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IN MEMOEIAM. 
 
 Charles Ewing. 
 
 BY 
 
 HIS YOUNGEST COKPOEAL. 
 
 'NON OMNIS MORIAR." 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. ;^ 
 
 18 8 8. ^^ 
 
 ^ 
 
C^^i 
 
 Copyright, 1888, by J. B. Lippincott Company. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction . , ■. .5 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Early Years — Parents — " Uncle Charley" — Cares of For- 
 tune — " Bobbers" — Dominican College — University of 
 Virginia — Kansas .7 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 Eumors of "War — "Is it Secession?" — "Our Banner of 
 Beauty" — "Woe is me, Alhama" — " Fife and Drum" — 
 Letters from home 22 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Under Arms — The 13th Kegulars — Halleck is Slow — Mem- 
 phis — Good-by — Chickasaw Bayou — Arkansas Post — 
 Corn-crib Fortress — Canebrake vs. Grape-shot — The 
 Glacis of Vicksburg — The Second Assault — Saving 
 Grant's Life 36 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 StaflF-duty — Inspector- General — The Silver Star — The 
 Grand Review 64 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Indian Bureau — Freedom of Worship — The Catholic 
 Commissioner — The Peace Policy — The Wards of the 
 Nation — Whose Missions ? — Effects of the Policy . . 65 
 
 3 
 
4 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 Effects of President Grant's Indian Policy on the Catholic 
 Missions — More about the Peace Policy — A Startling 
 Admission — Keaping the Whirlwind — What's the Use? — 
 Freedom of Conscience — Victory at Last — Slanders Ke- 
 futed— The Papal Brief— Knight of St. Gregory . . 85 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Character Sketch — Traits — The Maid of the Mist — Science 
 and Law — Social Views — Love of Keligion — A " Papist" 
 — The Wedding-ring — A Friend's Testimony — Conclu- 
 sion 101 
 
 Appendix • . . . 119 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This hasty, imperfect sketch, thrown together, 
 rather than composed, during the brief hours 
 snatched from the heart of a summer vacation in 
 the intervals of serious labor, is presented to the 
 friends and relatives of Charles Ewing, in the hope 
 that they will accept it in that spirit in which it is 
 offered; accept it as we do the kind offices of a 
 busy man, who when asked to do a favor promises 
 to comply with the request, and, having set about it, 
 finding himself tugged at the skirts by the crying 
 demands of hum-drum duty, is in a position not 
 unlike that of the boys in blue at Vicksburg, — un- 
 able to advance, unwilling to retreat. In making 
 a rapid selection from an extensive and interesting 
 correspondence, the effort has been made to put 
 before the reader, as briefly as possible, such 
 extracts as serve either to recall the feelings of the 
 time or the traits of character of Charles Ewing. 
 The interests of truth and justice seem to demand 
 a somewhat fuller and more serious treatment of his 
 
 5 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 connection witla the Indian Bureau than may 
 strictly be required by the nature of this Memorial ; 
 but in dwelling on that subject care has been taken 
 to let him speak for himself, with the thought that 
 those interested in the man will be led to sympa- 
 thize with his work. Those traits of character 
 which made him a shade sweeter, and more lov- 
 able than most men, it has been found difficult to 
 photograph in words. Plain black and white will 
 not catch or reproduce the image of the soul in its 
 wondrous complexity and its ethereal subtlety, but 
 still the tear-stained page may bear the heart's 
 vestige and awaken the slumbering sympathies of 
 other souls to admiration of Christian valor and 
 emulation of noble deeds. 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 CHAPTER r. 
 
 Early Years — Parents — " Uncle Charley" — Cares of Fortune — 
 "Robbers" — Dominican College — University of Virginia — 
 Kansas. 
 
 Before the days when railroads began to 
 produce that concentration in business interests 
 which now alarms the statesman, there was many 
 a quiet town in our Middle States that possessed 
 the social advantages of a city, with few of its 
 drawbacks. 
 
 Such a town was Lancaster, Ohio, graced by the 
 names of Philemon Beecher, Hugh Boyle, Thomas 
 Ewing, William J. Reese, Hocking H. Hunter, 
 Charles R. Sherman, William W. Irvin, Samuel 
 Denman, Henry Stanbery, and other men fit to 
 be companions of princes, and some of them pos- 
 sessed of gifts that could command respect as well 
 at the nation's capital as in the narrow limits of 
 Hocking Valley. Lancaster was by no means 
 
 7 
 
8 IN MEMOEIAM. 
 
 unconscious of the high standard of merit among 
 her sons, and her easy tone of good breeding, her 
 modest elegance in hospitable entertainment, were 
 such as to excite the admiration and arouse the 
 lingering regret of the chance guest, be he prelate, 
 senator, or Eastern merchant, who once had tasted 
 the sweets of her society, or felt that unexpected 
 sense of restfulness that comes upon a citizen of 
 the world when he meets in border lands the cul- 
 tured tone of a metropolis. Born in such a society, 
 amid natural surroundings which might have made 
 a Goldsmith one shade tenderer and sweeter, it is 
 no wonder Charles Ewing was what we always 
 knew him to be, — a model gentleman. 
 
 It would be delightful to pause here and say 
 something of the parents of the subject of this 
 sketch, but I am awed by the colossal propor- 
 tions of Thomas Ewing, physical and mental, 
 — patient laborer, enthusiastic student, profound 
 lawyer, eloquent senator, true statesman, one of 
 those " grand old giants out of the West" who 
 aroused the admiration of Dickens, type of a 
 generation that cannot be reproduced. His great- 
 ness forbids a casual mention. And now that 
 years have lent perspective to the soft scenes of 
 the past, who will dare describe Maria Boyle? 
 
CHARLES EWING. 9 
 
 — the eye that beamed with a tenderness and 
 sweetness which Christian love infuses into natu- 
 ral affection ; the hand that filled the cup of the 
 reverend guest by day, and carried to God's suf- 
 fering poor by night the much-needed bounty ; the 
 voice ever 
 
 "Soft, 
 Gentle, and low ; an excellent thing in woman ;" 
 
 the heart so strong because so tender, so tender 
 because so true, so true because so wholly given to 
 God, and therefore capable of God-like depth, and 
 fulness, and entirety, all for her grand husband, 
 all for her loved children, all for her charming 
 home, all for her admiring friends, all for the 
 poor. What if the second generation of her off- 
 spring saw but the sun in its setting ? Surely the 
 soft tints of an evening so tranquil, so golden, are 
 fit arguments of the noon-day's resplendence, and 
 we may hasten to add to what has been said in her 
 honor, our tribute of loving remembrance. 
 
 The youngest of their four sons, Charles Ewing, 
 the subject of this sketch, was born on the 6th of 
 March, 1835. During his childhood, his mother 
 being in ill health, his sister Ellen took him in 
 charge, and undertook to direct his education. At 
 
10 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 this period it was not uncommon, on entering the 
 library, to see the mentor seated in a rocking- 
 chair, with an austere air, engaged in embroidery, 
 and the fair-haired and large-headed embryo 
 general standing in a corner, erect and im- 
 movable, in duress for some wandering of the 
 youthful imagination. His sister, in these days, 
 supplied the place of a mother, and supplied it 
 well. As soon as his mother, in the pride of 
 her heart, arrayed Charley in the manly pan- 
 taloons, like a true American boy, he took to 
 climbing trees. A black-heart cherry-tree stood in 
 the front yard, near the wall, in view of a person 
 ascending the steps from the pavement, and in its 
 branches one morning, as the fruit shone jet 
 black and alluring, the young gentleman was 
 disporting himself, when his grandfather, Hugh 
 Boyle, appeared on the scene, shook his yellow 
 ivory-knobbed cane at the delinquent, and ordered 
 him down. On reaching the ground he received a 
 lecture, followed by a stern command. The yellow 
 cane was threateningly shaken before him, and his 
 tender-hearted grandsire succeeded in convincing 
 him that an awful chastisement would follow a 
 second ascent into the forbidden tree. On the fol- 
 lowing morning, at his accustomed hour of eleven. 
 
CHARLES EWING. 11 
 
 the old gentleman slowly ascended the steps, and, 
 looking up, saw shining through the green leaves, 
 on the topmost branch of the cherry-tree, the 
 yellow head of his grandson. Their blue eyes met, 
 and a rapid descent from the tree followed. The 
 grandfather was feeble, but in the chase that 
 ensued he succeeded, by a strategic movement, in 
 running his grandson into a corner, where he 
 stood straight up, as he was wont to stand in his 
 corner in the library, awaiting in terror the slow 
 approach of Justice with uplifted cane. In this 
 apparently hopeless situation of affairs he kept his 
 wits about him, and made a skilful and successful 
 appeal to the weak side of the enemy. " Why, Pa 
 Boyle," he said, in an imploring tone, as the cane 
 seemed about to descend, " you wouldn't strike 
 your poor old uncle, would you ?" This stroke of 
 genius earned him the name of " Uncle," and he 
 was known ever afterwards in the family as 
 " Uncle Charley." 
 
 Charley was early oppressed with the cares of 
 fortune. Driving one day over a farm with his 
 father, a Berkshire pig, then a novelty in the 
 country, attracted his attention, and he made a 
 request for it. His father ordered the farmer to 
 send the coveted animal to town, where it was 
 
12 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 penned and fed to sufibcation by its admiring 
 owner. One evening he announced at supper- 
 table with triumph that " Billy Pig" had reached 
 such a stage of obesity as to be unable any longer 
 to step over a corn-cob. Thereupon he offered the 
 pig for sale. His father, much amused, and assum- 
 ing an interest in the transaction, inquired the 
 price, and bought the pig for five dollars. " But," 
 he said, " a draw-back must be allowed for 
 the corn he has eaten, and the result shows the 
 amount to have been quite large, in value, no doubt, 
 over the price you ask, but we will call it even." 
 This settlement was earnestly repudiated, though 
 his older brothers at the table gave it their decided 
 approval, and finally, after a full discussion, his 
 father yielded to his arguments, and passed a gold 
 piece down the table. A discussion now ensued as 
 to what had best be done with it. Banks were 
 pronounced decidedly unsafe ; years before, a bur- 
 glar named Watkins had gone through half the 
 houses in town, and might resume operations at 
 any moment. The only rational decision to be 
 made was finally reached, that riches were a 
 burden too heavy for one of his tender years, and 
 he would do well to repass the money up the table. 
 This, however, he declined, and the party adjourned 
 
CHARLES EWING. 13 
 
 to the library. He and his young cousin Wolfley 
 sat apart in whispered conversation until a move- 
 ment was made to the parlor, when the two urchins 
 stole out on to the porch overlooking the garden, 
 whither they were cautiously followed by Thomas 
 and his cousin, Hampton Denman. Presently the 
 little fellows returned, and after sitting in myste- 
 rious silence a few minutes, announced their in- 
 tention to retire for the night. The two older 
 brothers soon followed, and took up a position from 
 which they could watch their movements; and 
 after a time had the gratification to see them steal 
 down the stairway, half dressed, and over the porch 
 into the garden. The spies followed cautiously, 
 and, hiding in the currant-bushes, watched their 
 operations. Procuring a toy spade, they cast an 
 anxious glance about them in the dark, and bend- 
 ing over to avoid observation, stole under the deep 
 shade of an apple-tree. Here they carefully re- 
 moved a sod a foot square, and depositing the gold 
 piece in the hole, replaced it, and to mark the place 
 inserted a stick in its centre, and then fled to their 
 room. Early in the morning they rushed to the 
 spot half dressed, removed the sod, and discovered 
 their loss. The gold was gone. The household was 
 aroused by the cry of "Robbers!" At the break- 
 
14 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 fast-table the theft was the sole topic of conversa- 
 tion. The boys told how they had gone down in 
 the night and hidden the treasure, and the unani- 
 mous conclusion was that robbers were looking at 
 the moment over the alley wall, and had seen them 
 in the act. After a time one of the robbers, 
 Thomas, drew the gold piece from his pocket 
 and tossed it over the table, and the details of the 
 robbery came out amid the hearty laughter of the 
 assembled family, in which the youngsters joined 
 in joy at its recovery. 
 
 In Perry County, Ohio, the Dominican Fathers 
 had a college in " early days." Hither Charles 
 Ewing was sent, and here he began to acquire a 
 taste for classical knowledge. The dog-eared 
 Virgil and well-thumbed Caesar, the tear-blistered 
 pages of Xenophon, left on his budding faculties an 
 imprint that did more than he himself ever real- 
 ized, to expand the goodly foliage and ripen the fair 
 fruit of culture on the sturdy Ewing stem. A 
 bundle of letters, blue, yellow, and faded white, 
 is in my hand ; the ink is yet strong and black, the 
 hand firm and clear, and there is character written 
 on every page. A bundle of old letters of 1853-54 ! 
 What memories, what aspirations, what a crowd of 
 historical details, do not the years recall ! Back 
 
CHARLES EWING. 15 
 
 then to the old sandstone of Southern Ohio, back 
 to the valleys clad in walnut, hickory, maple, and 
 sassafras, back to the peaceful and pious seclusion 
 of a Dominican college, and look through the eyes 
 of boyhood speaking to youth : 
 
 "St. Joseph's Coll., Feb. 10, 1853. 
 " Dear Brother, — You wish to know some- 
 thing about the societies that are now in existence 
 at this college. Their names are the Phil-Historic 
 and Philopedian. I have the honor to be member 
 of the former, and I think I may say one of the 
 debaters. Perhaps you have formed too large an 
 opinion of our societies, but you must remember 
 that we are mere boys from sixteen to twenty, so 
 that you could not expect too much from us. But 
 that you might not form too small an opinion of 
 the sons of Herodotus (Phil-Histories), I will send 
 you a copy of the Somerset Post, that contains a copy 
 of a lecture delivered by one of the members. Tom, 
 what would you think if your old white-headed 
 brother would take the habit of a Dominican ? Do 
 you not think that it would be the best thing that 
 I could do for myself in this world ? Now tell me 
 just what is your candid opinion. 
 
 (Signed) " Chas. B. Ewing." 
 
16 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 Was this a passing fancy, a dream, or a true 
 vocation ? We shall never know till time ends, and 
 it is not ours to judge; suffice it here to say that 
 Charles Ewing had ever the loftiest appreciation 
 of the exalted state of the religious, that he was 
 earnest and constant in his sympathy with those 
 who embraced that vocation, and that he trans- 
 mitted to others his own admiration for the life of 
 the cloister. 
 
 A short and hasty letter in June of the same year 
 tells us that he is working for honors, that he is 
 now reading Sallust, and that he desires to have an 
 Index Rerum. For the first time in his life he finds 
 time precious, and therefore he scribbles in haste. 
 Returning to his old place in the school next Sep- 
 tember, he finds himself among the first in " every- 
 thing except devilment." A sentence from this 
 same letter shows his sincere piety : " We all had 
 the happiness the other day of receiving the bene- 
 diction of the Most Reverend Archbishop Purcell at 
 High Mass. The bishop said to one of the Fathers 
 that he would remain over night in Lancaster on 
 his way to Columbus, and that he had good reason 
 to believe that father would come into the church. 
 (God grant him grace. Pray for him, brother !)" 
 
