USA > Indiana > Reunion of the 9th regiment Indiana vet. vol. infantry association, 1892-1904 > Part 21
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Capt. Amasa Johnson, in response to the call of the President, said :
"Gen. Suman, this is my home, and our people want to hear my old comrades of the Ninth, and tonight I want to say but very little and hear a good deal from my old com- rades. We are especially pleased to have with us Lieut. Willard tonight, and while he has grown far stouter and much grayer than he was when a lieutenant of C Company, you boys who fought at Shiloh will remember that Lieut. Willard, then a stripling of an officer, was in charge of our skirmish line and under his leadership our skirmishers cap- tured and held for a considerable space of time a well-known Louisiana battery until forced by overpowering numbers to allow the enemy to recover their guns. Comrades, I can't help remarking upon your good looks, for it is some years since I have seen many of you, and today have seen a few for the first time since the war. You are certainly a body of remarkably well preserved men, for on all sides I hear my neighbors commenting on your unusually good ap- pearance as men who have passed the half century mark from at least five to fifteen years, and yet most of you show- ing but little traces of age. You are mostly still erect and as soldierly looking as in the old army days. Gen. Suman himself, several years older than the most of you, and yet he actually looks to be ten or fifteen years younger than he actually is. I noticed most of you fellows were pretty good providers in the army whenever the wherewith to provide from was in sight, and I think you still retain that habit vet, and that is one reason for your well kept appearance now and then, too ; as a rule our boys were careful of their health and comfort and willing to stir around to put their camp and quiarters in a decent and comfortable and sanitary shape whenever the means to do so were at hand. I often recall the propensity of the Ninth boys to adapt themselves
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to existing conditions : for instance; on falling back from Chickamauga many of the newer soldiers threw away their blankets while our fellows seemed to know by intuition we would go into winter quarters at Chattanooga, and so they picked up these stray blankets and our regiment went into camp pretty well fixed."
The Captain then went on to describe how he had fixed up his own quarters for a stay of several months; how he had accumulated a good supply of sweet potatoes and buried them nicely and got a porker and ham converted into sausage and in general put his household in good shape and pretty good style for a common company officer, and how when he got all fixed nicely, and his larder supplied, he was suddenly ordered away on detached duty and how the stuff he had so carefully piled up for the "rainy day" vanished, as he after learned, much to the benefit of some of his own comrades.
The Captain said it was a noteworthy fact that our present officers in the army and navy were schooled as sol- diers in the Civil War. Gen. Lawton, for instance, began his military career as a non-commissioned officer in the 9th Indiana, and Dewey, a subaltern in the Civil War, got his lessons from grand old Admiral Farragut.
Comrade Byron A. Dunn, who served as a private in Company C and was wounded at Chickamauga, and also at Nashville, has lately achieved considerable notoriety as an author, by writing two entertaining and quite realistic stories of the Civil War, entitled "Gen. Nelson's Scout" and "On Gen. Thomas' Staff." The two volumes are pub- lished by A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, and are very handsomely illustrated, and have found many readers in all parts of the country. Gen. Suman, in presenting Comrade Dunn, said that he bought one of the books and sent it to Gen. Lawton, and had a letter from the wife of Gen. Law- ton, saying her husband had not yet found time to read it, but his son was immensely pleased with it.
