George Dodge
Sister Ruth brought a copy of a small
book titled "Fiftieth Anniversay of the Settlement of Hon. Geo. E.
Holmes in Illinois" to a small reunion at brother
John's home in Port Mansfield. She was kind enough to loan it to me, so I
scanned it with ABBYY Fine Reader, Pat and I then read and corrected
(hopefully) word for word, and I'm now posting it for your reading pleasure. George
Dodge (who wrote one of the stories in this book) is my 2rd Great
Grandfather on Grandma Fanny Heacock's side of the family. If some of us
suffer from the wanderlust affliction, we may be able to (in part)
attribute it to George Dodge. Read this story carefully and you will
understand why.
(Be careful not to confuse George Holmes with George Dodge -- as I have.)
I
have read many Civil War stories, but never one written by one of my
ancestors. Consequently, I found it of considerable interest. Hope you
do to.
You. can expand the font size by pressing "command" and "plus" on an Apple computer.
Enjoy!
(Winfield Sterling)
----------------------------------------------------
Written by George Dodge
Capt. Co. M.. 4th Ill. Cavalry Volunteers, War of the Rebellion
b. Oct. 13, 1814 d. Apr 26, 1905
"Get
your map of the United States, look along Long Island Sound east; look
sharp, and you will find somewhere near the eastern end of Sound the
mouth of the Connecticut river. Run your eye on up the river and you
will soon come to the southern line of the State of Vermont; continue on
up the river until you have nearly reached the line that divides the
Dominion of Canada from the United States; look sharp and you will see
in the extreme northern limit of the state the county of Essex and in
about the center of the county the town of Guildhall, it is the shire or
capital town of the county. Have you found it? Yes? Well, here in this
little Yankee town, so says the record in the old Bible, I first saw the
light of day. I have never heard that any great convulsion in the
heavenly bodies or in the earth beneath occurred that would mark so an
eventful occasion as this. The only remarkable thing that did occur was
that that brilliant statesman who said in Congress, or somewhere
else, that Vermont was a good state to emigrate from. I mean of course
the Hon. Stephen A. Douglas. A wonderful coincidence, wasn't it? Here I
spent twenty-one or twenty-two years of my boyhood days.
It was
there on the banks of the old Connecticut river in the little town of
Guildhall that 1 attended school. Well do I remember those schools and
the fiery trials I endured, about the first of which was when not over
five years old in the old Court House on the hill, seated on a bench
made of a spruce slab with pins driven into augur holes for legs, my
little cowhide boots reaching about half way down to the floor, I
watched the proceedings of the old school-master. I stood in absolute
awe of that man. Well, time went along and so did I attending school
three months in the winter and three months in the summer, and my most
earnest aim the most of the time seemed to be to get through with my
lessons and get out. Thus my boyhood days were passed until at the age
of twenty-one or twenty-two the crust seemed to break and I looked out
on the world, becoming conscious that there was something more of it
than Essex county. Vermont, or Coos county. N. H., and so one spring day
in 1837 I broke away from the old moorings, from all old associations,
left everything behind and started out into an unknown world without
compass or chart.
I got into the stage one spring morning, after
bidding father and mother good-bye, and came by Montpelier, Vermont,
then down to Albany, N.Y. Here I took a steamboat to New York City.
Going on board the boat I found myself in a crowd that absolutely filled
every space, yes, every standing space. I supposed 'twas alright and
had no idea but that this was to be so all the wav to New York. A great
mountain of baggage lay on deck, some passengers walking or wedging
their way about, some sitting on the baggage. I was walking around and
saw some going down stairs, so I went down and there was a great long
room at one end of which was a bar signed "Refreshments," and in front
of it gents talking. I had not been down there many minutes when
something seemed to strike the body of the boat that made everything
shake. At once they began to go up so I followed, of course. On deck I
was startled on finding a very large and magnificent steamer lashed
along-side our own and all the passengers were being hurried
aboard the big boat. Standing wonder-stricken at this excitement some
one of the crew probably saw I was a green one and caught me by the arm,
telling me to hurry aboard. So I hurried aboard. When the transfer of
passengers and baggage was finally completed the two boats separated.
