Slavery and Four Years of War Part 66

(22) Letter of General Gordon to the writer, of October 1, 1894.

(23) Longstreet relates that information came to him from Gordon that a break had been found through which the Confederate Army "could force pa.s.sage," and that he dispatched a Colonel Haskell "on a blooded mare" after Lee, who had gone to the rear expecting to meet Grant, as requested by Lee by note previously sent, Longstreet telling the Colonel "to kill his mare, but bring Lee back."-- _Mana.s.sas to Appomattox_, pp. 623, 626.

(24) _Memoirs of Lee_ (Long), p. 421.

(25) _Memoirs of Sheridan_, vol. ii., pp. 194-8.

(26) _Memoirs of Sheridan_, vol. ii., p. 154.

(27) _Battles and Leaders_, etc., vol. iv., p. 740; _Memoirs of Grant_, vol. ii., p. 483.

(28) _Memoirs of Grant_., vol. ii., p. 488.

(29) _War Records_, vol. xlvi., Part I., p. 1279.

(30) _Memoirs of Grant_, vol. ii., p. 497.

(31) _War Records_, vol. xlvi., Part I., p. 597.

(32) The individual captors of flags were F. M. McMillen, Co. C, and Isaac James, Co. A, 110th Ohio; Milton Blickensderfer, Co. E, 126th Ohio; George Loyd, Co. A, 122d Ohio (Heth's battle flag); John Keough, Co. E, 67th Pennsylvania; and Trustrim Connell, Co.

I, 138th Pennsylvania. Each was awarded a Medal of Honor.--_War Records_, vol. xlvi., Part I., pp. 909, 981.

(33) An incident will ill.u.s.trate how Secretary Stanton sometimes did business. The first order to muster out volunteers excepted those whose term of enlistment expired after October 1, 1865. This would have left in service some men of each company of my Ohio regiments and caused dissatisfaction. Through a written application I obtained authority to muster out all the men of these regiments.

Later, complaints came from regiments of other States similarly affected, and an application was made by me for like authority as to them, which was refused. This was invidious. In company with General Meade I called on the Secretary of War to ask a reconsideration.

On the bare mention of our mission Mr. Stanton flew into a rage and denounced Meade for making the request, saying no such order had been or would be issued. Meade was deeply hurt and started to withdraw, and the wrath of the Secretary was turned on me. I interrupted him and, displaying the order relating to the Ohio regiments, told him his statement was not true. Stanton thereupon became still more violent and abusive and declared the order I had was issued by mistake or through fraud and would be revoked. I replied that it had been executed; that the men were discharged, paid off, and on their way home. He then became calm, relented, apologized for his intemperate language, and kindly issued the desired order.

(34) I was, in 1866, on the joint request of Generals Grant and Meade, appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in the 26th Infantry, U. S. A.

I declined the commission.

(35) There were 26,690 regulars and 56,926 volunteers--83,616, employed in the invasion of Mexico, not mentioning the navy.-- _History of Mexican War_ (Wilc.o.x), p. 561. For the author's farewell order to the brigade, and table of casualties in it by regiments, see Appendix C.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A GENERAL KEIFER IN CIVIL LIFE

I ANCESTRY AND LIFE BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR

I was born, January 30, 1836, on a farm on Mad River, north side, six miles west of Springfield, Bethel Township, Clark County, Ohio, a short distance west of Tec.u.mseh Hill, the site of the original Piqua, Shawnee Indian village, destroyed by General George Rogers Clark August 8, 1780.

My ancestors, though not especially distinguished for great deeds, either in peace or war, were of the st.u.r.dy kind, mentally, physically, and morally.

My grandfather, George Keifer, was born (1728) in one of the German States, from whence he emigrated to America and settled in the Province of Maryland about the year 1750. Nothing is certainly known of his life or family in Germany. He was a Protestant, and was probably led to quit German-Europe to escape the religious intolerance, if not persecutions, there at the time so common.

