7 '

FAC-SIMILE OF THE CONCLUSION OF GENERAL OIX’S "AMERICAN

FLAG

DISPATCH

GOING TO THE FRONT.

RECOLLECTIONS OF A PRIVATE—I. BY WARREN LEE GOSS.

B EFORE I reached the point of enlisting, I had read and been “ enthused ”by General Dix’s famous “ shoot him on the spot ” dispatch; I hadattended flag-raisings, and had heard orators declaim of “ undying devotion tothe Union.” One speaker to whom I listened declared that “ human life musthe cheapened ”; hut I never learned that he helped on the work experiment-ally. When men by the hundred walked soberly to the front and signed theenlistment papers, he was not one of them. As I came out of the hall, withconflicting emotions, feeling as though I should have to go Anally or forfeitmy birthright as an American citizen, one of the orators who stood at thedoor, glowing with enthusiasm and patriotism, and shaking hands effusivelywith those who enlisted, said to me:

“ Did you enlist ? ” “ No,” I said. “ Did you ? ”

“ No; they won’t take me. I have got a lame leg and a widowed motherto take care of.”

I remember another enthusiast who was eager to enlist others. Hedeclared that the family of no man who went to the front should suffer. After

January 18th, 1861, three days after he hadentered on his duties as Secretary of the Treasuryto President Buchanan , General Dix sent W.Hemphill Jones, chief clerk of one of the Treasurybureaus, to the South, for the purpose of savingthe revenue-cutters at New Orleans , Mobile, andGalveston . January 29th, Mr. Jones telegraphedfrom New Orleans that the captain of the revenue-cutter McClelland refused to obey the Secretary’sorders. It was seven in the evening when thedispatch was received. Immediately, Secretary

Dix wrote the following reply: “Treasury De-partment , January 29, 1861. Tell LieutenantCaldwell to arrest Captain Breshwood, assumecommand of the cutter, and obey the order I gavethrough you. If Captain Breshwood, after arrest,undertakes to interfere with the command of thecutter, tell Lieutenant Caldwell to consider him asa mutineer, and treat him accordingly. If any oneattempts to haul down the American flag, shoothim on the spot. John A. Dix, Secretary of theTreasury.” — Editors.

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