Then I saw the reason for the hurry. Only a few rods from us was another
large boat and the two were racing.
Well, I had all I could
attend to between then and dark in looking the boat over, which you may
be sure I did, inquisitive Yankee boy that I was, I was bound to see all
there was to be seen. As night approached I went to the captain's
office, paid my fare and got the number and location of my sleeping
berth. On looking it up I found it was one of the amidship berths and
quite near the engine room. When 1 retired I soon fell asleep and slept
sound till morning. I got up early and put my hand down where I left my
pants the night before; my pants were gone, my boots and stockings were
gone, mv coat and vest were gone, all were gone except my shirt, that
was still on me. Truly a most pathetic fix for a green boy who had never
been one hundred miles from home. As I sat on the edge of my hammock
trying to come to some conclusions as to my future course, looking
around and taking my bearings, as the sailor would say. I found that I
was not on the side of the boat that I went to hammock in the night
before. I went across the boat to the opposite side, when lo, my clothes
were all there except my boots. Oh. didn't I feel good. I afterwards
found my boots by paying twenty-five cents to the boot-black.
It
was now quite early and none of the other passengers were up, so I found
the wash room, had my morning wash and was out on deck bright and
early. You may be sure I took in every mile of the grand scenery down to
New York City, arriving there before the extinction of the street
lamps. I found an old Vermont acquaintance, Asa Hinckley bv name, head
clerk of the old Globe Hotel, 51 Broadway. Here I stayed a few
days, just long enough to look the citv over, when my purse admonished
me that it could not supply means to live in a first-class hotel in New
York any longer. So I struck out into the country to get something to do
for a living.
Crossing the Hudson river to New Jersey, after a
couple of days walking I drifted round to the little village of Fort
Lee, where I finally enquired to teach their school. This I had no
trouble in effecting when they found that I was a Vermonter, for they
believed that everybody in Vermont was an educated person. I stayed here
about a year and finally contracted the sea fever. This fever kept hold
of me until it finally carried me off. I went two whaling voyages, the
first cruising in the south Atlantic down near Cape Horn, the second
round the Cape of Good Hope, away down southeast near New South Wales
and most of the time in sight of icebergs—until our ship took fire,
when, in order to keep from burning up, we were obliged to destroy our
try-works, which of course broke up the cruise and we squared away and
started for home. Arriving home (for we called any place in the United
States home) and getting on my land legs again, I went once more to New
York City, when, after a week or two of inactivity, the sea fever once
more attacked me. This time not as a whaleman, but rather a desire to
take a cruise through the Mediterranean. Finding no craft that suited
me, I finally answered a call for recruits for U. S. Cavalry service. I
hunted up the recruiting officer and at once enlisted in the service of
my Uncle for the term of five years. In a few days I with a number of
recruits went from Governor's Island to Carlysle Barracks, Pa., and in
that school of instruction I remained until the middle of November,
1841, when 140 of us were sent to Fort Leavenworth, Mo., here to be
assigned to different companies of the 1st U. S. Dragoons. Arrived at
this post, an opportunity was offered to twelve of us to go to Fort
Gibson, Ark. I volunteered and twelve of us walked three hundred miles
to that point and were assigned to two companies. I remained until
February, 1842 when company G. was ordered to Fort Leavenworth, when I
obtained an exchange and came back there, where we stayed a couple of
months, when we were ordered to Council Bluffs with the Pottawatomie
Indians. We remained there eighteen months, when we were ordered back to
Fort Leavenworth, where the Co. remained up to the Mexican war.
Sometime
during the latter part of 1845 I began to think of home and my
relation, not one soul of whom 1 had seen or heard of for eight or nine
years. I knew that my Uncle Belcher had some years
before come
out to Illinois and stopped at Stephenson, now Rock Island, so I wrote
to him and in due time received his answer informing me that my sisters
Harriet und Susan were in Port Byron, that Harriet was married to my old
friend G. S. Moore, that everything was lovely and begging me to quit
wandering around the world and come there as soon as my term of
enlistment expired. This and subsequent letters decided me and I
determined to go to Port Byron, which I did, arriving there the latter
part of August, 1846. And oh, what a joyful meeting that was only one
who has been wandering almost aimlessly over the world for eight or nine
years can tell.
