Merrick County, Nebraska - Chapter 5: Merrick County's Military History, 1898

Chapter 5: Merrick County's Military History

f EW counties in Nebraska, we presume, can boast of the same percentage of loyalty among its early settlers as can Merrick County. When the war broke out there were twelve men in the county who were liable to military' service, and of these seven faced the terrors of the battle field and honored the county from which they went. The story of their going and their fortune in war has, at our request, been furnished us by the first volunteer from the county, Mr. Frank Jewell, and we give it below in his own words, preceded by a few reminiscences which, while hardly bearing upon the subject in hand, we would not feel justified in omitting. Mr. Jewell's story is as follows:

At the beginning of the civil war there were residing in the territory at present known as Merrick County perhaps a dozen men who were subject to military duty and capable of bearing arms in their country's defense - that is, one dozen men between the ages of 18 and 45 years. Besides these, of course there were a good many boys under that age and some men too far advanced in years to be called to the defence of their flag. Out of the above number seven enlisted and served their country from the beginning to the end of the war, and all came through safely; and the writer of these lines knows of but one of them who has as yet crossed over to the other side of the dark river. Now in studying the history of our country in our boyhood days there would have been a link lacking if we could not have had a picture of the minute men firing on the red coats at Concord, or old Israel Putnam sliding down those impassable rocky cliffs upon his rearing charger. So, too, we think there would be something lacking from the history of Merrick County with¬ out a reference to its loyalty to the old flag in the days that "tried men's souls'* - and constitutions, also. It would be somewhat like the tragedy of Hamlet with the ghost left out. If in placing these few items before your readers I should become absent minded or reminiscent the old vets of the county are at liberty to accuse me of adopting their old method, used in a "pinch,** of "swapping lies.*'

October, i860, when, with a train of some fifteen or twenty wagons, we came winding over the hills from Omaha upon the military trail, and came in sight of the valley at the old Elk Horn ranch, just a little before sunset. The atmosphere was so clear that we could plainly see thu trees on the Platte river at North Bend, 35 miles away , r and nothing to intervene except a few houses at Fremont - perhaps half a dozen in all. That was a sight to enthuse the boy of eighteen who had since his thirteenth year been blessed mostly with hard knocks and the privilege of taking care of himself. There he saw thousands of acres waiting for the plow, with no one to object and nothing to pay. So you cannot blame him if he was a little enthusiastic and pulled out in the morning with a heart full of hope for brighter days in the future. Arriving at the old ranch conducted by Uncle Jason Parker on Oct. 20th, i860, we met the first familiar face after a trip of about 500 miles, and at once took the course advised by a great statesman of later days ami proceeded to "grow up with the country." Many things that would be strange and new to the people of the present time were seen in those days. I remember, for instance, the signs used at the most of the ranches - a piece of cracker box cover nailed to a cedar stake and ornamented with the following in lamp-black or red chalk:

And Whiskey

Now this is not as comic or unique a sign as can be gotten up by our promoter of advertising in Central City, but is at least suggestive. It starts out with the staff

Another peculiar nuisance in Carly ranch life was the habit all pilgrims going in either direction had of asking so many questions. This resulted in the manu¬ facture of another sign by the irrepressible Cyrus Parker, a youth at the ranch. To relieve the boys of spending so much useless breath he elaborated from his fertile mind the following and posted it on another board:

The latter part of which came near getting him a warm jacket from good Uncle Jason, and had to be rubbed out. The telegraph office needs a little explanation. At that time the Overland T. line had a station at Columbus and another at Johnson, on Wood river about 40 miles west of Parker's Ranch, and for the purpose of repairing in case of accidents they had at Parker's what was called a "testing office," to find any breaks in the wire. This office was in a little box with the wire parted and each end covered by a brass plate, with a third plate to button across from one to the other to form the circuit, and a ground wire within reach. The test was made by placing a damp finger on one of the plates, after parting them, and touching the end of the ground wire to the tongue. If hot it was all O. K., but if cold someone had to go out and mend the wdre - a trip of 20 miles and back. If the line was broken beyond our beat w'e could signal the opposite station - Columbus or Wood River - by parting the wire and tapping the brass plates with the metal key, this sound being conveyed by wire to the other station. This was -in after years a reminder to the writer of the many lost opportunities of youth, for if we had only had brains enough at that time to have attached a hello tube to the plate and talked through it, instead of using the metal key to convey the sound, we might have been millionaires and the world would have had no need of Edison.