 He writes in December : 
 
CHARLES EWING. 17 
 
 " I have commenced geometry, which I think is 
 a most beautiful study ; I passed over the bridge-of- 
 asses (v.l) a day or two ago (my ears are no longer 
 than at first). We had a great debate last week ; 
 the question was this : Resolved, That as cosmopo- 
 lites we should adopt the Maine Liquor Law. Phil- 
 Histories against Philopedians. V. B. Burnett, 
 P. Noon, and myself were the foremen on the 
 negative. We fought against two priests and a 
 professor, and gained the point; that is, we put 
 down a law that is similar to the tobacco law of old. 
 " Pray for your brother, 
 
 " C. B. EWING." 
 
 Besides this display of pluck in facing old and 
 experienced debaters, Ewing's connection with this 
 little college society displays another trait of his 
 character. "I and my old friend Burnett," he 
 writes, " have at last drawn each other into what 
 has proven a long debate, — it is in respect to ad- 
 mitting members into the society, — he, democratic- 
 like, or I should have said Locofoco-like, is for 
 opening out and admitting every gum-head that 
 may have a little more tongue than his more sensi- 
 ble neighbor. Now, for my part, these are the very 
 men I most fear or dislike to have in the society ; 
 
18 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 for it is my opinion that ' much tongue and much 
 judgment seldom go together.' " There is a great 
 deal in these letters of tenderness and affection : 
 " Why does he not hear more frequently and more 
 at leno-th?" "How he misses this one and that 
 one !" There is much of transparent frankness and 
 the deepest love for his brother Tom, before whom 
 he lays bare his whole heart ; much too of manly 
 independence combined with almost womanly sen- 
 sibility. A carefully-preserved letter-book, which 
 we extracted from his army-chest, gives the answer 
 to these and other letters. "Dear C. B.," "My 
 venerable old Uncle," " Dear old friend," " Es- 
 teemed Chevalier," — these, and other like terms 
 of endearment, bear testimony to the mingled 
 tenderness and affection with which he was always 
 regarded. The old letter-book has a lesson of its 
 own, too, in the easy tone, the raciness of style, 
 the depth and richness of love that bound together 
 brothers and sisters widely separated by the acci- 
 dents of life. " Scripta maneni,'' but the living are 
 not the subjects of this memoir. 
 
 When the family moved to Washington, Charles 
 attended for some time the institution of the 
 Society of Jesus in that city, now known as Gon- 
 zaga College, and subsequently completed his edu- 
 
CHARLES EWING. 19 
 
 cation at the University of Virginia. In the only 
 letter I can find from Charlottesville, he says : " I 
 am well pleased with things in general about the 
 university, and in particular with the mode of 
 instruction. I take mathematics, chemistry, and 
 natural philosophy (with mineralogy and geology). 
 I am not a member of his school, but I attend Dr. 
 McGuffy's lectures on rhetoric." The scientific 
 bent naturally produced by such a course as that 
 here indicated, determined to a great degree 
 General Ewing's professional career. 
 
 In this same letter, dated December 24, 1856, he 
 expressed the utmost surprise and confusion over 
 the news that a portion of the Ewing family con- 
 templated settling at Leavenworth, Kansas. " I 
 have myself as completely mixed up," he says, " in 
 trying to reason the thing out as was ever good old 
 ' Uncle Toby' in his descriptions of the siege of 
 Namur, and the spot of ground on which he stood 
 when wounded in the groin." 
 
 During the summer of this year he had been 
 engaged in a kind of exploring expedition up the 
 Missouri River. Joining his brother Hugh at St. 
 Louis, and receiving from him an outfit and all the 
 information that city possessed on the matter, 
 armed with a " five-shooter" and a bowie-knife, he 
 
20 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 proceeded to the neighborhood of Palmyra, and 
 there began to locate one thousand dollars' worth 
 of land-warrants. It is difficult for the present 
 generation to realize that Missouri was " far West" 
 thirty years ago, or that any peculiar perplexity 
 should arise in the mind of a pushing, ambitious 
 youth at the thought that his friends intended to 
 try their fortunes beyond the Missouri River. I 
 fancy they must have thought of Kansas as we 
 think of Australia or Alaska. 
 
 The main object of his life at this period was to 
 fit himself by technical study for the bar. In those 
 days law-schools were not so numerous as at 
 present; the preparation for entrance on profes- 
 sional careers was even more desultory than it is 
 to-day; and it would seem, judging by his letters, 
 which are still my guide, that he varied the dry 
 monotony of the law by farming. I find letters 
 from his father to Charles, written in 1859, 
 giving him directions as to the management of a 
 farm near Lancaster. He has sent him a large 
 four-horse roller, and gives minute directions as to 
 its use : "In rolling, you will have the horses go 
 astride of the row, — that rolls the spaces between 
 two rows; skip one row, and then go astride of 
 the next, and so on, so you will go over the ground 
 
CHARLES EWING. 21 
 
 just twice as fast as in marking." But I find no 
 answers by which to conjecture how pleasing the 
 minutiae of the farmer's life were to Charles. In 
 September of this same year the field of his opera- 
 tions has changed to Leavenworth, Kansas. Here, 
 too, he is a farmer, and his father is still supplying 
 the necessary instructions. He writes that " the 
 wheat must be sown, — the thirty-five acres at 
 once, and the rest as soon as the corn can be cut 
 up. Have it put up in large shocks, in regular 
 rows, at least sixteen rows apart, twenty is better, 
 and let the sowing and harrowing follow the cutting 
 as close as practicable." This letter, and others 
 of this year, are addressed to Colonel Charles 
 Ewing. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Kumors of War— "Is it Secession?"—" Our Banner of Beauty" 
 — "Woe is me, Alhama" — " Fife and Drum" — Letters from 
 Home. 
 
 It is time to make some permanent step, to 
 settle down in life. St. Louis is chosen as his 
 future home, and the firm of Ewing & Hunter 
 ofier their legal services to the public. His part- 
 ner, John Hunter, was the son of Mr. Hocking 
 H. Hunter, of Lancaster, and had been Ewing's 
 friend from boyhood. 
 
 Scarcely is the ink dry on his first brief when 
 the mutterings of the great storm of civil strife 
 disturb the quiet of the youthful barrister. The 
 new year's letter of an old friend in kindly greet- 
 ing to the young firm, contains ominous mutter- 
 ings : " The Union is rather shaky these times, is 
 it not? If there is a clean division between the 
 free and slave States (which I do not expect to 
 occur), are you going with old Missouri? Don't 
 do it, uncle ! Make up your mind to live in ' the 
 United States,' and under the stars and stripes, 
 and not in a palmetto and rattlesnake Confederacy. 
 22 
 
CHARLES EWING. 23 
 
 I do not believe, however, that the old ship will 
 founder, though the sea is rough, and though she 
 may lose a mast or two and have her rigging torn. 
 She has aboard, however, the worst commander 
 'that ever scuttled ship,' and the most mutinous 
 and quarrelsome and blinded crew that ever chose 
 the rocks instead of a rudder for a guide." 
 (Leavenworth, Kansas, Jan. 1, 1861.) 
 
 However, he works away patiently during the 
 year, but -agitated and disturbed. In November, 
 his brother-in-law. Captain W. T. Sherman, writes 
 from the Louisiana Military Academy : " At first I 
 did not think seriously of the disunion movement, 
 thinking it w^ould blow over as other similar ex- 
 citements have heretofore done, but of late it has 
 assumed a bad tone. The governor of Louisiana, 
 Thos. 0. Moore, who lives near Alexandria, and is 
 a very large property owner and planter, has just 
 issued his proclamation calling the legislature to- 
 gether, December 10, to take into consideration the 
 critical position of national affairs, etc., the tone of 
 which is decidedly warlike. N^ow, I think Gov- 
 ernor Moore would not assume such a tone were 
 he not certain he would be sustained by the State. 
 Among intelligent circles here it is believed that 
 South Carolina will secede next month; that 
 
24 IN MEMOEIAM. 
 
 Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi will follow; 
 that Texas will draw off on her own original plan, 
 and that Louisiana and Missouri will follow. I 
 am up here in the woods; the mail comes sixty- 
 five miles by stage three times a week, but very 
 rarely do they bring newspapers. I subscribe to 
 the St. Louis Republican, but get it very irregu- 
 larly. We get the New Orleans papers by boat 
 irregularly, but we have received one from that 
 city of November 24th, in which is described a 
 large secession meeting, at which the lieutenant- 
 governor presided, and three of the judges of the 
 Supreme Court of the State attended purposely for 
 effect. All these things convince me that they are 
 in earnest. They will believe that Lincoln's suc- 
 cess is the beginning of a series of events that will 
 destroy the value of slave labor, which constitutes 
 the entire wealth of the South. Should these 
 movements proceed much further, it will cut me 
 adrift, for I will not favor secession. I will stick 
 by Uncle Sam as long as he endures. I believe the 
 Southeastern States might cut off, and a line of 
 partition be agreed on, but the Mississippi Valley 
 States are so bound together that they must be 
 together, or a constant contest or war continue till 
 submission is complete. It is impossible now that 
 
CHARLES EWING. 25 
 
 one power should hold the mouth of the Missis- 
 sippi, and be hostile to the mercantile interests 
 residing above." 
 
 His brother Hugh, writing from Lancaster a 
 month later, December 24th, tells us what people 
 were thinking of that Christmas eve : " This time 
 next year the disunion dog will be dead. Tend to 
 your business and take no sides, — ignore it, it is the 
 fever of an hour. If they take Moultrie, and it 
 becomes necessary, the North will pour from her 
 frozen loins a deluge on the South. But no fear. 
 This time next year the flag of the Union will 
 wave over Charleston, and the diminished heads of 
 the traitors will be hidden. We have the power to 
 preserve this Union, and intend to exert it." He 
 now shows by his letters that he is full of the ex- 
 citement of the time, and elicits sympathetic ex- 
 pressions from the folks at home. His sister Ellen 
 writes: "I am glad that you hold such firm and 
 loyal sentiments towards your government, and 
 feel no sickly sentiment of excuse for the multitude 
 of traitors who are rising up from every rank of 
 men. I can find in my heart no shadow of excuse 
 for any one of them. They will bring on their 
 own ruin, but they cannot injure us. We will be 
 Better oflT without them." 
 
26 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 The following extracts from his answers need no 
 comment : 
 
 " St. Louis, January 10, 1861. 
 " People made up their minds some time ago 
 that the hostile or peaceable reception of the Star 
 of the West at Charleston would determine the 
 question of war, and now that Chiarleston has let 
 slip the dogs of war, all agree, both wide-awakes 
 and minute-men, that if the Executive does his 
 duty, he must strike. If there is to be a war, I 
 must have a hand in it, but always for the Union, 
 and our banner of beauty." 
 
 "St. Louis, February 4, 1861. 
 
 " He who blessed and made the Union what 
 it is can alone see the future that awaits it. I 
 enclose a notice of the Military Bill now before the 
 legislature, and also the oath to be administered 
 to the enlisted men. All that I have to say to the bill 
 and oath is this, — as to the first I think it most 
 despotic, and will not obey it, — as to the oath, I'll 
 break the head of any man that dares to ofier it to 
 me, and shall have myself well armed to follow it 
 up with more powerful arguments if there is need." 
 
CHAELES EWING. 27 
 
 "St. Louis, February 21, 1861. 
 
 " Dear Tom, — I know that you feel offended with 
 me for not writing, and with good reason. I am 
 much at fault for not writing to you before leaving 
 home, but since my arrival in this good city, it has 
 been out of the question. At first, I was busy all 
 day looking for office-rooms and boarding-house. 
 Then came the quest of furnishing them with an 
 eye to permanency, comfort, and our purses. 
 After I had got everything fixed, and myself 
 settled for work, this hell-born question of disunion 
 was forced upon us, and totally unfitted one for 
 anything in the shape of such unpleasant duties. I 
 have accomplished but little in the way of study, 
 except so much as was necessary to transact the 
 business that has been placed in our hands. The 
 location of our office is as good as any in the city in 
 business times, but I must confess that, in these 
 times of sectional mistrust and hatred, it is the 
 poorest place possible for one who wants to study. 
 All about us we have young and ' gifted sons of the 
 South,' who are hot on the heels of the cotton 
 States, and believe it to be the duty of Missouri 
 (prompted both by love and interest) to leave the 
 Union, and join, hand and glove, with South Caro- 
 lina for the slave-trader and free trade. But I had 
 
28 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 the whip-hand of them as far as facts and figures 
 went, and so kept it to their spread-eagle speeches 
 on Southern honor and chivalry, — and this 
 they lost by Louisiana's sub-treasury theft, and 
 Florida's sleight-of-hand. On the 18th inst. they 
 gave up the ghost by over four thousand majority; 
 the city spoke out for unconditional Union. In- 
 deed, the news from every part of the State is of 
 the best character. I'm so well satisfied now that 
 Missouri will not go out of the Union that I pay no 
 more attention to the war-news from the South. 
 I was big for war when I thought I would have to 
 leave this State, but now I am not so bellicose by 
 half, and would much prefer spending the next ten 
 years of my life in St. Louis." 
 
 His father's answer to the first of these letters 
 demands of Charles a calmness impossible in those 
 days of terrible excitement : 
 
 " Washington, February 8, 1861. 
 
 "Dear Charles, — Do not suffer the excitement 
 of the times to disturb you or withdraw you at all 
 from your business or studies. Stand aloof and do 
 nothing in the matter. You are so new in the city 
 that you cannot hope to exert any influence there. 
 
CHARLES EWING. 29 
 
 and the best service you can at present render the 
 public is to labor quietly in your own vocation. I 
 am in the convention assembled at the call of Vir- 
 ginia, and hope well of its results. I may perhaps 
 be detained here till the end of the month." 
 
 The next month is the one succeeding Lincoln's 
 election, fatal and ever-memorable period of 
 political folly. Charles writes to his brother 
 Hugh,— 
 
 " St. Louis, December 19, 1860. 
 
 " Enclosed I send you a secession cockade. The 
 minute-men are as thick as hops in this town, they 
 say there are from five to eight thousand of them, 
 all pledged to resist the coercion of any State by 
 the Federal power. Indeed, they have become 
 so powerful, that the wide-awakes have found 
 it necessary to reorganize for self-defence, they 
 say. How it will be possible for these two hostile 
 organizations to exist together in peace, when the 
 causes and material for a mob are so abundant, 
 I am at a loss to see. There is scarcely a boat 
 in port; the levee is as bare as Main Street on 
 Sunday, and thousands of idle men go begging for 
 work. The city is as lifeless as the great Desert 
 of Sahara. It may with reason lift up its hands 
 and cry, ' Oh, woe is me, Alhama.' " 
 
30 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 Almost at the same moment with this letter he 
 received from Captain Sherman the tidings that he 
 had resigned his position at the head of the Louisi- 
 ana Military Academy, and was coming North. 
 He says : " I hope Missouri is not going to secede 
 also, but who knows but the whole fabric of govern- 
 ment will vanish in a mist and dissolve. The fact 
 seems to be that we really had no government with 
 form enough to protect itself, and the new one, 
 instead of being weaker, must be stronger." 
 
