The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 22, 1898, Page 17

HRUS P‘e/b'T INTO VERSACK WITH THE ARMY RAFFORE VICKSBURG SOME OF THE MOST EVENTFUL SCENES ANTA BARBAF 1898 Cal., May 20, oned regularly in ates army is Major -omber Reynolds. ct and conspicuous fig- of the war. Com- ever co the U Arabell Bhe is a a ure in the paratively veterans of the Rebel- lion ch of the horrors of the confl Her sery neral be found in the “Off of Illinois in the Civil Con- fes e West as Major lives | Santa vited to nd all Barbara Arm 1e Republ camp- m 1 west of is now the president of the W Parlia- ment of Southern Californi When President Harr was in Santa Barbara in 1891 > paid more attention to M. to any of the hundreds leaders and gathered aro Major Reynolds’ ‘Arabella Macc Shelburne she was 14 years old she moved with her parents to Iowa, which was then a wild and unsettled count jor Belle Reynolds than of political *h men of California who name was born in When Two years later she went East to complete her education, and upon her taught the first school in Jowa. In April, 1860, she to John G. Re; moved to Pec war were alre: anniversar North was' thrill Fort Sumter had been fired on. Mr. Reynolds, having determined some time before to be the first to enlist in case of war, was among the first four men enrolled in Peoria, enlisting among the Eeventeenth Illinois Volunteers three months men, and soon was or- dered to the front. In the following August Mrs. Rey- nolds decided to join her husband, who ed with the ne was then in camp at Birds Point, Mo. Friends and relatives by the score ad- vised and entreated the young bride to keep at home and not take the aw- ful risks of a soldier in the field. But it was all to no avail. She arrived in camp on the 1ith Three days later orders came to break camp and she went along. She wa but 19—tall, handsome and clous. The whole camp was de- ghted to have her there, and among the sick and wounded her presence was as a visit from a g The officers begged her to accept better and different fare than theirs, but she de- clined, preferring to accept the lot of her husband and to be where she might do the most good in the cause for which her husband and the other ldier boys had enlisted. She ate the same food as did the soldiers, kept on the ground for days at a time, drank from pools and brooks as did the poor- never murmured at ty or fifty n rced marches. She ras busy all day long with her needle and thread for the soldiers and pa many nights with the sick and wo ed soldiers. Her letters to newspapers at the North did incalculable good in informing the Union women what they might do in alleviating the hard. and suffering of the boys at the f “Hundreds of soldiers,” wrote Gen- eral Rawlins to Governor Yates. of Illinois, “will never forget the work of charity and brave that Mrs. Rey- nolds is doing, single-handed, thes I know of no woman who reiping the sick and melancholy sol- dier boys like this brave young woman -scarcely more than a schoolgirl.” ars ago General Lew Wal- lace wrote in a war article in the Cen- tury Magazine: “The Union troops at Shiloh blessed the day that the wife of Colonel John G. Reynolds came among them.” At Cape Girardeau the regiment went into garrison duty for a rionth or so. The battle of Fredericktown followed, and in it Mrs. Reynolds tasted for the first time the horrors of war. Diiring the battlesheremained in the rear, suf- fering the anguish of uncertainty as to the fate of her husband. Twice there came the news that her husband had been mortally wounded at the front, but later she found the report was false. When the battle was over she went on the fleld, ministering to the needs o ON THE FILD OF SHILOR : MRS REYNOLDS HELPING THE WOUNDED IN THE LIFE OF MRS. REYNOLDS WHEN AS A the sick and dying. She was the first woman on the fleld, and the good she did there is inexpressible. The official war di tches to Washingtcn all told of her labors for the wounded and dying, and Horace Greeley wrote a stirring editorial in the ‘New York Tribune concerning her patriotism and goodne: For three days and nights she worked hourly with the wounded and dy . She made no distinction be- tween the blue and the gr: and it seems that she, el ss Barton, might well lay claim to ha g been the irst to initiate the individual work ed on no lofty scheme of action, but merely the. faithful following of a tender-hearted woman’s instincts. Within nine days—on February 6, me the battle of Fort Henry on River. Mrs. Reynolds s to that engagement. She Jote’s gunboats pour to Fort Hen while Illinois soldiers ad- *tory by land. It was bitter cold weather. Mrs. Reynolds worked for a week with but a few hours’ sleep and without removing her clothing, among the hundreds crowded the Lospitals. She on her own responsibility organized a corps of voung people, whose duty was to cheer last hours of the dving. Almost immediately the Seventeenth of Nlinois was