Aurora, Mo.
June 30th, 1905
This is to certify that I, Albert J. Martin was enrolled in Capt. John R. Cochran’s Co. C in six months volunteer State Militia, on the 30th day of July 1864. I was ordered into active service on August 10th, 1864, and during the summer & fall season we did camp duty and also some scouting after bushwhackers, murderers & horse thieves throughout the countys of south east Missouri, such as Bollinger Co. & Wayne & Butler & Madision Co., Mo. But nothing of importance occurred until late in the fall of 1864 Sept. 24th, 1864, as my Captain John R. Cochran was ordered by the commanding officer at Cape Girardeau, Mo., where we had been stationed a few days before on account of General Price’s advance in to Mo. At that time our Capt. was placed in command of 35 special men partly of our company & partly of Capt. Tacke’s Co. We were now ordered to go to Jackson, Mo. as pickets to watch General Price’s advance & report the same to the commander of Cape Girardeau.
Now I think that we were at Jackson 2 days doing picket duty, as there was also some other troops scouting around the country looking after Price’s men as the telegraph lines were being cut, between Jackson & Fredericktown & Ironton, Mo. So on the afternoon of September 24th, 1864, these other troops was called back with the men of his own company, and Capt. Tacke was placed in command of his part of his own Co. Now as I and two other of Capt. Cochran’s men was on picket post at the time, so our Capt. told me we could remain there in Jackson until the next morning at 10 o’clock & then report at the headquarters at the Cape for further duty. But alas, the next morning we were marching the other course towards Ironton battlefield, etc.
Now about dark the same day I was relieved from picket duty and went up to headquarters to report as also my two other comrades, Wm. Lymbaugh & Bradley Chrisswell were also relieved from Picket duty we went and fed our horses and eaten our supper & now my friend Bradley Chrisswell had taken me to supper to a friend of his in Jackson who told us to go down the hill at the bridge approach, go over the meadow & there get some hay for our horses to eat, as we already had some corn to feed them at first. So after we had our supper comrade Bradley Crisswell & I went down the hill towards Marble Hill for this way and as we got to the bridge ready to go down to the little meadow, I heard a noise and looking around & saw a federal soldier with his hands up in the air. He was so badly frightened he could not fire off his pistol which he should have done as this was our order on such an occasion to give the alarm to the camps that the rebels was coming.
But he could scarcely move out of his tracks. But I called to him & asked him what the matter was with him and he blurted out in a smothered way that they were coming, meaning the rebels. Now I heard the roar of the horses feet coming around the little point of the hill that this scared picket was standing on and in a moment they came around the point with 4 abreast in full charge right at us on the bridge approach which was the leading street up to the Court house. Now I and friend Christwell being the first soldiers that came in view they began to shooting at us. So we turned around & ran up the hill to headquarters as was our orders to report & give the alarm. Now this charge was made by Col Jeffries with one thousand men. As they had the town well surrounded completely there was not much chance to escape from them. Well, I, and Christwell did some good running you bet, and we got to headquarters before them. Our headquarters was not at the telegraph office just about 400 feet west of the Court house going towards Cape Girardeau. Now I was going towards the headquarters office turning an angle. Just at Snookey Sadler’s Shop & the court house ½ way between these buildings I ran up to within about 5 ft. of one of Captain Tacke’s men just facing me. At that moment he was shot near the navel, and he started to fall on me with a loud groan, I am shot. I caught him but as he could not stand up so I laid him down as easy as I could in the middle of the street, and as I did so, one of the rebels shouted out that he had killed one of the damned black yankees.
So I ran to my horse and caught the loop of my halter strap & pulled it loose ready to mount in the saddle. But alas, a big rebel charged on me with a large rifle & shot at me about 10 feet distance & shot the top out of my black hat & the ball cut into my scalp across the top of my head & knocked me down & my horse got away from me on account of my falling to the ground and ran to & �� the rebels. I got up as soon as I could do so as the shot gave me a severe shock. But in a few moments I was at my right senses again. I put my hand on my head & felt a great ball of my hair coming off, as I wore long hair at the time & the pain in my head was greatly annoying me. But I did the best I could at that time. So as soon as I could do so I ran to the telegraph office where there was several of the comrades in there. By this time the rebels was running all around me and shooting at me and the other men. But we commenced shooting at the rebels as they charged passed us on after the other comrades that they could see. So we killed 2 of their horses & wounded one rebel lieutenant as he & his men passed us, and I heard that he died before we got to Ironton, Mo. of his wounds, as he was carried with our squad of prisoners in a carriage until we reached near Ironton, Mo., & then he left us & we did not see him any more. Now soon the rebels surrounded us in this office & shooting in at us from all sides of the windows and doors. So there was one Curtie ��� of Tacke’s men came running in & begged us to quit shooting & give up the fight as we would all get killed. So we gave up the fight and I then took my gun & broke it up over the door facing & threw away all of my cartridges I had with me then as I was mad at the time.
