The Sunday Oregonian., May 24, 1908, Magazine Section, Page 3, Image 49

DAREDEVIL BIVIL It
BY JOHN S. HAJRWOOD. -
IN the present Congress there are 18
Senators and M Representatives who
fought on one side or the other in the
Civil war 34 for the Union and 18 for the
Confederacy. The war records of all
these national legislators show that they
fought valiantly for what they thought
was right. In addition, the records of
not a few on each side reveal the tact
that they were regular daredevils in bat
tle. Among the Federal daredevils are
four CongTess medal of honor men, and
among the Confederate veterans are such
well-known men as Senator Johnston of
Alabama, Representative Spight of Miss
issippi. Senator Daniel of Virginia and
Representative Gordon of Tennessee, each
of whom performed deeds in the heat
of 'battle that probably would have won
them Congress medals of honor had they
fought for instead, of against the Union.
Of the medal of honor men, two are In
the Senate Warren of Wyoming, and Du
Pont of Delaware while the medals In
the House are won by Henry H. Bingham
of Pennslyvania and Thomas W. Bradley
of New York.
Any one who has ever read a good ac
count of the Battle of the W ilderness will
recall the exceedingly bloody character of j
the fighting, the fierce assaults of the
Confederates being a feature of the con
test. As a result of these persistent on
slaughts many of the Union troops at last
gave way and began retiring in great con
fusion. Then it was that Henry H. Bing- j
ham, captain of Company G, 140th Penn
sylvania infantry, who had distinguished
himself and been wounded at Gettysburg
less than a year before. Jumped into the j
breach, and by exhortation and disregard
for his own skin, succeeded in rallying a
portion of the broken line and, what'B
more, led It, cheering. Into the thick of
the fight again.
This occurred on May 6, 1864. 9pottsyl
vanla was fought the following day and
tho day after that. In that battle Cap
tain Bingham received his second wound.
A third bullet was stopped by him at
Farmville the last year of the war. J-e
was awarded hlf medal of honor August
SI. 1893, but before he was mustered out in j
vm he had been- brevetted major, lieu
tenant colonel, colonel, and finally brigadier-general
for distinguished gallantry.
Handsome Harry," as he Is called by
his Congress colleagues and his con
stituents, is fairly worshiped y the G. A.
R. men of his state. At national encamp
ments lie is one of the veterans most
ought after, and In Congress is among its
most popular members.
Seriously wounded at Gettysburg and
again bored by a bullet at the Wilderness,
it was at Chanoellorsvllle. just a year
and three days before Bingham won his
medal, that Representative Bradley dis
played the gallantry that led Congress to
Issue him a medal of honor on June 10,
lWti.
Bradley at the time was sergeant of
Company H, 134th New York infantry,
and he was less than a month past his
19th birthday. Suddenly, at the height
of the fighting, the discovery was made
that the supply of ammunition was run
ning perilously low. Did no fresh am
munition arrive In a few minutes the
company would be without food for its
guns. There was only one thing to do
and It was done a call was made for vol
unteers to go and get ammunition.
Sergeant Bradley volunteered and was
accepted, "and alone, in the face of a
heavy fire of musketry and canister," he
"went and procured ammunition for the
use of his comrades." So simply reads
the ground of award. But if you should
chance to run across a surviving member
of Sergeant Bradley's company and ask
him about the incident of tlie sergeant's
trip for ammunition he will not deal in
language so simple. Among other things
he will tell you that so deadly was the
Confederate tire at the time that not a
member of the company who knew of
Sergeant Bradley's undertaking in their
behalf ever expected to behold him alive
and In flesh again. And he will tell
you, too. how the battle-begrimed men,
when they beheld their comrade return
laden with ammunition, let out a cheer
that could be heara above the roar of bat
tle, and then. Inspired by the brave deed,
returned to the grim work of plugging at
the "Johnnies" with more vigor than ever.
It was while he was fighting before Pe
tersburg that Bradley received his third
body badge of courage. By the time the
campaign terminating at Appomattox was
on h had won a captaincy, and because
of h display of daring in that campaign
he was brevetted major.
Corporal Francis E. Warren, like
Sergeant Bradley, won his medal of
honor by Btepplng rorward when a call
for volunteers was made. And it was
24 days after Bradley had secured am- I
munition for his company that War
ren became a member of the little col
umn of volunteers before Port Hudson
called by their comrades "The Forlorn
Hope."
