The Dublin Progress. (Dublin, Tex.), Vol. 28, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, June 4, 1915 Page: 11 of 16
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Diary of H. H. McConnell, Sergeant Sixth U. S. Cavalry From 1866 to 1878
CHAPTER! l
I HE MORNING of a beautiful day in
October, 186—, found me on the care
of the Pennsylvania Railroad, in
oompanv with nix or seven other in
dividuals, bound for the same desti-
nation as myself, all in charge of a sergeant
of the regular army, who was conducting the
party to the Cavalry Barracks at Carliale,
Pennsylvania, at that time the rendezvous for
all recruits enlisted in the mounted branoh of
the regular service.
The motives that may have induced me to
place myself in so unenviable a position aa a
'‘reoruit” in the ranks of the army are not
pertinent to these sketches, and need not be
entered into. The fact remained, and I ac-
cepted the situation, determined to see all the
sunny side of army life, and to bear its shady
aspects with a brave heart, for I knew pretty
well in advance the many hardships, discom-
forts and long wenrv days that were implied
in the words, “During my term of service.”
After being at Carlisle a few weeks, rumors
began to pervade the camp that very soon a
large detachment of us would be sent to the
“Wild West” to fill up the various regiments
stationed on our widely extended frontier.
About the end of October, tin cups, haver-
sacks and three dnvs’ rations were issued;
nnnsual activity prevailed among the clerks
at headquarters, and we ascertained definite
ly that a detachment of about five hundred
recruits was to leave Carlisle on tho morning
of the first of November for Baltimore, ana
thence by steamer to Galveston, Texas, for
assignment to the various cavalry regiments
serving in Texas.
Pour hundred and seventy one recruits and
seventeen men of the permanent corps, who
were sent out to join their respective regi
ments, answered to their names, and were di
vided into three troops for tho greater con
yenienoe of messing, enforcing discipline and
quartering on the trip. I wras apj>ointod a
eergeant or one of the troops, and soon learned
that a little authority involved a heap of
trouble.
For two days we rolled and pitched (our
transport was a perfect tub) among the
stormy waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and on
the evening of the ninth day out of Baltimore,
just after dark, sighted the lights at the
entrance of Galveston Bay. Our top-heavy
old boat having ceased to roll, the men, who
during the storm had been kept below with
the hatches battened down, were allowed to
oome on deck in the evening, and in their
exuberance of spirit, at the prospect of set-
ting foot on terra flrma on the morrow, manv
a song and chorus was shouted by the dif
ferent groups, some very fine voices being
among them. , And then I noticed, always
during my army life, that if a fellow oonld
sing at all, the bigger reprobate he was,
the more addicted ne would be to singing
the most ultra sentimental songs.
The next morning we came in sight of tho
city of Galveston, and about two in the aft
ernoon a pilot boarded ns, and in an hour or
two, in a drenching rain, we disembarked
on the wharf, ami were at last on the soil
of Texas.
After standing huddled under an old shed
on the wharf for an hour or more, the com
mand was placed on a tug boat ami carried
to Pelican Island, a few miles up the bay
from the city, two trips of the boat being
necessary to convey us all.
My impression of Pelican Island, ns seen
in tfie waning light of a cold, wet Novem
her evening, was that it was tho worst spot
I had seen in all the courso of my earthly
pilgrimage, said after all these years I can
recall nothing so dreary.
There waa not a partiole of vegetation on
the island, and oh seen in the light of this
gloomy evening, the wind howling through
and around the old shed we were quartered
in, a more depressing soene could scarcely
be imagined.
The morning’s view of the island confirm-
ed the first impression as to its utter drear-
iness, but a sound sleep and good digestion,
notwithstanding tho tide and wind and
mosquitoes, and a enp of hot coffee and
plenty of pork and hard tack for breakfast,
modified my viewe somewhat, and 1 sallied
forth and examined the earthworks con-
structed by the Confederates during the war.
A considerable quantity of heavy ordnance
and ammunition remained, having been aban
cloned; the island was captured ny and was
in the hands of the Federais when hostilities
ceased.