Now after we gave up to the rebels they took us over to the Court House Square on the street just between Smookey Sadler’s Shop & the Court House in the presence of commanding Col. Jeffers & Bill Grimsley & Jacen C. Hunter, all formerly of Dallas, Mo., no called Marble Hill, Mo., as I knew them well before the war began as citizens. Now as soon as Jeffers seen some of our boys & knew us he began a tirade of abuse against us & called us damned cowards and other bad names such as a low minded brute would use against a few helpless prisoners such as we were. I said Col. Jeffers you have no right to call us damned cowards. You haven’t no ground to blow about your great bravery as you have a thousand men here and surrounded us with less than about 20 men left Capt. Tacke by Capt. Cochran. Now he did not like this but only cursed me for what I said.
Now at this time they brought up to our guard a few other boys they had captured and was a comrade of my Co. by the name of Wm. Lymbaugh, and he was badly scared on account of the way the rebels was abusing & cursing him, as he had in the early part of the war held on to the rebel side. They had a bad grudge against him & of course threatened to kill him for this going over to the Black Yankees, as they called it.
Now of course Col. Jeffers had to show his great bravery as a rebel Col. Commanding the troops that captured the little band of 11 men out of the 20 men that was left by Capt. Cochran to Capt. Tacke’s command. Now this was a big victory was it not, to blow about. Yes they captured 11 men and killed one man by the name of Fred Nale, a German boy of about 19 years old. Now comrade Lymbaugh was bemoaning his condition fearing that Jeffers would order him shot. So this incensed Col. Jeffers so much that he told him that if he did not stop his wailing he would kill him self with his pistol then & there, and Col. Jeffers was very abusive at this time.
Now I wish to state here that I knew very many of Col. Jeffers men as they was mostly made up & enlisted in to the rebel service in the south east counties of Mo. & I have associated with some of them since the close of the war of the rebellion. I used to live near Dallas, Mo. now called Marble Hill, Mo. Now when we were taken prisoners they treated us very badly as they taken all of my clothing away from me & even wanted to take off my pants. But I told one Miles Richards that he could wear them the same as I was doing. So he got ashamed of his acts & let me alone then. Now there was three of the rebels who taken off my cavalry jacket & each wanted it badly for him self, so they had a real fight for the same until some of the officers came & stopped the fight.
Now after Col. Jeffers got his fill of abuse on us he ordered us all put in the Court House under strict guard. As we were going in the Court House myself & some of my comrades picked up our wounded comrade and carried him to the Court House yard & laid him near the door on a step of stone as we were ordered to do and he laid until he died at this night about 10 o’clock, before we were marched out of Jackson. We left Jackson about 11 o’clock at night and marched out about one mile from Jackson towards Ironton, Mo. & we was carefully guarded by the rebels as that they had made threats to kill some of us, so we were looking out for a chance to escape them. Now our march to Ironton was a painful one as I had to march in my bare feet, as the rebels had taken away my boots from me, also my socks & all other clothing, as my hat had been destroyed by that large caliber rifle shot. So the rebels taken it away from me to show the other rebels how closely that they had gotten me & made a good deal of sport out of it. So you can see what a horde (sic) condition I was in now without shoes & socks & no coat or vest on, only with shirt & pants was I left to march the weary way & what a hard time of it we had.
Now the first days march took us to near Fredericktown, Mo. when we camp’d for the night. We also stayed near a crossroad called Patton, Mo. where there was a spring of water. But the rebels did not let us have much water but hurried us on until we reached the place called Patton & they stopped a few minutes for a chat with some southern ladies who shamefully talked to us. One of the fine southern ladies came up to me & attempted to slap me in the face but I got away from her, but she came again at me and deliberately spat in my face saying you blue bellied little yankee take that and struck me in the face this time. I tried to resent this last insult, but the guards would not let me do so, as they made threats to shoot me if I did so.
Now the second day march we stopped in Fredericktown about one hour. We prisoners was stopped at near the present site of the Court House. Now so far we had nothing to eat yet and we asked the rebels to give us something to eat but they only laughed at us, and gave us nothing to eat. But finally I found ½ apple & I ate this and saw it was not fit to eat.