 These are not reassuring sentiments, but, ad- 
 dressed to a youth with whom loyalty was almost a 
 religion, their effect can readily be understood. 
 Even the affectionate epistles of his mother to her 
 darling boy betray the same burden of anxiety : 
 
 " We have all been under a cloud for some time 
 on account of the political aspects of the state of 
 the country, and the terrible and melancholy idea 
 of the dissolution of the Union ! but now, thank 
 God ! the sun is peeping from under the clouds, 
 and we feel animated with hope and confidence that 
 all will be right again, — that we will still be a united 
 and happy people. God grant us this blessing. 
 We have had letters from father within a few days. 
 He is busy and hopeful for the country ; thinks he 
 will not be able to get home before the first week 
 
CHARLES EWING. 31 
 
 in March, and perhaps not so soon. He had got 
 through with his cases, and was just on the eve of 
 starting for home when a dispatch from Cokimbus 
 was received, informing him that he was one of the 
 commissioners, and hoping that he would remain. 
 You see from the papers that they receive the pay 
 of a congressman, eight dollars a day, and a hun- 
 dred dollars for their travelling expenses. You 
 have had a very exciting time in St. Louis. I was 
 much alarmed, and, if father had been at home 
 (and had been willing), should have sent for you 
 to come home immediately. Teresa was more 
 alarmed even than I. She thought, no doubt, that 
 you were in as much danger as when going to 
 Washington, when she suffered such fears that 
 your head would be cut off and dropped in the 
 basket. I trust now the danger and excitement is 
 passed. The Republicans seem to have gained the 
 day indeed, as far as we can judge from the papers, 
 although we scarcely know what to believe, there 
 being so many different statements, one contradict- 
 ing another. Several young ladies of the town, 
 your sister among the number, have raised forty dol- 
 lars and sent to ISTew York for a flag for the military 
 company. The flag was received yesterday, — much 
 sooner than they were expecting it. I was sitting 
 
32 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 very quietly in my room when I heard the hall- 
 door open (as mine was open at the time). Then 
 I heard the footsteps of gentlemen (five or six of 
 the girls had met here in the afternoon to consult 
 about the presentation of the flag, etc.). As the 
 door was opened three loud cheers were given by 
 the gentlemen who had brought the flag, and 
 you may be sure they were responded to by the 
 bevy of girls in the room. They had been taken 
 by surprise. All send love to you. I will write 
 you again shortly. I am ashamed of this letter, 
 and feel unfit for writing, being still very weak. 
 Please present my regards to Mr. Hunter and 
 Helen. Trusting you have been to your duty on 
 the holy festival of Christmas, I remain 
 
 " Your affectionate 
 
 " Mother. 
 " God bless you, my dear son !" 
 
 Now comes Sumter, and with its booming 
 sound we see fog, cloud, and mist of doubt and 
 uncertainty roll away, and their obscuring masses 
 condense into patriotic action. A single page from 
 one of his mother's letters amply recalls the effect, 
 even on a quiet village, of the ear-stirring fife and 
 martial array of the spring of '61 : 
 
CHARLES EWING. 33 
 
 " Lancaster, April 18, 1861. 
 " Yesterday was a glorious day for old Fairfield ! 
 She sent off one hundred men to defend the stars 
 and stripes of her country, and defeat the rebels, 
 the traitors of their country. We were feeling so 
 patriotic that I almost wished you were one of the 
 company, when (like Mr. Brook and a few others 
 in town) my patriotism and ardor was somewhat 
 abated, a dispatch was handed in for you, an order 
 from the governor : ' Report yourself for duty at 
 headquarters immediately.' You may depend 
 there was a commotion in the old house at home, 
 particularly as father, Philemon, and Boyle were 
 all out of town. We were greatly excited before 
 as your company was about to leave. The fife and 
 drum beating, officers parading the streets, drilling 
 the recruits, etc., etc. Men, women, and children 
 running the streets, going to see their friends, 
 husbands, and sweethearts for perhaps the last 
 time." . . . 
 
 My earliest recollections of Charles Ewing be- 
 long to this trying time, — the faint echo of a ring- 
 ing laugh, a bounding step, and a flash of the 
 joyous, bright, and merry presence of a whole- 
 souled, genial, cordial youth beaming upon me out 
 
34 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 of the dark depths of 1861. In St Louis the air 
 is full of rumors and alarms. The world is turning 
 topsy-turvy. The fountains of the deep are 
 opened, the heavens ahout to crash in ruin over- 
 head. Children do not realize w^hat it means, but 
 they feel the awful thrill, the stillness that goes 
 before a storm, — feel it in the anxious looks of 
 parents, feel it in the sights and sounds in the 
 streets, feel it in unexpected journeys, in sudden 
 partings, and in the unnamed ways that convey to 
 the human intellect, even in its dawnings, tidings 
 of misery and woe. At such a time that cheery, 
 boyish face of his, that warm embrace, that mellow 
 voice, those silken, curly locks, and soft gray eyes, 
 that elasticity and sense of power, that cordial 
 interest in those around and beneath him, warmed 
 a child's heart with a glow that now hurries the 
 words from the eager pen. Oh, the power of a 
 glance, a word inspired by genuine kindness. 
 Neither years nor wars, nor sickness nor heart- 
 burnings, sorrows, sufferings, nor all the barriers 
 time, space, and death itself can erect, wipe from 
 the sensitive soul the sweet traces, the softening 
 effects of kindness. 
 
 Sumter's electric shock had taught twenty mil- 
 lions that they were patriots. The virtue shared 
 
CHAELES EWING. 35 
 
 by so many does not shine conspicuous, but it is 
 safe to say that few, if any, obeyed the sublime call 
 with heartier good will or purer motive or greater 
 readiness to throw his life at the foot of his 
 country's flag than Captain Charles Ewing. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Under Arms — The 13th Kegulars — Halleck is Slow — Memphis 
 — Good-by — Chickasaw Bayou — Arkansas Post — Corn-crib 
 Fortress — Canebrake vs. Grape-shot — The Glacis of Vicks- 
 burg — The Second Assault — Saving Grant's Life. 
 
 Commissioned a captain in the regular army, 
 Ewing was destined to experience his greatest trial 
 while impatiently awaiting an opportunity to dis- 
 play his enthusiasm and ability. The 1st Battal- 
 ion, 13th U. S. Regulars, to which Captain Ewing 
 was attached, and which he was instrumental in 
 organizing, was assigned by General Halleck to 
 duty near Alton, Illinois, and remained there for 
 nearly a year guarding rebel prisoners. How dis- 
 tasteful this duty was to Charles Ewing, and what 
 difficulties he had to encounter during this dreary 
 period, may be gathered from the following letters : 
 
 " Camp Sherman, near Alton, Ills. 
 "May 10, 1862. 
 
 "Dear , — We have not heard one word offi- 
 cially of our leaving this place, and I suppose we 
 will not till the war is over, and we are wanted to 
 36 
 
CHARLES EWING. 37 
 
 garrison some dirty hole down South. As for our 
 receiving orders to join Halleck at Shiloh, I hope 
 they will never come. Halleck sent us here pur- 
 posely to humiliate us, and I believe he has never 
 given orders for us to be relieved. 
 
 " To give you some idea of the deplorable con- 
 dition in which we have been, I will remind you of 
 the disposition that has been made of our field- 
 officers. Our colonel , a major-general of volunteers 
 since the organization of the regiment; lieutenant- 
 colonel in command — he is one of the kindest, best 
 men in the world, and one of the slowest. Two 
 majors, brigadier-generals since organization of the 
 regiment. The only two West-Point captains in 
 the regiment have never reported for duty. As 
 for military education, there is not one of us that 
 has had any. The little training I had from Gump, 
 and what reading I did while interested in the 
 militia, is a world of knowledge compared to what 
 others know. Every one of our recruiting-officers 
 as soon as he goes out is made a mustering-officer, 
 a disbursing-officer, etc., for the volunteers, and 
 his recruiting duties left to go to the devil. Still 
 we have now seven organized companies. A bat- 
 talion of four hundred and seventy men could be 
 sent into the field on a moment's notice, and, I 
 
38 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 believe, do as much as three times their number of 
 volunteers.^' 
 
 " Camp Sherman, near Alton, Ills. 
 "June 2, 1862. 
 
 " The battalion was organized better a 
 
 thousand times than hundreds of others that he 
 (Halleck) was daily hurrying to the Southwest, 
 down the river, and into Kentucky. "We were not 
 too few to send into the field, for about the time 
 we came up here a battalion of two companies 
 from one of the old regiments, numbering less 
 than one hundred and ten, was sent down the river, 
 and another (four companies, in all not two hun- 
 dred men) was sent to Fort Henry. At that time 
 we had four companies of over eighty men each. 
 Question : ' If three hundred and twenty men make 
 too small a battalion to send into the field, how 
 many men should there be to make a battalion 
 big enough ?' Answer : ' Two hundred, or one 
 hundred and ten.' (N.B. This answer is not to be 
 found in ' Halleck's Elements of Military Art and 
 Science.') It is useless to talk of organization, 
 drill, and discipline : the regiments that were hur- 
 ried South were not a month old, and not one out 
 of twenty had any organization — and these men, 
 were the heroes of Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, 
 
CHARLES EWING. 39 
 
 Columbus, Shiloh, and Corinth, — but we were not 
 fit for the field, must stay here and guard the 
 prisoners that such regiments have taken. I do 
 wish that I had never heard of the regular army. 
 I had rather be a sergeant in the volunteer service 
 than hold the place I do at Alton. 
 
 " We have now less than five hundred prisoners 
 of war, and over five hundred to guard them. 
 Why can't this prison be abandoned, and the 
 prisoners taken to Chicago, Indianapolis, or Co- 
 lumbus ? We would then be free to go to Elmira, 
 and get out of this department." 
 
 !N^o person of spirit can fail to sympathize with 
 the eagerness of youth that longs for action ; no 
 person of prudence can withhold his approval of 
 the caution and foresight that checked that eager- 
 ness and used its heat in forging the raw material 
 of crude volunteers into a splendid battalion of 
 regulars. Yes, Ewing's fire and Halleck's chilling 
 breath of caution were together required" to give 
 tone and temper to that glorious little band of 
 heroes. Relieved from duty at Alton, the battal- 
 ion was transferred to Newport, Kentucky, where 
 its organization was completed, and the troops 
 were at last embarked in October, '62, to join 
 
40 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 General Sherman, at that time military governor 
 of Memphis. From the day they took the field 
 until the close of the war the 13th U. S. Regulars 
 ever kept close to their chief in body and in heart, 
 sharing the chivalrous loyalty, the manly devotion, 
 and unbounded admiration of the captain of "A" 
 Company, the subject of this sketch. 
 
 Our hero is now in the tented field. Two steps 
 lead down from the level plain to the earth-floor 
 of his wall-tent. A couple of camp-stools, a box, 
 a small table, — these make up his furniture. 
 Muster-rolls, drills, inspections, are his main du- 
 ties. Already he is a favorite with his mess. At 
 headquarters he is a welcome guest; brother-in- 
 law of the chief who has proved himself as wise 
 a civil governor in summer as he was in spring a 
 bold bulwark against the overwhelming floods 
 of Shiloh. But the captain of " A" Company 
 is seldom at headquarters. Duty called and duty 
 keeps him. 
 
 When the splendidly-equipped garrison of Mem- 
 phis marched forth to inaugurate a series of cam- 
 paigns that ended with the downfall of the Con- 
 federacy, a lady stood with her child by the 
 wayside, to watch the passing pageant. As the 
 13th Regulars marched by in column, the captain 
 
CHARLES EWING. 41 
 
 of " A" Company stepped aside from his place at 
 the head of the battalion, gave the lady a last 
 embrace, stroked and kissed the boy by her side, 
 and, catching his scabbard half-way down, double- 
 quicked to his place in line. Corporal Luke Clarke, 
 presuming permission from his chief's action, has- 
 tily followed his example, clasped the lady's hand, 
 and, seizing the boy in his manly arms, gave him 
 one close hug, then grasping the musket he had 
 for an instant laid aside, regained his end of the 
 file. Simple as was this incident, it made a pro- 
 found and lasting impression on those who real- 
 ized but too well that these bold fellows, hastening 
 to meet and face death in a thousand dreadful 
 shapes, did not feel ashamed to manifest, before 
 their comrades, a touch of tender and affectionate 
 feeling at severing the last link that bound them to 
 home, and all they had left behind. 
 
 It would extend this sketch beyond assigned 
 limits to give a detailed account of the campaigns 
 in which Captain Ewing bore a part, but taking for 
 granted the reader's knowledge of the war, we may 
 glance at the battalion here and there, as it appears 
 amid the smoke of battle. Along the heights of 
 Chickasaw Bayou, frown the rebel batteries; we 
 imagine the threatening hill-top crowned with 
 
42 IN MEMORTAM. 
 
 parapets, the open, marshy land below, the bayou, 
 with a narrow bridge thrown across, and our 
 men concealed in the woods beyond. Regiments 
 advance from the woods, cross the narrow passage, 
 form quickly, and charge right up against the hill. 
 The men of the 6th Missouri, losing heavily in 
 their passage, with rebel guns thundering just 
 overhead, and volleys of musketry pouring on 
 them, cling to the hill-side, scoop out holes with 
 their hands, while the rebels lean over the para- 
 pets to fire vertically at the bold assailants. Mean- 
 time, the 13th Regulars, posted as sharpshooters 
 behind tree-stumps and logs, beyond the bayou, 
 harass the gunners, and keep down the fire that 
 threatens their Missouri comrades. That night 
 our men expected to receive the order to assault 
 next day. As they lay on their arms close to the 
 dark, sluggish stream, they felt that many of them 
 were soon to be borne on its bosom down to the 
 valley of death. But a cheerier task was before 
 them than that of storming those dreary heights. 
 Sherman and Porter, withdrawing from the vicin- 
 ity of Vicksburg, ascended the Arkansas River, 
 and made a combined attack on Fort Hindman or 
 Arkansas Post. Our gun-boats shelled the fortress 
 while our troops drove the garrison from their outer 
 
CHARLES EWING. 43 
 
 works into the main defences. The rebels fought 
 gallantly, but our combined forces silenced their 
 cannon, aud were about to storm the parapets 
 when the white flag appeared, and firing ceased on 
 our side. The 13th Regulars was already close up 
 to the enemy's works, from which a few stray 
 shots still issued. One of these struck Captain 
 Smith, the commandant of the battalion. At this 
 juncture, as our men were about to rush forward 
 to take possession of Fort Hindman, and to enjoy 
 the thrill of victory, the first burst of triumph, the 
 voice of a wounded rebel who lay not far from our 
 advancing line, was heard calling for water. Cap- 
 tain Ewing took the canteen from the nearest 
 soldier, and, stooping there, held the dying man in 
 his arms, gave the cup of water to the fallen foe, 
 and soothed him as his life-blood ebbed away. 
 