He availed himself of the Act of Parliament made in the thirteenth year of the reign of King George the Second, which provided for the naturalization of "Foreign Protestants," settled or who should settle in his Majesty's colonies in America, and was naturalized and became a subject of King George the Third of England, an allegiance he did not long faithfully maintain, as he became a Revolutionary patriot in 1776.( 1) He partic.i.p.ated in the Revolution, though there is no known record of his being a regular soldier in the war. He gave some attention to farming, but was by trade a shoemaker. He resided in Sharpsburg, Washington County, Maryland, on Antietam Creek, and there died, April 11, 1809. His wife, Margaret (Schisler) was likewise German, probably born in Germany (1745), but married in Maryland. Her family history is unknown, but she was a woman of a high order of intelligence, and possessed of much spirit and energy. After her husband's death she removed (1812) with her two sons to Ohio (walking, from choice, the entire distance), and died there, February 9, 1827, in my father's family, at eighty-two years of age. George and Margaret Keifer had two sons, George (born October 27, 1769, and died August 31, 1845), and Joseph (my father), born February 28, 1784, at Sharpsburg, Maryland. They followed, when young, the occupation and trade of their father. The facilities and opportunities for acquiring an education for persons in limited circ.u.mstances were then small, yet Joseph Keifer early determined to secure an education, and by his own persevering efforts, with little, if any, instruction, he became especially proficient in geography and mathematics, and acquired a thorough practical knowledge of navigation and civil engineering. He could speak and read German. He was a general reader, and throughout his life was a constant student of both sacred and profane history, and devoted much attention to a study of the Bible. In September, 1811, he left Sharpsburg, on horseback, on a prospecting tour over the mountains to the West, destination Ohio. He kept a journal (now before me) of his travels, showing each day's journey, the places visited, the topography of the country, the kinds of timber growing, the lay of the land and kinds of soil, the water supply and its quality, etc., and something of the settlers. This journey occupied seven weeks, during which he rode 1140 miles, much of it over trails and bridle paths, his total cash "travelling expenses being $36.30." He travelled through Jefferson, Tuscarawas, Stark, Muskingum, Fairfield, Pickaway, Ross, Fayette, Champaign (including what is now Clark), Montgomery, Warren, Butler, Hamilton, Guernsey, and Belmont Counties, Ohio.

In April, 1812, he started on another like journey over much the same country, returning May 15th.

On his first journey he visited Springfield, Ohio, and vicinity, and bargained for and made an advance payment of $500 in silver for about seven hundred acres of land, located near (west of) New Boston, from John Enoch, for himself and his brother George Keifer, agreeing to take possession and make further payment in one year.

He removed with his brother George (who then had a wife and family of several children), his mother accompanying, by wagon and on horseback to this land, in the fall of 1812, where both brothers made their homes during life, each following the general occupation of farming. The land was chosen with reference to its superior quality, excellent growth of popular, oak, walnut, hickory, and other valuable timber for building purposes, and likewise with reference to its fine, healthful, perennial springs of pure limestone water. The tract fronted on Mad River, extending northward into the higher lands so as to include bottom-lands and uplands in combination.

Joseph Keifer, before leaving Maryland, procured to be made at Frederick, Maryland, a surveyor's compa.s.s and chain (still in my possession), and when in Ohio, in addition to clearing lands and farming, he surveyed many extensive tracts of land for the early settlers. Later in life he gave up surveying, save for his neighbors when called on. He had some inclination to music. He served for a short time in the War of 1812, joining an expedition for the relief of General Harrison and Fort Meigs on the Maumee when besieged by the British and Indians in 1813. He, however, lived in his Ohio home a quiet, sober, peaceful, contented, studious, moral life, much esteemed for his straightforward, honest, plain character by all who knew him, but always taking a deep interest in public affairs, state and national, his sympathies being with the poor, oppressed, and unfortunate. His detestation of slavery led him to emigrate from a slave State to one where slavery not only did not and could not exist, but where free labor was well requited and was regarded as highly honorable. Though among the early settlers of the then wild West, he did not care much, if at all, for hunting and fishing, then common among his neighbors and a.s.sociates. He preferred to devote his leisure hours to reading and intellectual pursuits and to the society of those of kindred tastes, especially interesting himself in the education of his large family of children.

He was, in theory and practice, a moral and religious man, a church attendant, though never a member of any church, yet one year before his death (1849), at his own request, he was baptized in Mad River, by Rev. John Gano Reeder, of the Christian Church.

