Four years on the firing line

Front matter

FOUR YEARS

ON THE

FIRING LINE

Foreword

It is conceded that the Southerner put up his fight for his principles. Inherited experiences of the price of a principle were in him. His Hugenot, Covenanter, and Cavalier ancestry had waded hipdeep in blood for "what they then believed to be right!" "Dieu pt mon droit." It had the pull of a planet with the Southerner.

This book is a tribute to the Confederate Soldier.

Its pages are written in the interest of historic truth.

They record personal impressions and observations of the stirring times prior to and during the Civil War: and of the stormy Reconstruction Era: following the cessation of hostilities in the field. These stories of courage, fortitude, sacrifice, deal with the human side of the struggle: the pathos — the laughter — the tragedy — and even the comedy of four frantic years.

The campaigns and battles through which the writer passed are herein set down. All important facts mentioned are verified from the statements and records of "our friends, the enemy." Brief accounts are given of soldiers under whom and with whom I served: and of certain leaders of the opposing forces: with a full and free criticism of everybody and everything concerned.

"The fear of ofTending established views, destroys the powers of investigation." I write without fear or favor: with the unhindered pen of limpid candor: moved by "the fighting soul of a fighting man, proved in the long ago."

When the passions engendered by the Civil War are an extinct volcano, may some new Macaulay arise! — to give the world an unbiased history of the War Between the States: compiled from data furnished by the men who fought its battles.

THE SCOTCHMAN IN AMERICA.

Said Edmund Burke: "Those will not look forward to their posterity, who never look back at their ancestry," The posterity of the Southern colonist had to be reckoned with in the Southern Soldier. What was behind him? Emigrants driven to America by oppression, who taught their children to resist tyranny.

The Scotch people, imbued with the doctrine of "final perseverance" carry the idea into every undertaking: and Scotch persistance, bred in the bone, has created history "wherever they have made their mortal fight. Under great difficulties, against overwhelming odds, the Scotch succeeded in establishing Presbyterianism as the religion of Scotland. And for centuries, the Covenanter's immovable moral principle — moral dominance — made him a target for every shaft.

Execrable Jeffreys, "link'd to one virtue and a thousand crimes," vociferated in fhe assizes: "I can smell a Presbyterian forty miles!" which was possible, since the vulture does scent its prey for that distance! Taine cast this saying in the teeth of the prolific De Foe: "When he approaches fiction, it is with low ideals and moral aims: — like a Presbyterian and a plebian."

Old Hudibras was hardly unfair to the Goveaanter :

"For he was of that stubborn crew Of errant-saints, whom all men grant To be the true church militant: Such as do build their faith upon The holy text of pike and gun!"

In this our day, corosive Ingersnll is moved to say: "Of all the Msms' that over afflicted mankind Presbyterianism is the worst."

And a sharp-toothed critic whose bark is not worse than his bite, attacks James Lane Allen's poetic style with the old gibe: "But behind the poet lurks the Presbyterian!"

Nevertheless, the faith of the Covenanter has withstood for centuries — always and everywhere — the onset of infidelity and oppression.

In America these people are spoken of as Scotch- Irish: a misnomer, if Scotch-Irish implies a graft of Scotch blood on Irish stock. Apart from, the thousands of Scotchmen who came direct to America, what of the Ulstermen? — the Scf>tf'hmpu who made a stepping-stone of the north of Ireland on their v^^ay to independence?

In the year 1609 was inaugurated a settlement of the plantations in Ulster by Scotch gentry from the "lowlands" around and between Glasgow and Edinburg. They were selected by his Majesty James I for "their probity, intelligence, and industry." The lands in Ulster — a million acres, or more — had been forfeited to the Grown. The earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel having carried on internecine wars — we call 'em feuds in Kentucky! — for many years, found their possessions in ruins, taxes unpaid, and lands desolate. The English government put a stop to further fighting. Presto, the plucky Irishmen — branded as outlaws — took ship with some of their retainers, and sailed away to the Continent: taking with them the glorious memory of "illegant flghtthin" and leaving their paternal acres to King James.