Corporal Warren lacked a month of
belnp 19 years old. and was a member
of Company C, Forty-ninth Massachu
setts infantry, which, on May 27, 1863,
was called upon to furnish a few men
7
;.. .
-promnxErB ma ctzargz:
from each company to perform the
dangerous undertaking of preceding
the regular troops with fascines to fill
the ditch of the earthworks before
Port Hudson, so that the artillery and
Infantry might cross In case of success
!n the sally. Warren was among the
very first of his regiment to volun
teer. While "The Forlorn ITope" was form
ing the guns of Port Hudson were si
lent, supposed on the outside on ac
count of the shelling that General
Banks had given the Confederate
stronghold, but really because the Con
federates were saving their ammuni
tion for the expected siea1. But when
"The Forlorn Hope." bearing the fas
cines, left the sheltering wood and
headed for the ditch, the field became
one mass of iron. The air was full of
It; it literally rained and hailed iron.
The colonel, and, in fact, every offi
cer commanding "The Forlorn Hope,"
was killed, and about three-fourths of
the men were killed and wounded. Of
the remaining number only those sur
vived who happened to fall on the field
or sought shelter behind the stamps
and trees. General Bartlett, at that
time commander of the regiment, went
into the field on horseback and fell
with two severe wounds, his horse be
ing killed within two feet of the wood
after leaving cover. Corporal Warren,
though not permanently injured, was
knocked down the fascine that he
carried being struck down by a can
non ball and he lost consciousness for
several hours.
Warren celebrated his 17th birthday
by enlisting in the army. For some
weeks previously he had longed to en
list, but refrained from doing so because
of famtly opposition. When he got to
the Hinsdale, Mass.. Academy, where
recruits were being enrolled, and
learned that a bounty was being held
out as am Inducement to enlistment,
he started to turn on his heel and go
back home: he did not want any one
to thipk that he was enlisting for a
mere pittance of $150. But sober sec-
nnit thmie-ht f me anil with never A
thought as to what any one would
:1ft
iflll
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, MAY
Senators and Thirty-four Representatives Who
Fought On One Side or the Other
-Y M. iVl X.S 1
in mi in i mi hi i iiTiim i iiiMMiIiiii ' Jjfa .'
MHiggliBHI - ' . ' II
tfojit &&xsoxr
think he marched up to the enrol ing
desk to sign his name.
A little line of men were ahead of
him. As the boy waited his turn to
put down his name he felt a touch on
his elbow. Turning, he found himself
looking straight into tbfi face of his
father, who, only a few hours before,
had again forbidden him to enlist, on
the ground that he was yet too young
for war. But this time there was no
note of parental command in the
father's voice, and the words that were
spoken to the boy ring as clearly In
the Senator's ears as they did on the
day his father looked down at him
with parental pride and said:
"Emory, I knew you would be here,
and I knew you would enlist, and that
I could not keep you from doing so.
And, to tell you the straight truth, I
should have been disappointed not to
find you here. I am proud of you, my
son. and I'll do all I can to help you."
Warren at the time enlisted for nine
months; te North then thought that
the war would be over In that time, or
less. But not until the war was over
did Warren lay down his gun.
The only West Point graduate among
the Congress veterans. Senator Du
Pont, the fourth medal of honor man.
was 26 when he displayed that gxl
lantry on the field of battle which, on
April 2, 1898, got him the coveted dec
oration. '
Who, has not heard of the battle of
Cedar Creek and Sheridan's ride from
Winchester, 20 miles away, to stem the
tide of Confederate victory? It was at
this battle that Captain Du Pont, in com
mand of the Fifth United States Artil
lery, when the Union line had been
broken by the onrushlng Confederates,
voluntarily exposed himself to the
enemy's fire, solely by his own efforts
and example kept his men by their guns,
and so checked the advance of the enemy.
And to round out the brave deed he
brought off most of bis pieces when
the reason for tiie stand he had made
wasover.
Long before that time Captain Du Pont
had become one of the two famous artil
lerymen of America; the other was Ma-
LAT
Now Contains Eighteen
-ARTZLZ.2EJZZT OF W-
jor John Pelham, of Stuart's Horse Ar
tillery, and one of Du Font's West Point
classmates. Descendant of a famous
French fighting family, when he gradu
ated from West Point in May of '61, Du
Pont refused to take the three months'
leave due him and at once headed for
the front. In the Autumn of that year
he was placed in command of a six-gun
battery of 12-pounders.