That fall I went to Elizabeth and engaged in
prospecting for lead. Was there that winter and in the spring came back
to Port Byron and engaged with Moore and Holmes clerking. Here for two
or three years I alternately sold sugar, coffee, molasses, calico,
hoots and shoes, tended post office, weighed and handled grain, and,
best of all, did my prettiest in waiting on the young ladies to
parties
and balls—over the river, up to Albany, down to Rock Island, etc. This
business finally fixed me the comforts of home, such I found at sister
Harriet's, which together with the new life I was living amongst
newfound acquaintances decided me to remain.
In 1848 the
California fever struck the town of LeClaire, Iowa, and Port Byron, Ill.
A number of citizens of both places to the number of fifteen or twenty
combined and formed a mining company, chose their officers, got their
teams ready and made the necessary arrangements to cross the western
prairies to California. Subsequently, and before the day fixed to start,
our company members one after another dropped out for one reason or
another, until only two of the company were left. These were Jack Allen,
of Le Claire, and myself. So, Jack and I after settling matters here
got on a boat and went to St. Louis.
 |
| Port Byron |
The great trouble with most
of the members who backed out was, the news we got, that the whole world
was on the way to California and that there would not be grass enough
to keep the teams alive. Jack and I arrived in St. Louis and found the
great wide levee lined with steamboats and the town literally packed
with emigrants all bound for the gold region. This sight cooked Jack and
he backed out, leaving me the only member of the company and I its
captain, so I came back home. Disappointed and disgusted with the utter
failure of our company that had been so ready to brave the hardships of a
trip across the plains, I finally took passage on a boat and in due
time landed once more at Port Byron.
It was about this time, or
about the year 1848. that T. C. Temple and Jacob Dickerson, having sold
their farms to Geo. S. Moore, went to St. Louis and bought a small stock
of general merchandise. The goods were landed here in Port Byron and as
neither of the gents had any acquaintance with the goods business they
engaged myself to open, mark and sell. I remained in their employ some
months when the news came from Peoria to my sister that her husband,
Robt. Moore, who was a steamboat pilot running between Peoria and St.
Louis, had died of cholera at a little landing on the Illinois river.
His wife (my sister Susan) was here with her little child. The weather
being very warm and the child not very well, the doctor objected to her
going to Peoria, so I went to Peoria and attended to all the details of
his burial. I gathered up the household effects, put them on a boat to
St. Louis, re-shipped by boat to Port Byron. My sister's home being now
broken up at Peoria and being out of business myself, we, that is Susan
and I, concluded to rent the old Port Byron House, put her furniture in,
pick up what was needed beside hers, and trv our hand at keeping
tavern.
Up to the time of my embarking in the hotel business I
had been comparatively foot loose, ready at any time to pull up stakes
and start again on a tramp, except, I must confess, a certain attraction
I had found in Port Byron. Thus, my interest in my new vocation added
to the attraction aforesaid as time went on more and more decided me to
stay. About this time Eastern people were traveling through the West and
we had a good run of custom by stage and otherwise and were in a
flourishing condition. All this time the attraction was becoming more
and more attractive, until on the 17th day of January, 1850, Ellen
Holmes and George Dodge were married.
Our business was
flourishing and we were making money. All through the winter of 1850 we
had all the house could accommodate, spring came and still our trade
continued on up to the 17th dav of June. I was suddenly thrown
into the dark with sore eyes, and there I was shut up in a room made as
dark as could be, while I could hear my wife and sister hurrying hither
and thither through the house, attending customers. I felt like a caged
lion, feeling perfectly well, having all my faculties about me, and yet I
could not stir out of the darkened room. It was absolutely distracting.
And now commenced a long and painful battle with that terrible disease
of the eyes, conjunctivitis. For three long years my dear wife and I
struggled along. Eight months of the time I spent in St. Louis,
undergoing treatment; sometimes with hopes of relief, and again
despairing of ever regaining my eyesight, which had nearly left. During
these three years we had two children born, Clara on Dec. 8. 1850, and
Mary on June 6, 1852.