He was one of the founders and first directors of the Clark County Bible Society, organized September 2, 1822.

Throughout his life he took a deep interest in politics, but he never sought or held any important office. He was an Adams-Clay Whig.

He died on his farm, April 13, 1850, and his remains, likewise his mother's and his brother's, are now buried in Ferncliff Cemetery, Springfield, Ohio.

He was married, November 9, 1815, to Mary Smith, daughter of Rev.

Peter Smith, a Baptist minister (then resident on a farm near what is now Donnelsville, Clark County, Ohio), who had some celebrity also as a physician in the "Miami Country." He was a son of Dr.

Hezekiah Smith of the "Jerseys," and was born in Wales, February 6, 1753, from whence this branch of the _Smith_ family came. He was some relation to Hezekiah Smith, D.D., of Haverhill, Ma.s.sachusetts, but in what way connected is not known. Peter Smith was educated at Princeton, and married in New Jersey to Catherine Stout (December 23, 1776), and he seems to have early, under his father, given some attention to medicine, and became familiar with the works of Dr.

Rush, Dr. Brown, and other writers of his day on "physic." He also, during his life, acquired much from physicians whom he met in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Ohio. He called himself an "Indian Doctor"

(because he sometimes used in his practice herbs, roots, etc., and other remedies known to the Indians), though he was in no proper sense such a doctor. He was an early advocate, much against public prejudice, of inoculations for smallpox; this before Dr. Jenner had completed his investigations and had introduced vaccination as a preventive for smallpox.( 2)

Dr. Peter Smith, in his little volume (printed by Brown & Looker, Cincinnati, 1813), speaks of inoculating 130 persons, in New Jersey, for smallpox in 1777, using, to prevent dangerous results, with some of them, calomel, and dispensing with it with others, but reaching the conclusion that calomel was not necessary for the patient's safety.

In this book, ent.i.tled _The Indian Doctor's Dispensatory_, etc., ( 3) on the t.i.tle-page he says: "_Men seldom have wit enough to prize and take care of their health until they lose it--And doctors often know not how to get their bread deservedly, until they have no teeth to chew it_." He seems to have been an original character and investigator, availing himself of all the opportunities for acquiring knowledge within his reach, especially acquainting himself with domestic, German, and tried Indian remedies, roots, herbs, etc. In the Introduction to his book he says: "The elements by Brown seem to me plain, reasonable, and practicable. But I have to say of his prescriptions, as David did of Saul's _armour_, when it was put upon him, '_I cannot go with this, for I have not proved it_.' He thus chose his sling, his staff, shepherd's bag and stones, because he was used to them, and could recollect what he had heretofore done with them." The modern germ or bacilli theory of disease, now generally accepted by learned physicians, was not unknown or even new in his time. He speaks of it as an "_insect_"

theory, based on the belief that diseases were produced by an invisible _insect_, floating in the air, taken in with the breath, where it either poisons or propagates its kind, so as to produce disease.( 4)

Besides much in general, Peter Smith's book contains about ninety prescriptions for the cure of as many diseases or forms of disease, to be compounded generally from now well-known medicine, roots, herbs, etc., some of them heroic, others quaint, etc. He did not recommend dispensing wholly with the then universal practice of bleeding patients, but he generally condemned it.

About the year 1780, from New Jersey, he commenced his wandering, emigrating life, with his wife and _some_ small children. He lingered a little in Virginia, in the Carolinas, and settled for a time in Georgia, and all along he sought out people from whom he could gather knowledge, especially of the theory and practice of medicine. And he preached, possibly in an irregular way, the Gospel, as a devout Baptist of the Old School, a denomination to which he was early attached. Not satisfied with his Georgia home, "with its many scorpions and slaves," he took his family on horseback, some little children (twin babies among them) carried in baskets suitable for the purpose, hung to the horns of the saddle ridden by his wife, and thus they crossed mountains, rivers, and creeks, without roads, and not free from danger from Indians, traversing the woods from Georgia through Tennessee to Kentucky, intending there to abide. But finding Kentucky had also become a slave State, he and his family, bidding good-by to Kentucky "headticks and slavery," in like manner emigrated to Ohio, settling on Duck Creek, near Columbia (Old Baptist Church), now within the limits of Cincinnati, reaching there about 1794. He became, with his family, a member of this church, and frequently preached there and at other frontier places, but still pursuing the occupation of farming, and, though perhaps not for much remuneration, the practice of medicine.

