Produced by Karin Spence and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
COMPLIMENTS OF THE AUTHOR TO
[Illustration: Anson Mills]
[Illustration: Hannah Cassel Mills]
MY STORY
BY
ANSON MILLS
BRIGADIER GENERAL, U. S. A.
EDITED BY C. H. CLAUDY
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR
1918
PRESS OF BYRON S. ADAMS
WASHINGTON, D. C.
COPYRIGHT 1918
BY ANSON MILLS, BRIG.-GEN. U. S. A.
CONTENTS
FIRST PERIOD
PAGE
My Ancestors 25
Privations of the Early Pioneers 31
Charlotteville Academy 37
West Point Military Academy 41
Early Days in Texas 48
El Paso Experiences 51
In Washington 64
My Brothers in Texas 69
SECOND PERIOD
Four Years of Civil War 78
After the War 102
Marriage 114
THIRD PERIOD
Travels West and East 123
Nannie's Impressions of the West 135
Western Experiences 152
Detail to Paris Exposition 177
Out West Again 186
Brevet Commissions in the Army 209
In Washington Again 213
Consolidation of the El Paso and Juarez Street Railways 251
The Reformation of El Paso 253
Mexico 258
Equitable Distribution of the Waters of the Rio Grande 263
Boundary Commission 281
Woman's Suffrage 307
Prohibition 310
Trip to Europe with General Miles 312
My Cartridge Belt Equipment 314
The League to Enforce Peace 332
Trial by Combat 341
Personal Trial by Combat 341
National Trial by Combat 349
Honolulu 355
Conclusion 357
APPENDICES
The Organization and Administration of the United States Army 361
Address before the Society of the Army of the Cumberland 382
Address before the Order of Indian Wars, on "The Battle of the
Rosebud" 394
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Anson and Nannie, day before marriage 117
Anson, day before marriage, with "Big Four" Cassel girls 117
Banco de Santa Margarita 290, 291
Batchelder, Frank R. 254
Bisbee, Brigadier General William H. 101
Blanco, Jacobo 279
Bridger, Jim 154
Burckhalter, Marietta 29
Burges, Richard F. 295
Cannon, Speaker Joseph 235
Cartridge Belt Equipment 315, 316, 319, 320, 323, 324, 327, 328
Caldwell, Menger 241
Caldwell, Sally 241
Cassel, Mr. and Mrs., with "Auntie" 120
Chamizal Arbitration Commission 296
Clark, Speaker Champ 234
Cleveland, President Grover 226
Cody, W. F. (Buffalo Bill) 154
Commanding Officer's quarters at Ft. Grant 196
Dennis, William C. 295
Dewey, Admiral George 236
Duelling pistols 340
Fairbanks, Vice-President Charles W. 250
Father and son at fifty-eight and thirteen years 205
Follett, W. W. 274
Freeman, Brigadier General H. B. 101
Granddaughters, Nancy, Constance and Mabel 240
Happer, John A. 254
Hazlett, Captain Charles E. 67
Hoar, Senator George F. 228
Horcon cut-off 288, 289
Joint Boundarv Commission 280
Keblinger, W. Wilbur 254
Kelly, Dora Miller 241
Kline, Kathleen Cassel 244
Little Anson at five, and Constance at two years 187
Little Anson at seventeen months and twelve years 218
Little Anson's company at Ft. Grant 194
McKinley, President William 227
Map of El Paso 56, 57
Map, Showing the Principal Engagements, Sioux War 399
Map, Battle of the Rosebud 403
Martin, Captain Carl Anson 244
Martin, Caroline Mills 29
Miles, General Nelson A. 12
Miller, Martin V. B. 241
Mills, Allen 28
Mills, Anson 2
Mills, Emmett 28
Mills, Hannah Cassel 3
Mills, James P. 29
Mills, W. W. 28
Mills Building, El Paso 247
Mills Building, Washington, D. C. 246
Mills Memorial Fountain, Thorntown, Indiana 242
Moral Suasion Horse at Fort Bridger 110
My abandoned birthplace 39
My family and Commanding Officer's quarters at Ft. Thomas 191
My father and his daughters 29
Myself with brothers 28
Nannie and Constance at Ft. Grant 202
Nannie's family Bible inscription 185
Nannie's residence at Gloucester (Bayberry Ledge) 248
Nannie's travels (graphic map) 216, 217
Nannie 215
Nettleton, Colonel E. S. 274
No Flesh (Brulé Chief) 159
No Flesh Battle Picture 160, 161
Orndorff, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas C. 330
Our sitting room at Ft. Grant 198
Our residence in Washington 224
Overton (Captain) with Nancy 239
Overton, Constance Mills 239
Picnic at Ft. Thomas 192
Powell, Major James W. 274
Puga, F. Beltran y 279
Robertson, Jack 154
Root, Senator Elihu 229
Scales and Armor 88
Schley, Admiral Winfield Scott 237
Shepherd, Brigadier General O. L. 101
Smiley, Eliza Jane 29
Spotted Tail (Brulé Chief) 159
Steedman, Major General James B. 101
Stevens, Horace B. 254
Street in El Paso, 1870 188
Summer Camp on Graham Mountain 201
Tepee and capturing officers at Slim Buttes 110
Wilson, Brigadier General John M. (classmate) 249
[Illustration:
_To General Anson Mills
from his friend
Nelson A. Miles_
_Lieut-General U. S. Army_
]
PREFACE
WASHINGTON, D. C., December 12, 1917.