ordered to move south- ward. The great camp was full of ex- citement. Mrs. Reynolds’ request to go with the troops to what every one felt was to be the mightiest battle in the West was denied. The officers believed of soldiers that the campaign was too rapid and severe So, while the Illinois with for any woman. regiments marched hastily away, no camp outfits or extra bs any descriptlion M: mained at Fort He the comfort of the r A week later, February 18, 1862, the news of Grant’s and Hunter's wonder- ful victory at Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River thrilled the North as much as the news of the battle at Manila has, and Mrs. Reynolds hast- ened there with all speed to help the soldier boys. There were over 900 wounded in the hospitals and in the country homes of that locality, and the woman—then just 20 years old—threw all her vigor into her hospital service. She was relieved on March 22, and went southward to join in the fortunes of the camp of the Seventeenth Illi- YOUNG BRIDE SHE ACCOMPANIED HER HUSBAND TO THE FRONT IN THE WAR OF 186l nois. fare. Those were great days in war- The army of the Southwest was massing 40,000 strong at Shiloh Church, near Pittsburg Landing. The Confed- erates, 50,000 strong, under Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and Beaure- gard, were coming from the South. The belief that a tremendous battle was at hand was shared by every one. Three weeks before Shiloh was fought Mrs. Reynolds met her husband in camp. Colonel Reynolds had meanwhile been made assistant adjutant general upon McClernand's staff. Here in camp, in- sufficiently fed, through chill and frost and rain, the troops slept on the ground, and Mrs. Reynolds shared the common lot. It is a wonder that all did not die of pneumonia. There were sounds of cannonading and skirmishes in the locality of the camp every day. There were signs that the battle might begin at any hour. Mrs. Reynolds never left the camp. On Sunday, the morning of the 6th of April, she procured a can of peaches and some flour from the sutler and be- gan to prepare a feast for herself and husband over the open campfire burn- ing in front of the headquarters. For v ‘eks a desultory firing had been kept up between the two armies, which were drawn up facing each other and when this firing increased no attention was paid to the circumstances until an orderly dashed into camp, bringing in- formation that the rebels had made an attack in force, and conv ng orders for the Seventeenth to fall in and move forward. The camp was instantly ex- cited. Mrs. Reynolds emptied the con- tents of her frying pan into her hus- band’'s haversack as he came out of the tent ready for the advance. ‘“Here, take these; you will need them,” she said. “I don’t know where I'll find you when this thing is over, Belle,” he re- marked, anxiously, to his wife. “Oh, I'll remain here if possible,” she replied, cheerfully, “and if I'm not here T'll be on the quartermaster’s boat.” Sunday, April 7, night darkness set- tled down with the Northern troops panic stricken. It was necessary to arm those on board the boats to pre- vent them from being cverrun with un- hurt men fleeing to them for shelter. Mrs. Reynolds, by the order of Captain Norton, stood guard, armed with a re- volver, which she was pledged only to shoot in the air. Later that night the boatload,of wounded was conveyed to Savannah. Another load was taken on during the night, and on Monday morning the boat returned for its third load. All night Mrs. Reynelds and other devoted patriots worked without rest to alleviate the suffering.of the wounded. Monday night came the news that the rebels had been beaten and were in retreat toward Corinth. The dead on both sid umbered 4300 and there 000 Union and Confederate wounded. ieutenant-Colonel Smith, who brought the tidings, was also the bearer of a message to Mrs. Revnolds from her husband, the first she had re- ceived since he went into action. Col- onel Smith and his men were literally starving. None of them had partaken of food since Sunday morning, ana some|(of them had not tasted a erumb since Saturday night. Mrs. Revnolds had no authority to give out stores, but she knew where some nice loaves of bread had gone into a locker on the steamer. She broke open the locker, seized a bifurcated garment that she found among sanitary commission stores, tied a knot in each leg, jammed these improviced receptacles full of loaves, and dragged it to Colonel Smith, who threw it across his horse and galloped off to his famishing men. Tuesday morning was clear and cloudless. Mrs. Revnolds, Mrs. Nor- ton and Mrs. Cunningham, a profes- sional nurse, who had in the meantime arrived. left the boat and made their way hetween the dead of both armies to the little log church of Shiloh, which had been turred into a hospital, and presented a ghastly sight. Here the army surgeons were at work in the small anteroom attached to the church, their