 During the next singular campaign, with which 
 Porter and Sherman have made the world familiar, 
 Charles Ewing bore his share of toil, hardship, and 
 exposure in swamp and bayou with a cheeriness 
 and activity that rendered him the life-long friend 
 and favorite of his immediate commander, General 
 Giles A. Smith. Both Porter and Sherman were 
 now serving under Grant. Vicksburg, the Sevas- 
 topol of the West, was Grant's objective. A glance 
 
44 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 at a good map shows the extreme difficulty of the 
 task of reducing it. Having first abandoned the 
 natural and direct approach from the northeast 
 by reason of Forrest's successful raid, and the de- 
 struction of his depot at Holly Springs, having 
 failed to secure a position on the right bank above 
 the city, where a network of bayous, marshes, and 
 tangled forests rendered the approach of army 
 and navy alike impossible. Grant undertook to cut 
 a canal through the narrow peninsula opposite 
 Vicksburg, with the intention of passing his boats 
 and army to the south of the city. This attempt 
 failed. What remained to be done ? After months 
 of ceaseless effort, Vicksburg on three sides was 
 practically as inapproachable as Gibraltar. It was 
 morally impossible to go back and resume the 
 original and most natural line of approach. But 
 one course remained, and that attended with ex- 
 treme difficulty and danger. Our gun-boats and 
 transports ran the batteries of Vicksburg by night, 
 while the river was lit up by fires on both sides, 
 and by the blazing, bursting shells. Then Grant 
 left Sherman to make a feigned attack above, 
 while he transferred the bulk of his army to the 
 south of Vicksburg, effected a crossing, swung 
 round the circle, separating the forces of Johnson 
 
CHARLES EWING. 45 
 
 and Pemberton, driving the one east, the other 
 west, fought the battle of Champion's Hill, and 
 drove Pemberton into the works of Vicksburg. 
 On his Vicksburg campaign, in great measure, will 
 ultimately rest Grant's claim to be regarded as a 
 strategist. 
 
 At this point of our story, the follovdng in- 
 cident, from General Sherman's memoirs, is of 
 interest : " We pushed on and reached the Big 
 Black early, Blair's troops having preceded us by 
 an hour or so. I found General Blair in person, 
 and he reported that there was no bridge across 
 the Big Black; that it was swimming deep; and 
 that there was a rebel force on the opposite side 
 intrenched. He had ordered a detachment of the 
 18th U. S. Regulars, under Captain Charles Ewing, 
 to strip some artillery horses, mount the men, and 
 swim the river above the ferry, to attack and drive 
 away the party on the opposite bank. I did not 
 . approve of this risky attempt, but crept down close 
 to the brink of the river-bank, behind a corn-crib 
 belonging to a plantation house near by, and saw 
 the parapet on the opposite bank. Ordering a 
 section of guns to be brought forward by hand be- 
 hind this corn-crib, a few well-directed shells 
 brought out of their holes the little party that was 
 
46 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 covering the crossing, viz., a lieutenant and a few 
 men who came down to the river-bank and sur- 
 rendered." (Memoirs, vol. i., p. 351.) 
 
 On another occasion, during the same cam- 
 paign, the enemy had placed a battery in such a 
 position as to enfilade our advancing column at a 
 bend in the road. The column was halted, and 
 Captain Ewing received orders to charge and 
 capture the battery. To do so he was obliged to 
 pass an intervening canebrake in the valley. As 
 his troops moved forward through the dense brake, 
 Ewing could hear the orders of the officers of the 
 battery as they directed their men to load with 
 grape-shot and train their guns on his little com- 
 pany. It was a trying moment. Anticipating the 
 enemy's order to fire, he commanded his men to 
 fall on their faces, at the same moment throwing 
 himself at full length on the ground. A second 
 later and the shot came crashing, booming, 
 screeching through the dry, rasping cane, and 
 Ewing felt his heart thump hard against the earth. 
 Risino; on his elbow to see what effect the shot had 
 taken, he breathed one quick sigh of relief to see 
 the men about him safe and sound, then, springing 
 up, he gave the word, Forward ! A minute more 
 and the battery was captured without the loss of a 
 
CHARLES EWING. 47 
 
 man. In telling tlie story of this gallant action, he 
 was fond of dilating on the tempest of feelings 
 that agitate the soul during such moments, and was 
 able to reproduce vividly, but simply, the scene and 
 its surrounding circumstances, so as to thrill and 
 captivate his listeners. 
 
 As they approached the defences of Vicks- 
 burg, " the battalion of the 13th U. S. Regulars, 
 commanded by Captain Washington, was at the 
 head of column, and pushed the rebels close be- 
 hind their parapets." General Grant, thinking 
 his enemy badly demoralized by defeat, had no 
 hesitation in ordering an immediate assault. He 
 says, frankly, " I believed he (the enemy) would 
 not make much of an effort to hold Yicksburg."* 
 
 The assault was to be made at two o'clock on 
 the 19th. Owing to the difficult nature of the 
 ground few of the troops reached the enemy's 
 lines together. Sherman began his attack with 
 Blair's division, the 13th II. S. Regulars taking 
 the lead. They were met by a deadly fire ; no 
 other regiment succeeded in reaching their ad- 
 vanced position, and the assault failed. Those 
 who love to dwell on the record of deeds of daring 
 
 * Century article, " The Siege of Vicksburg." 
 
48 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 may pause with me a few minutes and watch 
 these gallant fellows at their work. Captain 
 Washington leads his battalion close up to the 
 parapet, but is there met by a stubborn resistance. 
 His standard-bearer is shot dead as he mounts the 
 earth-work. A second, then a third seizes the 
 standard and falls almost at the moment. Captain 
 Charles Ewing then grasps the staff before it falls. 
 At that instant a bullet cuts between his second 
 and third fingers severing the staff; another makes 
 a clean cut through the front of his hat ; a shower 
 of balls tear the dear old folds as he clings to the 
 broken standard, and amid the refluent wave of 
 battle is swept back by the leaden hail. At that 
 moment "Washington was mortally wounded, and 
 the captain of " A" Company commanded the bat- 
 talion whose " banner of beauty" was his dearest 
 treasure, and had almost proved his shroud. You 
 who knew him so mild and gentle, so courteous 
 and thoughtful, realize, if you may, the stern reali- 
 ties of that moment, the awful demands of duty. 
 Visitors at Vicksburg in the summer of '63 saw 
 the ground gray with lead, the trees cut deep, and 
 in places their trunks severed by shot and shell; 
 and when they saw the broad ditch and massy 
 works of that Western Sevastopol felt tempted to 
 
CHARLES EWING. 49 
 
 judge that it was almost madness to assault. Mad- 
 ness ? Yes, the noble madness of the patriot that 
 reasons not, but only feels and glows with un- 
 measured ardor to lift on high his country's flag. 
 That night was a sad one for the brave 13th. Half 
 their gallant officers and men lay in the trenches, 
 and the next roll-call was a dirge. Worst of all, 
 their gallant chief, whose name alone was enough 
 to fire the hearts of children, lay dead upon the 
 field. As Captain Washington fell, one of Swing's 
 soldiers, Luke Clarke, stooped and supported the 
 head of his dying commander. Unmindful of the 
 deadly storm of bullets, Clarke remained after the 
 tide of battle swept back alone on that awful 
 field within gunshot of a thousand men mad with 
 the rage of battle. Search the annals of war and 
 find a deed of daring, cooler, or more complete ! 
 The dying man is athirst, their canteens are empty. 
 Oh, for a pint of water! To seek it is certain 
 death, for the hands that cannot pull trigger on 
 him who sits supporting the wounded will be 
 quick to punish the rashness that dare venture 
 across that field of blood. It was the supreme 
 moment of a hero's life; one grasp of Washing- 
 ton's hand, a last glance at the dying face, and 
 Clarke rises to go on his errand of mercy. Guns 
 
 4 
 
50 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 are pointed, a stray shot or two whiz by him, but 
 there is too much manhood in the American breast 
 to shoot down the angel of charity. They see that 
 he is not withdrawing, but moving towards a ravine 
 in search of water. Along the line passes the word, 
 " Don't shoot that Yankee; can't you see he's getting 
 water for a dying man?" March on, Luke Clarke; 
 thicker than yon parapet is the wall that surrounds 
 you. March on ! stronger than triple brass is the 
 protection of your august virtue. March on, and 
 in ages to come, when strategist and statesman are 
 forgotten, future generations will still remember a 
 man. He reached the ravine, filled the canteen, 
 returned calmly to the dying man, quenched the 
 horrid thirst caused by loss of blood, received his 
 last injunctions and messages to loved ones in far- 
 off Rhode Island, then closed forever the eyes of 
 the noble "Washington. Luke Clarke was reared 
 under the same roof with Charles Ewing. 
 
 The assault, so fatal on the 19th, was renewed in 
 better form on the 22d. Every true American 
 knows by heart the story of that awful day. I 
 pause upon it to record but one or two incidents of 
 special interest to those for whom these pages are 
 intended. 
 
 In the early days of Vicksburg, a number of 
 
CHAELES EWING. 51 
 
 gamblers and misdoers were taken to the suburbs 
 and hanged, and buried at a cut in the ridge that 
 surrounded the town, known thereafter as the 
 graveyard road. When Vicksburg was besieged, 
 the approach to the ditch and rampart was ob- 
 structed at all other points, but the graveyard road 
 was left invitingly open. It was covered by the fire 
 of a mitrailleuse and grape and musketry. Down 
 this road, on the 22d of May, the head of Sher- 
 man's column charged. " A detachment of one 
 hundred and fifty resolute men led the march with 
 planks to bridge the ditch ; Ewing's * brigade 
 followed it in column by flank, a formation ren- 
 dered necessary by the narrowness of the road. 
 The two other brigades, not being able to deploy 
 alongside of the latter, were held in reserve. At 
 ten o'clock, precisely, Ewing pushes his columns 
 forward at a double-quick through the open space 
 that has to be traversed, and the entire artillery of 
 the division, covering with projectiles that portion 
 of the enemy's line which it is sought to carry, 
 does not allow its defenders to interrupt the march 
 of the assailants. The latter cross the ridge and 
 climb the gentle slope along which the road as- 
 
 * General Hugh Ewing, a brother of Charles Ewing. 
 
52 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 cends as far as the bastion ; they are about passing 
 beyond this work and reaehino^ the inside wall at 
 the point where the road penetrates, when the Con- 
 federates open upon them such a terrific fire, from 
 all the fronts commanding this point, that the 
 assaulting column hesitates and halts. The Federal 
 soldiers, unable to advance, and unwilling to fall 
 back, throw themselves into the ditch of the 
 bastion, planting their colors on the parapet, and 
 quickly throw up a small breastwork, in order to 
 shelter themselves from the fire by flank. The two 
 other brigades protect them by firing upon every 
 Confederate who shows his head above the parapet. 
 But they cannot penetrate the fiery circle which 
 Ewing was unable to enter without unnecessarily 
 exposing themselves to inevitable destruction." * 
 
 In the midst of the roar of grape and musketry, 
 Grant, ignorant of the situation, was on the point 
 of riding into the cut of the graveyard road to 
 watch the progress of the storming party. Had he 
 done so, he would never have captured Richmond. 
 The troops about him at that moment were the 
 13th Regulars, forming part of Giles Smith's 
 brigade, which followed that of General Hugh 
 
 * Comte de Paris, •' Civil War in America,'" vol. iii., p. 356. 
 
CHAELES EWING. 53 
 
 Ewing. Their warning cries were unheard amid 
 the awful din. There was no time then for cere- 
 mony, and a young officer, seizing General Grant's 
 horse by the bit, backed him down the steep bank. 
 Grant's life was saved that day by Charles Ewing. 
 
 The next day our army was ready to begin its 
 famous investment, the details of which will fill 
 many a page in story with its siege-works, its 
 mining and countermining, its mortars made of 
 wood, the cave-life of the inhabitants of Vicks- 
 burg, its hoped-for relief, its daring adventures in 
 passing the lines, its two armies pressed so close 
 against one another that they can hear each other's 
 ordinary talk, and that those blown up by our 
 mines fall within the lines of our army, and all this 
 with a nation watching and waiting day after day, 
 week after week, as North and South keep wres- 
 tling there, while on the throw depends the future 
 history of the Mississippi Valley. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Staff-duty — Inspector General — The Silver Star — The Grand 
 Keview. 
 
 Services such as lie had gallantly rendered 
 could not go unrewarded. In the summer of 1863 
 Captain Ewing was promoted to the rank of lieu- 
 tenant-colonel, and received the post of inspector- 
 general of the 15th Army Corps. This, which had 
 been Grant's old corps, was now commanded by 
 Sherman, and was encamped near the Big Black 
 River, between Vicksburg and Jackson. There 
 they rested, feeling that they had accomplished a 
 great work and not knowing what the future had 
 in store for them. When in the autumn Grant was 
 appointed to succeed Rosecrans, and Sherman took 
 command of the Army of the Tennessee, his in- 
 spector-general became the inspector-general of 
 that army, sharing with his chief a promotion in 
 position and in responsibility without advance in 
 rank or pay. One of the mistakes made by the 
 North during the war was to expect men to fulfil 
 difficult tasks and sustain tremendous responsibili- 
 ties without giving them the rank and emolument 
 
 54 
 
CHAELES EWING. 55 
 
 corresponding to their command. For example, a 
 brigadier commands a brigade, a major-general a 
 division, a lieutenant-general an army corps, and a 
 general an army. The principle of order and sub- 
 ordination essential to the life of an army demands 
 this or a similar gradation. The last two grades, 
 which did not exist before the war, could only be 
 created by Congress, and since this body was ex- 
 tremely slow in giving high rank to military men , 
 Grant, Sherman, Meade, Thomas, and all our 
 great leaders who fought the campaigns that saved 
 the nation, led armies served by scores of major- 
 generals, while none of them held a higher rank 
 in name than that of their division commanders. 
 Meade was a major-general at Gettysburg, Grant 
 at Chattanooga, and Sherman at Atlanta. That 
 this affected the staff is evident to those who are 
 familiar with the fact that the rank of the staff 
 depends upon the rank of their general. The 
 personal staff of a major-general should be majors; 
 of a lieutenant-general, lieutenant-colonels; and of 
 a general, colonels. Such were the ranks held by 
 officers when, after the war was over, the grades 
 mentioned were conferred on Grant, Sherman, and 
 Sheridan. Why was it that while we hung be- 
 tween life and death we could not see far enough or 
 
56 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 be generous enough to adopt a method which com- 
 mon sense suggests, and which would at the time 
 have added greatly to the " esprit" of our armies ? 
 A staff-officer is an additional pair of eyes and 
 ears to his commander. Representing the person 
 of the leader, he extends his moral presence and 
 brings him direct and reliable information of the 
 state of the vast machine he is struggling to ope- 
 rate. The inspector-general has much to do with 
 the discipline and equipment of a force, since it is 
 his duty to pass from regiment to regiment, thus to 
 assure himself of the condition of the men, the 
 perfection of their accoutrement, the state of their 
 arms, clothing, and all things essential to their 
 efficiency in the field. Colonel Ewing, in the 
 discharge of these duties, came into contact with 
 the whole Army of the Tennessee, and, adding to 
 his other soldierly qualities kindliness and cordi- 
 ality, became a universal favorite. All went 
 smoothly with him till Grant was removed to the 
 East, and Sherman became the head of the Military 
 Department of the Mississippi, including close at 
 hand three armies, that of the Ohio, his old Army 
 of the Tennessee, and the Army of the Cumber- 
 land. Aides-de-camp, of course, accompanied him. 
 As for the rest of his staff it was his intention that 
 
CHARLES EWING. 57 
 
 they should remain with the Army of the Ten- 
 nessee. But the corps commander, McPherson, 
 seems to have preferred to have personal friends 
 about him, and Colonel Ewing felt himself in a 
 very delicate position. To remain where he was 
 became impossible. Merely to give up that posi- 
 tion would be to take several steps backward. 
 Two courses were open : resignation when great 
 events were about to transpire, or a direct appeal to 
 General Sherman. His relationship to General 
 Sherman, so far from being in his favor, was now 
 his greatest drawback. But he determined very 
 properly to ignore for the moment the brother-in- 
 law, and address himself straightforwardly to the 
 man. The headquarters of the department were 
 then at !N"ashville ; that of the Army of the Ten- 
 nessee at Huntsville. 
 
