We shall attempt no extended allusions to the records of this celebrated Battery. The above brief testimony from the accepted Statistician of the Civil War is evidence that a history of said Battery must prove interesting and we are pleased to say to all who would like, in imagination, to ride down through the awful battles of the Army of the Potomac on a cannon without getting injured, send one dollar and a half to the National Tribune at Washington, D. C., for a copy of the "CANNONEER" which is a full and complete history of this celebrated Battery and contains also a vast amount of invaluable war reading, written by Augustus Buell of Washington, D. C. There was one 'comrade" in this Battery to which we have promised our readers to make reference here- Old Tartar, Lieutenant Stewart's horse, or "Old Bobtail" as he was called after his caudal annex had been shot off in battle. We give below "Old Bob's" biography from the pen of Captain Stewart of Carthage, Ohio, to the author of the "Cannoneer": DEAR COMRADE:- You ask for Tartar's "biography." His military record is as follows: He entered the service at Fort Leavenworth in July, 1857, just before Battery B started on the Utah expedition, and was then four years of age. Before reaching Utah, he was taken sick with distemper of a malignant type, so we had to abandon him when we left Green River Camp, Salt Lake. The following spring, General Albert Sidney Johnston offered $30 apiece for abandoned horses branded "U. S." I was at the tent of Major Fitz John Porter one morning when two Indians came in with a couple of horses, one of which was Tartar. I had him taken over to the Battery. In the summer of 1860 the personnel of the Battery was formed into Cavalry to keep open the mail and pony express between Salt Lake and Carson City, during which Tartar's average work was from forty to fifty miles a day. Early in 1861 the Battery marched from Utah to Fort Leavenworth, whence by rail to Washington. At the Second Bull Run Tartar was struck by a shell, carrying away his tail, and wounding both hips, or hams. At first I thought I could not use him any more and turned him into a small field. The next morning he jumped the fence and followed the Battery. Sometime after this President Lincoln reviewed the army in front of Fredericksburg. After I had passed in review riding Tartar, I was sent for, to allow the President to look at the horse's wound. As soon as Mr. Lincoln saw it he said: "This reminds me of a tale!" which he proceeded to relate with great amusement. little son "Tad," mounted on a pony insisted on trading horses. He persisted in telling me that his papa was the President and would give any horse I wanted in trade for Tartar. I had a hard time to get away from the little fellow. His Tartar was again wounded at Fredericksbug and after that it was difficult to get him to stand under musketry fire. The day before we reached Gettysburg he was lamed by running a nail into one of his fore feet, and did not go into the battle. In pursuit of Lee he could not keep up and I left him with a farmer on the road. About a month afterward a friend informed me that he had seen him over in Kilpatrick's Cavalry tied up. I went over and got him. This was in August, 1863. He served through the war and was at Appomattox. In 1866 I left Tartar with the Battery, in the tenth year of his service. CHAPTER XXIV. OUR LAST MARCH. K NAPSACK we shoulder now for a tramp to our last campground. Many months the author has devoted to this compilation. The time has arrived when the result of all this labor must go to the type-room. From the first axestroke against the mighty forest oak to the launch of the ship, much good material accumulates which must be left behind. And so with this work. Narratives of each member of the regiment would be interesting, but they would require many volumes. And a full history of all the regiments of the Iron Brigade would also require a volume for each. Such task must be deferred to others. There has been a determination to exclude, as far as the truth of history would allow, all reflexive matter, as well as everything that could not strictly. stand the test of good authority and sincere account. The foregoing recital should accord to every regiment of the Iron Brigade that full measure of praise which each has won for itself. While members of the Twenty-fourth Michigan pride themselves upon its glorious record, written in blood-its wealth of sacrifice which has contributed to the enrichment of Michigan history, they ever accord a full meed of praise to all other Michigan troops, mindful that every soldier, with pardonable pride, loves his own regiment the best. And so, while it is our special delight that we belonged to the "Twenty-fourth" and