CHAPTER X.

INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES OF A GREAT SOLDIER'S

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CAREER.

old friend, Stephen A. Douglas, was not as practiced an "Anecdotarian," if I may invent

a word, as Abraham Lincoln, who was the model story-teller of his day and time, but he had a fund of exquisite humor. Whenever he talked about the Presidency he rarely failed to relate the incident of the western candidate for office, whose wife said to him, "Now, my dear, you are anxious to be squire in our township, and I want you to tell me honestly, whether you have ever done anything in your life that you are afraid that the world should know; because, my dear, a man who wants to be squire of our town, will be cussed and discussed, and if they found out anything bad you will be sure to be disgraced."

And so Douglas would add, "I am in the position of a man resolved not to be astonished about anything they say about me." And then he would tell with infinite humor, how, on one occasion a friend of his was charged with horse stealing, while he was running for the Legislature. "There,"

he said, "I am resolved to make a point," and he brought suit against his calumniator, and the worst of it was that the man who charged him with stealing a horse, proved it upon him! I do not think that General Hancock need to be ashamed of any part of his record since he was an entered cadet at the United States Military Academy, when he was 16 years old.

GENERAL HANCOCK'S CONSIDERATION FOR THE HONOR OF HIS OFFICERS.

Captain was a gallant officer of the 2d Delaware Regiment, (4th Brigade), which was largely recruited in Philadelphia. He had on several occasions been tested by General Hancock, and his Colonel, (David Stryker), in trying exigencies and proved himself worthy of their confidence.

On one occasion he had just returned to camp after days of picket duty during heavy storms, worn-out and fatigued. But unfortunately just before he had prepared himself for rest, an injudicious friend handed him a copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer, which had come into camp during his absence and pointed out to him a War Department statement which had been telegraphed to the newspapers throughout the country, through the Associated Press. It contained a long list of "Officers absent without leave," and among the most prominent of them stood the name of "Capt.

The blow was a severe one, especially in his tired, worn-out condition. Publicly disgraced to his family and his friends! Posted at his own home!

Naturally, a man of quick decision, the Captain forgot his fatigue, drew his sword from its scabbard, and without saying a word to his comrades, walked direct to the Colonel's tent.

The Colonel was at the time busy writing or dictating to his Adjutant. "Colonel!" hoarsely shouted the indignant Captain. "There is my sword," he threw it upon the vacant tent-cot. "I fight no more

for my country, which has disgraced me. You can do what you please with me-cashier me if you like,—but I perform no more duty."

The amazement of the Colonel, who was a bosom friend, as well as a superior officer, may be imagined, as the Captain disappeared as suddenly as he had made his dramatic entrée.

Personal friendship conquered official pride, and within fifteen minutes the Colonel was at the Captain's tent and seated on a stool at his bed-side.

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Come, William," he said soothingly, as he took his brother officer's hand in his. “There must be some grave error here. What is the cause of all this demonstration-so unusual on your part and unworthy of you? Talk to me as a friend and brother."

"It's no use, Colonel. I had hoped to go through the war with you, but my country has disgraced me at my home, and I can fight for it no longer."

And then the Captain's companions showed the Colonel the obnoxious paragraph in the War Department order, and he grasped the subject of the trouble at once.

"This will never do, Captain! I'll ride over to General Hancock's headquarters at once, and I know he will never allow you to rest under this stigma."

In an hour or so the Colonel was back. "General Hancock wishes to see you at once, Captain. He says there has been a grave mistake somewhere, and he is determined to have it righted. He told me to say to you that he knew and remembered you well."

"It's no use, Colonel. Let me rest. The thing has been done. My family and friends are all ashamed of me. I cannot face them again. My services are over."

A day or two elapsed before the Captain had overcome his despondency, and even then he was still reckless.

"You must go, Captain. The General has waited for you long enough. The first thing you know you may make him angry, and have a guard sent after you," was the Colonel's clincher.

"General Hancock, I've come to you against my will, but because of my personal respect."

"Sit down, Captain, and tell me all about it," was the hearty greeting he received, with the General's open hand.

It did not take long to tell.

"I want you to understand, Captain, that I consider the personal honor of my officers and soldiers as sacred as my own!" exclaimed General Hancock, as he grasped the whole subject. Especially those in whom Now, Captain, go back to your tent and leave There has been some gross bungling some

I know I can place trust. this whole matter to me.

where, and I am going to find it out and have it remedied. You need do no duty; amuse yourself as you may; and I promise you that I, if I do not set this whole thing right within one week, both to your satisfaction and my own, I will give you an honorable discharge!"

but

It took four days to discover that not only Captain twelve other officers had been the victims of the hasty and careless execution of War Department orders by an aide-de-camp. The Department for information, knowing that a good many officers were then absent at a time when they were all needed, had issued orders to have their names collected quickly, and instead of through the usual formalities. So the Aide having charge of the brigade comprising the regiment to which the Captain belonged, had suddenly popped in on Colonel Stryker, a couple of weeks before with the query,—

"Colonel, how many of your officers are out of camp to-day?" "Well, let me see. There is Captain so and so, and Lieutenant such and such, and Captain -he hasn't got in yet," and so on returned the Colonel, little knowing the purpose of the information, and that he was innocently disgracing his best friend by not classifying him as "absent on picket duty," and a weary one at that.

But General Hancock righted him. The War Department promptly issued an order of explanation and rectification, and made it as public as it had the obnoxious one a fortnight before.

GENERAL HANCOCK'S HORSE SHOT UNDER HIM AT THE BATTLE OF REAM'S STATION, VA., AUG. 25, 1864.

At the battle of Ream's Station, Va. Aug. 25, 1864, General Hancock had his horse shot under him while engaged in pushing some of our

troops against the enemy, under a very hot musketry fire. The norse received a very singular wound in its effects. It was shot through the neck "creased, as the hunters on the prairie would call it, that is, the ball passed so close to the spinal cord as to paralyze the animal; it fell instantly to the ground, as if dead. The General extricated himself, and was about to mount another horse, when the wounded animal commenced struggling, then rose to its feet, and, in a few moments, was apparently well as ever. The General mounted it again, and rode it the remainder of the day. It was a favorite with him, and he kept it until 1868, when it met an accidental death.

Hunters on the western prairies are said to capture wild horses by "creasing" them, that is, striking them with a rifle-ball so close to the spinal cord as to temporarily paralyze them; and while in this stunned condition, they are secured. Horses are said not to be permanently injured by "creasing," but it requires good shooting to accomplish it.

THE WOUND RECEIVED BY GENERAL HANCOCK A GETTYSBURG, AND ITS EFFECTS.

At Gettysburg, where General Hancock commanded the "left centre" of the army, July 3, 1863, consisting of the 1st, 2d and 3d Army Corps, he received a wound, which was supposed, at the time, to be mortal. He was stricken, by a musket-ball, while on his line of battle, just at the moment of the repulse of the enemy's grand final assault. The ball passed through the front of his saddle, and carried into the wound with it a large wrought nail from the saddle-tree. The bullet and the nail entered near the groin, the ball passing through the thigh, and lodging near the socket of the thigh-bone, which it slightly splintered. The General was assisted from his horse by the officers of General Stannard's staff, who were near him at the time. He remained upon the ground until the assaulting column had been driven entirely from the field, giving orders to his troops. From the point at which he lay, he could see the field of battle, by raising himself on his elbow; and from that point he sent one of his aids to inform General Meade that we had won a great victory.

This wound so disabled General Hancock as to unfit him for field