A Hibernian “Striker”
In 1861 and 1862 I had a Hibernian “striker” who had been a soldier of the old mounted rifles, and had been discharged on account of a wound received in an Indian fight, but was yet well able to perform the duties of an officer’s servant in the field. His care of his master’s property, and sometimes of the master himself, was very remarkable. In the midst of the battle of Wilson’s Creek the horse I was riding was killed, and I called in vain for my spare horse. From the best information obtained I concluded that both the horse and my faithful orderly had been killed, and I sincerely mourned my loss. But after the fight was over I found my man quietly riding the spare horse along with the troops, as if nothing unusual had happened. When I upbraided him for his conduct and demanded to know where he had been all that time, he replied: “Ah, Major, when I saw the one horse killed I thought I’d better take the other to a place of safety!”
Where my efficient assistant obtained his supplies I never knew, but he would fill without delay any requisition I might make, from a shoe-string to a buffalo-robe. One day in 1862 I found in my camp trunk several pairs of shoulder-straps belonging to the grades of captain, major, and lieutenant-colonel. As I was then a brigadier-general, I inquired of my man why he kept those badges of inferior grades. He replied: “Ah, General, nobody can tell what may happen to you.” When, only a few months later, after having been promoted to the rank of major-general I was again reduced to that of brigadier-general, I remembered the forethought of my Irish orderly.
[( 1) See War Records, Vol. XIII, p. 7.]
[( 2) The whole correspondence may be found in the War Records, Vol. XXII, part ii.]
CHAPTER V In Command of the Department of the Missouri—Troops Sent to General Grant—Satisfaction of the President—Conditions on which Governor Gamble would Continue in Office—Anti-Slavery Views—Lincoln on Emancipation in Missouri—Trouble Following the Lawrence Massacre —A Visit to Kansas, and the Party Quarrel There—Mutiny in the State Militia—Repressive Measures—A Revolutionary Plot.
On May 24, 1863, I relieved General Curtis in command of the Department of the Missouri. In his instructions of May 22, General Halleck said:
“You owe your appointment entirely to the choice of the President himself. I have not, directly or indirectly, interfered in the matter. But I fully concur in the choice, and will give you all possible support and assistance in the performance of the arduous duties imposed upon you.”