Dick's Conflagration
Transcribed by Larry Stevens
Anecdote Told of the New Commander of Indian Territory, G.A.R.
EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: In your issue of June 10 I was
pleased to note that at the sixth annual Encampment, held at
Muscogee, May 20, the Department of the Indian Territory elected
R.M.J. Shriver, of Post 11, Miama, as Commander.
Comrade Shriver - or "Dick," as he was familiarly called - was
one of the "all-around" good boys of the old 78th Ohio, and, if I
am not mistaken, was on every march and took part in every skirmish
and general engagement participated in by that organization, from
the surrender of Fort Donelson, in February, 1861, to the musterout
of the regiment, in July, 1865.
The very complimentary announcement made brings fresh to mind
a circumstance that the comrade may have forgotten.
One day while we were marching through Georgia, or some other
State south, the writer and possibly a score of others were
surprised to see Dick step quickly out of ranks, and without a word
fling his trusty old Springfield onto the ground. Before a
stuttering boy could count to ten he had unburdened himself of
knapsack and accoutrements, tossing them in a promiscuous heap, and
then, in one time and two motions, off came his blouse.
We looked on in astonishment, and while cogitating in our own
minds as to whether he had suddenly made up his mind to muster
himself out and quit the service, or was getting ready to climb
some fellow's frame, the sight of smoke issuing from the inner
folds of the blouse, and the odor of "fried wool" and brimstone,
revealed pretty clearly to our bewildered minds the true status of
the case, accounting for Dick's strange actions, the only time we
had ever known him to become "rattled."
A bunch of matches, rolled in paper and placed in the inside
pocket of his blouse, from friction or outside pressure, had been
ignited, and were making things hot in that locality.
The whole scene from beginning to end occupied less time than
required to write this, and Dick was back in ranks and cool as a
cucumber. The only serious results were a red spot on his left side
and a partially-consumed blouse pocket, the latter a total loss,
for Uncle Billy's boys didn't care to assume the additional burden
of carrying a fire or life insurance policy, particularly when the
other fellows were the ones who needed such things most. J.P.Ross,
78th Ohio, Indianola, Iowa.
From: The National Tribune, Washington D.C.
Source: News clipping with no date found in a 78th Ohio regimental
history at U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks,
Bldg 22, Carlisle, Pennsylvania 17013-5008.
Web Publishing Copyright © 1995 Larry Stevens
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Last updated September 1 1995