Comrade Dunn spoke of the comrades looking so well after the lapse of more than a third of a century, and, after all, it was not surprising, as the Ninth was made up of as fine material as the northwest part of Indiana could supply, going into the field at the very first. Not one person in perhaps ten thousand of our present generation have an adequate conception of the great Civil War. "My literary work in the past two years has revealed to me facts that seemed surprising. Few realize that we had a battle line
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extending from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, or that on an average a battle was fought every day in the four years and over of fighting, and 300 men killed for every day of the four bloody years. More Confederates fell at Chickamauga than at Gettysburg, a fact not generally known, but true. History becomes almost fascinating when we in- quire deeply into the losses and heroism of the great Union and Confederate armies, and we are constrained to admire the splendid, courage shown by the men in gray as well as by our boys in blue." The comrade then told how in front of Atlanta he received a detail to report at Chattanooga for detached duty, and with a vision of a "soft snap" at headquarters or a subsistence depot uppermost in his mind, he told how in the carly evening he took transportation in an empty freight car in a north-bound train and was soon whirling along to a safer point in the rear, and after hunting for the softest board in the floor of his special coach, he laid himself down to sweet slumber with the whole car to him- self, and never thought of reproaching the car for being only a humble freight car. When he arrived in Chatta- nooga he found he had been promoted to the high and mighty position of an M. D., otherwise known as mule driver. All protestations were overruled, and he undertook the drill of an "awkward squad" of the soldiers' best re- serve, the army mule. He said the mules assigned to his command were green, and so was he, and his narration of how he and the mules performed was so realistic that it actu- ally brought tears-of mirth-to the eyes of most of his hearers, and the reporter was so blinded thereby he forgot is. keep his pencil "pegging away," and will not attempt to reproduce that part of Comrade Dunn's remarks. Suffice to say, that his efforts proved to the wagon master that he was not a "howling success" as the engineer of an "army coach and six," and was degraded to the position of a cook for the men who had the intelligence, eloquence, and ability to drive a mule. Comrade Dunn said that detached duty had no charms for him, and he sought the seclusion of his regiment as soon as he could get excused, and that the humiliation of his experience and the lack of appreci- ation that all mule drivers seemed to manifest toward him very naturally enkindled a feeling in his breast to some time get even with the accomplished mule managing gentry, and yielding to this impulse, in a moment of emo- tional insanity, he "attached himself to a wagon cover" while at Pulaski that belonged to his Uncle Sam, but was
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carelessly left in the care of some slumberously inclined mule drivers, and on many a stormy night he and other comrades of C had fully appreciated the "find." As Com- rade Dunn retired, blushing from honors heaped upon him by the folks, whom he had so cleverly shown one of the funny sides of war, the corresponding secretary tried to pull himself together to more accurately "memorandumize" the talk of the next man called upon, when, to his con- sternation. Gen. Suman said: "Ladies and gentlemen, 1 will now call on our Secretary, Judge Whitehall, of Chi- cago. In the regiment we called him Alex." At this point some of the old comrades who never seem to forget that once upon a time, "away down in' Old Alabama," an old pair of cavalry boots got the better of our understanding, to such an extent as to very nearly "swallow up" all the bifurcated portion of a recruit, corresponding to our then size and style of personal make up, to complete our identi- fication and introduction, sang out, "Come to the front, Boots!'" Under the stress of circumstances, we just fired a random shot like this :
"Citizens of Plymouth : It goes without saying we are glad to be with you once more. Fourteen years has made some changes in our ranks, but we are happy to say we find in Plymouth the same open-handed, warm-hearted recep- tion that greeted us on the occasion of our first visit to your city. As Secretary of this Veteran Association, it has been my duty to write the memoirs of some of our splen- did old comrades who, harrassed by wounds or disease, have given over the fight and taken an indefinite leave of absence, and passed "beyond the river" to the ranks of the greater Grand Army on the Eternal Camping Grounds. Since we last met in pleasant reunion as your welcome and honored guests, several good comrades of Company D have answered the final roll call and been ushered into the presence of the Supreme Commander and have joined the waiting ranks of grand old comrades gone before. Among those who have gone on in advance, we recall the name of Comrade Dan B. Armstrong a splendid soldier in his com- pany and regiment, loyal. brave, generous and true, and honored by his comrades for a year as the president of this association. What Comrade Armstrong was to us as a sol- dier, so he was to you as a worthy and most deserving citi- zen.
"Beforethe old Ninthagain returns to enjoy your hearty welcome and generous hospitality passionless mounds may
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crown the battle scarred body of dear comrades in life today, but come what may to each of us, kind, loyal friends, we will bear away with us from this 13th reunion pleasant memories and a consciousness that your love for the de- fenders of the Republic is deep and generous.
