Reminiscences of Two Years in the United States Navy Part 8

I also met in Lancaster, Pa., about the same time, ex-President James Buchanan. But in the month of June, 1862, I had the curiosity to call on that gentleman at his home near Lancaster, called Wheatland. I found an affable, friendly, heavy-set and gray-haired old gentleman, seated in a chair in his library. After entering into conversation with him upon general topics, he touched upon his early life, his struggles as a young man in the profession of law, his nomination and election to the Presidency of the United States, and also upon his occupancy of that office. There was antic.i.p.ation at that time of Richmond being captured on or before the coming Fourth of July. I asked Mr. Buchanan if he thought Richmond would be captured by that time. He replied that he did not, but he hoped that the war for the preservation of the Union would be successfully terminated by the following July a year. I then asked him if he thought Napoleon would give his aid to the Confederacy, as it was rumored at that time that he would do so. He answered that Napoleon was a man who kept his own counsel. During my stay there, there was a gentleman called upon him for the purpose of soliciting aid in defraying the expenses of celebrating the coming Fourth of July at Lancaster, Pa. He contributed liberally, and told the solicitor if the amount he had already given him was not sufficient, to call again, and he would contribute more.

I have since visited his grave at Lancaster, Pa., which has the following inscription upon the tombstone:

Here rest the remains of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States, Born in Franklin county, Pa., April 23d, 1781.

Died at Wheatland, January 1, 1868.

(Second side.) 1781-1868.

(Third side.) BUCHANAN.

I also called on Dr. Samuel Jackson, who, during a long and extended practice in his profession, had been at one time Henry Clay's physician. I attended a course of his lectures at the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania. He had lost the use of his lower extremities, and was seated in a chair, at his home in Philadelphia, Pa. He stated he had from early life to the present been a hard student; and as he was about to pa.s.s through the portal of this life into another, he expected still to be a student there. He stated that it had at different times of his life been a matter of serious consideration as to how much inflammable matter in a given time the sun used in warming the s.p.a.ce included in the solar system. He said he expected to be able to make this calculation in another life.

I also met with General James L. Kiernan, in New York city. I was called to attend him whilst visiting in that city, in an attack of congestive chills, which he had contracted whilst on duty in the State of Louisiana. He had stumped several of the northern States for President Lincoln's second election, and had been appointed United States Consul to China after that election. He filled this office till the close of President Johnson's administration. He was a man about forty-five years of age, an excellent conversationalist, a good companion, and a fine orator.

On September 23, 1865, I was ordered to Cairo, Ill., for duty aboard the U.S. monitors Oneota and Catawba, as a relief to Acting a.s.sistant Surgeon Geo. C. Osgood. I reported to Commodore J. W. Livingston for duty October 6, 1865, having arrived in Cairo on the previous evening.

I stopped at the St. Charles Hotel all night. The weather was very hot and dry, the river was low, and for a distance along sh.o.r.e an unhealthy green foam had gathered along the edge of the river. Congestive chills were quite prevalent there that fall.

Cairo is a large and thriving town, situated at the extreme southern point of the state of Illinois. Many of the houses then were built on stilts or posts. The sidewalks were also resting on stilts or posts, so that in crossing a street a person would have to walk down a pair of stairs, then across the street, and mount another pair of stairs.

During the time of a rise in the Mississippi or Ohio river, the place was flooded, and then the citizens would use boats for the purpose of navigating from place to place. The town was somewhat protected from overflows by levees.

The monitors were very nicely finished and furnished inside. The deck was about six inches above water. There were four monitors anch.o.r.ed in line in the middle of the Ohio river off Cairo. The names of them were as follows: Oneota, Catawba, Manyyunk and Tippecanoe. The officers of all these vessels messed aboard the U.S. monitor Oneota. Acting Lieutenant Commander Wells was the captain of the Oneota. He was afterwards relieved by Acting Master H. E. Bartlett. Thomas Cook was her chief engineer, and Don Carlos Ha.s.seltino was chief engineer of the monitor Catawba. One of the officers of the Oneota was a persistent story-teller, and the only way to get him to stop telling his story was to suggest to him to make a chalk mark and finish the remainder of it the following day. One day, early in the morning, he and I went ash.o.r.e in Kentucky, hunting; and hunted all day without any dinner. I got very tired and left him, and returned to the boat, which was made fast ash.o.r.e opposite to the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, where I lay down on a brush-heap and fell asleep; but when my companion started to row to the Oneota, the rattling of the oars awakened me, otherwise I would have been left. One time, during a freshet in the Ohio river, I think in January, I had occasion to go to one of the monitors anch.o.r.ed in the rear of the Oneota. After arriving on that monitor, in our attempt to return, I found that the boat could make no headway against the current. We struck over along the Kentucky bank of the river, and did what the sailor calls "cheating the current;" that is, we rowed up along the bank of the river. After rowing above the Oneota, we crossed the bows of the Oneota and threw out the end of a painter, which was instantly tied around the stanchion of the Oneota.