The record of important events in human affairs as they are placed
upon the pages of history and drift into the shadows of the past,
should be recorded with sacred fidelity. The historian who places
accurate and important knowledge at the disposal of the present and
future students and writers is a public benefactor for those not only
of his own time, but for the generations that shall follow.
The achievements and failures, the evils and blessings, the
benevolence and the injustice, the rights and wrongs, the ambitions,
wisdom and intelligence, the happiness and nobility, as well as the
distress and sacrifice of a race or people rightly recorded, forms an
invaluable guide and chart for the innumerable throng that occupy the
field of activities and in their turn pass on to be replaced by others.
Doubly fortunate is the one who takes an important and distinguished
part in the important events of his time, and then can write an
account of those events for the instruction and benefit of others. It
is doubtful if any epoch in history was more important or freighted
with more difficult or greater problems to be solved than those
presented during the time just preceding, during and subsequent to our
great Civil War.
The great Republic formed after seven years of valor and sacrifice
from thirteen weak and scattered colonies, had, through several
decades of unprecedented development and prosperity, become a most
powerful homogeneous nation. In its creation and progress, there was
left one element of discord; one vexed question remained unsettled
that threatened to dismember the government, destroy the federation
and seriously embarrass our advance toward a higher civilization. When
reason became dethroned, logic and argument failed, the problem had to
be settled by the dread arbitrament of war.
The young men, the very flower of our national manhood, were required
to decide that great problem. For the very important duties of
citizenship and soldier, the distinguished author of this volume was
well equipped for the important duties of that time and to render
important service for his government and the people of our country.
Descending from the best of ancestral stock, born and reared in what
was known as the Great Middle West, in an atmosphere of national
independence, a region of our country where we find the highest type
of our American civilization, he grew to manhood under the most
favored auspices. Educated at excellent schools and institutions of
learning, his mind became well stored with useful knowledge concerning
his own country and the world. He then went to that famous military
academy, West Point, where he acquired a thorough military training
and those manly attributes for which the institution is noted.
His mind naturally sought wider fields of usefulness, and when he
resigned, he became identified with that marvelous civil development
that has transformed a vast wilderness and mountain waste into
productive communities and States.
As a civil engineer, he was most useful and successful. When the great
crisis came, he was found true and steadfast in his allegiance to the
national welfare amid chaos, doubt and uncertainty. His loyalty was
invaluable, his patriotism sublime; among the first to volunteer, his
record was most commendable and praiseworthy, ever present in every
campaign and battle in which his company or regiment was engaged. Four
times breveted for distinguished conduct in battle, he fought for a
principle, and had the satisfaction of witnessing its final triumph,
and its universal approval by the civilized world.
In that "war for civilization" on our western frontier, he again
rendered distinguished service, not only by his conspicuous gallantry
in action against Indians, but by his skill and genius as a commander
in achieving success and victory where there was little prospect of
winning either. In a campaign where success depends entirely upon the
ability of the commander, there he succeeded.
During a long life of civil and military achievements, he was blessed
by the companionship of one of the most estimable, accomplished and
noblest of women, whose gentle influence was refining, whose presence
was inspiring, and whose counsel was most encouraging and beneficial.
A successful life, rich with noble designs and good deeds, General
Mills has contributed a favor in giving to the readers, the result of
his experiences and observations.
These pages are commended to the public with the full knowledge of the
fact that they are written for no selfish purpose, but for the highest
and best of motives.
[Illustration:
_Nelson A. Miles_
_Lieutenant General, U. S. Army._
]
BAYBERRY LEDGE,
EAST GLOUCESTER, MASS.,
August 31, 1917.
MY DEAR DAUGHTER CONSTANCE:
After retiring from the line of the army, some twenty years
ago, I had no further military duty before me save that of
Commissioner on the Boundary Commission between the United
States and Mexico, which I believed would occupy but a short
time. Your mother and I had permanently located in Washington.
We believed our lives had been so varied--mingling with so many
races during so many vicissitudes and trials--that it would be
interesting to you and your children for me, assisted by her, to
write of our careers. Of this intention we told you in a letter
dated January 1, 1898, that you might help us in such parts of
the story as you were old enough to remember, although this was
but a small part of our long career, you coming to us when we
were middle-aged.
But the duties of the Boundary Commission became so arduous,
and my business increased so as to keep me strenuously occupied
until two years ago. And now, just as I find time for these
reminiscences, the greatest sorrow of my life has come upon
you and me--the loss of your mother. This shock has been so
appalling that it shook my resolution to attempt the task
without her, who had been the inspiration and chief factor in
my life. Before giving up the plan, however, I submitted it to
friends who had been nearest to us during our married life,
and asked their advice. They all think I should not abandon my
first intention of writing my life and career, in which my wife
took so large a part. I record here my letter to Mrs. Albert
S. Burleson and her answer, which is typical of the rest. I
have selected her letter for publication because of its womanly
sentiment, and because the marital life of General Burleson,
my friend for a generation, has been not unlike my own. These
letters are as follows:
EASTERN POINT,
GLOUCESTER, MASS.,
May 31, 1917.