 "HuNTSViLLE, Alabama, 8th of April, 1864. 
 
 "Dear Cump, — Knowing that you would be har- 
 assed with all kinds of business while here, I 
 determined not to trouble you myself until after 
 you had finished your inspection and got back to 
 Kashville. "When you spoke to me on the subject 
 while here I told you that I was satisfied with my 
 position, and at the time could not very well do 
 
58 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 otherwise ; but the fact is I do not wish or intend 
 to stay here any longer than I can help, — indeed, 
 I would have made an effort to be relieved some 
 time ago could I have had an opportunity to ex- 
 plain the matter to you first. If it can be avoided 
 I do not want to leave the field in the face of the 
 great campaign that is about to open, — it will be 
 mortifying in the extreme, and I know that I will 
 not be satisfied as long as your great army is active, 
 but I cannot stay when I have so many causes of 
 annoyance, and all my thoughts and feelings run 
 counter to the current. 
 
 " The written dead law makes me a permanent 
 staff-officer of the corps, but custom, the active 
 governing law, does not sanction it, — and generals 
 do not desire or expect to receive a ready-made 
 staff when they receive a new command; they all 
 want, and I think with reason, to have their 
 friends about them, — it is a necessity with the 
 greater part, who are forced to depend upon others 
 to supply their defects. In a regularly organized 
 staff corps, where position goes by seniority, and 
 not, like kissing, by favor, the law can be, and is, 
 followed, but with our volunteer staff, one had as 
 well almost be damned as to violate custom, to follow 
 law, or to be the representative of such an action. 
 
CHAELES EWING. 59 
 
 " The general, when he was ordered to this 
 corps, expected to fill all the places on his staff 
 with his friends ; the majority of them were disap- 
 pointed, and particularly the gentleman who was 
 to fill my place, who is a general favorite, and is 
 still hanging on in hopes that I will give place to 
 him. Although the general treats me with the 
 utmost consideration, yet it is evident my place is 
 wanted for and by this gentleman. 
 
 " General McPherson brings all of his old stafi 
 with him, and his corps inspector is to be an- 
 nounced for the department. It is not agreeable 
 for me to report to him as matters stand. As 
 matters now stand there will be a general breaking 
 up of your old corps staff, and I, of course, do not 
 want to lose my rank, and go back to my com- 
 pany. 
 
 " Dr. Roler has passed an examination at Wash- 
 ington, D. C, for the appointment of 'surgeon of 
 volunteers.' He desires very much to have you 
 drop a note to the surgeon-general, recommending 
 him in the best terms you can. Being too modest 
 to ask it of you himself, I volunteered to do it for 
 him, as I knew that it would give you pleasure to 
 assist him in any way. He has been acting medi- 
 cal director of the corps for the last two months. 
 
60 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 " What corps is Blair to have ? — if you are at 
 liberty to tell me. 
 
 " Affectionately your brother, 
 
 " Charles Ewing." 
 
 The result was that he received the appointment 
 of inspector-general of the Military Division of the 
 Mississippi. Any detailed account of his services 
 in this position would be too extensive to suit the 
 purposes of this sketch. It is necessary, however, 
 to inform the reader that in the great movements 
 which followed, the general-in-chief so completely 
 carried out the plan he had adopted of securing 
 freedom of action for himself by having few 
 attendants, that, practically speaking, he had no 
 headquarters, and no staff corps about him. His 
 small staff were all aides-de-camp, as much so 
 as Colonel McCoy and Colonel Audenried. To 
 come and go, to carry orders at any moment to 
 distant points, to act in his stead and by his 
 authority, — these were their tasks. 
 
 Colonel Ewing continued to act as a staff-officer 
 until March, 1865, when he received the appoint- 
 ment of brigadier-general, and took command of 
 his brigade. I will let him tell the story of his 
 appointment, and of all that it meant to him. 
 
CHARLES EWING. 61 
 
 " Headquarters 1st Brig., 3d Div., 17th Army Corps, 
 " Near Kaleigh, N. C, 28th of April, 1865. 
 
 " Dear Tom, — I thank you for my appointment, 
 but do very much regret that you had to resign 
 to secure it. However, the war was over, and 
 there were no new laurels for you to win ; to me 
 the commission is of value if the army is increased, 
 and I determine to stay in the service. I have 
 been commanding this brigade since the Ist of 
 this month. It is the strongest brigade in three 
 armies, and has a splendid history. Organized at 
 Fort Henry, it embraces in its history all of the 
 important events in the conquest of the Valley of 
 the Mississippi. Our march to Chattanooga, Knox- 
 ville, the Atlanta campaign, our trip through 
 Georgia, and our swamp service in the Carolinas. 
 I must say that I will be forced to take its brigade 
 banner home with me. I know that you will feel 
 angry with me for accepting service under Frank 
 Blair, but I can explain that to your entire satis- 
 faction when I see you at Alexandria. In brief, it 
 came in this way : Gump gave me my choice, to 
 remain on the staff, or take command of troops. It 
 did not take me long to elect, and I was ordered to 
 report to General Howard. Legget, hearing of 
 my assignment, requested that I should be ordered 
 
62 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 to report to him, and Blair approved and urged the 
 request. I could not object, of course, so the as- 
 signment was made, and I assumed command of 
 the brigade. See it when the President reviews 
 the Army of the Tennessee on the arrival, and you 
 will be satisfied. 
 
 " What will be done with us when we reach 
 Washington ? Learn all you can, and if it fall in 
 in your way secure my commission to me for six 
 or eight months, so that I may get used to the 
 stars. I do not want to be one of the first to be 
 mustered out, particularly as I have seen but little 
 service in this grade. 
 
 " Write me at Petersburg. 
 
 " Your loving brother, 
 
 " Charles Ewing." 
 
 On that 23d day of May, when the American 
 capital witnessed for the first time a more than 
 Roman triumph. General Ewing rode down Penn- 
 sylvania Avenue at the head of his brigade. As 
 he mounted his horse on Capitol Hill, a Confeder- 
 ate lady * stepped from the crowd and threw a 
 
 * Miss Young, of the District of Columbia, now Mrs. Col. 
 Hampton Denman. 
 
CHAELES EWING. 63 
 
 garland of flowers round the horse's neck. Grace- 
 ful tribute of vanquished to victor, timely acknowl- 
 edgment that bitter as is defeat it is none the less 
 a blessing when freedom and union are its fruits. 
 Down the great avenue, past the Treasury, and then 
 on beyond the "White House stretched the unbroken 
 array of bronzed veterans in splendid procession. 
 Shoulder to shoulder, from one side to the other of 
 that broad expanse, column after column they came, 
 pouring on hour after hour, — a glorious pageant ! 
 
 The pith and marrow of a young nation's man- 
 hood was gathered there to receive the honors of a 
 hundred hard-fought fields. Army and people to- 
 gether were conscious that day of a feeling never 
 so fully experienced before, never to be as keenly 
 felt again ; a feeling of boundless exaltation and 
 intense delight, — all hearts borne along on the re- 
 sistless flood of patriotic enthusiasm. Shout after 
 shout rends the air at sight of each tattered banner, 
 encircled by many a gorgeous wreath of victory. 
 On the President's stand, before the Treasury, on 
 the front row of seats, close by President Johnson, 
 sat a venerable statesman, of marked aspect. Be- 
 side him sat his son-in-law, hero of the day, and 
 observed of all observers ; but the statesman's 
 heart was otherwhere. Down the long line he 
 
64 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 kept glancing. " What troops are these ?" " "What 
 division will pass next?" he asked, as fresh bursts 
 of applause kept welcoming the appearance of 
 each torn standard with its burden of garlands. 
 At length we were told that the 17th Corps was 
 approaching, then that the 3d Division was near 
 at hand, and finally the head of column of that 
 superb body rounded the Treasury building, and 
 came marching by. At their head a young officer, 
 a little less than thirty, perhaps, light-haired, gray- 
 eyed, sat his horse like a statue. N"either to 
 right nor left glanced he, though conscious of 
 ten thousand eyes turned toward him, conscious 
 that the President of the United States, the Secre- 
 tary of War, and General Sherman, rested their 
 eyes upon him; more conscious still that there 
 was one on that balcony leaning eagerly forward 
 to drink in the sight of his youngest boy riding 
 proudly at the head of his brigade. Tears came 
 and dimmed the old man's sight, and when he 
 had wiped them hastily away, Charles Ewing could 
 no longer be seen, and other heroes were still 
 crowding past. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Indian Bureau— Freedom of Worship — The Catholic Com- 
 missioner — The Peace Policy — The "Wards of the Nation — 
 Whose Missions? — Effects of the Policy. 
 
 In the year 1867, General Ewing resigned from 
 the army, took up his residence in Washington 
 City, and resumed the practice of law. Omitting, 
 not without regret, an account of his legal career, I 
 shall call especial attention to his connection with 
 the Catholic Indian Bureau. Be it understood from 
 the outset that the Church, which lasts forever, is a 
 spiritual government, capable of having dealings 
 with the civil powers of earth through any agents, 
 lay or ecclesiastical, whom she may choose to 
 appoint, and that such agents are responsible to her, 
 and to her alone, for the proper administration of 
 their trust. The Indian Bureau is the work of the 
 Catholic Church in America, the Catholic commis- 
 sioner of Indian affairs is the representative of the 
 highest authority we Catholics recognize on earth, 
 and as such he is entitled to respect, esteem, and 
 assistance until censured by Church authority. 
 
 5 65 
 
66 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 But before speaking of General Swing's connec- 
 tion with, the bureau, and of his work in behalf of 
 the Indian missions, I must explain the events 
 which led up to the appointment of the Catholic 
 commissioner for Indian affairs. 
 
 No American will deny that every man in the 
 world has a right to worship God freely. Who 
 then can maintain that a law which denies this 
 right, and violates the express prohibition of the 
 Constitution, is anything but a piece of outrageous 
 tyranny and shameless effontery ? Yet such a law- 
 existed within a few years, and was acted on to the 
 disgrace of our government, and in open contra- 
 diction of every American principle. To oppose it 
 was to withstand the power of the mightiest 
 machinery that has existed since the days of the 
 Roman empire, and to incur the enmity and op- 
 position of sects, numerous, wealthy, and cunning, 
 and ready, as their actions in this matter seem to 
 testify, to be the occasion of strife and bloodshed 
 rather than permit to the Church of God that free- 
 dom which is allowed her by the Constitution of 
 the United States. 
 
 The man who throws himself into a storm of 
 shot and shell, bearing our flag to victory, we call a 
 hero. What then shall we say of one who exposes 
 
CHARLES EWING. 67 
 
 himself to a storm of hatred, malignity, and 
 calumny, and who dares to face indifference, con- 
 tempt, and positive aversion in behalf of a de- 
 spised, down-trodden race ? In his long, dreary, 
 and often unsuccessful battle in behalf of the 
 Indians, Charles Ewing showed the qualities of the 
 Christian hero. 
 
 It is well known that General G-rant, when 
 elected President, was anxious to place the entire 
 control of the Indians in the hands of the United 
 States army. Had the politicians permitted this 
 step, many millions of treasure and thousands of 
 precious lives would have been saved. But our 
 statesmen could not allow so wise and simple a 
 solution of a complicated problem to be effected. 
 Under their influence. President Grant, in 1870, 
 established what is generally known as the "Indian 
 Peace Policy," the purport of which is given in 
 his message to Congress on the 5th of December, 
 1870, in the following words : " Indian agencies 
 being civil offices, I determined to give all the 
 agencies to such religious denominations as had 
 heretofore established missionaries among the 
 Indians ; and, perhaps, to some other denomina- 
 tions who would undertake the work on the same 
 terms, — f.c, missionary work." Under this policy 
 
68 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 the Government of the United States called to its 
 aid, in the accomplishment of its purposes to 
 civilize the Indians, the several religious denomina- 
 tions of the country. It confided the civil adminis- 
 tration of each Indian agency to the care of some 
 one religious denomination, which nominated to 
 the Hon. Secretary of the Interior a person as 
 agent, who was appointed to the office upon such 
 recommendation. When the agent ceased to enjoy 
 the confidence of the denomination nominating 
 him, his dismissal was called for, and another 
 designated in his place. The United States 
 Government desired that every Indian agent should 
 conduct the civil administration of his agency in 
 full harmony with the spiritual work of the Indian 
 mission at that agency, and that he and all his em- 
 ployes, if practicable, should be members of the 
 religious denomination to which the agency was 
 assigned, so that their example might aid the mis- 
 sionaries in civilizing the Indians. 
 
 This system would doubtless have worked well 
 in a country entirely Catholic. iTor would there 
 have been cause to complain even under the United 
 States Government, with its multiplicity of religious 
 sects, had the plan been carried out according to 
 the intention expressed at the time of the inaugura- 
 
 1 
 
CHARLES EWING. 69 
 
 tion of the policy. The President of the United 
 States then announced that each Indian agency 
 would be placed under the charge of that religious 
 denomination which theretofore had been laboring 
 among the Indians located at the agency, and en- 
 joying their confidence. With this arrangement 
 every denomination would have preserved full 
 liberty of action, and the material support the 
 government then promised each would have 
 greatly added to its moral influence. Under this 
 plan Catholic missionaries would have gained more 
 than all others, because they had at their several 
 missions over 100,000 Catholic Indians, or Indians 
 of Catholic ancestry; while missionaries of all the 
 sects together claimed only 15,000. Out of the 
 seventy-two agencies to which the Indians, pagan as 
 well as Christian, were distributed, there were 
 thirty-eight at which Catholic missionaries were the 
 first to establish themselves, and where they alone 
 sought to make converts of the Indians. 
 
 But this policy was not, in practice, put into 
 effect as promised. In place of the thirty-eight 
 agencies to which Catholic missionaries were by 
 right entitled under the policy, only eight were 
 assigned to them : Colville and Tulalip in Wash- 
 ington Territory; Umatilla and Grand Ronde in 
 
70 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 Oregon ; Flathead in Montana ; Standing Rock 
 and Devil's Lake in Dakota ; and Papago in Ari- 
 zona ; this last being subsequently consolidated with 
 the Pima and Maricopa Agency. The civil and 
 religious administration of the remainder was con- 
 fided to different Protestant denominations. Some 
 of the missions so assigned had for centuries been 
 exclusively Catholic, and Catholic Indians to the 
 number of eighty thousand, who were distributed 
 among the Protestant agencies, thus passed from 
 Catholic to Protestant control. 
 