The painter broke, and down the river the boat was carried by the current; but somebody aboard the Oneota threw the end of a rope overboard, which we caught, and we were pulled back aboard. Another time during the freshet, Mr. Thomas Cook and I went ash.o.r.e, and were nearly carried by the swift current between two packet boats, but we fortunately saved ourselves.

A pilot wis.h.i.+ng to cross with a packet-boat before or in front of the Oneota's bows, from a landing on the Cairo side of the river to the Kentucky side, ran the boat into the Oneota, and the packet was sunk.

The packet-boat was laden with pa.s.sengers, who were all saved.

Don Carlos Ha.s.seltino was chief engineer of the U.S. monitor Catawba, but spent most of his time on board the U.S. monitor Oneota, and was one of the mess-mates of that vessel. I a.s.sociated with him constantly from October 6, 1865, to January 16, 1866. He was a jolly, kind, sympathetic, and intelligent a.s.sociate. In height he was about six feet, and had a large, wiry frame. His hair and eyes were black; he wore a black moustache. He never gave offence to any one, but would not suffer himself to be insulted. He carried two Derringers in leather pockets b.u.t.toned to his pantaloons above the hips. He was very polite and chivalrous; woe to the person that gave offense or offered insult.

I insert here a sketch of his life.

[From the Cincinnati Enquirer of 1880.]

"A LIFE OF ADVENTURE.

"GENERAL DON CARLOS Ha.s.sELTINO'S STORY OF HIS STARTLING CAREER--REBEL SPY AND UNION OFFICER--HIS ADVENTURE IN THE ARMY IN PERU AS A CUBAN REFUGEE.

"General Don Carlos Ha.s.seltino was met by an _Enquirer_ reporter on a Wabash train the other day. His life has been one of adventure.

Previous to the war he graduated at Oxford, in Butler county, in the same cla.s.s with the gallant Joe Battle, who, with his brother, fell beside their father at s.h.i.+loh, while fighting under the flag of the Lost Cause. After graduating he went to Hamilton and read law with Judge Clark, who acquired some notoriety at Hamilton by his advocacy of the right of secession in 1860-61. When the war begun, Ha.s.seltino determined to risk his fortunes with the Confederacy. He started South under the pretext of escorting to her husband in Tennessee Mrs. Dallie, the wife of Adjutant Joe Battle, of the Sixth Tennessee. They pa.s.sed south from Louisville on the last train which left that city before the war, and arrived at Nashville. From there, young Ha.s.seltino went to Montgomery, Ala., then the Confederate capital, where he was appointed Major, and a little later Lieutenant-Colonel; and was ordered to Pensacola, Fla.

When that place fell into the hands of the National troops, he was captured; but within a day or two he made his escape. His next point of duty was at Fort McHenry, from whence he went to Louisville and bought for the Confederate troops a quant.i.ty of supplies, and succeeded in getting them safely within the Confederate lines. When General Grant was advancing upon Fort Donaldson, he went out as a spy, and spent most of three days with the Federals. Being recognized, he was ordered to be shot at nine o'clock in the evening, but in the rain and darkness made his escape, and reached the fort at daylight the next morning, drenched and almost frozen. Upon his report being heard, it was decided to evacuate the fort with most of the forces. From Island No. 10 he fell back to Memphis; and, believing that nothing would stay the victorious march of the Union arms, sent in his resignation, which was accepted.

"SECURING A Pa.s.s NORTH.