MY DEAR MRS. BURLESON:
We, Constance and I, want to thank you and General Burleson for
your card of sympathy.
Twenty years ago, after retirement, I had in mind to write
a reminiscence of my career, but the boundary duties and my
Worcester business so occupied my time that I was unable even
to begin it. Now that Nannie has gone, I reflect that she has
been the inspiration of whatever success I have had in life for
nearly forty-nine years, so that it seems to me that whatever
I do in that line should be devoted to her more than to me. I
have, therefore, about concluded to write something in memory
of her, and I am considering just how to do this. She was so
serene, so unassuming, and so devoutly thankful to the Great
Creator and her forebears for her rich endowments that she
had no incentive to display them, but was always, before all,
the same radiantly beautiful, graceful, modest woman, whose
sparkling eyes and responsive facial expression foretold her
charity for all and malice toward none, that I can not do her
too much honor. From my viewpoint, women have as much right to
be remembered for their work in this world as men. Certainly she
had.
It is difficult to write on such a subject, especially so soon
after my great loss, but, as I have but a brief period in which
to accomplish what I think I ought to do, I want to ask your
judgment as to how I should proceed.
Yours very truly,
ANSON MILLS.
MRS. ALBERT S. BURLESON,
1901 F Street, Washington, D. C.
1901 F Street,
June 5, 1917.
DEAR GENERAL MILLS:
I believe it would grieve your wife--could she know--to have
you put aside something you had planned through so many years
to do. Doubtless you frequently discussed the undertaking with
her--perhaps her interest in it was even greater than yours.
And any reminiscence of your life would necessarily include her
life--your life together. In the preparation of such a book
she would continue to be your inspiration, and that thought
alone would give color and strength to all you wrote. From the
viewpoint of a devoted, understanding wife myself, I feel deeply
that her husband's life history would be the most pleasing of
all memorials to her; for surely her memory is perpetuated in
your life.
I should be glad to have you write to me again, and if it is
not painful to you, to come sometime to see us. You must know
that all that concerns you and your wife, whom we too knew as a
"radiantly beautiful, graceful and modest woman," concerns us.
With high regard and good wishes that time will bring peace to
your wounded heart, believe me,
Faithfully yours,
ADELE S. BURLESON.
I have two objects in undertaking this work:
_First._ That I may leave to you, your children, and their
descendants, some evidence of who and what their forebears were.
_Second._ To give our collateral relatives something that may
interest and possibly encourage them.
As far as practicable, I shall tell the story chronologically,
dividing the narrative into three periods: first, my childhood,
and up to the time of the Civil War, when I was commissioned in
the army; second, the period of the Civil War up to my marriage;
and, third--by far the most important--our history as man and
wife for nearly forty-nine years.
It may be my narrative runs too much to sentiment--but there is
sentiment in our Flag; in the Declaration of Independence; in
the Constitution--but we can not make them commercial assets. It
was sentiment that caused the armies of the "Blue and the Gray"
to amaze the world with the most sanguinary and chivalrous war
ever waged during all the tide of time; and it was sentiment
that in a few years brought these foes together as one
harmonious people. The want of sentiment caused the Goths and
Vandals to degenerate into what their name now implies. The same
may be said of the Hessians of our War for Independence. The
want of sentiment required 300,000 British soldiers, and half as
many American mules, three years to overcome 40,000 Boers imbued
with sentiment, which brought peace without vainglorious victory.
ANSON MILLS.
* * * * *
I am appending at the end of this book three papers which Mrs. Mills
assisted me in preparing, as follows:
"Organization and Administration of the Army;" "Address to the Society
of the Army of the Cumberland;" "Address to the Order of Indian Wars."
FOREWORD
I am eighty-three years old, having lived two-thirds of the
constitutional life of this great Republic, which I believe the
greatest institution for self-government ever devised.
Counting service as a cadet, in the line of the army proper, and as a
Boundary Commissioner, I have served fifty-four years, nine months and
four days in the United States Army; longer, I believe, than any other
officer.
Mrs. Mills and I often congratulated ourselves that we lived in this
nation and generation. In no other could we have seen and enjoyed so
much, conducive to the belief that mankind was rapidly advancing to
the greatest possible perfection.
Of the four greatest scourges, war, pestilence, famine and flood, we
have seen the three latter almost entirely eradicated.
Only the scourge of war, the most cruel, barbarous and destructive of
all, is left uncontrolled and unhampered, although there is hope this
may soon be so restrained that it will be no longer a menace.
We have seen the nation develop from twenty millions to over one
hundred millions of the most civilized, righteous and just people. We
have seen it become foremost in the sciences, arts and industries. We
have seen sixty per cent of hand labor transferred to machinery; we
have watched railroad and steamboat transportation develop from their
infancy; we watched the birth of electric light and power; we have
seen the bicycle, motorcycle, automobile, sewing machine, knitting
machine, typewriter, telegraph and its wireless associate, telephone,
dirigible balloon, aeroplane, undersea boat, washing machine, power
printing press, linotype, and hundreds of other inventions developed
to their present perfection.
We have had a part in the pride that most of these betterments were
brought about by the study, energy and ability of Americans, who, by
reason of their superior inventive genius, excelled the rest of the
world in manufacture.