 This order of things placed the Catholic bishops 
 who had Indians within their jurisdiction in a new 
 and difficult position. They felt it their duty to do 
 fall justice to the agencies intrusted to them by 
 exercising an attentive and intelligent supervision 
 over their material, moral, and spiritual interests, 
 and by carefully protecting the rest of their neo- 
 phytes against the proselytizing efforts of non- 
 Catholics having charge of them. At once it be- 
 came apparent to these bishops that by individual 
 and unorganized efforts they would fail to secure 
 all the rights of their neophytes, and, acting upon 
 the principle that " union is strength," they agreed 
 upon the necessity of having a civil agent at 
 "Washington to represent them before the United 
 
CHARLES EWING. 71 
 
 States Government in all that concerned the inter- 
 ests of Catholic Indians. Accordingly, in 1873, 
 His Grace the Archbishop of Baltimore (at the 
 instance of Reverend Fathers Deshon, Maguire, 
 Brouillet, and Van Gorp) chose General Charles 
 Ewing to fill this post. On the 2d of January, 
 1874, General Ewing was formally appointed Cath- 
 olic Commissioner for Indian Missions, as will 
 appear from the following letter : 
 
 " Archdiocese of Baltimore, 
 " Baltimore, January 2, 1874. 
 
 " To those whom it may concern : 
 
 "■ The Catholic bishops of the United States 
 who have Indian missions within the limits of 
 their dioceses feel that they have suffered great 
 injustice at the hands of the government in con- 
 nection with those missions, chiefly on account of 
 false and partisan information sent to the depart- 
 ment having charge of these matters. Not being 
 able to come to Washington themselves to correct 
 these misrepresentations and to oppose the plan of 
 selfish and interested persons who are constantly 
 at work there, they have earnestly requested me to 
 select and appoint some one living in Washington 
 with whom they could communicate freely and 
 
72 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 with confidence, and whom they would enable to 
 place the true state of things before the depart- 
 ment. 
 
 " In accordance with their views, and at their 
 request, I have appointed General Charles Ewing, of 
 Washington, to act as their commissioner for these 
 purposes. General Ewing has already done a great 
 deal in behalf of the Indian Catholic missions, and 
 is in every way fitted to discharge the duties which 
 will be required of him. 
 
 " As the Indian missionary bishops have not the 
 means to pay the necessary expenses of the com- 
 mission, some members of the Catholic Union in 
 New York and elsewhere have generously offered 
 to contribute an annual sum for this purpose, and 
 I most heartily recommend the commissioner, and 
 the good work in which he is engaged, to their 
 favor and support. 
 
 " Given at Baltimore, this 2d day of January, 
 A.D. 1874. 
 
 " t J. Roosevelt Bayley, 
 
 ^'■Archbishop of Baltimore." 
 
 After receiving this important appointment Gen- 
 eral Swing's first step was to issue a circular to the 
 Catholics of the United States, in which, after set- 
 
CHAELES EWING. 73 
 
 ting forth the course of events that led to the 
 establishment of the bureau, he proceeds to sketch 
 the character and condition of the Indian tribes, 
 and then adds : " For the protection of these 
 people, and the peace of its Territories, the United 
 States has been forced to take control of the affairs 
 of each tribe ; not simply in political matters as it 
 does over citizens in our Western Territories, 
 but in all things in which it is thought possible to 
 improve the condition of the Indians. The only 
 participation ever allowed them in the manage- 
 ment of their public affairs was in the negotiation 
 of treaties with the United States, but this right 
 has recently been taken from them, and their laws 
 are now arbitrarily made by the Federal govern- 
 ment, and executed by its agents, — the Indians 
 having no voice or vote, holding no offices of trust 
 or authority. They are regarded as children — 
 wards of the United States — who must be governed 
 and directed, so far as is possible, in all matters of 
 life, until they ripen into civilized men. Under 
 certain conditions it provides for them food, cloth- 
 ing, medicines and medical care, farming imple- 
 ments, houses, churches, school-houses, schools, etc. 
 It assumes and exercises the right to provide for 
 nearly all their wants, and, consequently, controls 
 
74 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 their minds and bodies as any power can control 
 a people that is so dependent upon it. 
 
 " This government of the Indians, or the adminis- 
 tration of Indian affairs, is conducted for the Presi- 
 dent of the United States by the Department of the 
 Interior, through Indian agents or governors, who 
 reside with the Indians, and employ doctors, school- 
 teachers, farmers, carpenters, and others, to assist 
 them in the care and civilization of the Indians ; 
 and to these agents or governors the Indian must 
 look for the protection of his life and property, and 
 for the food, clothing, and other gifts which he 
 may from time to time receive from the United 
 States. Indeed, so absolute is the power of the 
 agent, that the Indian cannot leave his reservation 
 to lay in the winter supply of meat for his wife and 
 children without first obtaining a written permit 
 from his agent. 
 
 " If they disregard the commands of their agent, 
 and cannot be induced by the gratuitous offer of 
 clothing, rations, and other annuities to reside 
 upon the reservation fixed for them, then they are 
 forced into subjection by the military arm of the 
 United States ; and they know full well how hard 
 that arm can strike, for they have felt it often. 
 
 " The Indian is not controlled, as I have said, only 
 
CHARLES EWING. 75 
 
 in such matters as we are. He cannot fix his place 
 of habitation, and follow with full liberty the 
 pursuits of the life he may choose. He is forced to 
 live within prescribed limits. His surplus wealth 
 of lands is converted into money by this ruling 
 power, the income from which it expends in its 
 own discretion for his benefit. It determines the 
 kind and quality of food and clothing each shall 
 have out of the common fund, and, if it sees fit, 
 deprives the disobedient and unruly of their 
 share. If he is poor and in want, it gives him 
 food and medicine. It is a strong, unyielding 
 power that has imposed itself upon him ; from 
 whose judgment there is no appeal ; that commands 
 what it sees fit, and enforces obedience to its 
 command. 
 
 " When he possessed the whole country, the 
 Indian could find in its varied natural products 
 the means of satisfying all of his wants ; and his 
 savage nature made it absolutely necessary for his 
 life that he should have the free range of vast 
 districts of country, and, consequently, when he 
 comes, with his habits, to be confined to narrow 
 limits, he is poor and dependent. 
 
 "Except what he may gain by gathering wild 
 fruits and grains, or in the poor harvest that he 
 
76 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 reaps from his rude tillage of a few fields, and • 
 from what he is able to lay up from the chase 
 or from the chance increase of his untended herds, 
 he must depend for all else upon the government 
 the United States has given him. 
 
 " Previous to 1870 the Indian agents, through 
 whom the United States exercised its extended 
 power over the Indians, expended the proceeds of 
 the Indian funds, or distributed its large annuities, 
 were, for a time, appointed from among the friends 
 of the existing administration, to whom these ap- 
 pointments were the rewards for political work. 
 After a time it was found that, through the dis- 
 honesty of their agents, the Indians received but a 
 small per cent, of the money or other annuities 
 sent out to them, when the civilians were set aside, 
 and oflicers of the army were placed in charge of 
 the agencies, and continued to administer the laws 
 and distribute the annuities on all of the Indian 
 reservations until 1870. At this time President 
 Grant, being satisfied that money and force could not 
 bring the Indian to recognize and obey any fixed 
 law or order, determined to call upon the Christian 
 churches of the United States to help him in caring 
 for the Indians, by uniting the Christian influence 
 of the missions to the influence of the government 
 
CHARLES EWING. 77 
 
 under what is now known as his Indian Peace 
 Policy. 
 
 " This policy, as announced by the President, 
 gives to each Church the designation of the agent 
 for those Indians among whom it had, in 1870, an 
 established mission and Christianized Indians; 
 and each agent, in all his work, in the exercise of 
 all his vast powers, is expected and required to 
 work in harmony with and for the advancement of 
 the Indian missions of the Church by which he was 
 designated; and if he or any one of his employes shall 
 fail in this, his Church has the authority, and, in 
 fact, it becomes its duty, to cause his removal, 
 and substitute for him a man who will conduct the 
 civil affairs of his agency in harmony with the 
 labors of the missionaries. 
 
 " The Assistant Secretary of the Interior says that 
 ' the new policy contemplates the moral and relig- 
 ious culture of the Indians, and it is not enough 
 that agents are willing to tolerate missionary work 
 among their people : they should be men who can 
 and will render efficient aid themselves in the work, 
 and cordially acquiesce in all proper missionary 
 appliances;' and this action of the churches is 
 called by the Assistant Secretary the ' missionary 
 branch' of the present policy of the government. 
 
78 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 And the Board of Indian Commissioners, in their 
 official report, state that the agents and employes 
 should be honest Christian men and women, who 
 will make successful missionaries, and who, while 
 pursuing their avocations in a faithful manner, 
 will, by precept and example, preach Christianity 
 and morality. 
 
 " It is also understood, under the policy, says the 
 same authority, that when a school is opened, it is 
 for the purpose of imparting to the pupils a knowl- 
 edge of Christianity, as well as the ordinary rudi- 
 ments of education. 
 
 " It is, briefly, the intention of the administration 
 to make the effort to evangelize and Christianize 
 the Indians, and to do so through the religious 
 societies of the country, which are made a 
 ' missionary branch' of the government for that 
 particular purpose. 
 
 " In inaugurating this policy President Grant 
 said that he would give ' all the agencies to such 
 religious denominations as had heretofore estab- 
 lished missionaries among the Indians,' — i.e., to 
 those churches that had been first in the field and 
 were actually at work in each Indian tribe at the 
 time he promulgated his policy. 
 
 " So understood, the President's policy is humane, 
 
CHARLES EWING. 79 
 
 philanthropic, and Christian, as it intends to protect 
 and help the missions indiscriminately, without 
 interfering with the freedom of any of the churches 
 or the liberty of conscience of the individual. 
 
 " But the policy is not carried out according to 
 its spirit and letter. Contrary to the expressed 
 intention of the President, the appointment of 
 more than thirty agents which should have been 
 given to the Catholic Church, because it was the 
 first and only successful missionary among the 
 Indians of these agencies, was given to favorite 
 Protestant churches, by whom they are still held, 
 despite the protests of the Indians and of our 
 Church. Missions that have been for hundreds 
 of years Catholic, and Indians to the number of 
 eighty thousand who profess the Catholic faith, 
 have been given to the charge of different de- 
 nominations of Protestants; and this in direct 
 violation of the unquestioned right of all Chris- 
 tians who live under our Constitution to perfect 
 freedom in the worship of Almighty Cod. 
 
 " Many of the Indian tribes have in the posses- 
 sion of the government large sums of money, the 
 proceeds of the sale of their lands, the interest 
 upon which is, in part, devoted to the education of 
 their children ; and for other tribes appropriations 
 
80 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 are yearly made for the same purpose, for in the 
 education of the child is found the greatest prom- 
 ise of the final adoption by the Indians of the 
 pursuits of civilized men. As religion, under the 
 present policy, or indeed under any conditions, must 
 be the foundation for education, it becomes the duty 
 of the government, in its character of guardian, to 
 see that the schools which it establishes with this 
 trust-fund are supplied with teachers who will edu- 
 cate the children in the faith of their parents. 
 
 " But, unfortunately, this plain duty is not ful- 
 filled. The honest purpose of the President has 
 been turned aside, and our Catholic Indians have 
 had their school-funds given for the support of 
 schools taught by Protestants, who are teaching the 
 Indian children religious doctrines antagonistic to 
 the faith of their parents. The Indians have pro- 
 tested against this unjust expenditure of their 
 school-fund, and this attempt, through their own 
 schools, to pervert the faith of their children. They 
 have declared again and again that they were 
 Catholic, and begged for their priests and Catholic 
 teachers. Numbers of such protests and petitions 
 have reached the Indian Bureau, but, so far, only 
 one has secured the desired object, and this through 
 the exertions of this office. 
 
CHARLES EWING. 81 
 
 " This condition of affairs, it is plain, places our 
 missions in great danger, and threatens irreparable 
 harm to the Catholic Indians. The bishops in 
 whose dioceses these Indians are located felt it 
 their duty to spare no efforts to rescue them from 
 their present condition, and protect them against 
 the dangers that threaten in the future. But, know- 
 ing from past experience that individual efforts 
 would never produce the desired effect, they have 
 agreed to unite, and, trusting in the good wishes and 
 the cordial co-operation of the whole American Hie- 
 rarchy, have appointed a commissioner to be their 
 representative at Washington, and there to attend 
 to the interests of their Indian missions and of their 
 Indians in their relations with the government. 
 
 " In doing this they have done only what the gov- 
 ernment expected them to do, and what it had been 
 for some time anxious they should do. The nature of 
 the present Indian policy requires large and correct 
 information in Indian mission matters, to enable the 
 administration to deal fairly and justly towards all 
 churches ; and this information in regard to Catholic 
 Indians, before the existence of this office, the author- 
 ities were at a loss how or where to get, and, in fact, 
 there was no source from which they could get it. 
 
 " The Protestant churches of the United States 
 6 
 
82 IN MEMOEIAM. 
 
 have their boards of missions, which are their 
 representatives and agents, speak and act in their 
 names, secure unity of action in the manage- 
 ment of their affairs, and, keeping constantly in- 
 formed as to their means and wants, direct their 
 action. Whenever the government wants any 
 information from one of them, the board is pre- 
 pared to give it. Is there any advantage of any 
 kind offering? The board is there waiting and 
 ready to act. Is the influence of friends needed 
 for any object of interest to their missions? The 
 board knows where to go for it. 
 
 " Our commissioner's office has a like object. It 
 is the representative and agent of the whole Cath- 
 olic Missionary Church among the Indians. It 
 will speak and act officially in its name and behalf. 
 Keeping itself fully informed as to the condition, 
 wants, and means of its missions, it will be always 
 prepared to argue and plead for justice in their be- 
 half, and give them timely direction. By attention 
 and care it will endeavor to lose no opportunity of 
 serving the Indian missions, and by a daily and har- 
 monious communication with the reverend clergy 
 and the numerous benevolent societies under their 
 direction, it will be enabled to know where to find 
 friends and means when they are needed. 
 
CHARLES EWING. 83 
 
 " To insure the success of this office in the work 
 that is before it, we must have the active sympathy 
 and charitable help of the Catholics of the United 
 States. Their Christian aid given to defend and 
 secure the religious liberty of the Indian, like all 
 charity, will at least be bread cast upon the waters, 
 and a little reflection will show that it may, in fact, 
 be the defence of our own right to worship Al- 
 mighty God, and to educate our children to know 
 and worship Him, free from all control or inter- 
 ference on the part of any secular power; for the 
 cause of the troubles that have come upon our 
 Indian missions is the disregard, the practical denial^ 
 of the great principles of religious liberty, that Catholics 
 first proclaimed and alone maintained on this con- 
 tinent, until it won other advocates, and finally 
 became a part of our ISTational Constitution. It is 
 now first attacked in the administration of Indian 
 afiairs, and it is certainly our duty to come to the 
 defence of our Catholic brethren of the plains by 
 pleading for the maintenance of the principles 
 handed down to us by our brethren who are gone. 
 " I am, very respectfully, 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 "Charles Ewing, 
 " Catholic Commissioner for Indian Missions." 
 