"When the Federals occupied Memphis he remained here, trusting to nerve and luck to get away. To his horror he learned the next day that Colonel Alexander, of the Forty-eighth Indiana, with whom he was at college, was made Provost Marshal of the post, and that no one could leave the city except on a pa.s.s issued by him. He had some knowledge of French, and had grown quite a beard since leaving school, and he determined to take the risk. Walking into the Colonel's room, with many shrugs and gesticulations he asked for a 'Permissio San Louie,' and urged it with such vehemence that the Colonel finally said to his a.s.sistant, 'Give the d--d Frenchman a pa.s.s to St. Louis.' While going up the river he was in constant dread of recognition, but fortunately did not meet a soul whom he knew. Hardly had he landed when he met a former school-mate and intimate friend from Hamilton, who was then a.s.sistant Engineer in the Navy. His friend knew that he had gone south, and accused him of being in St. Louis as a spy. This he denied, and then told him all the details of his adventures, and finally appealed to his friend for advice as to what he should do or where he should go, for he began to feel unsafe there. His friend advised him not to return to Hamilton, where he would be in certain danger; and finally suggested that he apply for an appointment as an a.s.sistant engineer in the navy. 'Why, I don't know a steam-engine from a horse-power,' was his answer. But his friend proposed to help him out, and provided him with a lot of books, which would teach him all the theory; and at them he went; and in six weeks he went before the Examining Board and pa.s.sed as a first a.s.sistant engineer, and was ordered to duty on the gunboat Ess.e.x, the flag-s.h.i.+p of Commodore Porter, who was in command of the Mississippi river flotilla. This was jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire. He knew nothing practically of the engine, thinking then, as he told his friend, that 'the pumping engine must be for the purpose of moving the vessel sidewise.' But luck was on his side. While lying in port, or before going to duty, he got a few talks with Commodore Porter, and succeeded in getting to the rank of Chief Engineer in the navy, and a.s.signed to duty on the staff of the Commodore. If those who read this will take the trouble to read the report of the Secretary of the Navy to Congress in 1864, they will find that that official transmitted to Congress that part of Commodore Porter's report which embraces a report of Chief Engineer Ha.s.seltino on the construction of iron-clad gunboats, and recommended the adoption of the report.

"INSPECTING GOVERNMENT IRON-CLADS.

"After the close of the ill-fated Red river campaign, Ha.s.seltino was ordered to St. Louis to inspect and superintend the construction of the iron-clads which were being built by McCord & Co. But just before leaving his vessel he had a quarrel with a fellow-officer, whom he challenged; but when the challenge was declined he opened on the other party with a battery of Derringers, fortunately missing the object of his aim.

"In 1865, he went to some European port and brought a blockade runner, the name of which I have forgotten. In the early part of 1866, he was mustered out of service and went to New Orleans, intending to go into business. In the July riots he was shot through the shoulder; and, thinking the climate unhealthy, went to St. Louis. Here he fell in with a representative of the government of Chili, and went to South America.

"In an attack on Callao--for Peru and Chili were at war--he fell into the hands of the Peruvians, and with his usual luck was sentenced to be shot. By bribing the guards, he succeeded in escaping and making his way on board of an English vessel, and was landed at Panama. Crossing the Isthmus to Aspinwall, he found a vessel ready to leave for New Orleans; and, though without money, managed to secure a pa.s.sage to that place.

"Without money he was naturally open for any adventure, and a representative of the Cuban rebellion was the first to offer him a chance. He sailed directly to Nuevitas, and before he had been in that port a week had fallen in love with a young Cuban widow, who, though childless, was possessed of an immense plantation. After the briefest possible courts.h.i.+p, they were married in the latter part of 1867 or early in 1868; within three months of the wedding she died from yellow fever; and before the end of the year her estate, which he had inherited, was confiscated, and he barely escaped with his life, landing in Florida in an open boat and in a half-starved condition, without friends or money. He managed to reach Indianapolis in July, 1869, when a naval acquaintance and friend, James n.o.ble, gave him an outfit of clothes and money sufficient to take him to Chicago. Here he determined to locate, and went to work to find business. He got an agency for the sale of coal, and soon had quite a start in the coal business. When the Chicago fire broke out, on that dreadful Sunday night, he was out on the lake boating with a party of friends. When he got back, the conflagration had swept his little coal pile, his office and sleeping room, and he was again left in the world without a change of clothes, and with less than five dollars in money. The third day of the fire he was found by Otto Ha.s.selman, of the Indianapolis _Journal_, who was on the ground with a corps of reporters; and by him sent to Indianapolis, where he was again furnished with an outfit and a ticket to St. Louis. Shortly after reaching that place he entered the service of the wholesale house of R. L. Billingsley & Co., and remained with them until a year ago, when he purchased a farm in Illinois."

January 16, 1866, I received a two month's "leave of absence," at the expiration of which I received the following discharge:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, NAVY DEPARTMENT.

The war for the preservation of the Union having, under the beneficent guidance of Almighty G.o.d, been brought to a successful termination, a reduction of the naval force becomes necessary.

Having served with fidelity in the United States Navy from the 22d day of March, 1864, to the present date, you are hereby honorably discharged with the thanks of the Department.

Given under my hand and seal, at the city of Was.h.i.+ngton, this 23d day of March, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.

GIDEON WELLES, Secretary of the Navy.

Acting a.s.sistant Surgeon, John M. Batten, U.S. Navy.

_Guthrieville, Pa._

THE END.