To the Scotch settlers these lands were sold on favorable terms and conditions, as Indian lands are sold here. History sets forth that the new comers and their descendants were thrifty: improving the soil, building churches, schools, cities. A London colony had a grant of 210,000 acres near Derry. They settled there, and the town became in time Londonderry. About this time came the Hugenots; skilled artisans who escaped to these shores from France, after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Later a large body of Hollanders were sent out by William of Orange: settling about Belfast. With these immigrants the Scotch intermarried: retaining, however, their racial characteristics and form of faith. With the native Irish Catholics it does not appear that the Scotch did intermarry. Between these two peoples existed a deadly hostility: irreconcilable differences in belief. Except in isolated instances, social contact was aveided. So the Scotch-Irishman was a Scotchman born in Ireland: not a man of Scotch and Irish parentage. One old historian, who was out of this stock, observes: ''They formed a distinct race from the native Celts : and were distinguished for enterprise, intellectual capacity and love of liberty."

It was the non-conformist laws begun under Elizabeth in 1558, and continued under the Stuarts, and even under William of Orange, which drove so many people of Scotch descent to America in the two hundred years prior to the Revolution. Notwithstanding the heroic defense of Londonderry, and the successful battle of the Boyne, the English ecclesiastical laws continued to burden the Scotchmen. So, in the century and a half from 1620 to 1775, there occurred a still greater tide of emigration from the Lowlands of Scotland, and from the "stepping-stone" in Ireland, Ulster, to America. They came hating the English government. Opposition was bred in the bone of their children. Landing, for the most part, at Philadelphia, they pushed inland: western Pennsylvania receiving the first great accession from this invasion. On, through the Cumberland Valley to the Potomac rolled the tidal wave of Covenanters. When the Virginia House of Burgesses granted them an Act of Religious Toleration, they overspread the Valley of Vir ginia from Harper's Ferry to Staunton: excepting that portion of Rockingham county settled by Ger man protestants: and they also occupied the Piedmont country from Leesburg to Charlottesville.

This tide, turning south at length, was met by a similar invasion of Scotch Presbyterians coming from the ports of Wilmington and Charleston: to people the counties of middle North Carolina and northern South Carolina. Here was "The Foreloper:" — come to gouge a home out of the wilderness.

"The gull shall whistle in his wake, the blind wave

break in fire, He shall fulfil God's utmost will unknowing His

desire : And he shall see old planets pass and alien stars

arise : And give the gale his reckless sail in the shadow

of new skies.

Strong lust of gear shall drive him out, and hunger

arm his hand To wring his food from a desert nude, his foothold

from the sand.

His neighbor's smoke shall vex his eyes, their voices

break his rest.

He shall go forth till south is north, sullen and

dispossessed; And he shall desire loneliness, and his desire shall

bring Hard on his heels a thousand wheels, a people and

a king:

And he shall come back in his own track, and by

his scarce cool camp There he shall meet the roaring street, the derrick

and the stamp: For he must blaze a nation's ways with hatchet and

with brand, Till on his last-won wilderness an empire's bulwarks stand."

In the day of the musket and frying-pan — and conscience! — outfit, the preacher was not without authority. How did he use it in these Southern colonies? Bending across the little pine table which held The Word of God in the log meeting-house, the Covenanter delivered to his spell-bound congregation this message: "We must fight!"

"Sorely have our countrymen been dealt with ; until forced to the declaration of their independence. Our forefathers in Scotland made a similar declaration and maintained it with their lives. It is now our turn to maintain this."

This was the sermon the old Covenanter, Martin, thundered into the ears of his flock at the Rocky Creek meeting-house on the Catawba river, in the rumble of the tempest — the A.merican Revolution.

His listeners were "the descendants of the most vigorous and worthy Irish, Scotch, English and Wolsh." Every m.other's son of them believed "No man's authority is greater than any man's right."

Lo, the breed of the Southern Soldier! From these armies of Covenanters turned loose in America sprung up, in the fullness of years, the bigger paH of the army of the Confederacy. From these undismayed souls — law-abiding, God-fearing, hard-fighting fellows — came forth The Man in Gray: — he whose doings shook the world.

The mass of Scotch Presbyterians was always aglow with "that very fiery particle" the Irsh Presbyterian. After the Revolution he became the hornet of Education. He stood for attainments and

"the hickory." He thrashed an education into the young Southerners.

Governor Gilmer, in his nistory of the settlement of Georgia, remarks : "The schools, in almost every instance, were taught by educated Irishmen : and the highest ambition of an Irish Presbyterian was to have his eldest son become a preacher."