In the course of the* day a dispatch boat
with the Adjutant General of the District or
Texas on board, came out from Galveston and
we fell in line for the purpose of being
eountod off and assigned to the two cavalry
regiments then in Texas, and for which we
were destined. So, bidding farewell to the
ically averse to introducing “Yankee sol
diers” to Texas soil. This was at that day,
I think, one of the only three* railroads in
the State -surely since then the “wilder-
ness has blossomed like the rose.”
Victoria was found to be a beautiful vil
lage, situated on the left bank of the Guad-
alupe river, and like all the towns in this,
the oldest settled portion of Texas, bore
many traces of its early Spanish settlement.
The universal custom of a central plaza or
square in the middle of the village was new
to me then, hut since I have become so used
to seeing this plan of a town,' the old fash
ioned long streets of our Northern towns,
without any open space, would seem to lack
an essential feature. Many Mexicans lived
in this portion of the State, and nearly all
the business houses displayed signs both in
the Spanish and English languages.
1 rnav note here that of the time t am writing
of the*“ lteconstruction” period was at hand;
chaos was prevailing after the war, and some-
where about twenty regiments of regular sol
diers were camping at over one hundred and
seventy-five military stations in this great
state, scattered from the Red river to the Rio
Grande.
We lay at Victoria some days, during which
boys who went, to the other regiment, we hade
adieu to Pelican Island, and embarking on the
steamer Harlan, our detachment of two bun
dred and fifty-one men sailed for lndianola,
on Matagorda Bay, to proceed thence by land
to Austin via San Antonio, Austin being at
that time the headquarters of my regiment.
'Hie day after leaving Galveston we ar-
rived at lndianola, on Matagorda Bay, and
this being a depot of supplies, we drew our
camp equipage and rations for the march
to San Antonio.
I was made “commissary” of our com
mand, and for the next two months was in
a state of warfare with the whole mob; my
general recollection seems to he, however,
that 1 held my own with them. We then
loaded our stores and command on a small
steamer and sailed away across the hay to
Port Lavaca, on the western shore of the
snine, a little place, and then the terminus
of the “Kan Antonio & Mexican Railway,”
which was completed to V ictoria, about
thirty miles westward, and in the direction
of San Antonio. We camped at Lavaca one
right and about noun the next day embarked
on the cars for Victorio, accomplishing the
distance of somo thirty miles by nightfall,
which wo learned was an unusual rate of
speed, as the natives, when in a hurry t<>
visit Lavaca, either rode horseback or
walked. All hands got out and pushed at
times; the wheezy old locomotive was either
unused to so heavy a load, or else patriot-
time the three noncommissioned officers and
myself formed a mess, and made our arrange
ments for the long march to Austin. Two of
my party, one dim DeForrest, an Irishman,
the other, Ahrberg, a German, fill a large
space m my recollections of those days. De
I arrest had served t*m years in the old
Fourth Infantry under <’aptain R. B. Marcy;
was intelligent, witty and with a fund of an
ecdote, but with all the old soldier’s fond-
ness for whiskey, which finally caused him
to succumb to its influence, and he sleeps by
the Brazos river at Waco, his campaigns
ended. Ahrberg, big and fat as Falstnff,
looms up grandly in those initial days of mv
“soldiering.” and often 1 smile as some of
his peculiarities come up into mv mind. Ho
weighed two hundred and fifty pounds, had
served in the German army, and then for
years in the Second Dragoons under the fa
mous Harney; went with Walker, the “grey
eyed man of destiny,” to Nicaragua as a “til
ihusterer’’; served ill Kansas as Adjutant of
a regiment during the rebellion, went hack
to Lurope and was at Sadowa in Isbti, then
again enlisting in our army. Well educated,
intelligent, skilled in all the life of the camp,
and observant, he was a walking encyclo
pedia. and then having campaigned all over
the portion of Texas we were now in, he was
an authority to the “manor born,” as it were.
Do Forrest, and Ahrberg could never bar
ramize; one old soldier never regards an
other one as a hero, and so both veterans en
tertained and privately expressed the most
profound contempt for the other one.
Transportation was at length secured and
on the 29tk of November we pulled out for
Kan Antonio. The ox carts were rude and
ciurnsy looking affaire to me, covered with
rawhides and with heavy .wheels, but they
exhibited a carrying capacity which was
wonderful. The yokes were lashed in front
of the horns, so the load was pushed, not
pulled. The drivers were all Mexicans, and
their strange language, swarthy complexions,
broad sombreros and striped blankets pre-
sented a novel and picturesque appearance, as
they flourished their long whips, wielded with
both hands, and urged on the patient oxen.