aperating table bhetng improvised of a plank nlaced across two barrels. It was a frichtful g~ene. Stron= men conld not look upon it. On the floor of the church were men writhing and cursing and pleading for water, which nobody had undertaken to bring. Mrs. Reynoids stepped outside and called for volunteers to g0 with her to the river for water. TFifteen soldiers responded, and at the boat they were furnished with buckets, coffee and hardtack, not the prescribed diet for invalids, but a blessing to the wounded. many of whom were starving. That night the women returned to the boat, which had taken on another load. The next day these horrible scenes were repeated. ‘When Sunday came once more, Mrs. Reynolds had not been in bed for seven nights and lays. The little rest she had caught had been while sitting with her head resting for a few minutes on the rail of the boat, when she would be again roused to care for iie’ wounded. On this day Governor Yates of Illinois arrived, accompanied by a corps of physicians. Among the latter were Drs. Guth and Colburn o® Peoria, her home, men who had hnown her a year before as a blooming bride. They were shocked by her changed and haggard appear- ance, and insiste’ upon her returning Lome for rest. Too worn o. and feebl. for resist- ance, she assented to the plans they made for her to return on the fcllowing day with the gu i1 party in the steamer Black Haw Twenty mem- bers of her husba 'd’'s regiment all of them severely wounded and some of them going to d were on the steamer. Naturally the battle of Pi ‘sburg Land- ing, of which she had been an eye- witness, was the chief topic of con- versation. She was called upon to ans- wer many technieal questions, and gave such an accurate description of the en- gagemert that Governor Yates of Illi- nois (the man who gave General Grant his first commission in the war of the Rebellion) exclaimed as sue concluded: “Why this woman is more deserving of a commission than haif of the men who have them.” “Why not give her a then?" asked Dr. Colburn. Governor Yates called for a blank commission and for a pen and ink. Of this document, which is registered in the Illinois State House, the following is a copy SPRINGFIELD, TI1., April 16, 1862. To All to Whom These Presents Shall Come—Greeting: Know vye, that Mrs. Belle Reynolds, having been duly appointed to the hon- orary position of “Daughter of the Reg- iment’” for meritorious conduct in camp and op the bloody field of Pittsburg Land- ing, I, Richard Yates, Governor of the State of Illinois and commander-in-chief of the Illinois State Militia. for and on behalf of the people of said State, do com- mission her to take rank as major from the Tth day of April, 1862. She Is, therefore, carefully and dill- ently to discharge the dutfes of sald of- ce by doing and performing all manner of things thereunto belonging, and I do strictly require all officers and soldiers under her command to be obedient to her orders, and she is to obey all such or- commission, From a photograph taken recently at her hom @ in Santa Barbara. She is now president of the Women's Parliament of Southern Call~ Only Woman Kfi e Sver Ylade a Hajor in the Regu- lar Army. Siven Fer Commission by SovernorYates, Who Save Srant Fis First Commission. ders and directions_as she shall receive from time to time from her commander- in-chief or superior officer. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the great seal of the State to be affixed. Done at Pittsburg Landing, the 16th day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and and of the independence of States the eighty-sixth. By the Governor. RICHARD YATES, Commander-in-Chief Illinois Militia. ALLEN C. FULLER, Adjutant General, 1. S. M. C. M. Hatch, Secretary of State. Attest: John Moses, A. D. C. Registered in Index Book No. 2, A. G. O. Two weeks later, rested but far from recruited, she returned to the corps. General McClernand used to tell of the scene in the camp of Illinois volunteers the day the first woman commissioned in an American war (perhaps in the world) showed her commission to the soldier boys. There was a shouting and a yelling with delight, and over 3000 of the soldiers marched past Major Belle Reynolds’ tent and saluted her as they passed. It was several years before Major Reynolds recovered from the shock and exposure she underwent that spring of 1862, especially in the week succeeding oh.' Ailthough an invalid and. un- able to minister to the wants of the soldiers in camp where she was, she remained with her husband until the fall of 1864, She : of the mighty events in Amer! Y. heard the cannonading ippi and the crash of in the dozen skirmishes that I to the taking of Vicksburg. She was close to the bat- tle of Champion Hill where the Grant army defeated Pemberton and his Con- federate forces with a terrible loss of life. She was with the Seventeenth Illinois when it advanced with Grant toward Vicksburg. Although