The severance of the colonies from Great Britain, in numberless cases, meant the severance of the individual from the ties and claims of consanguinity: from rights, titles and inheritances more or less considerable. When the President of the United States wore leather shoe-strings as an item of "straight Democracy," he set the pace for other people. To be American a man must disdain lineage and noble forbears. If he were a younger son out of titled family, — there w'ere then, as now, plenty of them in America— few persons were the wiser for it. Who cared? The aristocrat had become the poor pioneer. As a result of this state of things. The Man in Gray was, in thousands and thousands of instances, a scion of historic and noble families. Many a time he Imew it. Many a time he didn't even know it. The wilderness smudges away distinctions. Howbeit, into the "melting-pot" of the Southern colonies went not only the "simple faith," but the "Norman blood." Specifically, the rank and file of the Southern armies boasted some of the best blood on earth. And plenty of it ! As for the private — God bless him ! — there were privates in our ranks whose pedigrees, as a matter of fact, are pointed out in Burke's Peerage. So, we are reminded of the Irish witticism: "Faith, every man is as good as every other one, — an' bet-ther too!"

In the Scotch output via Philadelphia in the year year 1730 was one antecedent of the Southern Soldier that I know most about. His name was John Nisbet. He was a descendent of that historic religious turbulent, Murdoch Nisbet, of Hardhill, Loudon parish, Scotland. Murdoch Nisbet — born in the year 1500 — was one of those religious precursors of the Reformation who suffered exile for his principles. He left behind him, at his death, his translation of the Scriptures from the original, and a great-grandson who became — at the conjunction of the Man and the Hour — a martyr to his faith. This was John Nisbet I. He was Captain John Nisbet of the Army of the Covenant. He, too, was born at Hardhill, Scotland: in 1627. He saw military service abroad, before he became an officer in the Army of the Covenant. After the battle of Bothwell's bridge, he was captured by Claverhouse's cavalry. He was tried by the infamous Jeffreys at "the bloody assizes" in Edinburg: "with the Duke of Argyle and other prominent Scotch leaders, he was convicted of treason against the English government, and executed December 4th, 1685. Hume mentions his as "gallant John Nisbet." Lord Torfoot, in his memoirs — Edinburg Library — refers to him in the same manner. And "honest old John Nisbet" was the tender name given him by Sir Rob-

' "f^amilton, his commander-in-chief.

Afterward, when the cause of the Covenanters ftad prevailed, John Nisbet's son, James Nisbet, became Governor of Edinburg Castle; and wrote and published (1719) the life of his father: (Edinburg Public Library) from which volume these facts are derived. James's son, John Nisbet IT, was born 1705, and came to America in 1730. Landing at Philadelphia, as already mentioned, he finally settled in Bladen County N. C. — afterwards Rowan County — about 1735. There, in "Thyatira Cemetery" he is buried, with "Sarah, his faithful wife; who departed this life in ye month of October 1764." The son of these two people, — John Nisbet III — was born 1738. He married Mary, the daughter of Colonel Alexander Osborne, and " was a man of distinction in his day: prominent in the Revolutionary struggle." Of him, one of the histories of North Carolina says: "He was a man whose brains, wealth, and activities were employed in the service of his counh^y. His death was lamented." (Statesville, North Carolina, 1813.)

"His son. James Nisbet, after graduation, took his diploma in medicine from Jefferson College, Philadelphia. He moved to Georgia, with his negroes and settled a plantation near Union Point in Greene County. He married Penelope Cooper; daughter of Captain Thomas Cooper, who had come to Georgia from Virginia in 1793; settling a plantation in the newly acquired Creek-Indian Lands, known as Hancock County. Captain Cooper had been a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses; an office then scarcely inferior in dignity, and superior in influence, to that of delegate to the Continental Congress. During the Revolution Thomas Cooper held a captaincy in "George Vv^ashington's Own." He died in 1779. James Nisbet and his wife, Penelope Cooper Nisbet, reared a large family; five sons and four daughters: several of whom became distinguished Georgians: notably, Eugenius A. Nisbet; whose decisions as judge of supreme court are still quoted OS high authority. Judge Nisbet was an active trustee of the State University, member of the U. S. Congress, afterwards of the Confederate Congress, and an Elder in the Presbyterian Church. Another son was Franklin A. Nisbet: cotton-planter, legislator, and man of letters. He married Miss Arabella Alexander of Alabama. Their children and grand-children do honor to the name they bear. A third son was James A. Nisbet. He married Frances Rebecca, daughter of Dr. John Wingfield : of Madison, Georgia; a distinguished and highly cultivated gentleman. James A. Nisbet practiced law successfully in Macon, Georgia. He was a leading citizen in building up that section of the state. James Alexander Nisbet and Francis Wingfield Nisbet were my parents.