'Hie odd creaking or the huge carts and the
scenery reminded us that we were far from
our Northern homes, and served to clothe
each mile with new interest ami leave less
time for vainly regretting the past.
Bail of mv duty each morning was to take
the butcher s detail, start in advance of the
command and kill one or two beeves for the
next day’s supply. By the time the column
came along trie beef would be cut up and
dressed and loaded on the carts, (tattle
abounded in untold thousands, and as long
as the ranchero did not watch us we could
slaughter them with impunity. If we were
“caught up with” by the owners we referred
them to the lieutenant who satisfied them
with a voucher on the authorities at Kan An-
tonio; but in sex’era! instances A hrlwxrg (of
happx memory) who was with the party, per-
sonated the officer in command, and gave a
“voucher” signed with a name unknown to
the Army Register, so it is fair to assume that
the expenses of the army for fresh beef was
not materially increased by the meat ran*
sunjed on that trip. <’ouritle«s herds of wild
cattle ui that day cover* *d the broad prairies
along the Gulf ('oast, from Matagorda to
Kan Antonio.
Most of tie- country parsed through was
very beautiful and extremely fertile, but as it
wa-s late in t.he fall the
prairies looked brown
and sere. The weather,
though was a never fail-
ing delight to me, eo
balmy and very much
like the Kepternber
weather of the Middle
States. (Vpress tim-
ber abounded in the
lowlands and often was
heavily garlanded or
draped with Spanish
moss, the effect of
which, graoefullv pen-
dant from the funeral
cypress, and festooned
so thickly in places as
to exclude tiie sunlight
at midday, produced
a wierd and solemn
“dim, religions light.”
This moss has of late
years become a vain a
hlc article of commerce, and is used for filling
mattresses, horse collars, cushions and simi-
lar purposes.
W e had expected to pass through the his-
toric village of Goliad, where the gallant Fan-
nin and his command were masnaered during
th<* Texas Revolution, but it would have
made the distance somewhat greater, and we
I* ft it out of our route, and bore further to the
r e t "ii our inarch to Kan Antonio.
1. < Wpvrighted hv H. H. McTVmnell.)
TO BE CONTINUED.
A h rt*rr| of floppy
Mr hi or 7*
INDIAN RAIDS IN TEXAS
“The Indian Boys Amused Themselves
by Shooting the U. S. on the Wagons”
N FEBRUARY, 1853, a band of In-
dian* came down in Uowhouae.
Mountains and went into Noland *s
Valley, three miles from Belton, and
them while they were eating a lunch. Isaac
\\ illiams fired first and at the crack of his
trusty rifle he exclaimed, “1 got one.” Dave
Williams fired about the same time and hal-
lowed, “1 got another.” Tho Indian fell, each
one of the hoys thinking he had killed an In
kj. dian, but on examination thev found that
thev had both shot the same Indian. The Imjvs
took his scalp and recovered the stolen prop
erty. The other Indians made good their es
cape on foot. This was the last raid ever
made in Bell county hv Indians.
In 1853 the soldiers were removed from
Fort Gates to Phantom Hill. < *. T. Tyler and
DalrimpJe contracted to furnish the fort with
forage. 1 wont into the employ of < h T. Tyler
to drive an ox team, hauling forage from his
farm twelve miles below Gatesvilb* to Phan
tom Hill, a distance of over two hundred
miles ami not a single settlement on the wav.
1 averaged about one trip a month for about
three years. Wo often encountered Indians,
hut had no fights. However, on one occasion
on Mesquite crook, now in Hamilton county,
one morning when the train moved out and
xvhile crossing a big ridge we discovered a
large body of Indians about one mile from
ufy Evidently their intention was to attack
us, but everything was made ready and we
moved on with our wagons in a double string
and the Indians, seeing that we wen* in god
order, after coming near, drew off, but fired
the prairie grass in order to harass us. The
grass being very tall, it was difficult to keep
it from consuming our wagons. This thev
kept up for several days, but we kept even
thing in order and were ready for an attack
at any time. An Indian Is not apt to make
an attack unless he has the advantage, and
the old bull drivers were not disposed to
give them the advantage.
