| pages 185-186
LETTER NO. CXI.
CAMP REED, JACKSON, TENNESSEE, February 27, 1863.
FRIEND RICH: Your most welcome Guardian of February 11th
reached us last evening, and, in looking over its well-filled columns, my eye
very naturally fell upon an article written as correspondence from our regiment,
headed as follows:
"HEADQUARTERS TWENTY-SEVENTH IOWA REGIMENT,
JACKSON, TENNESSEE, February 7, 1863.
"FRIEND RICH: There has just been received at these
headquarters an order -
He quotes the order, which is in regard to splitting some
rails, and then makes some astonishing remarks and assertions relative to Colo-
C. L. Dunham commanding the brigade. Now I have not troubled you with a line
since we left home; but there are a few statements in that article which ought
not to remain before the minds of our home friends unreplied to and
uncontradicted. The anonymous correspondent, after referring to the rain
and snow storm of January 14th and 15th, (and I fully appreciated it, for with
some fifty others I faced the very worst of it nearly two miles just after
daylight, without either supper or breakfast) makes the following impudent and
untruthful assertion:
"Nothing has been said by Colonel Cyrus Dunham, of the Fiftieth
Indiana, who was in command of this brigade, until to-day, when we received the
foregoing order." Now this brigade was organized January 11, 1863, and on the
very day that the regiments moved to this camp, was issued general order number
three, the first and fourth paragraphs of which are as follows:
"IT IS HEREBY ORDERED,
"First, That the commandants of regiments see that the
officers and men of their respective commands do not enter private dwellings
or yards, or in any way interfere with private property of any kind, either
while in camp or on the march.
Fourth, The commandants of regiments will be held strictly
responsible for the enforcement of this order.
By command of
C. L. DUNHAM," etc.
Previous to any trouble on account of interference with private
property, this order, dated January 12th was received at our headquarters, and
every order is read on dress-parade, so all must have known that taking any
private property without authority was expressly forbidden, and no permission in
this case was asked. Besides, oak wood was then in abundance within five rods of
our tents, and although green, was precisely the same kind which the commander
then and ever since has burnt, though without "rails." Some of the field
officers of the other regiments were sick, and kindly cared for at the house of
this Parkman, and their horses were under the shelter of his barn at the time.
He may be "secesh, "- I know not, nor care, for my present purpose. Only this I
know: he has permits from Generals Sullivan and Grant to pass our lines, and has
also a safeguard for his property from the commander of this post. It is thus
that we disregarded positive orders, and were liable for disobedience. These are
positive facts, and, must, so far as the orders are concerned, have been known
to the writer of that article, who surely can be no officer who expects his own
orders to be respected aud obeyed, or he would not thus purposely place before
the men his own utter disregard for discipline and disrespect for his superior
officers.
But it is doubted by this writer "what rule of warfare, or
order, or reason authorizes such a course. Did he not know that general order
number six from district headquarters forbid all taking of private property
without proper written authority? that General Grant has issued the same in
department general order number fifty-six? that the same is in order number one
hundred and seven from the War Department, based upon the fifty-second article
of war? that the colonel commanding was responsible for the enforcement of these
orders? Must he not also have known that the brigade was but just organized, and
if allowed to transgress orders with impunity it would greatly increase the
difficulty of enforcing afterwards? We all know that discipline is the nerve of
the army; without it, we have no power, no success. . . . Any one who knows me
will readily concede that no living man can well go beyond me in a readiness to
injure the rebels to the furthest possible extent, in any way authorized by
military usage. I would take their horses, cattle and hogs, fat or lean, "rails"
or "niggers," anything that would be of use to us for our comfort, advantage or
protection, or to weaken the treasonable foe; but let it he properly taken and
distributed.
But to cap the climax, the nameless writer presents our
commanding officer to your readers (our old friends are interested to some
extent in everything that interests us) as a person having no higher regard for
his duty, manhood and honor, than to be capable of granting protection to "secesh"
on account of a bribe received from a traitor! Probably no man, except the
aforesaid writer, would sooner level a man who dared approach him in that way
than this said Colonel Dunham. It will hardly do for the writer of that article,
who has yet to be tried by war's stern discipline, and of necessity has but
little military experience, to bring such implications and charges against one
who, during eighteen months of hard service, in caring for his own and other
regiments in camp, and before the hottest fire of the enemy, has earned and
maintained among all who know him a character and a reputation as a commanding
officer, and as a man, which we may all well strive to maintain. Surely these
charges must have been made in a heated moment, and a sober second thought would
have greatly changed the tenor of his communication. I have no special regard
for Colonel Dunham, know him only slightly, and more, he is an old Democrat, and
you know I never liked them very well. But, thank God, he is a fighting
Democrat! Heaven forgive, if possible, the Copperhead: posterity and history
never will.
The article will fall harmless here, and while I desire not to
rasp the feelings of any living person, yet I am unwilling that our friends
should be led to believe that we are commanded by a miserable, insignificant,
truckling base tool, when we have, in fact, an acting general whom we are all
proud to follow, and who is everywhere recognized as an excellent officer, a
man, and a patriot.
Ever yours,
W. G. DONNAN. |