Finally after suffering untold pain for
three years, a Dr. Goyer, a wholly ignorant, unlettered, itinerant
quack, came to me at the instance of one Sol. Penny, of Green River, and
after catechising him nearly a whole day I let him try his skill on me.
This was sometime in April when he commenced, and under his treatment
my eyes improved right along till about the first of July, when they
were quite cleared and the doctor pronounced them well.
During
the aforesaid three years and while I was in the dark my friends
interceded for me and obtained a soldier's land warrant for 160 acres of
land. This, when obtained, they located on the farm now owned by Mr.
Golden. By this time my eyes had so far recovered as to enable me to
enter upon some business again. Striking up a bargain with my Uncle
Belcher, who by the way had been one of my best friends during my
trouble, I let him have the land and he assured my indebtedness of about
$900 for my first stock of goods purchased in Chicago. Thus once more I
was embarked in business. I kept on in a small way until December,
1852, when T. C. Temple, returning from California, pooled his assets
with mine, and now behold me in a fair way to make a living for myself
and family. Temple and I did business together until the year 1857, when
I bought him out. I finally ran the stock down quite low and sold out
to Brown and Devon. It was in July of this year that a daughter (Ella)
was born. She died the 19th of February. 1859.
Our next venture
was in the old Port Byron House. Here we were at the breaking out of the
Rebellion. After the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency of the
United States, the seceding of one Southern state after another, the
firing on Fort Sumter, the actual necessity that a legally elected
president should have to go to Washington with an escort a little less
than an armed guard, that he should have to go to the office the people
had legally chosen him to kill in disguise was enough to fire the
Northern heart to its depths. Excitement ran high, every little
neighborhood had its recruiting station, companies and regiments were
enrolling and offering themselves to the Government for service. Our
little town of Port Byron was no exception to what had got to be a
general rule. The fever took hold of me in virulent force and, having
served in the U. S. Dragoons, I of course chose the cavalry as the arm
of service to join. Accordingly, I opened recruiting rooms in the old
Port Byron House, and in the course of eight or ten days had the names
of from eighty to one hundred men from this county mostly, though 1 had
some from Henry and some from Mercer counties. I then went to Ottawa,
Ill., saw T. Lyle Dickey who was getting up a regiment for the cavalry
service. He at once accepted my company and on one of the latter
days of August I went aboard the cars here with ninety men, with whom I
was proud to associate as comrades bound to assist in quelling the
rebellion. Arriving at our camp at Ottawa, the first duty in order was
to elect a captain. At the close of our second day in camp the company
proclaimed me their Captain without a dissenting voice, and during the
next two or three days Samuel Allshouse and Edward Daily were chosen
first and second Lieutenants, after which I appointed our non-
commissioned officers. We soon received our camp equipments and horses
and at once commenced regular cavalry drill, both on foot and mounted.
My men took to their several duties with alacrity and enthusiasm and
soon it was the crack company of the regiment.
Thus we continued
employing ourselves in perfecting each his company, while our Col. was
very busy in perfecting and organizing his regiment, until about the
15th of November. Then orders came to break camp and start for the seat
of war. We packed our wagons, each Co. had one with six mules as a Co.
team, and what a lot of stuff for a Co. to take into the field.
Each man would have taken a trunk, but as it was there was all that
could be packed in the wagon up to the top of the hoops. However, as we
moved off the regiment of about 1200 men, with all the company teams,
the commissary, quartermaster and hospital teams, we made a big show
that called the attention of the citizens all the way to Cairo, where we
arrived the latter part of November, and went into camp.
Soon
after establishing our camp our arms arrived and each company received
its quota. Now each man had one horse and equipments, one Sharp's
carbine, one Colts navy pistol and one cavalry sabre.
Our camp finally
established, each company commander commenced drilling his company. Thus
we continued drilling and completing the organization of the regiment
until somewhere about the middle of January, when we were ordered to
embark on steamboats. To us subalterns 'twas a mystery where we were
going. Various opinions were expressed, but no one knew of course. My
company was ordered aboard the large steamer “Memphis." Almost the whole
regiment was stored away on this boat, and still there was room for
more. The boat finally received its load, the lines were cast off and we
were on our way down the river. We soon got into the Mississippi river,
the boat was headed down stream and now we thought we were on the way
to the seat of war truly. Running down stream about ten or twelve miles,
the expedition, now numbering in all about ten thousand men, landed.
