CHAPTER X, LESSONS IN MULE-DRIVING--CRITICAL POSITION OF THE ARMY.
|Our young friends were not long in receiving the promotion they desiredand certainly deserved. From being mere attachés, or as Jack expressedit, “adjutants,” of the wagon-train they were raised to the dignity ofdrivers each having a team of his own. It was a promotion at which theywere greatly elated, though it brought additional responsibilities andhard work.
Shortly after leaving Booneville one of the regular drivers fell illand was left behind. His place was given to Harry, who had shown himselffairly competent to fill it in spite of his youth, and also in spite ofhis lack of that accomplishment of the ordinary teamster, a familiaritywith profanity. We have already alluded to this peculiarity of theaverage driver, and the faith possessed by many people that mules andoxen cannot be successfully managed except by an expert in swearing. ButHarry got around the difficulty nicely and very much to his credit.
His education was not extensive, and had been confined to the ordinarybranches of the common school. He was proficient in the three R’s:“reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic,” and had made a fair start in grammarand geography. While wondering what to do in order to be able to drive amule team successfully, and at the same time avoid falling into the useof profanity, he hit upon an idea which is commended to all readers ofthis narrative under similar circumstances.
He picked out the hardest names he could remember in his geographicalstudies and determined to make them the means of propelling obstinateanimals and inducing them to pull properly when pulling was desired.With the permission of one of the regular drivers he practiced on theteams and found his plan worked very well; so well, in fact, that itreceived the commendation of the chaplain and of the colonel of theregiment, and furthermore, the team seemed to enjoy it.
“Sebastopol” was one of his favorite expletives, and when he hurled itat a mule, hissing the first syllable through his teeth and giving fullvent to his voice on the last, that mule was sure to do his very bestuntil the load moved or the harness gave way. In the same manner hefound “Calcutta” an expletive of great power, and so was “Nagasaki” andalso “St. Petersburg.” When he wanted something of unusual strength fora momentous occasion he informed his obstinate animals that “Viennais the Capital of Austria,” or “the Dutch have taken Holland.” Nothingcould surpass the efforts of the team when these phrases were throwninto the elongated ears of the unschooled mules.
Harry imparted his plan to Jack, and when that youth was shortlyafterward put in charge of a team which had been hired at Booneville forthe trip to Springfield, he repeated the experiment. It did not workas well as in Harry’s case, but the reason was found in the fact thatJack’s mules were of Missouri origin and proverbially ignorant, whilethose of Harry had come all the way from Iowa, and had the benefit of anorthern training. While the Northern mules might be supposed to havea thirst for travel that would make geographical facts sink deep intotheir hearts, those of the more southern state were content to remainin their ignorance, and, like Jeff Davis, “all they asked was to be letalone.”
“You’re saying that in joke, of course,” remarked the quartermaster whenJack explained the reason of the difference in the animals of the twostates. “But let me tell you,” he continued, “that you’re nearer factthan you suppose. ‘Like master like man’ is an old adage, and why shouldn’t a Missouri mule be like a Missouri man? As a general thing theMissouri people have opposed everything that tended to the developmentof the state. I refer to the slaveholding portion, or those whosympathize with slavery, though they may have no slaves of their own.”
“How was that?”
“They were afraid it would interfere with their system of slavery, asthey saw it would bring in a population that believed in freedom insteadof the old state of things. When the Butterfield Overland Stage Line wasestablished from St. Louis to California they tried all they could tostop it; they declared it was n’t needed; and they did the same whenthe Western Union Telegraph Co. wanted to build a line across the state.They opposed the railways that have been built in various parts ofthe state, and for the same reason, notwithstanding the fact that therailways would make their land more valuable by bringing them nearer amarket. I have lived in Missouri and know what I’m talking about.
“Education has always been much more backward in the South than in theNorth, as everybody knows, and it is the system of slavery that causedthis backwardness. Travel through the Northern states and you see aschool-house in every village and almost at every cross-road, but in theSouth you may go hundreds of miles without seeing a school-house. Thisone fact speaks volumes in itself and illustrates the conditions growingout of slavery on the one hand and freedom on the other. A people thatdo not want education do not want railways and telegraphs, or anythingelse that indicates progress. Only when the South gets rid of slaverywill it wake up and adopt the institutions of the North.”