We, too, tried to invent and discover. If we constantly combated what
we believed to be error, ignorance, inertia, and non-progressiveness,
it was because we tried to lead those believing, as we did, that their
souls should lend the best in them to pave the way for those coming
after.
As the spirit, impulse and efforts of the two characters portrayed
in these reminiscences have been those of reformers striving for
the advancement of their fellow men, it is probable that a free
criticism of errors and wrongs will incite a suspicion that they
are relating grievances. Therefore, I ask the reader to distinguish
between vindictiveness and vindication. What I here record is not
a relation of grievances, but an endeavor to explain to those who
have the courage to follow our line of life, the antagonisms we met.
For those who are willing to live a commonplace life, it is perhaps
better to observe the opinions and customs of neighbors and those in
authority, but for others it is sometimes wise courageously to defy
and disobey injurious and useless commands. Such actions often injure
the reputation of the reformer for a time, but eventually they will
distinguish him above the large number of his fellows:
"... _who yearly creep
Into the world to eat and sleep,
And know no reason why they are born,
Save to consume the wine and corn,
Devour the cattle, fowl and fish,
And leave behind an empty dish_."
FIRST PERIOD
MY ANCESTORS
I was born near Thorntown, Indiana, August 21, 1834.
My father, James P. Mills, third child of James Mills 2nd and Marian
Mills, was born in York, Pennsylvania, August 22, 1808. His father,
James Mills 2nd, was born October 1, 1770, and died December 3, 1808.
My father's mother died in 1816, leaving him an orphan at the age of
eight. He lived with his Aunt Margery Mills Hayes for about two years,
when he was "bound out" as an apprentice to a tanner by the name of
Greenwalt, at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Here he was to serve until
twenty-one, when he was to receive one hundred dollars and a suit of
clothes. All the knowledge that he had of books was derived from night
school, Greenwalt not permitting him to attend during the day. His
apprenticeship was so hard he ran away when twenty, forfeiting the
hundred dollars and the clothes.
His only patrimony was from his grandfather, James Mills I, who, as
father told me, sent for him on his deathbed and, patting him on the
head, said: "I want Jimmy to have fifty pounds."
After running away, my father went to Geneva, New York, and served
as a journeyman until twenty-two. With his inheritance of $250, he
and his brother Frank started West in a Dearborn wagon, crossing the
Alleghenies. He traveled to Crawfordsville, Indiana, and here, about
1830, entered eighty acres of the farm on which I was born. The land
was covered with walnut, oak and ash, many of the trees being one
hundred feet high and three or four feet in diameter. Felling and
burning the trees, he built his house with his own hands, neighbors
aiding in raising the walls.
My father had little knowledge of his ancestors, other than that they
were Quakers, but, by correspondence with officials of counties where
his ancestors lived, I have learned that the first of his family came
over with William Penn and settled in Philadelphia.
My father married Sarah Kenworthy, on November 22, 1832. My mother
was born December 30, 1810, at Coshocton, Coshocton County, Ohio, and
died on the farm September 4, 1849 (before the daguerreotype, hence
I have no picture of her). The Kenworthy family had only recently
emerged from Quakerdom, and were known as "Hickory Quakers," so I am
of Quaker descent through both my parents. My mother's father, William
Kenworthy, born January 22, 1780 (presumably in Guilford County, North
Carolina), lived about a mile and a half from our place, and died at
Thorntown, August 31, 1854. In North Carolina he married Lucretia,
the third child of my great grandmother, whose maiden name was Lydia
Stroud, and who was born in 1765, near Guilford Court House, Guilford
County, N. C. She married Jacob Skeen, and had eight children:
Abraham, Mary, Lucretia, Jacob, Clarissa, John, Sarah and Lydia.
Her second child, my mother's Aunt Mary (Polly), married Benjamin
Hopkins, whose death left her with four children in indigent
circumstances. With her two daughters, Betty and Lydia, she lived in
a small cabin almost in sight of my mother's house. Later these two
girls came to live with my mother, picking, carding, spinning and
weaving wool into Kentucky jeans and linsey-woolsey, which they made
into garments for the family.
My first useful labor, when I was perhaps seven or eight years old,
was to "hand in" the warp, thread by thread, to these girls as they
passed it through the reed and harness of the loom. The knowledge
I thus acquired of warp and woof laid the foundation of my future
financial success.
About 1844 my great grandmother Stroud came to live with us. I
remember well the stories she told me of the outrages of Lord Rawdon's
troops when he invaded North Carolina with the Hessians and destroyed
her father's property. Her father was once arrested for secreting a
neighbor rebel in a sack of wool under the bed, discovered by the
Hessians sticking their bayonets into the wool and wounding the
rebel. They placed a rope around her father's neck and were taking
him out to hang him, when he was rescued by the sudden arrival of some
of Generals Lee and Sumter's soldiers. She described, too, her visit
to the battle-field of the Cowpens near her father's plantation, to
care for the wounded, and told of her three brothers who served in
the Revolutionary Army, one of them being killed. She was so vehement
in her denunciation of the English and Hessian soldiers that, all my
life, I have been intensely prejudiced against the English.
Later she left our house to live with her youngest daughter, Lydia
(Mrs. John Frazier), and died there in 1847, aged eighty-two.