If
we were in the dark as to our destination before we embarked, we were
the next day and subsequent days in the dark as to the object of this
display of so large a force so near the enemy without so much as showing
ourselves to him. Well, here or hereabouts we floundered around through
the mud, and, like a famous king, marched up the hill and then marched
down again.
My wife had been making me a visit and had been with
us in camp some week or more when we left Cairo. Uncertain as to how
long we might be gone, she stayed in camp, thinking our trip would last
only a dav or two. But when we had been gone five or six days and a
prospect of further stay, I jumped on a boat, went up to Cairo, on to
camp, bundled my wife up, put her on the cars and bid her good-bye. She headed for home and I headed down the river to my company.
After
marching and counter-marching around through Kentucky, once so near
Columbus that we could hear them hallooing and wondering what we were
there for. We were ordered aboard the boats and steamed back to Cairo.
The above expedition was under the command of Brig. Gen. John A.
McClumand. During this expedition on our way we were exposed to very bad
weather, snow which thawed nearly as fast as it fell made the roads
almost impassable. Cold, wet feet and constantly in the saddle finally
brought back an old trouble that had afflicted me when in the U. S.
Dragoons, and when we got back to Cairo I was hardly able to walk for a
day or two, but after a few days I fully recovered. About this time Col.
Dickey said to me, “You take a trip up home for a few days, 'twill do
you good. I will arrange it with Gen. Grant." Accordingly I called at
Gen. Grant's headquarters. The General took me by the hand and said.
"Ah, this is Capt. Dodge. Your leave of absence is all prepared. The
Adj. Gen. will hand it to you." So I made a short trip up home, only
four or five days.
On my return 1 found everything lively. Our
regiment had started on through Kentucky, leaving about 170 of us under
the command of Major Bowman. The next day after I got back the balance
of the regiment broke camp, went aboard the boat and steamed up the Ohio
River to the Cumberland, thence up to Ft. Donaldson. Here we
disembarked and started for the Rebel works. On our way we witnessed the
naval battle between our gun boats and the Rebel batteries. This was on
Friday, Feb. 13th; on Sunday, the 15th, occurred the surrender of the
Rebel force, consisting of about 15.000 prisoners, with everything
pertaining to the Rebel army at that place.
Immediately after the
surrender our regiment went into camp at Randolph forges, the great
Tennessee iron works, where we found large quantities of forage for our
teams. We remained here two or three weeks, when orders came to send our
sick and disabled, together with all captured horses and other supplied
not needed here, by steamboats to Cairo and at the same time hold
ourselves in readiness to move for the Tennessee river. Accordingly the
next day we saddled up and loaded up and started across the hills
to take boats for Pittsburg Landing, where we arrived in due time. It
was a grand sight, said to be about eighty or ninety boats following one
after another. Each boat had its military commander. It fell to my lot
to be assigned to the last one, so 1 could see what was in advance.
Arrived at our destination, we were under the immediate command of Gen.
Sherman, to whom I was introduced by my immediate senior, Ma j. Bowman,
an old acquaintance of Gen. Sherman and an attorney at law who had been
attorney for Sherman and Turner, while bankers in San Francisco, Cal. I
had a number of interviews with Gen. Sherman and was delighted with his
social qualities, and was particularly impressed with what I considered
his eminent qualities as a soldier. Subsequently I found nothing in his
career as a commander to induce me to alter my opinion of him as a man.
a soldier or a loyal citizen.