But we soon took up the march again for Ironton, Mo. We marched this day near to the Shedends (Shut�Ins) & camped in an old field. It had been raining some and the road was in terrible condition & my feet was awful sore & bleeding, as I had to march in my bare feet yet as comrades Lymbaugh, Christwell had got hold of an old pair of cast off shoes & was a little better fixed for the march than myself. Now we lay in our bed of mud this night, as we had nothing to cover with except the heavy rain that fell that night. Now soon after we went into camp this afternoon the rebels were moving about lively, as they said that Price’s men had made the attack on the Union forces then that they were getting their cannon on Sheppers (Sheperd) Mountain so they could drive out our boys from the fort. So finally we hearedn (sic) the reports of the Cannon and some time after dark the rebels gave us the news that they had whipped our troops & had taken the forts held by our brave boys. But later I heard that our troops had evacuated the forts, and that the rebels had made three distinct charges on the forts, but was beaten back by our brave boys each time with a real loss to the rebels. I had heard this time that our main forces was only 800 men in all, and the rebels claimed to us that they had 25,000 men. I do not know how many men the rebels had in making the charges on the fort at this time. Now the next morning we few prisoners was marched into Ironton & stationed just beyond & in front of the fort where the rebels made the main charges on the forts and there we stayed all day long again, without a bite to eat.
Now in front of the fort was quite an open space and this was pretty well covered with all sorts of old guns & sabers & dead rebels who they was burying in the old fort ditch which we could see where we were located at the time. Soon after we stopped for the day. The rebels brought in quite a number of prisoners & some private citizens also and placed them with us under the same guards as was taken care of us. Now among this lot of prisoners was two officers. One was Captain Fred Dinger and the other was our brave & lamented Major Wilson. Now I talked a good deal with Major
Wilson at this time. He had been shot on the side back of the head near the top of head. Almost the identical same place I was shot on my head. So we were attracted to one another, first on account of this similar circumstance. Major Wilson had his head tied up with a white handkerchief & the wound had bled a considerable.
Now Major Wilson was a fine looking man & a nice gentleman to talk to. I began to love him for his pleasant & kindly remarks to anyone who talked to him. He was also spoken of as a brave & good officer & kind to the men who served under him. As Major Wilson told me that himself and Captain Dinger was outside of the forts with the main skirmishers. He was wounded and captured as was also our Captain Fred Dinger. Now Major Wilson had also a very sore middle finger caused by his swinging his heavy pistol around his head to rally his men to action during the fighting.
Now I do not know who was in command of the Union forces at Ironton, Pilot Knob or Arcadia at this time. But I think that our troops did fairly well considering the small forces we had in comparison with that the forces of General Price’s Army. As our troops killed & wounded a good many of the rebels at this battle.
Now as night came on and the rebels had buried their dead & taken care of their wounded they place us prisoners in one of the horse corrals where there was some barracks for the benefit of the ��� guards & troops. And here we were kept until the next morning about daylight. Now here they gave us the first thing to eat since we were captured at Jackson, Mo. on Sept. 24th, 1864. But this food was not fit to eat as it was all old spoiled shoulder meat and rotten sausage that had been thrown away by the merchants & could not be sold to anyone. Now here before starting from Ironton on our march towards Jefferson City. I begged a rebel officer to give me a pair of shoes & some clothing & a hat or cap. So he went out & bought me a pair of old shoes & a cap and a linear (lined) duster to wear. I looked like a southern preacher man and ready for the march again. Now this was a hard days march as we was strung out on the road toward Jefferson City with the soldiers closely packed on each side of us and crowding us so we could hardly march along. They made us run in a turkey trot most of the time and not scarcely give us time to take a drink of water on the way. Oh how we did suffer on that days march, as quite a number of our boys gave up that day & had to be hauled in wagons, and it was told that the guards shot several of them that could not walk fast enough for them.
Now we marched this day until about one o’clock at night before the rebels stopped to camp. Now here they gave us some flower with the bran still in it, but as we could not bake it as the rebels did not make us any fire or let us gather any wood, we could not eat the dirty stuff & of course we got awful hungry. Some times we would be lucky and (see) a piece of corn that some horse had left & so we would run for it. Some times we would find a cabbage leaf too, so we would eat this. Now the next morning by daylight we were called again for another hard days travel by the side of the rebel guards who was mostly very cruel to us, and would now show us any favors. But they instead would curse us and rush us on all they could do.