Like my father, my mother had small patrimony, only two hundred
dollars, which her father gave her in lieu of the one hundred and
sixty acres he gave each of her brothers. Like him, she never attended
school. In Coshocton, Ohio, by an unwritten law, no girls were
permitted to enter the school house during sessions, so her knowledge
of letters was gained through instruction by her parents and brothers.
But, if lacking in schooling, both my parents had the greatest of all
endowments--strong hands, clear heads and brave hearts, with which to
enter their life struggle for existence.
They had nine children: Anson, William W., Marietta, Eliza Jane,
Emmett, Allen, John, Caroline and Thomas Edwin, seven of whom grew to
maturity. (Cuts, 28, 29.)
Thorntown had been a partially civilized Pottawottomi village under
French Jesuit control, the seat of their reservation, where corn and
other products were cultivated. When their reservation was opened
to settlement, the Indians moved to Kansas. The birds carried the
hawthorn seed and deposited it on the freshly plowed furrows of the
farm land the Indians abandoned, which resulted in a beautiful orchard
of hawthorn. Hence the name, Thorntown.
Grandfather Kenworthy purchased a good portion of these fields,
including the old Indian burying-ground. He built a store and employed
two six-mule teams to carry supplies from Cincinnati. One day, when
Grandfather was plowing near this graveyard, a number of chiefs in
war-paint came to his house.
[Illustration:
ANSON MILLS.
W. W. MILLS.
EMMETT MILLS.
ALLEN MILLS.
MYSELF WITH BROTHERS. (TEXT, 27.)]
[Illustration:
JAMES P. MILLS.
MARIETTA BURCKHALTER.
ELIZA JANE SMILEY.
CAROLINE MILLS MARTIN.
MY FATHER AND HIS DAUGHTERS. (TEXT, 27.)]
After the Indians had smoked awhile, one of them drew a long knife,
faced Grandfather and, pointing toward the graveyard, said:
"Kinwot, bimeby you gee-haw; gee-haw cut my brudder!"
Grandfather replied: "No, I will never plow the land under which your
dead are buried," and it is today preserved as a graveyard.
Subsequent experiences with Indians led me to realize more than before
the seriousness of this interview.
PRIVATIONS OF THE EARLY PIONEERS
My early life was primitive. For instance, there were no machine-made
nails in this country. All nails were made by the village blacksmith
from nail rods, and I often watched him while he wrought those I was
sent to buy. All pins and needles were imported from England, and none
of the pins had solid heads. They had wire-wound heads brazed upon the
stems.
There were no shoe factories in the country, and no shoe stores in the
villages. We were shod by itinerant cobblers, who made their lasts
and pegs from maple wood from our wood pile. There were no rights or
lefts, but each child had his own last. We children were so curious to
handle the cobbler's tools that father authorized him to draw a chalk
line around the corner where he worked, and use the knee strap, with
which he held the shoe while pegging, to chastise us if we crossed it!
Farmers made their own brooms and axe helves from young hickory trees.
We raised the wool and flax required for our clothing, all of which
my mother spun, wove and fashioned, as did all other housewives.
Stockings and mittens were all knit by hand; there were no knitting
machines, sewing machines or cooking stoves. Practically everything
necessary for existence was raised or made on the farms, save coffee,
spices, tableware, hardware, glass and cutlery, which came from abroad
and up the Mississippi by boat. Our nearest market was Cincinnati--two
hundred miles away over rough and at times impassable roads.
There was then no Federal currency. Commerce was carried on with
Spanish coin, and legal contracts were liquidated in "Spanish milled
dollars." There were no postage stamps. Postmasters collected from
writer or recipient ten cents for letters east of the Rocky Mountains
and twenty-five cents for letters sent elsewhere. There were no
envelopes. Letter paper had the fourth page unruled and was folded
into an envelope, leaving the unruled page for the address. They were
sealed with wax wafers.
There were no matches in general use. A Kentucky flint-lock rifle
hung over the mantel, and this, with powder in the pan, was used to
start fires by flashing the powder against tow or fine shavings. All
farmers' boys became experts with these Kentucky rifles. Squirrels
were so numerous that when the corn was maturing they would ruin three
or four rows of corn next the fence. Partly to procure fresh meat
and partly to protect the corn, it was our business to destroy these
squirrels. I remember one Saturday I killed over sixty squirrels.
Carpenters learned their trade by five years' unpaid apprenticeship. A
carpenter's chest of tools cost one hundred and twenty-five dollars,
and contained approximately one hundred implements.
My father provided me with a carpenter's bench and tools and, without
serving an apprenticeship, I became an expert carpenter, repairing
farm tools and making furniture, as well as toys for the children. I
was put to work "dropping corn" when not over eight years old and,
later, hoeing and cultivating, as were all the children of my time.
We were healthy and strong. Few children wore glasses and few had bad
teeth.
I first went to school about 1840, when I was six. The school was a
log house with a puncheon floor. Benches for the smaller scholars
were saw-mill slabs, with four legs, without backs. The older boys
had their bench facing the wall, with a broad plank on which to write
fastened on pins in the logs.
School teachers, employed by the farmers, "boarded around" for a week
or two at a time with the parents. These schoolmasters were almost
invariably Irish, and governed entirely by fear, punishing cruelly. Of
course, the children became stupid, uninterested, and learned slowly.