In May 1775 we find these people — Scotch-Americans — assembled in Charlotte, North Carolina, promulgating "The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence:" more than a year before others in the Colonies were ready to tala^ such a step.

The "Declaration" was written by Dr. Ephraim Brevard, a relative of the Nisbet family; and the document read to the crowd assembled at the Charlotte Court House, by Dr. Brevard's brother, a lawyer of that place. The meeting at the Court House was called together by Col. Thomas PolR: a greatuncle of President Jas. K. Polk. President Polk's grandfather, Ezekiel Polk, was one of the signers of this momentous instrument: — an instrument iu the most literal sense of the word ;since it was meant "to instruct" and "to build up".

The authenticity of "The Mecklenburg Declaration has been questioned. Thomas Jefferson wro*'^ a jocular letter to John Adams in which he expresses a doubt of its authenticity; saying: "I neverheard of it until twenty years after." However, the legislature of North Carolina took the matter up; and appointed a committee of investigation The British archives, and the Colonial archives of North Carolina were searched. It was ascertaineo that the Loyalist governor of North Carolina, Governor Martin, had obtained a copy of The Cape Fear Neivs, in which Thb Mecklenburg Declaration was published, and had forvv'arded the inflammatory sheet to the British officials with a letter denouncing the "Declaration" as "infamous;" and recommending that the men who had signed it be seized for treason.

There were about thirty "signers".

And every man of 'em was a Presbyterian!

Governor Gilmer, a man of the highest character and cultivation, contributes his testimony regarding the Mecklenburg Declaration, in his History. It is new light — and lime-light — on old doubts. Those who would impugn the precedence of the movement for Independence, should read Gilmer's statement, here quoted for the first time.

"The rumors about the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill, so excited the Scotch-Irish of Mecklenburg that on the 10th of May 1775, they assembled in the little village of Charlotte to agree upon what they would do. They made the following Declarations of their opinions and purposes." (Then follows a copy of the instrument.) "There are still living some whose parents were in that assemblage," the old historian continues "and heard and read the resolutions; and from whose lips they learned the circumstances and sentiments of this remarkable Declaration. When the chairman of the meeting put the question: "Who will carry our resolves to the Congress of the Confederation?" James Jack, a bold, enthusiastic man, answered: "I will."

Immediately after a lone horseman might have been seen pressing his horse on through the country toward the north. When James Jack arrived in Philadelphia,, he attended the Congress and delivered his message to some of its members. That body took no notice of it in its proceedings. The majority were not then prepared to jeopardize their lives and property by doing what was treasonable.

While the Declaration of Independence made by the Congress of the Confederation, on the 4th of July. 1776, has been upon the lips of every American upon every return of its anniversary, the Declaration of Independence made more than a year before, by the Mecklenburg people, remained for a long time unknown to fame. The fact that such a "Declaration" had been made, was unnoticed in history; unknown to the public: and denied when asserted: — until placed beyond dispute by the production of two copies which had continued in the possession of persons present when it was made : and by the finding of a copy which was sent to his Government by some British officer in the Southern Colonies, and deposited in the Colonial Office of London".

It is unfortunate Uiat Gilmer's transcripiion of The Mecklenburg "Declaration of Independence" is undated. He testified thai the date -was May iO'h., 1775.

At that pregnant period there were few Methodists. Before the Revolution, Wesley sent out two ministers to America. (1769) In 1 773 there were in the Thirteen States a membership of 1,160 Methodists, This number was reported at their first American Conference: Baltimore, 1773. This consisted of ten Methodist preachers; all born in England or Ireland. Being unable to take the oath of allegiance to the Colonies, or to sympathize with things American, these men all returned to England, except one: Asbury. By May 1776 there were 24 Methodist preachers and 4,921 members. Of these, seven preachers and one thousand members returned to England at the outbreak or hostilities.