In 1804 he again took to the wilderness with his entire family, then grown to the number of twelve children, born in the "Jerseys"

or on the line of his march through the coast or wilderness States or territories. He settled on a small and poor farm on Donnels Creek, in the midst of rich ones, where he died, December 31, 1816.

It seems from his book (page 14) (published while he resided at his last home), that he did not personally cease his wanderings and search for medical knowledge, as he says he was in Philadelphia, July 4, 1811, where he made some observations as to the effect of hot and cool air upon the human system, through the respiration.

But it is certain he taught to the end, in the pulpit, and ministered as a physician to his neighbors and friends, often going long distances from home for the purpose. He concluded, near the end of his long and varied experiences, that: "Men have contrived to break all G.o.d's _appointments_. But this: '_It is appointed for all men once to die_' has never been abrogated or defeated by any man. And as to medicine we are about to take: _If the Lord will_, we shall do this or that with success; _if the Lord will_, I shall get well by this means or some other." He concluded his "Introduction"

by commending the "iron doctrine" for consumptives, and a.s.senting to Dr. Brown's opinion that "_an old man ought never to marry a young woman_."

He is buried in a neglected graveyard near Donnelsville, Clark County, Ohio.

Men of the type and character described impressed for good Western life and character while they lived, and through their example and posterity also the indefinite future.

Peter Smith had four sons, Samuel, Ira, Hezekiah, and Abram, who each lived beyond eighty years, dying the order of their birth, each leaving a large family of sons and daughters, whose children, grandchildren, etc., are found now in nearly, if not all, the States of the Union, many of them also becoming pioneers to the frontiers, long ago reaching the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific slope and coast.( 5)

His sons Ira and Hezekiah, much after the fashion of their father, preached the Gospel (Baptist) in Ohio and Indiana, but not neglecting, as did their father, to ama.s.s each a considerable fortune. Ira resided and died at Lafayette, Indiana, and Rev.

Hezekiah Smith at Smithland, Indiana. Samuel, the eldest (Clark County, Ohio), was always a plain, creditable farmer, but his sons and grandchildren became noted as educators, physicians, surgeons, and divines.

Samuel's son, Peter Smith, besides acquiring a good general education, studied surveying, my father a.s.sisting him, and he taught school in Clark and other counties in Ohio, and became celebrated for his success. He was the first in Ohio to advocate higher-graded, or union schools, and through his efforts a first law was pa.s.sed in Ohio to establish them. He adopted a merit-ticket system for scholars in schools which, for a time, was highly successful and became popular. He removed, about 1830, to Illinois, then became a surveyor and locator of public lands, farmer, etc., and was killed by a railroad train at Sumner, Illinois, when about eighty years of age, leaving a large number of grown children.

Rev. Milton J. Miller (now of Geneseo, Illinois), grandson of Samuel Smith, though a farmer boy, early resolved to acquire an education and enter the ministry. His resolution was carried out. He graduated at Antioch College; attended a theological school at Cambridge, Ma.s.s., became a minister of the Christian Church, later of the Unitarian, and was for about one year a chaplain in the volunteer army (110th Ohio), and distinguished himself in all relations of life.

Dr. Hezekiah Smith, also son of Samuel, became somewhat eminent as a physician, and died at Smithland, Shelby County, Indiana, in 1897.

Abram, though once in prosperous circ.u.mstances, through irregular habits and the inherited disposition to rove over the world, became poor, and sometimes, when remote from his family and friends, in real want, yet he, the youngest of the four, lived past the traditional family fourscore years, dying poor (near Lawrenceville, Illinois), but leaving children and grandchildren in many States of the West, who had become, at his death, or since became, distinguished as soldiers and eminent citizens. He was a man of most cheerful disposition, and whatever his circ.u.mstances or lot were he seemed content and happy.

Five of Dr. Peter Smith's daughters (besides my mother) lived to be married. Sarah married Henry Jennings; Elizabeth, Hezekiah Ferris; Nancy, John Johns; Margaret, Hugh Wallace, and Rhoda, Dr.