We were made to sit on the bench eight hours a day, holding a book in
our hands, whether studying or not. Hearing of the New England method
of "moral suasion," my father interested his neighbors and succeeded
in engaging as teacher a young man from New Hampshire.
He, Charlie Naylor, told us that he had come from afar, where the
teachers tried to avoid corporal punishment, and that, unless it was
absolutely forced upon him, he would never whip us. He was brilliant,
active and industrious, and soon won the love of his sixty scholars.
Many settlers were from Kentucky, where they compelled the teacher to
"treat" on Christmas. If he refused, they tied him hand and foot, took
him to the river and immersed him under the ice until he consented to
supply them with apples, candy and cider. Naylor's predecessor had
been treated this way.
When Christmas came nine boys over fifteen years old determined to
demand the treat. The day before Christmas these nine boys took the
loose benches and barred the double doors. My cousin, Lee Kenworthy,
passed a note through the transom to the teacher, demanding the usual
Christmas treat.
Naylor read the paper, stamped it under his feet, went to the wood
pile and got the axe. Smashing the door panels, he boldly entered, axe
in hand, walking to the center of the room ringing his bell violently.
Every scholar proceeded to his seat. For some minutes the teacher
walked back and forth. Then he asked the larger boys in turn: "Had you
any hand in this?"
Each answered clearly that he had. They were brave boys. To each of
the nine boys Naylor said: "Take your place out in the middle of the
room near the stove." Then he gave his knife to the boy on the right
and said: "Go out to that beech tree and cut nine good switches."
Naylor deliberately drew each switch through his hand, laid it on the
hot stove, where it began to pop and frizzle, then slowly drew it
through his hand again, bending it back and forth. Finally he walked
out before the boy on the right and called on him to step forward and
give him his left hand. Then, raising the switch with a frightful
effort, he brought it down _mildly_ on the boy's shoulder, and told
the boy to return to his seat. He repeated this with each of the nine,
none making any resistance. He then threw the switches in the fire and
resumed teaching.
This moderation established Charlie Naylor as the most popular teacher
that community had ever known, ended the Christmas treat, and almost
entirely ended corporal punishment in our public schools.
My father enlarged his farm. When I was twelve he was raising corn and
wheat for shipment, and I remember driving a two-horse wagon loaded
with thirty bushels a distance of twenty-five miles to Lafayette.
There I saw Perdue's Block, the first brick building I had ever seen.
It was celebrated throughout that part of Indiana, yet it was but two
stories high and had only three stores!
Father had three permanent farm hands, Matt and John McAleer, refined
and fairly educated Irishmen, and Bill Smith, a partially degenerated
and cruel American. When the Mexican War broke out, all three wanted
to enlist. The nearest recruiting office was Crawfordsville, and I
went with them. The recruiting officer had stacked in front of his
office many old-fashioned flint-lock muskets, which so excited me that
I begged the recruiting officer to take me as a drummer, although I
was but thirteen! He replied that he would, provided I could get my
parents' consent.
Father met us when we returned and asked the men if they had enlisted.
Matt and John said "yes." Then father asked Bill, "did you enlist?"
"No, Jim," he replied, "I did not. You should see those big guns.
They carry a ball as big as your thumb and three buckshots, and have
_spears_ on the end of them _that_ long, and just as _keen_----!"
Matt and John served through the war, but John died of yellow fever
coming home. Matt remained with father many years. All this war
experience so inspired me that I persuaded father to apply to our
Congressman, Dan Mace, for an appointment to West Point. He replied
that he would have given it to me, but that he had already nominated
another.
My father was an ardent Democrat of the Jackson type, and when Jackson
died he felt for a long time that the country was lost. Although
self-educated, he was a great reader, and a very progressive man.
Our first corn we shelled by hand, but later my father bought the
first corn sheller in the county. He got the first traveling traction
threshing machine, which threshed the wheat from the shocks in the
field. Formerly we threshed it from the sheafs on the barn floor with
a "flail"--two sticks tied together, with which the thresher beat the
kernels from the straw. Father also purchased the first reaper in that
part of the country. He prospered above his neighbors because he was
indefatigable in industry, ambition and economy, but he met with a
great sorrow, as I did, in the loss of his wife, my mother, when I was
fifteen. Before he was very happy and cheerful, singing and whistling
much; but I never heard him do either after my mother's death.
Being the oldest child, I was called on more than the rest to care
for the younger ones. Shortly after my mother's death my father asked
us to make a great sacrifice to keep the family together. He would
not marry again, and it would be impossible to have a woman come to
care for us. If I would not assume the duties of a mother with Mary,
thirteen, and Jane, eleven, to do the housework, he would be obliged
to bind the children out to relatives and neighbors. We promised to
make this sacrifice, and while I thought then and for a long time
after that it was a great wrong, I now know it was the best thing that
ever happened to me. The responsibility, together with the instruction
and admonitions that I had received, principally from my mother's
knee, prepared me for future responsibilities. My father gave me much
advice as to the obligations resting on all to do for those coming
after him what those who had gone before had done for him. Once,
traveling a good road, well prepared to keep vehicles out of the mud,
he said, "Now, Anson, somebody built this road for you; you must build
some for those who are to come after you."
In 1851 my father had opened his farm to one hundred and fifty acres.