In Bhcde Island Roger Williams had a big backing of Baptists : and there were a few scattered throughout the Colonies. In 1727 a church was <>rganiz"d in North Carolina, with a small congre gallon. In Virginia, about the same time, the Bapfist Church was increased considerably by accessictns from England. In 1770 Brown University, of Providence, was founded. The Baptists in the States though weak in numbers, were for Independence and religious freedom: and took an active part in the Revolution. Just before, and just after the war with Great Britain, there were Baptist revivals; and a phenomenal increase in the numbers of this church. After the Revolution both denominations — Baptists and Methodists— grew in numbers, rapidly. Our forefathers were embracing forms of church government better suited to pioneer life. Hence, during the Civil War the Presbyterians were in the minority, albeit the majority of the population was of Scotch stock.

It appears that the Episcopalians about Charlotte — that North Carolina village was the Oracle of

American Independence : — at the inception of the Revolution were English ; and loyal to the crown. English Episcopalians held inviolate the doctrine of Church and State : believing in prelacy. They had no quarrel with Great Britain; but loved the Mother- Country. At the outbreak of war, the Ghurclimen in the Northern States generally held with the British Governmont. Southern Churchmen, when the fight was on, were, for the most part, enlisted in the cause of the Great Rebellion,

There were a vast number of Loyalists. John Adams estimated that at the close of the struggle with Great Britain, "one third of the total population of three millions, were opposed to the measures of the Revolution." During the conflict many Loyalists fled to England, or to some of the British Possessions . A large number enlisted for active service, against their fellow-colonists: in regularly organized British regiments. Thousands took refuge in Canada; where, between forty and fifty thousand are said to have gone prior to 1786,

The reminiscences of these people record vicissitudes and disruption. History, as they made it, was a fierce experience. Their prolonged wanderings are an Odyssey of stirring interest. The fidel ity of these people ^o the English Grown was unfaltering. It was by these emigrants that the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were settled. The British Government made liberal provision to cover their losses.

The very spirit of the initiative, we find the Scotch-American on the Wautauga and Holston: always bound for the frontier; always, — where new land could be had — entering in to possess i\ : always the Prologue to Civilization. On, to middle Tennessee he pressed; making that state the stronsrhold of the Scotch-American breed in the United States. The richest lands became theirs by rigtit of discovery and occupation. The settler of a later and safer p'-riod might take what liis bold predecessor hftd no use for. After the Revolution, emigrants from the Carolinas, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, settled the "middle West." Still pushing westward with Sam Houston, Crockett and Fannin, the "Lone Star State" was added to our Republic. This was the breed of men that under the leadership of "the Lewises of Augusta County, Virginia," broke the backbone of Indian power at Point Pleasant, and opened up the Ohio River. Under the same leaders they saved Braddock's army at Fort Du Quesne: and it was Daniel Morgan's regiment from the Valley of Virginia that secured victory at Saratoga. When Morgan was presented to General Rurgoyne, the latter exclaimed : "My dear Sir, you command the finest regiment in the world;" Morgan was made Brigadier-General and sent to Greene's assistance in South Carolina, and was the hero of the "Cowpens." He died at his beautiful home "Saratoga" and is buried near Winchester, Virginia.

At Brandywine; Cowpens; King's Mountain; Guilford Court House ; Yorktown, The Scotch-American was the chief factor of success to the American arms. And still later, in the person of General Andrew Jackson at New Orleans and in the make-up of his army. The Scot in Scotland, in Ireland, in America, never loses his racial identity. "Semper Eadem" is the motto that fits the man. That which he was at Derry and the Boyne, and in the battles of the Civil War, that will he be whenever his country calls. Wheresoever he makes his "mortal fight" he is always the first to start, and the last to stop.

Ex-Governor Joseph Johnston of Alabama, says: "In the war between the States, the two most largely populated by the "Scotch-Irish" race, led all the rest in the splendor of their achievements: and the greatest loss occurred when the Iron Soldiers of North Carolina, and Western Pennsylvania, descendants of the same race and stock, met on the field of battle, and locked arms in the embrace of death."

The greatest loss sustained by any regiment during the Civil War, was that of the 26th. North Carolina at Gettysburg. It went into the fight 800 strong; its loss in killed and wounded was 580: — over seventy per cent. This loss was sustained ir figuliiig the 151st Pennsylvania, and Cooper's Batccr V ,

The Light Drigade at Balaklava, immorlalized by historians and poets, lost, in that "wild charge the\ made," only ihiriy-three and a third per cent.