84 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 Under the "Peace Policy" war has become 
 almost the rule instead of the exception. So 
 actively have our troops been employed on the 
 plains, so numerous and disastrous have been our 
 campaigns, that the American army is said to 
 have lost more officers, in proportion to its numbers, 
 during the intervening years, than did the Russian 
 forces while actively engaged in war against the 
 Turks. Deprived in many instances of the re- 
 straining influences of the only religion they re- 
 spected, the Indians, when discontented with their 
 agents or with the government, sought redress in 
 barbarian fashion by murdering the nearest white 
 settlers ; the agent then called for troops, the tribe 
 took to the war-path, and flight, pursuit, battle, and 
 ambuscade followed; while the world laughed at 
 a great nation feeding, clothing, and virtually arm- 
 ing barbarians, and at the same time maintaining 
 an army at enormous expense to keep their marks- 
 manship well tested. Where should the blame 
 rest ? Another forcible document written by Gen- 
 eral Ewing, the substance of which is embodied 
 in the following chapter, may throw light on the 
 question. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Effects of President Grant's Indian Policy on the Catholic 
 Missions — More about the Peace Policy — A Startling Ad- 
 mission — Reaping the Whirlwind — What's the Use? — Free- 
 dom of Conscience — Victory at Last — Slanders Refuted — The 
 Papal Brief — Knight of St. Gregory. 
 
 At the time of the inauguration of this policy 
 (1870) the Church was in undisturbed possession of 
 nearly the whole Indian missionary field of the 
 United States, and three years later a government 
 officer, the president of the (Protestant) Board of 
 Indian Commissioners, claimed only fifteen thou- 
 sand for all the protesting churches. 
 
 We had our stations and travelling Indian mis- 
 sionaries all over Arizona, among the scattered 
 and impoverished descendants of the children of 
 our once populous and flourishing missions. "We 
 had nineteen churches, commodious, substantial 
 brick buildings, with regularly-attended stations 
 among the pueblos of New Mexico, and travelling 
 missionaries over nearly the whole Territory ; and 
 in California our missionaries visited regularly 
 and administered to the wants of the few Indians 
 
 85 
 
86 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 that were left of the tribes that a hundred years 
 ago gathered about the eighteen Franciscan mis- 
 sions, from which the true Peace Policy was first 
 taught practically on the Pacific coast. 
 
 In the vast region north of California there were 
 twelve regular stations, from which our missionaries 
 regularly visited every tribe from the mountains 
 to the sea-shore. There were three stations in 
 Idaho and three in Montana from which Father 
 De Smet and his followers journeyed and baptized 
 and taught the lessons of the evangelists among 
 the eighteen thousand Blackfeet and Crows, the 
 forty thousand Sioux, and the numberless tribes of 
 the Northwest and the regions of Wyoming and 
 Colorado. There were two stations in Kansas; 
 two in "Wisconsin ; one in Michigan ; and one in 
 Maine; and from these stations the priests went 
 out in all seasons to lift up and console the rem- 
 nants of all tribes from ocean to ocean. 
 
 When this policy was announced, not a single 
 Protestant Indian mission was known to exist on 
 the whole Pacific slope. ISTo Protestant Church 
 had undertaken the conversion of any Indian tribe 
 in New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming, 
 Colorado, Utah, or Idaho until 1870 ; and after a 
 fruitless attempt of some eleven or twelve years in 
 
CHARLES EWING. 87 
 
 Oregon and Washington Territory, the Methodists 
 and Presbyterians had retired from the missionary 
 field in 1848, and left it untended for twenty-two 
 years. 
 
 All who had any knowledge of our Indian tribes 
 in 1870 knew that the Church was the only Indian 
 missionary; it followed that we would have control 
 of at least the forty agencies at which we had per- 
 manent mission stations if the Peace Policy was 
 honestly administered ; but it has not been honestly 
 administered, and consequently we have not a 
 single agency in California, New Mexico, Colorado, 
 Utah, Wyoming, or Idaho. We had only one in 
 Arizona for a few years, and it has recently been 
 abolished, — the only one of six agencies, and, by all 
 official reports, the most successful in its work of 
 Christianizing and civilizing its Indians. We have 
 only two in Oregon, two in Washington Territory, 
 one in Montana, and two in Dakota. All the other 
 agencies, seventy-two in number, have been as- 
 signed to Protestant churches ; and wherever they 
 have obtained control they claim to be in exclusive 
 spiritual as well as temporal control, thus assuming 
 the right to exclude us from some thirty agencies 
 where we have Catholic Indians, and from all others 
 where we have not as yet been at work. 
 
88 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 The claim of the Protestant churches to exclu- 
 sive control, though denied in 1873 by the Com- 
 missioner of Indian Affairs, is now sustained by the 
 same commissioner, and by the Secretary of the 
 Interior, and, having been enforced against us in 
 several cases, — among others, at Round Valley, in 
 California, at Yakima, in Washington Territory, 
 and at Warm Springs, in Oregon, — we have no 
 guarantee that it will not be in all cases. 
 
 We wish to call the attention of our readers 
 to these effects of the policy, taken in connection 
 with a letter written on the 27th of December, 
 1871, to the most reverend archbishop of Oregon, 
 by the late bishop of Hartford, as justifying the 
 suspicion that they are not accidental, but the 
 legitimate fruit of a well- organized plan for the 
 first assault on the Church in this country, and 
 for the success of which the Peace Policy was 
 inaugurated. 
 
 This letter is as follows : 
 
 " Providknce, December 27, 1871. 
 
 " Most Rev. Dear Sir, — Some eighteen months 
 
 ago I read a letter from a Mr. , a Protestant 
 
 gentleman from New Haven, Conn., to some of 
 his relations in this city, in which he spoke with 
 
CHARLES EWING. 89 
 
 all the indignation which an honorable man would 
 naturally feel of the regularly-organized plans 
 which had been formed to drive Catholic mission- 
 aries from their fields of labor in the far West, and 
 of the efforts making to compel Catholic Indians 
 to abandon the religion of their choice, and to 
 embrace Methodism instead. 
 
 " This gentleman, from a mere feeling that it 
 was his duty to stand up for justice and religious 
 liberty, entreated his Protestant relative to whom 
 he spoke, to speak to Catholics in New Haven of 
 the outrages which were being attempted on the 
 Pacific coast, and to induce them to maintain the 
 cause of right and of religious liberty. 
 
 " Your letters, which I have just read, bring, the 
 letter to which I have referred vividly before my 
 mind. . . . 
 
 (Signed) " F. P. McFarland, 
 
 " Bishop of Hartford J' 
 
 However, General Ewing had not waited till the 
 Peace Policy became a by-word of reproach and a 
 jest to thoughtful and sincere men of all parties. 
 He did not need the proof of wars and raids and 
 endless troubles to show him how that scheme 
 would result, but, foreseeing these disastrous con- 
 
90 IN MEMOEIAM. 
 
 sequences and plunging at once into the heart of 
 his work, he prepared and filed petitions with the 
 Hon. Secretary of the Interior for the transfer to 
 the Catholic Church of the thirty Indian agencies 
 which had been placed under the control of differ- 
 ent Protestant denominations. The amount of 
 patience required and the time and labor expended 
 in preparing these petitions will be readily inferred. 
 While examining them we are struck by the 
 lawyer-like way in which General Ewing clings to 
 the cardinal point on this whole matter, the inten- 
 tion of the President. The Secretary of the In- 
 terior is bound to be guided by that intention, of 
 which General Grant's clear words leave no room 
 to doubt. Bigotry may shut its eyes, indifference 
 shrug its shoulders, and ignorance stare in blank 
 amazement, but crime still cries to heaven for ven- 
 geance. Nations, like men, must answer for their 
 acts, and our prairies and mountains are strewn 
 with the bones of victims offered on the altar of sec- 
 tarian zealotry. Many tribes begged and pleaded 
 for priests, and when refused, settled back into pa- 
 ganism and barbarism. The normal state of the bar- 
 barian is war. We sowed the wind, and we have 
 reaped the whirlwind. The difficulties surround- 
 ing General Ewing in this position, arising from 
 
CHARLES EWING. 91 
 
 the indifference or hostility of the sects, " the in- 
 solence of office," and the complicated nature of 
 our Indian affairs, resulting from a century of wars 
 and changes, were still further augmented by the 
 distance of the missions, the diversified interests of 
 those concerned, and the great tact needed to make 
 men of foreign birth comprehend the peculiar 
 machinery of our government. 
 
 But Tvas all his labor well directed ? Is the Indian 
 capable of advancement ? A few commonplace facts 
 may help to give the question a practical answer. 
 
 At Devil's Lake Agency, Dakota, in 1877, the 
 Indians raised 75,000 bushels of grain and vege- 
 tables; they hauled in one year 960,955 pounds of 
 freight. The Cceur d'Alenes, in Idaho, have 160 
 farms, though the tribe is small, and from the sale 
 of surplus produce several of the tribe are rich 
 men. Of their own accord they moved to the best 
 farming land on their reservation, abandoned their 
 old village in the mountains, sawed 60,000 feet of 
 lumber, manufactured 400,000 shingles, and paid 
 $7000 cash for 60 lumber wagons which they 
 needed. These Indians are governed by a com- 
 plete code of laws of their own. They have been 
 very friendly and useful to the whites in those re- 
 mote regions. "When the IsTez Perces made their 
 
92 IN MEMOEIAM. 
 
 famous campaign in 1877, the Coeur d'Alenes 
 guarded the farms of white men from the ma- 
 rauders, receiving afterwards the public thanks of 
 their neighbors. Add one item : there are now 
 3060 Indians receiving instruction in Catholic 
 schools. Whatever, then, may be the condition 
 of the majority of the Indians, who have suffered 
 from the vices of civilization, but received none of 
 its benefits, in the face of such facts as these it is 
 folly to say that the Indians are incapable of some 
 degree of advancement and improvement. 
 
 A word more as to the Peace Policy. The right 
 of freedom of worship under this policy was fully 
 tested in 1879. A Catholic missionary having 
 been expelled from a reservation assigned to Prot- 
 estants for no other reason than that of his being 
 a Catholic, and the Indian office having sustained 
 the action. General Ewing entered the following 
 indignant protest, addressed to the Commissioner 
 of Indian Affairs : 
 
 " Under our government a man has one right 
 which he cannot, under any condition, forfeit to 
 the law, even though by his crimes he has forfeited 
 all else, and that is the right to receive the sacra- 
 ments of the new law according to the forms his 
 conscience dictates. 
 
CHARLES EWING. 93 
 
 " We hold, moreover, that the officers of the 
 government have no right to prescribe a form of 
 worship for any tribe or nation under their con- 
 trol, no matter what its condition or relation to 
 the government may be ; nor have they the right 
 to prevent, directly or indirectly, any community 
 from worshipping Almighty God according to the 
 forms it may hold to be necessary. 
 
 " This principle is but a logical deduction from 
 our Constitution itself, which says : ' Congress 
 shall make no law respecting an establishment of 
 religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' 
 All officers of the government are creatures of the 
 statute law, and have no official power that is not 
 given them by statute. Congress alone can enact 
 statutes defining, limiting, or enlarging their 
 powers; and. Congress being prohibited from legis- 
 lating on religion, there is no law on the statute 
 book that could possibly be construed to author- 
 ize any official of the United States to exercise 
 authority over any human being on religious 
 matters. 
 
 " We, therefore, respectfully express it as our 
 intimate conviction that, under the Constitution 
 of our country, every Christian Church has an 
 absolute right to the free exercise of her ministry 
 
94 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 wherever and whenever she is wanted, either 
 among the whites or the Indians." 
 
 But the protest went unheeded. Fortunately 
 the boot was soon pinching the other foot. At 
 Devil's Lake there was a Catholic reservation. 
 The Indian agent there in 1880 expelled a Prot- 
 estant missionary because he was a Protestant. 
 Again the Indian office sustained the action, but 
 now the ox had gored the lawyer's horse, and of 
 course it was easy for all good Protestants to per- 
 ceive the iniquity of the law. The Hon. Carl 
 Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, saw fit to modify 
 the ruling of the department. Freedom of wor- 
 ship is now possible, and all denominations are 
 allowed to enter the reservations; but the fact 
 remains that the only Church which ever com- 
 pletely civilized any savage tribe in the world was 
 robbed by our government of thirty missions, and 
 absolutely deprived for many years of its sacred 
 and constitutional right to civilize the wild tribes 
 of the West. 
 
 What was General Ewing's reward for such 
 zealous labor ? The work of the bureau was done 
 for the glory of God, and Charles Ewing was not 
 the man to think that money pays for heart and 
 head work devoted to such a cause. Not one cent 
 
CHARLES EWING. 95 
 
 of the funds contributed to support the bureau 
 found its way into his private purse. Every dollar 
 was accounted for to a board of control, the lead- 
 ing member of which was the president of George- 
 town College. However, the usual " tribute which 
 inferiority pays to merit" was his abundantly. 
 Jealousy, calumny, slander, — these are the rewards 
 of Christian zeal, and that too from those on 
 whom we hoped to lean for support, in whose 
 abundant trust and hearty co-operation we thought 
 to find recompense for the world's coldness and 
 contempt : " The bureau was useless," " the 
 bureau was expensive," " the bureau was a bar- 
 rier between the missions and the department," 
 " the bureau was selfish," " the bureau was grasp- 
 ing." His enemies, emboldened by their own 
 voluble powers of abuse, began to make the 
 bureau guilty of peculation and embezzlement. 
 Yes, and gave facts and figures too to prove it ! 
 The Freeman's Journal of February 2, 187-, says of 
 the bureau : " The very best thing it can do is to 
 cease, quit, disappear, leaving no recollection of it 
 behind !" "What we ask and demand is that this 
 Catholic Indian Bureau shall disappear." And 
 why this severe sentence ? Because, says the 
 same issue, " out of $8000 collected by the Indian 
 
96 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, the Indians, 
 for whose benefit charitably disposed Catholics gave 
 their money, have received but $729." " The em- 
 ployes of the Catholic Bureau have received in four 
 years $3900 from money given by generous Catho- 
 lics to the poor persecuted and suffering Indians." 
 It is not hard to prove that nothing is some- 
 thing, and that black is white. The more blame 
 to those who dare to teach without knowing. 
 8,000,000 charitable Catholics deign to spare, from 
 a thousand calls on their generosity, $8000 in four 
 years for the cause of the Indian, and intrust 
 the $8000 to a bureau. That bureau fees Evarts 
 or Choate or Depew $8000, and wins for the 
 Indian claims to the extent of $100,000. Do 
 Catholics feel aggrieved? If so, they are to be 
 pitied. 8,000,000 Catholics give each one-fortieth 
 of a cent per annum through pure zeal for the mis- 
 sions. My one-fortieth of a cent helps to support 
 a clerk, a poor old missionary priest, to rent a 
 modest ofiice-room, to publish reports, pamphlets, 
 and statistics, but none of my one-fortieth of a 
 cent gets across the Rocky Mountains. To be 
 sure, there is a zealous Christian gentleman work- 
 ing with the poor missionary and the quiet clerk, 
 giving precious time and talent to the cause. By 
 
CHARLES EWING. 97 
 
 his efforts many of the Indian missions throughout 
 the country are benefited. Shall I continue gen- 
 erously to give one-fortieth of a cent ? "When we 
 become sufiiciently interested in our own missions 
 to give one cent a year to them, it will be time 
 enough to answer the absurd calumnies of such 
 hot-headed opponents as the former editor of the 
 Freeman's Journal. For the present their asper- 
 sions stand in marked contrast with the acknowl- 
 edgments of the bureau's zeal and efiiciency made 
 by ecclesiastical superiors whose dut}^ it was to 
 inform themselves and the Catholic world of what 
 was doing in behalf of the Indian. The cardinal 
 archbishop of New York, seven archbishops, and 
 thirty-two bishops of the United States gave the 
 bureau their hearty endorsement, which was 
 crowned by the action of His Holiness Pope Pius 
 IX. in creating General Ewing a Knight of the 
 Order of St. Gregory the Great. The following is 
 the papal brief: 
 
 " Pope Pius IX. 
 "Beloved Son, health and apostolic benediction. 
 Your personal worth, and especially your sterling 
 zeal in defending the Catholic name against 
 attacks of wicked men, demand of us that we 
 invest you, beloved son, with honors that may 
 
 7 
 
98 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 attest our predilection for you. Unto this end, we, 
 in the first place, release you from any and all sen- 
 tences of excommunication or other ecclesiastical 
 judgment, censure, and penalty which from any 
 cause or in any manner may have been laid upon 
 you, or to which you may have rendered yourself 
 liable. Holding you by this act absolved, we, by 
 these letters, elect and create you a Knight of the 
 Order of St. Gregory the Great, of the civil grade, 
 and adopt you into this most illustrious order. 
 Moreover, by these letters, we grant you the right 
 of wearing at pleasure the uniform of this order, 
 together with its own peculiar insignia, — viz., an 
 octagonal gold cross, bearing on the red surface 
 the effigy of St. Gregory the Great; this to be 
 attached to the left breast by a red silk riband 
 with yellow border, as is the custom of the knights 
 of this order. To obviate any discrepancy of cos- 
 tume or insignia, we have ordered the enclosed 
 drawing to be transmitted to you. 
 
