THE PRIDE OF THE REGIMENT
BY HARRY M. KIEFFER (ADAPTED)
``Old Abe'' was the war-eagle of the Eighth
Wisconsin Volunteers. Whoever it may have
been that first conceived the idea, it was certainly
a happy thought to make a pet of an eagle. For
the eagle is our national bird, and to carry an
eagle along with the colors of a regiment on the
march, and in battle, and all through the whole
war, was surely very appropriate, indeed.
``Old Abe's'' perch was on a shield, which was
carried by a soldier, to whom, and to whom alone,
he looked as to a master. He would not allow any
one to carry or even to handle him, except this
soldier, nor would he ever receive his food from
any other person's hands. He seemed to have
sense enough to know that he was sometimes a
burden to his master on the march, however, and,
as if to relieve him, would occasionally spread his
wings and soar aloft to a great height, the men of
all regiments along the line of march cheering him
as he went up.
He regularly received his rations from the
commissary, like any enlisted man. Whenever
fresh meat was scarce, and none could be found
for him by foraging parties, he would take things
into his own claws, as it were, and go out on a
foraging expedition himself. On some such
occasions he would be gone two or three days at a
time, during which nothing whatever was seen of
him; but he would invariably return, and seldom
would come back without a young lamb or a
chicken in his talons. His long absences occasioned
his regiment not the slightest concern, for the men
knew that, though he might fly many miles away
in quest of food, he would be quite sure to find
them again.
In what way he distinguished the two hostile
armies so accurately that he was never once
known to mistake the gray for the blue, no one
can tell. But so it was, that he was never known
to alight save in his own camp, and amongst his
own men.
At Jackson, Mississippi, during the hottest part
of the battle before that city, ``Old Abe'' soared
up into the air, and remained there from early
morning until the fight closed at night, no doubt
greatly enjoying his bird's-eye view of the battle.
He did the same at Mission Ridge. He was, I
believe, struck by Confederate bullets two or
three times, but his feathers were so thick that
his body was not much hurt. The shield on which
he was carried, however, showed so many marks
of Confederate balls that it looked on top as if a
groove plane had been run over it.
At the Centenial celebration held in
Philadelphia, in 1876, ``Old Abe'' occupied a prominent
place on his perch on the west side of the nave
in the Agricultural Building. He was evidently
growing old, and was the observed of all
observers. Thousands of visitors, from all sections
of the country, paid their respects to the grand
old bird, who, apparently conscious of the honors
conferred upon him, overlooked the sale of his
biography and photographs going on beneath his
perch with entire satisfaction.
As was but just and right, the soldier who had
carried him during the war continued to have
charge of him after the war was over, until the
day of his death, which occurred at the capital of
Wisconsin, in 1881. |