"Now, my old comrades of the Ninth, I know you will ex- cuse me for just telling one story about myself. You remem- ber our regiment lay to the right of Fort Negley, as we faced the South and Hood's army in December, 1864, at Nash- ville, and that our skirmish line, thrown out quite a dis- tance to the front, was generally a pretty strong line and the Johnny's had their line comfortably close to ours, I thank you, in very many places, and both sides tried their marks- manship whenever temptations presented themselves. One bright, crisp morning, the first week in December, I was de- tailed with a number of others from my regiment for picket duty, and the squad to which I belonged were assigned a position just a little ways from the Franklin pike, and far as I could see most of the pickets had a rifle pit or gopher hole, as the boys called them, to drop into while they stood their trick and exchanged compliments with the gentle- men in butternut habiliments occupying the other line of rifle pits. The compliments were. some of them, by word of mouth. at other times they were just heaved across the in- tervening space in the shape of leaden messengers from the grimy mouth of a Springfield or Enfield rifle. Our reserve was posted on the 'Union' side of a ridge, and over on the 'Sunny South' slope of the ridge the limestone was pretty nearly a naked reality, and perched out there on that stony slope was an old weather beaten barrel, that looked as if it had seen better days. Later on I had occasion to culti- vate an intimate acquaintance with that barrel, and ascer- tained what it was doing for the country at a time when every loyal, self-respecting barrel was expected to stand right up for Unele Sam and do its whole duty. And if that barrel is on earth and in need of a pension. I am one of the fellows that can furnish a strong affidavit as to what it went through on one occasion that tried one man's soul sorely. Not being able to dig a 'gopher hole' at that point some long headed Yank had conceived the idea of planting a ven- erable looking barrel out there on a little shelf of the lime- stone slope, and had piled up in front of it some loose shelly stones and pitched earth and gravel into the barrel till it was full to overflowing. I became intimately associated with the aforesaid barrel in this way. Somewhere along about
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3 o'clock in the afternoon, when the warm sun shone down gently and soothingly and his rays fell upon the autumn dyed foliage and deepened the blush of the ripened per- simmon, and the chestnuts and hickory nuts and chinka- pins, under its relaxing influence were just letting 'all holts' go, and silently dropping to the ground, and a boy laying in the mellowing inthence of that sun and peaceful sur- roundings was satisfied with life, and perfectly willing to live always -- the sergeant of our squad touched me with the toe of his foot on the back part of my person, saying. Get up, 'Shorty,' and go on duty.' I fell into the relief squad and when the sergeant and I appeared at the top of the ridge, north of the barrel post. I noticed the oldl vet whom I was to relieve left the shelter of the barrel and came dash- ing up the hill, running zig zag like, as if he had lately sam- pled a canteen of apple jack a little too deeply, and while I was cogitating as to why he ran half bent and wibble wab- bled so, the sergeant was saying. 'Now run for it, little feller,' and as I scooted down the hill to my post. I heard the ping of a bullet and the report of a rifle or two from the Johnny line, and lying down face foremost on the north side of the barrel, I deliberately took a pop at what looked to me like the top knot of a johnny reb in the rifle pit in front of and a little to the right of my position. And as I 'let drive' I was saying to myself: "You confounded Confed. I'll teach you better manners than to bang away in that reckless fashion at a full-blooded Hoosier.' It took me only the smallest fraction of a minute to discover I had just made the mistake of my life, and the way them Johnnies plugged cold lead into my friendly and helpless old barrel and sent the chist and splinters flying about promiscuously, was the all- firedest biggest surprise party on me that ever happened. As the hissing, spiteful bullets seemed criss-crossing just back of that barrel. I suddenly realized my hitherto short legs seemed entirely too lengthy for safety, and I rapidly pulled them into closer proximity to the barrel. and sat down on them, and in one time and two motions assumed the po- sition of a soldier, not according to Hardee, Casey or Up- ton's tactics, but it was the best position I could get all of myself into on the spur of the moment, a sort of unmilitary, indescribable squat. Never in all my life did I ever seem to be more than hali as big as I did right then and there, and I never till then fully realized how exceedingly small a com- mon, everyday barrel is, under certain circumstances. I have often wondered if those fellows who were indulging in
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a little target practice really realized how unhappy and un- comfortable they were making me. No, I was not exactly scared, but simply intensely excited over the embarrassing situation. I did a large amount of pretty tall thinking in an incredibly short space of time, and I assure you, honor bright, that I hugged that dear old barrel closer than- any bunch of calico and girl that ever drifted into my arms at an 'apple cutting' back in old 'Injeany.' I felt awfully sure they 'missed me at home,' and at least to my fevered imag- ination my friend the barrel seemed right at the point of immediate collapse and utter dissolution, and to be rapidly shrinking in size, like the three day rations of a new recruit at the end of the first day. All at once, almost as suddenly as it began the Confederate army ceased firing. Gradually the hair on my head fell back to its customary place, and I began to breathe a little freer, and the air tasted good, and I felt like shaking hands with myself that I had "a barrel" to fall back on once in my life at least. I very cautiously un- limbered my legs and turning my back to the foe and rest- ing it against the staunch but disfigured barrel, I sat there and thought the thing over. Did 1 chance another shot at them that afternoon? I should say not. I was completely "pacified" and willing to furnish them fellows a certificate that they could come plaguey near hitting whatever they shot at.
