CHAPTER XXIV.

Mr. Howe's enlistment.-Raising a county regiment.- Speech at the meeting to raise recruits.-Enlistment of his coachman in same regiment. He is made Postmaster of the regiment.-Advances money to pay regiment for two months.-His illness.-Return home to work for the boys.

I HAVE stated in the first chapter of this volume that the ranks of the Union army contained men of the highest position and worth. The following remarkable story, from the pen of James Parton, is most generously placed at my disposal, by Robert Bonner, editor of the New York Ledger, and is a powerful confirmation of the elevated character and exalted patriotism of some who entered the ranks of the Union army to battle for the right. We grant this case had few parallels, as regards wealth. Not a few, however, approached and equalled it in patriotism and self-abnegation.

A MILLIONAIRE IN THE RANKS.

BY JAMES PARTON.

No army, I suppose, ever contained such a variety of

characters and conditions as that of the United States during the late war. There were men in it of almost every race and color; men of every rank-from French princes lineally descended from Henry IV. to the plantation slave; men of every degree of moral worth and unworthiness- from the

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patriot-hero giving his life for his country to the plundering "bounty-jumper" who has since found a suitable home in a State prison. Among other characters, the strangest, perhaps, was a private soldier who possessed an income of $200,000 a year. Upon the staffs of major-generals, and at the head of regiments, there were several millionaires and sons of millionaires; but the gentleman of whom we speak, Elias Howe, Jr., the inventor of the sewing-machine— served in the ranks of the 17th Connecticut, and refused every offer of a commission, alleging as a reason that he was ignorant of military affairs and could render no effective service to his country except as a private. Having had occasion recently to gather information respecting the origin and progress of the sewing-machine, I heard the story of Mr. Howe's enlistment and service from the officers of his regiment, and now avail myself of the inventor's absence from the country to repeat it to the readers of the Ledger.

He enlisted in July, 1862, the second year of the war. The country, as we all remember, had put forth prodigious efforts to repair the calamity of Bull Run. An immense army had been assembled on the banks of the Potomac, which, after a long winter spent in organizing and drilling it, had been swiftly conveyed to Virginia and successfully landed near Yorktown. That proved to be the end of its success. Stopped for a month at Yorktown, until Richmond. was ready to withstand it, that mighty host of devoted men came within sight of the steeples of the Confederate capital, whence, after a succession of mishaps, reverses and defeats, it was driven back to the James, and was soon after ordered,

back to its old position on the Potomac. Nothing in the history of the war seems to me so remarkable as the high spirit and unshaken resolution of the people after disasters so terrible, so unexpected, and so peculiarly calculated to dishearten a nation unused to war.

It was July, 1862. The army was still on the James, protected by the gunboats of the navy. A new levy of troops was ordered. Until this time men had not hung back, and new regiments had come in about as fast as they could be equipped. But in July of this year, when the ripening harvest called farmers to their fields, and the tidings of defeat gave pause to those inclined to enlist, the forming regiments filled slowly, and there were vague rumors in the air of a possible draft. Then it was that it occurred to some gentlemen of Bridgeport, Connecticut, to raise a county regiment, the several companies of which should be composed of friends and neighbors. It was an excellent and fruitful thought. The sanction of Governor Buckingham was obtained, and a public meeting was called for July 17, to begin the work.

The public anxiety, as well as the patriotism of the people of Bridgeport, caused this to be one of the largest and most earnest ever held in the town. Mr. Howe attended it, and sat upon the platform as one of the vice-presidents. When the meeting had been organized, it was addressed by several speakers, who raised the enthusiasm of the crowd to the highest point. Money was liberally subscribed for the expenses of the proposed regiment-Messrs. Wheeler & Wilson heading the list with five thousand dollars, and Elias Howe following with one thousand. The whole sum raised was

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twenty-five thousand dollars. This was encouraging, and it was then to be seen how the citizens of Bridgeport would respond to the call for services more perilous and more necessary than the subscribing of money.

When the time came for inviting men to enlist, Mr. Howe -to the astonishment of his friends, for he had never before addressed a public meeting-rose to his feet, and spoke somewhat as follows:

"At such a time as this every man is called upon to do what he can for his country. I don't know what I can do unless it is to enlist and serve as a private in the Union army. I want no position. In fact, I know nothing of military matters; but I am willing to learn, and to do what I can with a musket. At any rate, I mean to go. I have in my hand a piece of paper for the names of those who wish to enlist to-night, and my name is at the head of it."

With these words he laid the paper upon the chairman's table. The excitement produced by this announcement can neither be imagined nor described. Mr. Howe was known to every person present as one of the wealthiest men in the State, whose residence at Iranistan was as pleasant and attractive a scene as could anywhere be found; and to exchange this for the privations of a camp seemed to the audience, as it was, a most remarkable evidence of patriotic principle. Cheer upon cheer expressed and relieved the feelings of the excited multitude.

The next incident that occurred was one in which the comic and the pathetic were blended. The coachman who had driven Mr. Howe's carriage that evening, attracted by the continual cheers within the hall, had hired a boy to hold

his horses, and had entered the building to witness the proceedings. He was a warm-hearted Irishman, named Michael Cahill, past the age of military service as defined by law. Upon hearing his employer's speech, he rushed forward, and clambering upon the platform, cried out:

"Put down my name, too! I can't bear to have the old man go alone."

So down went the name of Michael Cahill, coachman, next to that of Elias Howe. Laughter and cheers, mingled in about equal proportions, followed the announcement of "Mike's" intention. Other names now came in with great rapidity. A large number of men were obtained that night, and such zeal and enthusiasm were created in the county by the events of the evening, that in twenty days the 17th Connecticut had upon its rolls the names of one thousand men. It was commanded by Colonel H. H. Noble, one of the leading lawyers of Bridgeport.

A difficulty arose when Mr. Howe had to be examined by the surgeon of the regiment, Dr. Hubbard. All his life the inventor of the sewing-machine has been troubled with an hereditary lameness. Indeed, it was owing to the extreme fatigue which his daily labor as a journeyman machinist caused him, in consequence of this lameness, that he set about inventing something by which he hoped to earn his living less laboriously. The probability is, that if Elias Howe had had two good legs, he would never have invented the sewing machine. When Dr. Hubbard hesitated about accepting him, and told him that he could not march:

"No matter," said the inventor, "you must pass me. I am going!"