Fertilizing it with the ashes of the consumed forest, he raised a most
extraordinary crop, three thousand bushels of wheat and thirty-five
hundred bushels of corn. He sold the wheat for one dollar and the corn
for sixty cents per bushel, which made him a rich man for those days.
Then he told my sister Mary and me that he was going to prepare us to
fight the battle of life by giving us an education, which he and our
mother had not had.
So in September, 1852, he sent us by rail, a five or six days'
journey, to Charlotteville Academy, in Schoharie County, New York.
We made seven changes in the five or six days' journey to Canajoharie,
New York. The legal rights of railroads were so involved that the
projectors had not devised a means to construct interstate or
through-city railroads. In none of the towns was there a joint depot;
in most we hired a country wagon to carry our trunks from one depot to
the other. At Erie there were two depots, because the road to the east
was of a different gauge from the road to the west!
I mention all this in detail that those who are so dissatisfied
with the beautiful and efficient methods of railroad transportation
in these days may realize what they would be up against if the
Rockefellers, Carnegies and other benefactors like them had not made
these great improvements possible.
At Canajoharie we took the stage to Charlotteville, thirty miles
distant, where we arrived in a snowstorm.
My father had entrusted to me a large amount of Indiana money to
deposit with the treasurer of the academy. On presenting it to Mr.
Archer, he exclaimed: "Why, what does your father mean by sending us
this 'wild cat money!' You could not buy a breakfast anywhere in New
York with it! However, since you have come so far, I will send it to
New York and see what can be done." He finally exchanged it and put it
to my father's credit.
CHARLOTTEVILLE ACADEMY
At the academy were eight hundred students, male and female, occupying
separate buildings, the chapel and dining room being between the boys'
and girls' buildings, and the only place where they met. In the town,
the girls were allowed to walk only on certain streets and the boys on
others.
My father equipped me with what he considered suitable clothing for
my new environment, but what was fashionable in the West was a matter
of ridicule in New York, particularly my hat, a tall, square-crowned
beaver. I wore a large moustache, had black hair and rather dark
complexion, and I was a curiosity to the students, my dialect and
vocabulary being different from the Yankee pupils. I was soon
nicknamed the "Russian Ambassador from the Woolly West," and my good
nature was somewhat tried by the ridicule. However, I made the best of
it, had plenty of company always, and my room was visited perhaps as
much as that of any other student.
I had made myself a small box with a lock, in which I kept some
personal things, among them some correspondence with a girl cousin of
mine in Ohio, whose letters were very sentimental.
One evening, I found the son of the professor of mathematics,
Ferguson, about my own age and size, sitting in my room. He began to
quote some of the silly expressions of this young lady. I asked him
if he had read my letters. When he said he had, I invited him into
the hall and blackened both his eyes. He called for help, but the
watchman came very slowly! Ferguson was unpopular with the employees
and the watchman told me afterward he wished he had let me alone a
little longer. The boy reported the incident to his father and the
elder Ferguson, the second officer of the academy, sent for me in the
absence of President Alonso Flack. He threatened to dismiss me because
I should have reported to him, but said instead he would report the
case to the president when he returned. I replied, to use a present
day expression, that it was a _non-justiciable_ case.
Later Mr. Flack sent for me and I told him what had happened. Mr.
Flack pondered and then said: "Mr. Mills, I am very sorry that you got
into this trouble, but, had I been in your situation I would probably
have done as you did. That will do--but don't let it occur again."
At Charlotteville I met two young revolutionary refugees from Cuba,
Miguel Castillanos and Juan Govin. Castillanos had been captured and
imprisoned in a fortress in Ciuta, Africa, but escaped. By mutual
arrangement, we taught each other our respective languages and I thus
had an early acquaintance with Spanish.
After a year, during which both my sister and myself got along very
well, Father sent me a letter from Mr. Mace, the Congressman, saying
that his appointee had failed and that he would nominate me for West
Point. The nomination came and Father had me come home until the
opening of the academy in June.
Prior to leaving Charlotteville, I obtained from Secretary of State,
William L. Marcy, a passport with the view of going to Cuba when I had
finished my course, but my appointment to West Point changed that.
[Illustration: MY ABANDONED BIRTHPLACE]
WEST POINT MILITARY ACADEMY
I reported at West Point on June 1, 1855. I knew nothing of military
discipline or ways and was received, as were others at that time, in a
most cruel manner by the older cadets.
I was told to report to two older cadets for examination and
assignment to quarters. I expected at least serious treatment, but
they asked me the most ingeniously foolish questions. I smiled, but
with great sternness they demanded I observe proper respect for the
officers of the United States Army.
They questioned me on my political and moral principles, adding that
they must observe great caution in assigning room-mates, lest injury
might happen. Finally, they assigned me to a room with Cadet Martin
(J. P.) from Kentucky, hoping that I would find no difficulty in
getting along in peace with him.
After being bedeviled for a week or two, I became despondent and
homesick, especially as no cadets would recognize me in any friendly
manner or speak to me on any but official subjects, except to jeer and
deride me.
One day, I was accosted by an old cadet (whom I afterwards learned to
be George H. Crosman), the first friendly salutation I had since my
entrance. Learning I was from Indiana, he said he was glad to hear it,
as it was his State (which was not true) and began asking me if I knew
certain persons from that State, some of whom I did. Crosman seemed
glad to make my acquaintance and asked me to call on him.