"I was very careful for the rest of the afternoon to stick mighty close to my side of the barrel. Finally the big, red sun sank behind the ragged and rugged hill tops in the West, and the silvery moon came up and a fog began to rise from the ground and thicken, and the sounds of the men in the two hostile camps seemed wonderfully near and distinct.
"At last, while I sat there nursing my old Springfield rifle, and musing on the strange and beautiful moonlit, and wierd scene, Cheatham's corps band played 'Dixie' and the 'Bonnie Blue Flag' so sweetly and so admirably, that I could not help feeling that for one I wished the 'cruel war was over' and that the warring sons of the Northland and Southland might shake hands over the bloody chasm, filled with the gallant dead of both armies, and once more, as in the days of our patriot grandsires, stand shoulder to shoulder under the glorious old flag of our fathers, proud and strong in their American manhood, and I thank God, after the lapse of a third of a century. my boyish hope and prayer has been answered, and a few of the men who wore, the one the blue, and the other the gray, reinforced by the brave,
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loyal sons of each, on Cuban fields and in the far-away Phil- ippine Isles, and on ocean's briny bosom, while fighting side by side have mingled their precious blood as they fell gallantly defending the starry flag of the free."
The Glee Club sang with gusto, "Oh, Dat Watermil- lion," and the president said: "Boys, we want to hear from the man that took such good care of you and furnished the rations that built you up into the splendid looking 'young men' you now are-Quartermaster Wash Kelly."
Kelly refused to mount the stage, but stood up and said, he was glad to again meet his old comrades. He felt the bond which bound soldiers to one another was stronger than al- most any other human tie. He belonged to other fraternal organizations, but he could not feel the same fraternal warmth toward his brothers in other fraternal bodies as to- ward his comrades of the regiment, and of the Grand Army. "I have always planned to attend these reunions, as it seems each year I may never on this earth meet some of my dear old comrades again, and so I feel I can't miss the oppor- tunity of being with you at every meeting of the old Ninth. I am glad I had an humble part in the war, and that, with you boys, I helped to maintain the supremacy of our nation- al union, and make good as the glittering gold the promises of the government, for on the soldiers of the Union the credit of this nation was based. When you won bonds ad- vanced in value, and when you were even temporarily de- feated the government bond declined in value. Slavery was wiped out, and our country made strong and prosperous, and reunited under one flag. And because we helped to bring about such a glorious result. I think, comrades, we have a right to feel pleased that we served as Union soldiers. I am especially glad to have our Plymouth people meet my old comrades and come to know and love them as I do."
Major Kendall, of the 73d Indiana. on being called upon. said: "I am glad I was born in 1841, because it made it pos- sible for me to have a part in the greatest war known to modern history, and the results achieved were so grand and far-reaching that future generations of Americans and of the lovers of freedom throughout the whole world will remem. ber the defenders of the Union, and what followed as a re sult of that war. I am glad the Ninth Indiana has a record I can be proud of. and glad other regiments of my state made splendid records. Our efforts. comrades, made possi ble the magnificent pageant witnessed a few days ago at New York in the welcome of Dewey, an old naval comrade of
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ours in the Civil war, who, because he was in that war was able by the gallantry of himself and the splendid men of his fleet to make America famous by the most unprecedented naval victory ever won in the history of the world. The offi- cers on land and sea who in our recent conflict with Spain and in putting down the insurrection in the Philippines were in the army or navy during the Civil war, on the Union or Confederate side and most of our volunteer regiments in the war with Spain were made up largely from sons of Union or Confederate veterans. I am so glad, comrades of the Ninth, you can make so good showing as to attendance. and that, as others have said, you bear your age and your hard service so well. At our reunion of the 73rd, I think fourteen deaths were reported. and I am told not a single death during the year past has yet been reported in the Ninth. Comrades, I am always glad to greet a Ninth man. We have Johnson and Kelly and other of your old com- rades, yet living, with us, and I can say, while I have a warm spot in my heart for all of our comrades of any regi- ment, I love the 73rd the best and the old Ninth next. May God bless you all with good health and bring you here again."
