockade was about fifty feet square, with port holes and bastions. The sup- position was, that the building of these stockades would give to the settlers a feeling of security, and keep many in the conntry, who otherwise would leave, and in case of a threatened attack upon the settle-
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