Lieutenant Du Pont had -his own ideas
about horsing the battery, a"hd his father,
agreeing to foot the bills, secured Secre
tary Cameron's permission for his son
to equip the battery according to his
taste. A month or two later the bat
tery, with every one of its horses a
blooded bay, went past its commanding
General in review. Lieutenant Du Pont i
was called before General Scott and Mc
Clellan to receive their compliments.
"Yours Is the handsomest battery, the
best horsed and the best equipped that
I have ever seen," said McClellan. "I
know It will give a good account of It
self." Soon after that It did begin to give a
splendid account of itself, and as a
speedy result Du Font's battery there
after was almost Invariably given the
post of honor of course of greatest dan
ger among all the arjillery of the Army
of the Potomac.
Four times was Captain Du Pont brev
eted and thrice he was offered staff
mnk and thrice refused the honor. When
Custer and Merritt were made Brigadier
Generals of Volunteers after Chancellors
vllle, Du Pont was offered similar promo
tion. "No." was the answer. "I'll stick
to what I understand." And stick to it
he did until the war's end. Then he
went to making powder Instead of burn
ing It. An artillery history of the great
battles fought in Virginia would be pep
pered with the name and deeds of Henry
Algernon Du Pont and his guns.
Of course, none of the Confederate vet
erans in either branch of the National
Legislature holds a Congress medal of
honor. Nevertheless, some of them were
as daring In battle as were Warren and
Du Point, Bingham and Bradley.
There is John H. Bankhead. the senior
Senator from Alabama. He was stopped
three times by Yankee bullets; a soldier
has got to be in the forefront of the thick
of battle to get wounded so en- Sen
ator James B. McCreary, of TCentucky,
was a Major and Lieutenant-Colonel un
der Morgan and BTeckenrldge. HeT too,
was wounded and he spent some time
on Morris Island In company of "the
Yanks" as a prisoner. Senator Daniel,
of Virginia, has a brilliant war record
stretching from the first Manassas, when
he received his first wound, to the Wil
derness, when he got his fourth wound,
which so crippled him that he was re
luctantly forced back to civilian life. His
bravery to summed up in the statement
that he was a member - of the famous
"Stonewall brigade."
Joseph F. Johnston, junior Senator
from Alabama, took part In as exciting a
race for a Union flag as probably oc
curred in the whole war. This race a
duel for honors was one of the little
"human interest" incidents centering
about the battle of Spottsylvania Junc
tion. As a First Lieutenant In Rode's
division 9i Lee's army. Senator John
ston took part in the recapture of the
line from which Battle's brigade was
driven- And he was so weU in advance
of his own line that there was only one
man to contest with him for the honor
of reaching first the flag of the Thirty
ninth New York. Johnston's rival was
Major Brooks, of the Twentieth North
Carolina, and the Major got the coveted
flag because some Yankee was inconsid
erate enough to fell Lieutenant Johnston
with a bullet Just as he was reaching
for the nag a good hand or two In ad
vance of Brooks.
Like a good many other civil war
fighters on both sides in Congress, Sen-
24, I90S.
-"
ator Johnston quit senool to shoulder
a -musket. He was then under 18 years
old; indeed, most of the veterans in
Congress were under age when they
took to war. He began as a private;
his conduct during the battle of Shi
loh won him a second lieutenancy. . He
remained with the Western Army until
after Chickamauga, in which his right
arm was broken by a gunshot, his first
of four wounds. He was in Early's
campaign in the Shenandoah and in all
the battles around Petersburg. At the
-battle of Newmarket he was seriously
wounded for the second time, and in
March ' of 1S65, while before Peters
burg, he received his fourth, and his
third serious, wound. Just before this,
his last battle, he had been promoted
to captain of Company A, Twelfth
North Carolina infantry. Truly an ad
venturous war record.
Two of the eight Confederate veter
ans who are in the House were par
ticularly daring in battle George W.
Gordon of Tennessee and Thomas
Spight of Mississippi.
Representative Gordon holds the
Congress record as a prisoner of war.