Major Branden, in response to the call of his com- mander, stood up and said: "I was much interested in the speech of Capt. Johnson, and particularly interested in hear- ing him tell about how he had picked up his winter's supply of rations, and after thirty-five years' of waiting, I think I have at last found out what become of a box of crackers missed from my quarters about the time Johnson admits he was accumulating supplies. I may say my mind is at rest now as to who got my box of crackers."
Miss Madge Whitehall, who at the age of four years sang for the comrades at the reunion fourteen years ago. was called upon for a solo and responded by singing "A Winter's Lullaby," playing her own accompaniment on the piano.
Ilon. Wm. H. Rifenburg, a comrade of Company E, was next called up, and said, in substance: "Comrades and our friends of Plymouth, I don't know why Gen. Suman inflicts this calamity on you by asking me to make yon a speech. You are aware of the fact that the Ninth Indiana was in the war from start to finish. You know our regi- mient's history, because you had friends and neighbors and some of your relatives that served right along with us. The great results of that fierce civil strife have been alluded to,
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and I think we are all proud of what was achieved by the war, and what has followed after it. Most of the hatred and bitterness engendered by the war has vanished, and the sectional lines that separated the North and the South have been obliterated. and, as has been well said, some of our bravest foemen from '61 to '65 are now fighting the battles of this united nation with all of their old time dash and gallantry under Old Glory. I attended a reunion of the Blue and the Gray on the battlefield of Shiloh, and Gen. Prentiss spoke to the veterans assembled, from the standpoint of a Union soldier, and the gallant Gen. Joe Wheeler, now a prominent major-general of volunteers in the Philippines, spoke from the standpoint of a Confederate. And men who over a third of a century ago faced each other on that bloody field met in pleasant social intercourse and everyone seemed to feel he was among friends, no matter whether he served on our side or the other.
"I recall an incident that was somewhat amusing. At night, as on mingling freely with the ex-Confederates, talk- mg about not only the war, but about the country, and affairs generally, one of the Tennesseeans said a good many of 'youns' are moving down here and buying out some of our folks, and I have got forty-acres I would give a man a bargain on sure, and he went to tell about his little farm and described particularly the barn on it, saying, 'It cost mne considerable. I must have spent as much as $17 on the lumber in it, and one of my chums and ex-officer from an Iowa regiment said: "Why. I have just finished building
a barn on my farm in lowa that I paid $6,000 for, How is that for a barn?' The Johnny looked my Iowa friend over, and finally said: 'Begging youah pardon, suh, and not meaning any partickular offense, I will jist say durin' the war we used to say the Yanks was the darnest liars on the carth, and I guess they haint got over it yit.' The honest, out-spoken fellow who had lived in a poorly improved part of the South, could not bring himself to be- lieve that a man would pay $6.000 for a barn, and just set it down as a 'Yankee yarn.'"
The Glee Club then sang, in compliment to Quarter- master Kelly, the "Army Bean."
Major Hougton, of the Twenty-ninth Indiana Regi- ment, a resident of Plymouth, in response to an invitation of Gen. Suman to speak, said : "Comrades of the ninth, the hour is late. I came to see and hear you, and will not speak to you at any length at this time. Like my neighbors, I
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am glad to see you among us, and enjoying a pleasant re- union. My heart goes out to you in fullest fraternity and sympathy, for the 29th were in camp with you at Laporte, and we were right along with you in the campaigning, and fought near each other on several battle fields, and know the 9th almost as brothers, and we are very glad to meet you again."
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