And now I come to one of the most
intense, hotly contested and most destructive engagements in which the
two armies engaged during the war. How to describe it is a question; to
give an adequate idea would take whole volumes. I can only give my
impressions, and they must be crude of course. Our regiment that had
started with Gen. Hurlburt's division, the evening before the battle
exchanged, the 5th Ohio Cavalry was sent from Sherman’s division to
Hurlburt's and our regiment sent to Sherman, so that the morning of the
5th of April found us with General Sherman out at the extreme
front and quite near to him. It was Sunday morning, bright, sunny and
warm and everything quiet, if you except the crack of a gun now and
then, such as is always the case with an army in the field. Not long,
however, did this quiet continue, for I had hardly swallowed a cup of
coffee and a heavy biscuit when from a hill nearby came Rebel cannon
shot. We were saddled up and mounted in less time than it takes to tell
it and were ordered to the rear, where we with other regiments of
cavalry remained all day. Now at this long time since that eventful day
my mind, or my brain seems to be thronged almost to suffocation with the
contemplation of that eventful day. I can hardly separate one event
from another, what with terrible anxiety, the awful strain on my nerves,
together with the fact that we were being forced back towards the river
inch by inch, every rod of the way hotly contested, and the
fearful roar of musketry interspersed with the roar of cannon. Still as I
recall the same it fills my brain almost to bursting. So this the first
day passed, and at evening found us forced back fearfully near to our
boats, and a sorry looking army it was.
That night I sat on a log
with nothing over me but a thin rubber poncho to keep out one of the
heaviest falls of rain I ever braved, the water actually ran down in
streams. There I sat the long night watching the shells sent into the
Rebel ranks by our gun-boat, and you may believe a fervent prayer went
up with each one of them. I am told that the fervent prayer of the
righteous availeth much. I do not attribute the success of each of those
shells to my unrighteous self, but nevertheless those shells kept the
Rebels stirred up wonderfully, so they admitted afterwards.
 |
| Battle of Shiloh |
Grandpa Dodge: "The
next morning, the 7th. dawned like its predecessor, bright and balmy, as
though the awful carnage of the day before was all blotted out, as if
it had never occurred and that the armies had only stopped long enough
to take breath. I had hardly eaten a hard-tack and drank a cup of coffee
when Col. Dickey rode up and said. "I come with orders from Gen. Grant
that you hike a file of men and go down to the river and drive all
stragglers up to his headquarters." I rode down to the river bank, which
was bluff and in many places overhung with roots of large trees. I
found the bank literally black with soldiers, or blue, for they all wore
the blue that their Uncle Sam had furnished them. I found it hard to
start them, but finally I drove them all out and up the bluffs, where
they were sent, some to their own regiments and some, whose regiments
had been utterly annihilated as organizations, were assigned to other
regiments."
 |
| Tennessee River Bank where Grandpa Dodge rounded up stragglers |
Two days after the fight, as I was sitting in my tent just in the toe of the evening, the front of my tent opened and Dr. Gamble stepped in. Oh my, it seemed to me that I had never seen so acceptable a face as his. He was there as a contract surgeon. By him I heard from home and that all were well.
Now commenced that scurrilous attempt to ruin one of the greatest generals of modern times. Halleck came and took Grant's place, virtually laying him on the shelf, and for a time our Western armies were subject to all the pulling and hauling that had made the Eastern army of no account. Our march to Corinth was begun, making three or four miles a day and then throwing up breastworks. This state of things continued up to about the 20th of June, when near Corinth, Miss., my trouble (piles) became so troublesome as to keep me out of the saddle most of the time. I finally sent in my resignation, 'twas accepted and I bid the army goodbye and started for home, where I arrived in due time.
I afterwards had somewhat to do with raising a company which I took to and joined the 14th Cavalry at Peoria. Col. Capron, who had seen somewhat of military life, was raising the regiment. He was, or seemed to be, quite anxious that I should go with him and as he offered me the first Major's berth I took nearly a full company to the regiment and, while attending to my duties in command of the camp and not suspecting treachery, a number of aspirants for places in the regiment went to Springfield and there managed to throw myself overboard and nearly the same with Col. Capron. So I threw up the sponge, disgusted, and came home to stay.
1 am now 82 1/4 years old, yet my memory of those stirring and event-fill days seems as vivid as when they occurred. A thousand incidents occurred during those times, trivial of themselves, many of which might prove of interest to the hearer or reader, but to break into the bundle and attempt to select one from the others would finally find the selected pile too big, so I thought best to take them as they came to my mind and save time and paper.
GEORGE DODGE
