5

The Civil War is no part of the history of Vandemark Township; and I had small part in the Civil War.  But one thing that took place on the field of Shiloh does belong in this history.  Most of the members of my company enlisted in October, 1861, but we did not get to the front until the very day of the Battle of Shiloh.  I was in one of the two regiments whose part in the battle has caused so much controversy.  I gave Senator Cummins an affidavit about it only the other day to settle something about a monument on the field.

We came up the Tennessee River the night of the day before the battle, and landed at Pittsburgh Landing at daybreak of the first day’s fight.  We had not had our guns issued to us yet.  Some have thought it a little hard on us to be shoved into a great battle without ever having loaded or fired our muskets.  When we were landed the guns were issued to my company, and we were given about half an hour’s instruction in the way they were worked.  Of course most of us had done shooting, and were a little better than green hands; but Will Lockwood during the fight loaded his gun until it was full of unfired loads, and forgot to put a cap on.  Then he discovered his mistake, and put on a cap, and would have blown off his own head by firing all the stuff out at once, when Captain Gowdy saw what he was doing and snatched the gun away from him calling him a damned fool, and broke the stock off the musket on the ground.  There were plenty of guns for Will to select from by that time which were not in use, so he picked up another and made a new start; but not for long.

After the guns were issued to us, we stood there on the bank, and lounged about on the landing, waiting for the issue of cartridges.  An orderly came to me with Magnus following him, and gave me the captain’s order to report to him in the cabin of the transport which lay tied up at the river bank.  We looked at each other in wonder, but followed the orderly into the cabin, where we stood at attention.  The captain returned our salutes, dismissed the orderly, and after his footsteps had gone out of hearing, turned to us.

“Thorkelson and Vandemark,” said he, “I have a few words to say to you.  I don’t find anything in the books covering the case, and am speaking as man to man.”

“Yes, sir,” said I.

“Ay hare,” said Magnus.

“Thorkelson,” Gowdy went on, “you have had an ambition to put an end to me.  Well, now’s your chance, or will be when we get out there where the shooting is going on.  You’ve had a poor chance to practise marksmanship; but maybe you can shoot well enough to hit a man of my size from the rear—­for my men will be to the rear of me in a fight”

He stopped and looked straight in Magnus’s eyes; and Magnus stared straight back.  At last, Gowdy’s eyes swept around toward me, and then back again.

“Well,” said he, “what do you and your friend say?  The bond to keep the peace doesn’t run in Tennessee.”