an invalld she ate hardtack without a murmurand often thought a blanket on the ground a luxury for one in the ranks. She was very ill when the final bombardment of Vicksburg began, but she kept posted on every movement of the Union troops. Vicksburg was surrendered by General Pemberton on July 4, 1863, and on Tuesday, the 6th, she entered the city with the conquering hosts. In spite of the entreaties of ‘her friends in Illinois Major Reynolds re- mained with the Seventeenth Illinois. Her relatives urged her to abandon her life amid scenes of carnage and go home. But she felt that she had a mis- sion to perform at the front of war. She was the soldier boys' comrade, their friend and-fellow soldier, and they stood on no ceremony wi her, al- though she was a major. Yet she ex erted the strongest and the most cheer- ing influence upon them because of this very feeéling of comradeship. She was the soldier’s comforter and counselor. All through the war she sat many an hour with a sick and wounded man until death or health relieved him. Once when she had almost yielded to the entreaty of her sisters to go home General L. E. Ross wrote to her: “I wish you would stay if you pos- sibly can. Mrs. Reynolds, your influence is so good upon. the boys.” 0Oo0000O0OO0OO0QOO0O Y regular procedure is first to select the topic of the story. This is usually something that i has occurred to me, perhaps years before, and that has been developed by occasionally think- ing about it. The next step is the selection of char- acters, which is the matter of greatest care and study, and I never map out the exact course of the story in od- vance. Naturally I have a more or less distinct notion of how it is {o go, but I find that after I begin writing one chapter suggests another and the story grows of itself. ; Do I receive requests for advice from young writers? Very often, ana if the number of such inquiries coming to me affords any indication there is no dan- ger of the extinction of the American rovel, of which some critics sesm to be afraid. There isn’t much that can be said to thesc young aspirants for iiterary fame. The best advice I know is: “Go ahead, do your best, write the truth that you have as you see it; and if one other per- gon feels and appreciates it as you do the effort will not have been wasted.” Writing is so different from other kinds of work, it depends so much upon individual character and habits of mind that it is impossible to lay down any hard and fast rules in relation to it. No sooner have you done so than somebody violates them all and still comes out on top. Still it may be possible for an old stager, who has kept in more or less intimate touch with the literary world for a. good many years to say a word or two, chiefly in the way of encouraging and reassuring the beginner, that will not be wasted. I will not attempt to instruct the be- ginner as to how to prepare himself or herself (we mustn’t forget the “her” in this) for writing. As I said before, liter- ature is bound by no hard and fast rules. There is no set of books, as in law or engineering, from which one must get his first principles. I don't mean that an acquaintance with the best writing is of no value, but of vast- ly greater importance is the ability and habit of observing the life that ex- ists about one, which nobody has yet put into a book. If the young person we are discuss- ing has the gifts of mind which will make him a successful writer these qualities may be safely left to indicate the course which his * tion” shall take. Only in this way can varie- ty, originality and strength be pre- served in our literature. From this you may see that I am not one of those who constantly uphold the classic standards as models for the young literary workers. I guess that fact is well enough known to those who are sufficiently acquainted with me to be interested in what I say. The nat- ural development of the novel has been from the classic, through the romantic, to the naturalistic. I like the latter term better than realistic because real- ism, in the minds of many persons, is associated with what is sordid and un- pleasant. Of course that isn't true, for reality has its cheerful and encouraging sides as well as the reverse. Realism or nat- uralism being the present, and per- haps the permanent, garb of the novel in its highest form, it follows that the writer’s only textbook which he must never disregard, is life, life in some one of its infinite phases. Sincerity is the great essential. Truth is the one motto that the young writer should put in big letters above his desk. So long as he conforms to that his work cannot be wholly lost. The tendency of recent years has been, I think, toward naturalism. By that I do not mean that it has com- manded the greatest number of read- . ers. Mankind, at least the majority of him, is conservative, sticks to ac- cepted standards, demands the same kind of food that he has been accus- tomed