to the IRON BRIGADE, we are also proud that we belonged to a Michigan regiment. For, were not Michigan's troops the honor of every branch of the service where they served? Did not their blood moisten over 800 battle-fields of the war? not their praises fall from the lips of generals? Did not the command of General Phil Kearney-"Put a Michigan Regiment on guard Did to-night and then I can sleep," express the confidence of commanders. in Michigan's soldiery? Were they not selected to lead "forlorn hopes" and perform most dangerous and difficult tasks? Thirty years have intervened since began the great struggle for national life. Since then a new generation has been born-a generation has passed away, while the magnitude of the struggle and the momentous questions at issue-those lost and those preserved are fast passing beyond comprehension. The war cost the North alone 360,000 lives, 300,000 wounded, and over one million widows and orphans. No less could have been the casualties of the south. The North alone, and the South alone, lost each, more men in four years, than England lost in all her wars from its Invasion by William the Conqueror to Queen Victoria, a period of 800 years! The sword settled that the United States are indivisible. State rights remain, but not State sovereignty. Sovereignty belongs exclusively to the Nation. The war taught the nations of earth and traitors at home that this nation cannot be destroyed without costly and bloody protest. It taught that majorities must govern, and so govern as to preserve inviolate the equal rights of all; that a lawfully elected President shall serve his constitutional term; that a minority oligarchy cannot permanently control this Republic. Republic. May the sacrifices of this war never be forgotten. May future generations note its awful scope and keep clear of the rocks on which it so nearly stranded. May the treasonable sophistries of Calhounism be extirpated from the text books and literature of the South, whose rising generation is being taught its deadly heresy,' else other occasions may be sought to revive the "Lost Cause." Let a caution prevail in the discussion of internal questions of polity, nor admit too freely within our gates the objectionable and ignorant stranger; and when enlarging our domain, that we annex not enemies of our institutions, customs and form of government. May the bloodbought experience of this generation preserve for all time this noblest of human organizations, "of the people, by the people and for the people." IN MEMORIAM. The following comrades of the Twenty-fourth Michigan are known to have passed over to the silent majority since their resignation or discharge: Lieutenant-Colonel MARK FLANIGAN, at Detroit, Oct. 4, 1886. Major HENRY W. NALL, at Long Branch, N. J., July 10, 1863. Major WILLIAM HUTCHINSON, drowned on Stm. Morning Star, sunk on Lake Erie, June 19, 1868. 4, 1887. Lieutenant and Quartermaster DIGBY V. BELL, at Detroit, Feb. 8, 1890. Surgeon JOHN H. BEECH, at Coldwater, Oct. 17, 1878. Assistant Surgeon CHARLES C. SMITH, in Redford, April 18, 1890. Assistant Surgeon ALEXANDER COLLAR, at Wayne, Sept 4, 1883. Assistant Surgeon EDWARD LAUDERDALE, at Detroit, April 16, 1883. Captain RICHARD S. DILLON, at Detroit, March 3, 1886. Captain JOHN WITHERSPOON, killed in cyclone at St. Edwards, Nebraska, Aug. Captain EDWARD B. WILKIE, Nov. 8, 1875. Captain ANDREW J. CONNOR, at Dayton Home, in 1890. Lieutenant FREDERICK AUGUSTUS BUHL, at Annapolis, Md., Sept. 15, 1864, of wounds received in cavalry fight. Lieutenant AUGUSTUS F. ZIEGLER, at Detroit, Jan. 2, 1870. Lieutenant CHARLES A KING, in Missouri, soon after the war. Lieutenant JOHN J. LENNON, of consumption, in March, 1865. Lieutenant GEORGE W. CHILSON, at Las Vegas, New Mex., Jan. 18, 1881. Lieutenant IRA W. FLETCHER, at Wayne, May 9, 1883. Lieutenant MICHAEL DEMPSEY, at Detroit, in March, 1890. SULLIVAN D. GREEN (N. C. S.), at Berlin Falls, N. H., Dec. 29, 1889. DANIEL B. NICHOLS (N. C. S.), soon after the war. Company A - Peter N. Girardin, John Happe. James Murphy, Nelson Oakland; John Schubert, 1890; Francis Wright, 1889; and John S. Coy, 1891. Company B-Andrew J. Arnold, 1891; James S. Booth, Willett Brown; George F. Higbee, 1878; Richard Maloney, 1869; Joseph E. McConnell, 1886; Patrick Shannon, 1872; Lafayette Veo, 1890; James Grills (Recruit). Company C-James M. Loud, Daniel McPherson, James S. Seeley. Company D-John D. Cameron (R.); Henry D. Chilson, of wounds received in another regiment, 1865; Clark Chase, Oliver Herrick, Frank Heig, killed on railroad; Conrad Kocher, James Lindsay; Robert Polk, 1890; William M. Ray, 1879; Melvin H. Storms, Wm. Walter Sands; George P. Roth, 1880; John B. Turney; Allen Brown (R.), 1889; George Dolan (R.), 1890. |