Regarding the South in the light of the present day, the words utteredby the quartermaster may be regarded as prophetic. It is only since thewar wiped away the stain of slavery that the Southern states have viedwith the North in developing their resources and have sought to havea really intelligent population. Before the war education was confinedchiefly to the rich or the well-to-do, the majority of the poor whitesbeing but little above the negro in the scale of intelligence. Thousandson thousands of them were unable to read or write, and those who coulddo so had little knowledge of the rest of the world.
Our young friends had frequent opportunities to test the intelligence ofthe natives of the region through which they were traveling, and manyof their experiences were amusing. One day they talked with a farmer whohad an impression that St. Louis was the largest city in the world, andpractically the only one he had heard of New York and Chicago, but hadno clear idea of their location except that they were somewhere in theNorth, and did not believe they amounted to much anyway. He thoughtAbraham Lincoln was a black man, who had somehow been made president ofthe United States by the abolitionists, and if his armies succeeded inconquering the South the government would be altogether in the handsof the blacks, who would speedily proceed to enslave the rest of thepopulation and “have white men for niggers.”
Several times they talked with men and women who were much surprised tofind the Yankee soldiers were white men; they had expected to see onlynegroes, and especially thought it strange that the officers were whiteinstead of black. A woman at whose house they stopped to get a drink ofwater said she did n’t mind the white soldiers, but when it came to theblack republicans she would n’t be able to endure them.
“Why, we are black republicans, madam; or would be if we could vote,” said Jack.
“No, you can’t be,” was the reply; “you’re just as white as we-’uns ifyou’d only wash your faces.”
The boys good-naturedly enlightened her on the subject by explainingthat the term “black republicans” was a derisive one, which theDemocrats had applied to the Republican party, and had no reference tothe complexion of those who voted the Republican ticket. They were notsure that they had convinced her, though they certainly raised doubtsin her mind when she saw the hundreds and thousands of men that marchedpast the place, and all of them anything but negroes.
Another time they were less successful, as the native whom they soughtto instruct pointed triumphantly to the colored servant of one of theofficers, who was mounted on a spare horse belonging to his employer.
“Don’t talk to me that way,” was the angry retort, “when there’s one ofyour generals, a regular nigger, on a black horse.”
The joke was too good to be kept, and that evening it was circulatedthrough the camp. It caused a great deal of laughter, and for some daysthe servant who had been the innocent cause of the mistake was addressedby his associates as “general.”
There was no fighting on the march from Booneville to Springfield, asthe state forces under Governor Jackson and General Price were on theirline of march considerably farthe
r west, and had a good start. Theywere being followed by a column from Leavenworth, under command of MajorSturgis, but the pursuers were not able to overtake them, being delayedat the crossing of a river which lay on their route. It had been hopedthat the rebels would be caught between the two columns of Sturgis andSweeney, and if they had been thus caught there was an excellent chanceof a Union victory.
As the days wore on after the arrival of the Union forces atSpringfield, the most important town of southwestern Missouri, thesituation became critical. It was known that General Price had formed acamp at Cowskin Prairie, near the southwest corner of the state, to waitfor the reinforcements that were promised by the Confederacy, and it wassoon learned that these reinforcements had arrived and Price was aboutto move on Springfield.
Altogether General Lyon had about six thousand men under his command,but many of them were enlisted for only three months; the expiration ofthe time of some of them was fast approaching, and others were alreadyfree to go home.
General Fremont had been placed in command of the department, and to himGeneral Lyon sent an earnest appeal for reinforcements, saying he wouldbe compelled to retreat unless troops were sent to him. The desiredtroops were promised, but before they started the rebels threatenedCairo in Illinois, and the regiments destined for General Lyon were sentthere instead of going to southwestern Missouri, as originally intended.
Lyon was receiving no reinforcements, while Price was gaining instrength and adding to the effectiveness of his men. About the twentiethof July Lyon’s force was weakened by the departure of two regiments ofthree-months’ men whose time had expired, while the time of the FirstIowa (the regiment to which Jack and Harry were attached ) would be outearly in August. No wonder General Lyon was troubled in mind, and thathe sent urgent appeals to General Fremont for immediate aid.
News came that the rebels were advancing upon Springfield and that agreat battle was imminent. Jack and Harry were jubilant at the promiseof fighting, but older ones shook their heads and looked serious. Thesecession inhabitants of Springfield were rejoicing over the prospectof soon being rid of their Yankee visitors; they could not conceal theirdelight, and this circumstance convinced the thoughtful ones among theunionists that the coming clash of arms would be anything but a lightone.