On another occasion the Indians, one
night, stole all the bora*# we had, which was
seven head, cutting the rope* of some of them
within six feet of where some of the lova were
sleeping under their wagons. They then drove
S3
Kay, Bill McFall. Joe Allen, TYun Deaton and
Tonkawav Jim, who was pilot for the train,
w ith two or three others whose names I have
forgotten. After seven days’ march they r*
turned to camp nearly starved and completely
worn out. Those who remained at camp
erected a pen in order to save the oxen, and
that place is known to this da> as tho “hull
pen. ”
A few weeks later, at the head of Honev
creek, now in (’oryell county, we broke down
a wagon, and while repairing it the Indians
set fire to tho gra**s for the purpose of burn
ing us out, and they came very near suoce«*d
ing, for in a few minutes the fire reached
camp and ran right through, burning the
sacks off one hundred or more bushels of
corn that was lying on the ground the load
of the broken w agon and caught, fire to sev
oral other wagons. Had it not been for the
creek close by, with plenty of water liandv,
which we used freely, wo would have suffer* d
great loss While some of th * hands were
working at the wagons, others were rulining
the oxen into n skirt of 'irnbcr when* tin*
grass was short Plus was all done in a very
few minutes, and when all was over we
amused ourselves by looking at a badly singl'd
set of hi™ and oxen, while the Indians stood
on the hill six hundred yards away deriding
us and seemingly enjoying our discomfiture.
Now something must be done. A pile of
sackless corn lav on the ground and Indians
in sight. Koine one must go hack to get. sacks,
a distance of over twenty five miles. Night
mine on and a man started for O. T. Tyler's,
and I never shall forget Tvlor’s reply when
the story* was told him: “1 hail rather have
my head smashed than to have given away
to thoac Indiana.”
So Tyler gathered up all the guns and am-
munition which could ne found m the settle-
ment. amounting to six guns, I believe, and
with sacks to take the place of those that
bunted off the corn, packed them and the
guns on a pony and sent them on to ua. We
encountered Indian troubles nearly i
By E. L. DEATON
A Texan of Pioneer Days
horses several tfrnes, hot failed. Thev fired
the grass a great many tunes for the purpose
of harassing us as much as possible., but wre
wore always equal to the emergency, burning
off a place for the tram before starting and
then driving on the burned ground. If ever
there was a set of black white men it was
certainly this crowd. We had two negroee
with us arid it was said hv a lady that it was
hard to distinguish between tho negroes ami
the white men who composed the party.
< >n another occasion, as we were coming
dow n t.he country with empty wagons in t.he
vicinity of the town of Baird, in Oailahan
couiitv. and while going into camp one even-
ing we saw a large Indian camp on a creek
al*eve where we mt<*ndisl to camp, and as us-
ual with us, all wen* put in shape that night,
'flic next rimming iln oxen were rounded up
carlo Short!.' afo r 11 * • - ; rain bad moved out
m two strings, a bed* m about fifty Indians
charged us, a!! * !■■> *• ruled in war paint, with
tomahawk in hand hallow mg like demons. The
wagons were *• * *r ra! I«i al once and we were
readv for the at tack The Indians, seeing
that we wen* ready, halted out of reach arid
seemed to he parleying. They were asked by
h man in our crowd in Spanish what they
w anted, Thev replied they wanted to trade,
lb replied: “Yon are a liar; you want to rob
us. ami you must not come any closer; if you
do we’ll open fire on yon.”
They never charged on ns anv more, but
rode around us all day, or until late in the
evening, and then rode off. It was evident
1hat thev intended to plunder us.
Now let the reader imagine our situation—
two hundred miles from anywhere and only
twelve or fifteen of us, arid surrounded by
fifty savages. We were equal to the emer-
gency again. With strict discipline and good
management, together with a big backbone,
we kept them off. A day or two after thia
there wan a government train coming down
the same road and went into camp for the
evening. The same Indians rode right into
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The Dublin Progress. (Dublin, Tex.), Vol. 28, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, June 4, 1915, newspaper, June 4, 1915; Dublin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth543628/m1/11/?q=peddler: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dublin Public Library.