Now here I must state something that occurred to my own knowledge. As we were rushed so fast on this there was some who could not stand this strain and as our big Capt. Fred Dinger was a large & a fat man he was about given out walking any longer. I watched him give a signal to a rebel officer and they stopped & called Capt. Dinger to one side & talked in a low tone of voice to him. They told the guard to take us on & they would take charge of Capt. Dinger which they did & treated him very nicely all the way through the march.
They gave him an ambulance to ride in and he told me afterwards that had he not been a Mason & an officer they would have killed him sure, but instead of this they treated him well. But poor old Major Wilson did not get such nice treatment, only abuses & curses and they watched him so closely so he could not get away from them, as they told him & us that they would kill him. Now as we came near Union town, Mo. the rebel command set for about one hour at a junction of some roads & here some of the rebel soldiers treated us badly, as they would deliberately ride their horses right over us and strike us with their sabers & guns. There was one Col. Christ (Crisp) who had charge of these prisoners this afternoon as he tried to protect us as much as he could do. But the rebels seemed that they did not care for him commanding them. I seen him pull out a pocket pistol & shoot into a squad of harassers to stop their cruel treatment of us.
So finally we marched on further and in a few miles we reached the little town of Union, mo. where there was a few state troops stations and so the rebels charged into town, our troops fired on them and killed one of the rebels & wounded 2 others, as I seen the dead rebel lay in the road & was told of the 2 wounded rebels. Now we marched on this afternoon for about 15 or 20 miles further and camped for the night in an old field in the low ground of the field and here General Price had had his headquarters tent put up & we prisoners was enclosed in this chain guard camp of Prices.
Now in the afternoon we were waiting at the junction of the road near Union town Mo. it seemed that several of the rebel generals met here, as General Jeff Thompson, also General Marmaduke were nice looking men & officers. But Kirby Smith did not appear such a man of notice as he had very bad sore eyes and did not have such a good countenance as the other Generals had. But of course the rebels was a lot of dirty ragged mongrel lot at best, as the most of these had their pants legs tore off at about the knees & their coat sleeves also torn off at the elbow & their hats mostly the tops torn and their dirty hair sticking out through the open top looking like hogs bristles more than humans hair.
Now here in General Price’s camp outside of his chain guard there occurred something this evening that lowered my estimates of General Price as a man & commanding General of the troops. As the rebels claimed that they had 450 prisoners all told, us and Federal soldiers & private citizens they had taken along to make them join the rebel army. So then was one man a citizen who they had here had an old father of about 75 years old who followed his son into the Price camp. He came up to Price’s camp weeping and begging General Price to release his son and to let him go home with him. But not so with the great General Price. But what an answer did he make to this poor old man. He screamed out at him with a loud voice cursing him for coming after his son and he drew back his hand and struck this old man with his fist in his stomach nearly knocking down to the ground. Now this made us boys awfully angry, and I said to one of our guards to give me his gun, that I would shoot the old Brute right in his tracks. But the guard told me to be still of if Price heard it he would have me shot on the spot. But if I could have got hold a gun at that time I would surely have shot Price then and there. And then Price did not release the old man’s son until next morning when all the prisoners was paroled on some sort of humbuggery which we soldiers did not respect at all.
Now the next morning early the rebels had us all called up in line claiming there was 450 of us state troops of different companies & commands. As I did not personally know a great many I can not give names of many of the commands the men belonged to. Now when we were called up in ranks there appeared now several of the rebels officers taken our names first for the said paroles to be given us and taken the oath not to take up arms against the rebels so called confederacy. Now after they had given us the so called oath on parole then there appeared Sol. Kitchens and Tim Reeves, old south east Mo. grillers, the worst type of class of Bushwhackers. They both went through our ranks asking us if we belonged to Capt. Hurbel’s (Hummel), Montgomerys and Capt. Rice’s men, and also of Capt. John R. Cochran’s men of ��� Co. and also if we had been at the fight at Doniphan, Mo. some time previous to the Price raid. Also this Kitchens and Reeves treated us shamefully as they both would strike us with theirs in the breast and stomach if we did not answer to suit them. But we all lied to them as best we could as we knowed that they wanted to shoot us if they knew the truth of the matter.