But I am wandering from my text and will have to get back to business. Along in the spring of 1861 a change came over the spirit of our dreams. The news of the firing upon Ft. Sumter was slowly wafied out over the plains per the Western Stage Co. to Columbus, and thence to the ranch per mule team loaded with usual amount of provisions and whiskey for the far west people. But the driver claimed that a S. C. was better than six yankees and we concluded that he must have been a'good customer of his own merchandise.

The final result was that three of us boys pulled out for the Missouri river with three yoke of oxen and two wagons, and a few weeks' work in Iowa in the harvest field, with the boys passing by to enlist at Council Bluffs, was enough to remind the writer, at least, that it was his duty to go and hunt for that brave S. C. and take his share of the grief as foretold by the western mule driver. So upon the 7th day of August, 1861, he took the usual oath to serve our Uncle Sam for three years or during the war and was followed in close succession by the other six, whose record, so far as I can recall it to mind, is about as follows:

Frank Jewell. - Enlisted August 7th, 1861, in Dodge's Battery Light Artillery, afterwards known as the 2nd., Iowra Independent Battery. Discharged August 8th, 1865, having served two enlistments.

The battle flag of the 2nd Iowa Battery, now in the State House at Des Moines, Iowa, if I remember rightly, bears the following inscription, and these two Merrick County boys had a hand in the whole business: "New Madrid, Farmington, Apr. 14 a*jd 22, Corinth Siege, Iuka, Corinth Oct. 3rd and 4th, Jackson 1st, Vicksburg, May 22nd, and Siege Jackson 2nd, Tallahatchie, Hurricane Creek, Tupello, Nash¬ ville, Spanish Fort."

Ed Parker. - Enlisted about December or January 1st, 1862, in 15th Iowa Infantry. Served also in 9th Kansas Cavalry, of which he was 2nd Lieutenant when discharged in July, 1865.

Joseph Whaley. - Enlisted about Janaury 1st, 1861, in 15th Iowa Infantry; re-enlisted in the same and followed Sherman to the sea; was in all the racket seen by Crocker's Brigade and came out at the end of the war with no damage except that made by one small bullet which he caught in his foot at Shiloh-

Charley Hartley (The boy spoken of already in this history as wanting to hurt an Indian). - Enlisted in the summer of 1862 in the 22nd Iowa Infantry and took his place as corporal on the color guard. Any one reading the history of the charge at Vicksburg on May 22nd, 1863, can form some idea of what he was doing at that time, as that regiment crossed the works and was driven out three times, the color company losing sixteen men out of thirty-two, all killed or wounded, and the color guard bringing the flag out safely. Afterwards the same boy from Merrick county put on a shoulder strap with two bars on it, and skipped all the grades of promotion from corporal to captain in his company. This must have atoned somewhat for his not l>eing allowed to hurt a poor Indian. Speaking about "grit," he was not much lacking in the moral kind - A singular sample of a strict temperance boy on the plains. When his commission arrived the colonel got it and called up all the line and staff officers to his tent and sent the orderly for Hartley. He reported at the tent and found all sitting around the table dis¬ cussing a full basket of champagne. "Now, Captain Hartley," said the colonel, handing him a paper, "here is your commission, and according to general usage it will be necessary for you to 'wet it'." Charley took the paper, and looking the colonel squarely in the eye replied, "Colonel, if for me to hold this commission it is necessary that I drink whiskey and make a hog of myself, then you can keep the paper - I don't want it," and left the tent. But he led his company to the end of the war; so I think he must have been close by his colors at all times.

Henry C. Martin. - First enlisted with 3rd Colorado Infantry on the 22nd of May, 1861, but failing to obtain enough men this was consolidated with the 1st Colorado Cavalry. Was then detailed under Gen. Auger as assistant provost mar¬ shal. Served in all a little over three years and four mouths. Through a mistake of the enlisting officer his name was entered as Wm. C. Martin, and to this name is credited his entire military record.

We consider that Merrick County was as loyal to her country as any county in the United States, sending seven volunteers out of twelve residents subject to military duty. Their terms of enlistment aggregate twenty-five years' service. It is true no one of th^m ever laid down his life for his country; no one of them wears an empty sleeve or a patent leg; such honor was not theirs to achieve. But if our Uncle Sam could have been consulted about the matter in the latter part of the year 1863, I think he would have said that there was more good, genuine cash valhe in seven case-hardened, acclimated and well disciplined old vets than there could be in the same number of dead heroes.