Three times he was captured, the last time
to be held in Fort Warren, Mass., until
the war was over. He was also dan
gerously wounded once, but despite
these four inconveniences to which the
Yankees subjected him Gordon man
aged to do his part In every battle in
which his command fought except two
Nashville and Bentonvllle. When
these were being decided he was feast
ing on Federal food down East. Repre
sentative Gordon began his civil war
career as a drill master for Tennessee
troops. Soon after he entered the ser
vice of the Confederacy, and by his
bravery became captain, then lieuten
ant colonel, next colonel of his regi
ment, and finally brigadier-general in
1864.
Thomas Spight, the only ex-Confederate
In the Mississippi delegation,
went from college into the army when
a mere boy. He enlisted ma a private
and went through all the intermediate
grades until he became a captain be
fore he was 21. In years he was the
youngest officer of his rank in the line
in the famous Walthall's Mississippi
brigade. He was in nearly all of the
battles that were fought in the West
ern 'department while it was under the
it!
-IK a
command of Generals Beauregard,
Bragg:, Johnson and Hood.
Wounded several times, he was seri
ously wounded once. This was at At
lanta, on July 22, 1864. Weighing: only
125 pounds. Captain Splght was curried
by two litter bearers one and a half
miles to the field hospital. He had
bled almost to complete exhaustion,
and It was necessary to cut a bullet
from his body. The surgeon thought
it proper to administer chloroform. To
this the wounded man objected, and
the bullet was taken out with him
looking on.
Representative Spight feels that to
the devotion and careful nursing of
his negro servant, a boy about his own
age, he is indebted largely for the
preservation of his life while suffer
ing from his wound. The old servant
Is still living; he draws a Confederate
pension from the state of Mississippi,
and his old master has impressed upon
his children that if the servant out
lives him they are never to allow him
to suffer for need of anything in their
power to give him. Captain Spight re
turned to his command on crutches
when General Hood was moving
toward Nashville, Tenn., In the Winter
of 1864. . .
In the far-famed Battle Above the
Clouds, Captain Spight was in com
mand of three companies of Walthall's
brigade, which constituted the greater
part of the Confederate force engaged
against Hooker's corps. He and hla
command were surrounded, overpow
ered and nearly all captured. Spight
himself, by desperately risking his life
between the Infantry fire on one side
and a Federal, battery on the other,
managed to escape.
When the Confederate army was re
organized Captain Spight, though the
youngest officer of his rank in his
regiment, was the only one of the
captains retained, and he was in com
mand at Greensboro, N. C, when the
regiment, on April 26, 1865, stacked
arms for the last time. Besides being
distinguished among the warrior-Congressmen
as the youngest captain In
the service on either side. Representa
tive Spight is the only national legis
lator who took part In what has been
called the greatest snowball battle In
all history.
After the Confederate army retreat
ed from Chattanooga in November of
1863 it went into Winter quarters at
Dalton, Ga. Here it was overtaken by
a heavy fall of snow. At first only
a few Individuals began snowballing
one another, but the intoxicating fun
rapidly extended to companies, then to
regiments, brigades and divisions, un
tlll practically the entire army was
engaged In the only battle of the
war which resulted in no serious casu
alties. "One of the peculiar Incidents of the
war, which demonstrated the 'brother
hood of man' and at the same time il
lustrated - what General Sherman
meant when he said, 'war is hell,'
occurred on the picket line just before
the Battle of Lookout Mountain,"
Representative Spight told me the
other day. "The two lines were sepa
rated by Lookout Creek, with the 'Con
federate pickets on one side and the
3
Federal pickets on the other. By
mutual consent hostilities were sus-j
pended until an attempt to advance,
was to be made by one side or the'
other. Although the orders were strict f
that there should be no communication, .
the 'boys' had a very pleasant time for
a few days. The Confederates hadi
plenty of tobacco but no coffee. The
Federals had coffee and but little to
bacco. The result was a satisfactory
exchange of the commodities. On the
Confederate side we would load up a
little bark canoe, with tobacco and
push It across the creek. When it
reached the other shore it was un
loaded and filled with coffee in return. ,
"On the morning of November 24 the
Yanks, true to their manhood, shouted:
across the creek, 'Look out. Johnnies, we
are coming!' and the fighting commenced. i
"What a, sad commentary upon the bru
tality of war! Here men of the same!