Of course some of our poor boys was recognized by the various rebels in the commands & had been living in the same locality where the federal troops lived and so knew some of our men who had been living in the same locality where the federal troops lived and so knew some of our men who could not deny their names & circumstances connected with this battle here mentioned by the rebel officers. Reeves & Kitchens picked out 7 of our boys. One of them was brave & calm old Major Wilson and one was a man by the name of Gilbert of Co. K., Capt. Rice’s Co. located at Fredericktown and the 3d man was one of my own company named Levey Lincoln. But when captured was scouting out at Patterson, Wayne County, Mo. where he was wounded in the thick part of the arm just as he threw his gun to shoot some of Price’s men on vidette duty. He soon after was captured and he was placed with us at Ironton too. Now these 7 men was taken out over on the hill side not far from where Price’s camp was perhaps some 150 or 200 yards as best I can recollect. I seen them taken away from us and I understand after words that they divided the prisoners into 3 squads that they took Levi Lincoln to himself with three men to kill him with their pistols drawn on him & he marching up the hill in front of the 3 rebels. But before they �� themselves Lincoln turned them as only one of the rebels got to shoot at him at all. So he was shot lightly through the shoulder. But he got away from them and got to Franklin, Mo. where ��� and went to St. Louis, Mo. Now if it was reported to us at the time that all seven of the men were kill. As we seen them stop on the hill to shoot the men & seen the smoke of the fire of the guns & heard the shots also of course. We believed that they was all killed. But it seems this was a mistake at the time as we were hurried off by the rebels guards to get us outside of the picket line we could not get the correct report of how way was killed the seven. But I have since heard that this young man Gilbert of Capt. Rice’s Co. got away from them before they could shoot him. So there was only 5 out of the 7 was killed and Levi Lincoln is still living yet in old Bollinger Co., Mo. and Gilbert lived until 2 years ago in some parts of the state of mo. Now we boys tried very hard to save Lyncoln’s life. So had his hair cut off close to his head and changed his clothing as best he could. But when morning came the rebels was hunting for him as his parole was made out in a different name than his. We fooled them a little. But when the time came to go out of the picket line here were the eagle eyed rebels watching for him & calling his name. Now I told him not to answer them to his name. But after they called the third time, he answered the rebel I had begged him to keep still. But he said they will get me anyhow & so he walked with the rebels to be shot. Now after we got outside of the rebels line I’ve had a good deal of trouble with the rebel scouters, as we would meet many of this class of cut throats. They were thieves and murderers. They would draw their pistols on us and make us look in the barrels of them. Now this is not pleasant sport I tell you, with such drunken rebels. They did not care for a man’s life than killing a bed bug. I thought one day that they would surely kill our comrade Nations of Capt. Tacke’s Co. I begged for him but the fellow turned on me & struck out at me with his pistol. But I dodged him so he missed me and he cursed me a little and let us off.
Now soon after this our comrades separated. Some of them said they would go by the way that we came from Ironton. But our squad said we would go by way of Union town and cut across the Mo. River at the little town of Washington, Mo. So we went anyway to Washington and then we got something to eat. As we were nearly starved by this time as the rebels gave us nothing to eat only what we could pick up along the road. A little came from the horses food. I could span my waist with one hand easily. Now when we got to Washington, Mo. on the river we got something to eat as the people treated us well. So after resting a few minutes we got a man to take us over the river and then we went down the river on the other side 5 miles to a little town and there stayed for about 3 days then a boat came along & taken us a piece of the way and let us off again. So we walked to Franklin, Mo. on the railroad and there we met with General A.J. Smith’s command who was following up Price’s forces.
But we stayed overnight with some of the 2nd Mo artillery boys, as we knew some of them in this battery and the next day we got on the train for St. Louis and reaching there we were ordered to a small hotel for our first good meals since Sept. 24, 1864, at Jackson, Mo., before we were captured there. Now here in St. Louis we were kept for two weeks and sent over our old camp at Cape Girardeau, Mo. So we reported to headquarters once again and my Captain told me to go home as I was taken sick after so much suffering & exposure to all kinds of bad weather & having no clothing to protect us from the weather.
I now walked out to old Bollinger, Mo. some 40 miles to my old home & to treat my self for the fever that set in on me. About one month I was sick and as I got better the Captain sent me an order to come back to camp & I reported for duty again. And from that time on I had some petty duty to do the balance of my term of service until the next Feb. 1865 when we were released from state service.
But our Captain made up another company, and we elected our company officers again, but we were not called on to do more service for the state. But we were called to drill each month twice which we did until the war closed.
Now we did not get any pay for our services of the state until the fall of 1865. Sometime in October the state payed us in state script which was not worth more than 75 ct on the dollar. As this was all we could get at any store for good’s in the state of Mo. So ended our military services in Mo’s War of the Rebellion of 1861 to 1865.
With good wishes to both friends and our former enemys, I am ever
Respectfully
Albert J. Martin