In 1861 the voting population of North Carolina was only 115,000, yet the state furnished the Confederate army 125,000 soldiers.

14,552 North CaroUna troops fell in the field. The number of those who died from wounds, was 20,00? Total loss 35,124.

North Carolina resisted secession, but was first at Bethel— Col. D. H. Hill's North Carolina Brigade firing first shot — and last at Appomattox — Goxe's North Carolina Brigade firing the last shot.

When this Scotch blood gave its impulse to the Union Armies after 1862, — it poured in from Western Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois and the other middle-western states — it did more to turn the tide of battle, which had at first set in favor of the South, than the Puritan, German, or any other strain.

This stock has given eight Presidents to the United States. Of the Secretarys of the Treasury, one half the number are of this blood: as are one third of the Secretarys of State. Among them we find the names of Louis McClean, Thomas Ewing, John C. Calhoun, Thomas Corwin, Henry Clay, James Guthrie, Jefferson Davis, Salmon P. Chase, John C. Breckinridge, Hugh McCulloch, Jas. G. Blaine. The Puritan in America has received generous recognition, and so has the Cavalier. It is high time that justice be done the Scot, who has played the most prominent part in American Civilization.

Among Revolutionary statesmen and orators, Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Patrick Henry led the van. Of Washington's 22 Brigadiers, nine were of Scotch descent. Andrew Jackson and his men gave us peace with the Indians and Great Britain, and wrested Florida from the Spaniards. Sara Houston, Crocket and Fannin gave us Texas. In the Civil War the names of such Unionists as Grant, McPherson, MoDowell, McClellan, Gilmore and Frank Blair became salient. Among the Confederates of imperishable fame, were Jos. E. Johnston, James Longstreet, J. E. B. Stuart, and how many others? — all of the self-same breed. And there is yet another name which in itself is enough to shed an undying lustre over the ranks of the Lost Cause : — over the whole race of Scotch-Americans; — Stonewall Jackson.

In the field of invention, the American Scot bulks large. Henry and Morse, evolvers of the telegraph; Edison, the Avatar of Electricity; and Alexander Graham Bell, come first. Bell was born m Edinburg.

In manufactures, Cyrus McCormick is the genius of the harvest. The wheat-fields of the West are brought to our doors with his reapers. As for the iron-masters of Ohio and Pennsylvania, Scotch- Americans, — all. From Grant and Campbell — the first to use the Hot-Blast^ — -to Andrew Carnegie: in whose colossal operations the iron and steel manufactures seem to culminate.

In transportation, the great Penn. R. R. system has been continuously in the hands of men ofScotch extraction: Edgar Thompson; McCulloch; Scott; McRee; Pitcairn; Andrew Carnegie, A. J .Cassatt.

The fast printing-presses were developed by Gordon and Campbell.

The most notable editors in the United States were Bennett and Greely : one a Scotchmen ; the other an Ulsterman. Bennett is credited with the conception of the modern newspaper: a universal newsmonger.

Greely, "our later Franklin," as he was termed by Whittier, made the newspaper the most efficient force ever used in the propagation of political conceptions.

In literature, the Scotch-American is eloquent. That patriarch of American Letters, Washington Irving, was the son of Scotch parents who had been but two years in x\merica when the coming author — came.

Against the background of the world the Scotch- American stands in bas-relief:

II Premonitions Of War

In.1856 I was preparing for college at a highschool in Rome, Georgia. There, I first met Algernon Sydney Hamilton, a son of Dr. Thomas Hamilton of Bartow, — then Cass County — Georgia. We were related through our common ancestor Captain Thomas Cooper.

Hamilton had just returned from "Bloody Kansas," and had many stirring tales to tell of his adventures. He and his brothers, Charles and Peter, had taken their negroes there, — as authorized by the Kansas-Nebraska Act — and entered land. When the agitation over slavery had culminated in bloodshed, the Hamiltons had joined and fought with the ''Missouri Ruffians," under United States Senator Atchison, against the "Kansas Jay-Hawkers". The pro-slavery men were at first successful, and organized the territory under the Le Compton Constitution : which authorizes slavery. This Constitution was rejected by Congress. Another election was ordered.

In the meantime, the crusade begun in the North by Henry Ward Beecher, W^endell Phillips, Theodore Parker, Geritt Smith and others, w^ equal to that begun by Peter the Hermit, when his proclamations aroused Europe to rescue the Holy Sepulchre.