HARRISON, BENJAMIN. 



409 



that if he influenced others to go, he must be 

 with them. " Very well, then," said the Gov- 

 ernor, "if you want to go, you can command 

 them." "I do not know that I want to com- 

 mand them." replied Harrison ; u I do not know 

 anything about military tactics. So, if you can 

 find some suitable person of experience, I am 

 not at all anxious to take the command." He 

 left the court-house and, without going home, 

 bought a military cap, engaged a fifer and drum- 

 mer, returned to his office, flung out a flag 

 from the window, and began recruiting for 

 Company A. The regiment was soon full, and 

 the Governor, without solicitation, commis- 

 sioned him as its colonel. It was designated 

 as the Seventieth Indiana, and was brigaded 

 with the Seventy-ninth Ohio, the One Hun- 

 dred and Second, One Hundred and Fifth, 

 and One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Illinois, 

 under Brig.-Gen. William T. Ward, of Ken- 

 tucky. The organization of the brigade re- 

 mained unchanged during the war, Harrison 

 holding the right wing, as he held the older 

 commission. Gen. Wallace has made a collec- 

 tion of letters written by various men in the 

 regiment, some of whom are now well known. 

 The following extracts are from these letters : 



" We were encamped near Nashville, and, as nil who 

 were there at tha time remember, it was one of the 

 coldest winters on record. I remember that during 

 one of the cold nights 1 was on picket, and I saw a 

 man approaching from the direction of the officers' 

 quarters. I halted him. and, when lie gave the 

 countersign and advanced, I saw it was Gen. (then 

 Col.) Harrison. He had a large can filled with hot 

 coffee, and, when I asked him what he was doing, he 

 said he was afraid that some of the pickets would 

 freeze to death, and he knew some - hot coffee would 

 help the men to keep alive. He was the ruost wel- 

 come visitor I ever met, for I really believe I would 

 have frozen before morning had not the coffee been 

 brought. After leaving me, the general passed on to 

 all the other pickets." 



" On the 14th of May, the day before the battle of 

 Eesaca, our regiment was ordered to advance through 

 a strip of woodland, which ended at the foot of a hill. 

 On the brow of an opposite hill were the rebels, and 

 the position we were ordered to take put us in direct 

 range of their guns. We were subjected to a terrific 

 fire, and, as we could see no reason why we should 

 occupy such an exposed position, many of us wanted 

 to fall back. Gen. Harrison was with us, on foot, at 

 the head of the column, and he said we would obey 

 orders and stay there if we died. Our ranks were 

 thinned by the bullets of the enemy, but we held our 

 position, and Gen. Harrison never" left his advanced 

 post." 



" No man was dearer to the boys in the line than 

 Gen. Harrison, and it rose from one single element in 

 the man's character his determination to take the 

 leading part in whatever he asked his men to do. I 

 shall never forget the sight I had of him waving his 

 sword and shouting, in that shrill voice for which he 

 was noted, ' Come on, boys ! ' One scene has always 

 lived in my memory. Our old chaplain. Allen, a man 

 who was beloved by all the boys, and for whom al- 

 most every man in the regiment would have lost his 

 life, conducted services on Sunday, with Gen. Harri- 

 son (then colonel) and Lieut.-Col. Sam Merrill assist- 

 ing. 1 have often heard Gen. Harrison offer up the 

 prayer for the boys' welfare and protection down 

 there on those Southern fields, so far away from home, 

 and many times have heard him address the boys in 

 place of the chaplain." 



out a civilian and without any military 

 trainin<_r whatever, 1:,- became one ol' the el<>-. 

 dents of the science and art of war there was in the 

 army. A- lie. does in everything else, be threw fail 

 whole heart into the work of making himself a profi- 

 cient officer and his regiment a well-disciplined oody 

 of men. And he sureee<le<l in an eminent <le_'ive in 

 both instances. Ik- was a very sympathetic man. 



Whenever a soldier was hurt in the liisi-hargo of his 



duty, none was readier to offer cympathv than he. 

 And as a result of this trait of his character, he al- 

 ways looked after the welfare of his regiment with 

 scrupulous care. He never went to bed at niirht with- 

 out knowing that the boys were goin_ r to have a 

 a breakfast as could be secured in the morning." 



"On the Atalanta campaign Harrison's regiment 

 one day crossed a small bridge' over a sluggish stream 

 and advanced through an open field toward a neigh- 

 boring crest. While" they were in the field the pickets 

 jost over the hill came flying back, beiu^ driven in 

 by the advance of the rebels in force. Harrison's 

 regiment, and the others making up the brigade, 

 pressed rapidly up toward the crest, and when thev 

 reached the top they met the enemy face to lace, ft 

 was a fierce struggle to fee who could hold the com- 

 manding position, and the fight became fierce and 

 bloody, a hand-to-hand encounter in which soldiers 

 on each side thrust bayonets and clubbed each other 

 with muskets. Just at that time the rebels captured 

 a battery on the Union right, and turned the guns on 

 our men. It looked like disaster, indeed, and doubly 

 so because the mule-trains, close in the rear of the 

 troops, were filling up the road and clogging the 

 bridge in a way that made a stampede imminent. 

 Just then I saw Gen. Harrison riding up and down 

 in front of the line, waving his sword and calling on 

 the boys to stand their ground. Nothing but such an 

 example on the part of the commander could have 

 held the troops. They retook their batterv, and pre- 

 vented what looked at one time to be disaster and 

 complete ruin." 



" At Peach Tree Creek our regiment charged on their 

 [the Confederates'] line arid cleaned it out, but we lost 

 250 men in half an hour, so you may know we had hot 

 work. In this fight Harrison, still a colonel, took the 

 lead. As he swung himself into line not six feet from 

 me he said: l Come on 2 boys ; we've never been licked 

 yet, and we won't begin now. We haven't much am 

 munition, but if necessary we can give them the cold 

 steel, and before we get licked we can club them down ; 

 so, come on.' And we went, glad to fight by the side 

 of ' Little Ben,' who shirked nothing, and "took just 

 the same chance of getting a bullet through the heart 

 as we did. Not a soldier but liked Ben Harrison. We 

 won the day after a hard fight. For his bravery on 

 that day Harrison was promoted at the special recom- 

 mendation of Gen. Hooker." 



"I believe it was twenty- four years ago that Dr. 

 Jones and myself found him alone taking care of the 

 poor wounded boys of his regiment that suffered so 

 severely that day. With his coat off, and sleeves rolled 

 up, he worked far after midnight, until every wounded 

 man was attended to." 



The following is the official letter of Harri- 

 son's commander, Gen. Joseph Hooker, which 

 was followed by his promotion : 



HEADQUARTERS NORTHERN DEPARTMENT. 

 CINCINNATI, OHIO, Oct. 81, 1HU. 



HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War : 



I desire to call the attention of the department to 

 the claims of Col. Benjamin Harrison of the Seventi- 

 eth Indiana Volunteers for the promotion to the rank 

 of Brigadier-General Volunteers. Col. Harrison first 

 joined me in command of a brigade of Ward's division 

 in Lookout valley preparative to entering upon what 

 is called the Campaign of Atlanta. My attention was 

 first attracted to this'young officer by the superior ex- 

 cellence of his brigade in discipline and instruction, 