race and blood, who had spent the days
in pleasant, friendly intercourse, now, at.
the order of their respective commanders,
without provocation or offense, began to),
kill each other. 'When will the nations
cease to have war?' " j
It was during the siege of Port Hud-:
son, where Senator Warren won his medal!
of honor, that h!s Minnesota colleague, I
Knute Nelson, also showed that he was'
made of real warrior stuff. On June 14,1
1863, when Nelson, who went through thai
war as a private and a "non-com," was &j
little over 20 yeads old. an attempt was
made to capture lort Hudson by storm.1
Two charging columns were set in mo-!
tion. The regiment to which Nelson be'
longed, the Fourth Wisconsin, was at tho1
head of one of these columns, whlcht
advanced to the attack over an open1
abandoned sugar-cane field and, was ex-1
posed to the fire of the enemy for some-',
thing like three-quarters of a mile. The'
boys In Dlue, with the Badgers valiantly!
leading, advanced right up to -within a few
rods of the breastworks, but by that time
I there were so few of the column left'
standing that they were unable to get'
inside.
Nelson was among the handful that got
closest to the breastworks. He was only
eight or nine rods away when he was laid
low by a bullet penetrating a hip and was
unable to proceed further. The attack
took place early In the morning, about
sunrise. All that day Nelson lay on the
battlefield. At dusk he attempted to
crawl back to his own lines, was observed
by a Confederate picket posted outside
the works, made a prisoner and taken in
side the works and placed in the hospital.
Here he remained until July 9, when Port
Hudson fell, and the Mississippi was open
again.
. "I received as good care as their own
wounded," said Senator Nelson, "but pro
visions ran out, so that during the last
10 days of the siege our food consisted of
a little cornbread, mule meat and sassa
fras tea."
After he rejoined his company and had
recovered from his wound. Nelson fought
for his country until the end of the war.'
Then he took to law, like a majority of
the veterans on both sides in Congress,
and it was not long after he became a
lawyer that he got into politics, also llks
a majority of the Civil War men in Con
gress. The story of Senator Foraker's Civil war
bravery has been told often. The same Is
true of the battlefield daring of Repre
sentative J. Warren Kelfer of Ohio, who
entered the Union Army as a major on
April 27, 1861, and on November 30, 1S64,
was appointed brigadier-general by breves
for "gallant and distinguished services
during the campaign ending in the surren
der of the Insurgent army under General
R. E. Lee."
Fourteen years old when the war -broke
out, Representative Philip Knopf of 1111.
nois enlisted In the 147th Illinois Infantry
and served until the regiment was mus
tered out at Savannah. Representative
Hull of Iowa was so badly wounded in
the charge of Black River, May 17, 1S63,
that he was compelled to reslsm his cap
taincy in the Twenty-third Iowa, Ths
other well-known Iowa Representative,
W. P. Hepburn, was a dashing captain
and major and then lieutenant-colonel of
the Second Iowa Cavalry.
Representative Isaac R. Sherwood, of
Ohio, enlisted as a private In an Ohio
regiment the day after Lincoln made hist
first call for volunteers. He took part
in the first battles of the war Philllppl,
Laurel Mountain and Carracks Ford the
only member now In Congress who has
this distinction. Because of his Intrepid
fighting qualities he was promoted to be
a Major of his regiment oa the recom
mendation of all his brother officers. Be
ginning with the Morgan raid in 1863 to
the muster-out in July of 1865, he com
manded the 111th Ohio during its entire
field service, in that time taking part in
no less than 30 battles and engagements,
many of them of the first order. Because
of conspicuous gallantry displayed by him
at Resaca, Franklin and Nashville, he
was made Brevet Brigadier-General.
When his own State of Pennsylvania
would not take him because its quota
was full. Representative William H. Gra
ham, with some companions, chartered a
steamboat, sailed It down to Wheeling and
got Into "the late scrimmage" as mem
bers of the Second Virginia Infantry,
which later became the Fifth West- Vir
ginia Cavalry. Representative Graham,
who was 17 when he became a soldier,
saw much hard fighting under three noted
cavalry leaders, Averlll, Crook and Sheri
dan, and a bullet found him at the battle
of White Sulphur Springs. When ths
armies were facing each other at Appo-
Concluded on Page 11.