to. But I think it an evidence of ad- vanced and educated literary taste that the most intelligent element of the reading public now demands, not an absorbing story, but a strong delinea- tion of character, a bit of nature or life transplanted to the pages of a book. It is well for the young writer to get it thoroughly settled in his mind that no- body in the future will be reckoned great who is false to humanity and that there is no true picture of life which is not, by that fact, a work of art. The question for the writer to ask himself constantly and searchingly in contem- plating his work is, “Is it true—true to the thoughts and principles that shape life?” As an example of the tendency to subordinate plot take Tolstof, who is, perhaps, the greatest of realists. Some of his ‘stories are scarcely more than exquisite delineations of character and motives and yet they are masterpieces of fiction. 7 I never copy the character of an in- dividual. That would be to give a por- trait. What is taken represents a type. Every character created by an author s from his own individuality. coan;en our young person sets out in a serious attempt to write, having fully absorbed, let us say, the life about him, he is surprised to find that it is hard work. He decides that he cannot hope to become great for he has been taught that the great writer, the genius in lit- erature, throws off his masterpieces without an effort. I know of nothing more discouraging to the young writer than this genius theory, and for the re- lief of any to whom it still exists as a bugaboo, I will say that I am pretty sure it's a myth. The only genius svorth talKing about in writing as in everything else is the genius of hard work. Of course brains are necessary and not all men have the mental equipment to become successful authors, but the jdea that good literature comes as a sort of heaven-sent inspiration is erro- neous. Not to mention myself, I can say from my acquaintance with suc- cessful authors, that most of the good literature of recent years has been ground out by painstaking and labori- ous work. I suspect that the same thing would be found to be true of earlier writers, had there been news- papers and reviews to probe into their daily lives and habits of work. Closely akin to this genius delusion is the idea that a man can write with good results only when the fit s on him. This is a lazy man’s theory, but it is easy for a young author to persuade himself into it. The only way for a writer to accomplish anything is to set aside certain hours of the day (not too many) for his work, and devote him- self to the work then as completely as though he were in an office or a factory. It may be hard at first, but he will soon become accustomed to it, and will grow into the habit of working at that time. I don’t believe in trying to write so many hundred words every day, but if the writer devotes a certain amount of time to his task, even if he does not ac- complish much at each sitting, he will find the results mounting up in a sat- isfactory way. The man who waits for inspiration is likely to wait a long time for recognition. I don’t believe that a writer should try to lose himself in his story, as is so often recommended. The advice sounds well, but it isn't sound. I hold that the greatest actor is the one who never forgets himself, and so it is in writing. The author should stand con- stantly In the attitude of critic and in- quire, “Is this true? Is it the way such a character would act or speak ©0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000Q0000000000000000000000000000000000000 00 % ow to Juoeeea' as an .7{2[2‘/%0}‘.‘ .73y Witliam Dean Fowells. ©©00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000C000000000000000000000 00000000 o under such circumstances?" He should have all his characters clearly delin- eated. They should stand out plainly before his mind's eye. But, after all, they are the creations of his own indi- viduality, and must remain so, if the story is to be worth anything. As to the best time and the best way to work each man must decide for him- self. I used to do most of my work at night, a survival of the newspaper habit, I suppose. But now I have changed to the morning, and nearly all my work is done before the noon hour. I think that that is really the best time, that a man’s mind is fresher and more vigorous then. In composing I generaily use a pen, because I want to see the. last word or sentence 1 have written, where careful thought s involved and I am going slowly. But I have a type- writer in my study, and when I see plain sailing ahead I turn to that. I may say, too, that my greatest dif- ficulty, and one that I probably share with many other writers, is in making a beginning. It is mighty hard work sometimes to start a story that will al- ‘ways carry itself along once it is under way. It is often said that too many books are written nowadays. I don’t agree with that