In camp I was assigned to A Company and Crosman belonged to D. Hoping
for some relief from extreme despondency and homesickness by making
one friend among the higher class, I proceeded to his tent. I found
him lying down in his underclothes smoking a meerschaum pipe.
He greeted me cheerfully, invited me to a seat and asked me if I
smoked. He expressed astonishment at my reply and stated I would
never graduate, that no man ever had graduated who did not smoke, and
that I had better begin at once.
I did not wish to smoke and said so.
"Well, that's all right," he replied, "but examine that pipe. That is
a fine pipe--a first class meerschaum pipe."
I took the pipe and began to examine it, when, placing his own pipe on
the side of his body opposite the sentry walking his beat outside, he
called "Number seven, do you see this plebe smoking?"
Immediately the sentry cried, "Corporal of the guard, number seven."
I said, "Mr. Crosman, you are not going to report me for smoking, are
you?"
"Well," said he, "if I should, are you going to deny it? What's the
use? Didn't that sentry see you with a pipe in your hand and this tent
full of smoke? How could you deny it?"
I moved, my impulse being to return to my tent. "But," said he, "don't
be a coward, plebe, face the music. Don't run away."
So I sat still waiting results. Shortly I saw a corporal with two men
armed with muskets approaching. They marched up facing me, one on each
side. Then the corporal sternly ordered me to take my place between
them.
When I refused to move each member of the patrol placed an arm under
mine, lifting me from my seat. They dragged me along, the corporal
placing his bayonet against my back. I was placed in the prisoners'
tent. This was in June and the weather was very warm. The walls of the
tent were lowered and a sentinel placed over me and I was ordered to
take what was then known as the Shanghai step. The tactics had just
been changed from Scott's to Hardie's, Hardie's step being quicker and
longer than the step formerly used. The exercise I was ordered to take
was marking time by raising the feet as high as possible, bringing the
knee up against the stomach.
I did this until wet with perspiration and so exhausted that I almost
fell. Presently the sentinel called, "Turn out the guard, Officer of
the Day," when they hustled me with other prisoners to form on the
left of the guard.
The officer of the day was Cadet Lieutenant Porter, whom I had met.
My hopes brightened, thinking I would be released as soon as the
circumstances became known. When he came to me, he remarked, "Why,
plebe, what are you confined for?"
"I don't know," I replied.
"Well," said he, "if you don't know, I think I will keep you in
confinement until you find out."
I remained a prisoner until late in the evening, exercised frequently,
when the guard was again turned out. This time, as the officer of the
day said, "Well, plebe, have you found out yet what you are confined
for?" I replied, "Yes, sir."
"Well, what is it?"
"For smoking," said I.
"That's not a very serious offense. Will you promise not to let it
occur again if I release you?"
"Certainly," I replied, and was released.
I resolved to punish Crosman physically, but at the January
examination he was deficient and discharged. Before he left he came to
see me. "Plebe," he said cheerfully, "I am going away. Here's a set of
text books for your next course. If you will accept them, I will give
them to you." My impulse was to refuse and force him from my room, but,
on better thought, I accepted the books and thanked him.
He afterwards became a captain in the Tenth Infantry.
This was an extreme case of hazing of the kind that eventually brought
it into disrepute. I believe hazing held within bounds is of benefit
to the academy, in teaching the bumptious and presumptuous how little
they are prepared to enter a life of absolute discipline, and how
little imaginary personal, social, or political superiority has to do
with their future training.
Long experience as a commanding officer has borne out my belief
that the graduate (by reason of the cadet being placed upon honor
in all communications with his superiors) is generally superior to
other commissioned officers. But I am willing to admit that Crosman's
apparent cruelties and other similar vicissitudes better qualified me
to fight successfully my long battle of life.
One of the things that impressed me most during my stay at the academy
was the painting above the chancel, "Peace and War" by Professor
Robert Wier. Underneath it was written, "_Righteousness exalteth a
nation but sin is a reproach to any people_." The painting was so
beautiful and the sentiments so inspiring that it impressed me all my
life.
Among the two hundred and fifty cadets was more diversity in
dialect, pronunciation, and ways of thought than there had been at
Charlotteville. One could soon tell, after a brief conversation,
what part of the country one's companion was from. There was so
little traveling from State to State that almost every State had its
own dialect, as well as peculiar theories of morals, politics and
government. The Kansas troubles were then at their height and there
were many encounters between the extremists of the North and the
extremists of the South, but, after a year or two at the academy, each
became reconciled to the other's ways so that the corps, as a body,
was more homogeneous than the people at large.
Cadet life then was much simpler than now. Our dining table was
without covering, our tableware heavy Delft, and the diet very simple.
Years afterward my classmate Samuel Cushing and I were guests in the
barracks at the centennial commencement. To our astonishment the
adjutant read an order: "Cadets of the first class (graduating) will
turn in their napkin rings immediately after guard mount." Cushing
jokingly drew his sleeve across his mouth indicative of the absence of
napkins in our day.
My experience with the Kentucky rifle had made me one of the best
shots in the corps. After marching off guard, it was the custom for
each member to go to the target range and fire at a target, the man
making the best shot being excused from his next tour of guard duty. I
frequently got excused for this excellence.