 " Given at St. Peter's, in Rome, under the Fish- 
 erman's Ring, this first day of June, 1877, the 31st 
 year of our Pontificate. 
 
 [seal] "J. Card. Aquinas. 
 
 " Beloved son, 
 
 " Charles Ewing." 
 
CHARLES EWING. 99 
 
 I have hinted that much of General E wing's labor 
 was thwarted, but it would be a mistake to suppose 
 that the bureau did not accomplish great good. 
 "When General Ewing received his appointment 
 from the archbishop, there were in operation but 
 two Catholic Indian boarding schools and five day 
 schools, which received from the United States 
 about $9000 annually. In 1883, when General 
 Ewing died, there were eighteen Catholic boarding 
 schools, and their allotments amounted to $54,000. 
 The work has continued to grow, and the govern- 
 ment furnishes this year (1887) $204,706 to support 
 Catholic Indian schools. The mustard seed wisely 
 planted in 1874 has grown to be a goodly tree. 
 
 Any notice of the Indian Bureau would be un- 
 just that did not assign a prominent place to the 
 Very Reverend J. B. A. Brouillet, who was associ- 
 ated with General Ewing in all his labors and 
 sufferings in behalf of the Indians. In character, 
 as in appearance. Father Brouillet reminded those 
 who knew him best of some towering peak, calm 
 in the sunlight of the divine presence, as far re- 
 moved from the low valleys of human pettiness 
 and narrowness as it is possible for aught that 
 rests on earth to be. Working for God only, 
 caring nothing for men's applause or blame, simple, 
 
100 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 guileless, patient, meek, and humble, unmoved by 
 calumny or slight, he came as near to the apostolic 
 model as any one we have ever met, and the 
 fragrance of his virtues lingers after him, a sooth- 
 ing and softening proof that adversity still has 
 sweet uses, and that the fairest flowers bloom 
 closest to the cross. 
 
CHAPTER VIL 
 
 Character Sketch — Traits — The Maid of the Mist — Science and 
 Law — Social Views — Love of Keligion — A "Papist" — The 
 Wedding-ring — A Friend's Testimony — Conclusion. 
 
 It has been said of a distinguished soldier that 
 if all the maps of our country were lost, he could 
 repair the loss from memory. Of General Ewing 
 it may be said that had all books on politeness 
 been destroyed, his conduct would have supplied 
 their place. In dress he was scrupulously neat, 
 and yet as far removed from any sign of affecta- 
 tion or show as from carelessness or slovenliness. 
 His simple rule in this somewhat delicate matter 
 was so to dress that no gentleman would notice 
 how he was dressed. He was fond of quoting 
 the saying of an English nobleman : " See that 
 your hat and shoes are brushed; the rest will 
 be sure to be in keeping." His head was so 
 large that hatters were generally obliged to take 
 his order in advance, and yet, though short of 
 stature, no one ever said that his head was out of 
 
 101 
 
102 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 proportion, so graceful was his shape, so agile hi^ 
 movements, so becoming his garb. In tempera- 
 ment Charles Ewing was more than sanguine : he 
 was impetuous and dashing, yet with a staying- 
 power, a firmness, and self-command that pre- 
 vented his enthusiasm from leading him into folly, 
 or the failure of hasty endeavor from producing 
 dejection. If at times he built cloud-castles, — as 
 who does not ? — when they were destroyed by the 
 storm of adversity or dispelled by the sun of tran- 
 quil duty, he was not found weakened by his 
 dreams, or deprived of the vigor, the industry, 
 necessary for solid work and patient endurance. 
 In the pursuit of fickle fortune he was animated 
 more by the desire of providing generously for 
 those whom Providence had made dependent on 
 him, and of aiding the host of friends constantly 
 appealing to him for assistance, than by any ex- 
 cessive desire of procuring his own pleasure or 
 profit. Wealth he regarded as a means, not an 
 end ; and had fate placed him in a position above 
 the sordid seeking after mammon, which so ties 
 and hampers the manhood of the world, his gen- 
 erosity would have made others feel that he 
 well deserved the gifts he was so ready to dis- 
 tribute. 
 
CHAELES EWING. 103 
 
 A good judge of character, he knew how to 
 compare himself with others, and, without losing 
 confidence in his own abilities or failing to esti- 
 mate at its full value his capacity and talent, he 
 was first in detecting and loudest in praising supe- 
 rior genius in others. l!^or was there ever seen in 
 him the shadow of jealousy, envy, or pettiness 
 which too often mars friendship between men of 
 dififerent ranks and varying attainments. His nice- 
 ness of perception extended to the minutest traits, 
 and made him an excellent mimic. How well he 
 could reproduce the tone, the manner, the pose, 
 the inflection, the oddity, of any one, and set the 
 family circle in a roar of innocent laughter ! His 
 was the genial humor of the cheery heart, never 
 the caustic wit that savors of bitterness. With 
 him a pleasant joke was a joy forever, but he 
 found his amusement quite as much in the pecu- 
 liar traits of precocious childhood as in the more 
 serious blunders and marked mannerisms of age. 
 Deeming cheerfulness one of the first duties of life, 
 and possessing a guileless heart, he carried sun- 
 shine with him, dispelled the storms of care, up- 
 rooted despondency, and planted in its stead the 
 genial seeds of cordial kindliness. He was quick 
 in catching the tone of those about him and adapt- 
 
104 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 ing himself to various tastes. To him it was 
 equally pleasant to philosophize with the sage and 
 pun with the punster. Brief and pointed answers 
 to objections pleased him best. Hearing Inger- 
 soll's difficulty, " Why did not Providence make 
 good health catching instead of disease?" he re- 
 torted, " That would suppose Providence to have 
 made disease the rule and health the exception." 
 In boyhood, as he was disputing with a taller 
 brother as to which most resembled their father, 
 Charley remarked, " Your feet and my head are 
 most like his." Mr. John Carroll Brent, who was 
 fond of word-play, was telling of his ride on a little 
 steamer up under the spray of the Falls of Niagara, 
 and he remarked on the appropriate name of the 
 boat,—" The Maid of the Mist." " I remember 
 her," said General Ewing ; " she was very light 
 and cork-like; what was she made of?" "Pine, 
 I think," replied Mr. Brent. "No," replied the 
 general, " she was made of the mist." 
 
 His literary taste is sufficiently attested by the 
 apt quotations with which his ordinary correspond- 
 ence is gemmed. His favorite poet was Milton, 
 and of Milton's works " Comus," perhaps, pleased 
 him best. Among his military documents, filed, 
 arranged, and labelled with neatness and precision. 
 
CHARLES EWING. 105 
 
 I found, side by side, the maxims of Napoleon and 
 a well-worn volume of poems with many a passage 
 marked. I^ext to these was a pocket volume of 
 Lendy's " Instructions on the Art of War," in 
 which I find every superfluous word or expression 
 carefully erased. Take, for example, this sentence, 
 on page 168 : " [As for] the usages of war [they] 
 vary with the times, [the] manners, and [the] 
 people, and many of them, though countenanced, 
 are [unfortunately] not such that a delicate con- 
 science could [unscrupulously] conform to even 
 under [the most] imperious circumstances." How 
 much the language gains in strength and precision 
 after being thus dragooned ! The pages of this 
 little volume fairly bristle with red and blue marks, 
 like the school-boy's composition that has fallen 
 into the hands of a patient tutor. 
 
 Charles Ewing never lost that taste for the natu- 
 ral sciences which he acquired at the Virginia 
 University. As a patent lawyer in Washington 
 he displayed remarkable knowledge of mechanics, 
 physics, and chemistry, followed the latest dis- 
 coveries in electricity, and was making investiga- 
 tions on the telephone at the time of his death, 
 with a view of solving the difficult problem of 
 establishing such calls as will enable a central 
 
106 IN MEMOEIAM. 
 
 office to call a particular subscriber without ring- 
 ing the other bells on the same circuit. In what- 
 ever he undertook his interest was intense, his 
 industry remarkable and constant. His legal argu- 
 ments received high praise from distinguished 
 judges and jurists. He was engaged in numerous 
 important transactions before the departments, and 
 once obtained the reversal of a case which the 
 attorney-general had decided against him, by pre- 
 senting his argument in person to the President. 
 I have by me two large bundles of letters which 
 show that he was connected with many affiiirs of 
 a delicate and complicated nature, requiring not 
 only ability and tact, but personal, social, and politi- 
 cal influence on the part of an advocate. These 
 General Ewing possessed, and knew how to avail 
 himself of in every honorable and manly way. 
 But I cannot pretend to do justice to this part of 
 his career. 
 
 His social qualities were as easy to appreciate 
 and as certain to win aflfection as they are difficult 
 of analysis and description. There was that ease 
 about his manner which goes to mark the man 
 who is equally at one with prince or peasant, that 
 sweetness born of early and frequent intercourse 
 with ladies, that equipoise resulting from a well- 
 
CHAELES EWING. 107 
 
 regulated interior. Democratic as we are in Amer- 
 ica, it is absurd to ignore social castes, or to 
 pretend that culture, refinement, and elegance go 
 for naught. Essential they are not in the highest 
 point of view, hut in what is called " society" not 
 only are they essential : they are everything. The 
 manners are the man. Now, in the mixed society 
 of Washington after our civil war, there may have 
 been some tendency to depart from the highest 
 and most exalted features of the code of etiquette. 
 If critics were right in saying so, they certainly 
 could not have extended the remark to Charles 
 Ewing, for in his intercourse with the gentle sex 
 he displayed something of a high-toned chivalry 
 and courtliness that betokened the loftiest apprecia- 
 tion of what woman was designed to be ; but, while 
 his easy manner fascinated and charmed, his innate 
 dignity and manly reserve prevented any approach 
 to that breaking down of conventional lines which 
 has been so ably satirized by Mallock, and from 
 which American society is in danger of receiving 
 its greatest shock. To fail to escort a lady to her 
 carriage, to be wanting in reverence to rank or 
 age, to be lacking in any of the minutiae of ex- 
 quisite breeding through carelessness or forgetful- 
 ness were crimes for which he could not easily 
 
108 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 forgive himself, and which therefore he was free to 
 criticise in others. He aimed always at what is 
 best, and if in doing so he at times seemed exact- 
 ing and punctilious, it was a fault that leaned to 
 virtue's side. If politeness is not Christian charity 
 it is its fairest adornment. 
 
 In describing the character of Charles Ewing we 
 must give to religion a prominent place. With 
 him duty to God was not a matter of sentiment 
 or social convention : it was not an affair of the 
 " Sabbath," to be laid aside with one's Sunday suit ; 
 but that deep heart-felt conviction in the reality of 
 the things of faith ; that constant adherence to fixed 
 principles of action ; that docile submission to the 
 authority of Holy Church ; that personal love and 
 child-like confidence in our Saviour, — which mark 
 the stanch Catholic. So delicate was his conscience 
 that he was warned by a phrenologist of the 
 dangers of scrupulosity; so consistent his conduct 
 and constant his practice of religious duties, that 
 he had the happiness of winning his wife's con- 
 version, not by argument or controversy, but by 
 the sheer force of example ; so correct and spiritual 
 his perceptions, that while he loved and admired 
 all the functions of Mother Church, and praised 
 all that she approves, he found his highest comfort 
 
CHARLES EWING. 109 
 
 in the simple ceremonies of Low Mass, especially 
 when he could occupy such a position in church as 
 to watch each movement of the priest at the altar, 
 and thus feast his soul on the sacramental presence 
 of his Redeemer. Free from human respect, he 
 was open and candid in the expression of religious 
 opinion and in defence of Catholic principles. 
 Riding one day on the avenue in Washington 
 with two gentlemen high in power, a remark was 
 made that reflected on the Sovereign Pontiff. 
 General Ewing pulled the check and threw open 
 the carriage-door to descend, remarking that he 
 would not ride in the same carriage with a person 
 who spoke with want of respect of the Pope. An 
 apology and promise of amendment induced him 
 to resume his seat. His experience in attempting 
 to uphold the truth was similar, no doubt, to that 
 of all Catholics who have the courage of their 
 convictions, but is not the less interesting on that 
 account. The following extracts from letters to 
 his brother Hugh speak for themselves ; 
 
 " Washington City, January 4, 1855. 
 
 " I have another source of amusement that I 
 had like to have forgotten, for the plain reason 
 that I do not like to look upon the dark side of 
 
110 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 human nature. The source of this branch of my 
 recreation flows from the unbounded abundance 
 
 of the most bitter prejudice of Mrs. Justice 
 
 against the Catholic Church. I suppose you are 
 acquainted with the lady, as you were here last 
 winter, and I expect also that you had your share 
 of bickering. I should suppose, if you will allow 
 a supposition, that she found one little, ignorant 
 Romanist, as she is pleased to call them, that was 
 not altogether ignorant of the ignoble beginning 
 of the Reformation, and one that was not totally, 
 as she is pleased to suppose, without a knowledge 
 of the Bible. And I can assure you, Hugh, I 
 was not lacking in the use of what little I do 
 know." . . . 
 
 " Washington, D. C, January 20, 1855. 
 
 " You advise me to keep on the right side of 
 
 Mrs. . "Well, I can tell you, brother, I would 
 
 as soon go join the Turk and turn to Mecca from 
 our holy city, as to do as he will have to do 
 who desires to gain her good wishes. 
 
 " ' You may as well go stand upon the beach 
 And bid the main flood bate its usual height ; 
 Tou may as well forbid the mountain pines 
 To wag their high tops and to make no noise 
 When they are fretted with the gusts of heaven,' 
 
CHARLES EWING. Ill 
 
 as seek to win truth from such when speaking 
 of our holy faith. I pray God to have mercy on 
 her, for, like all the rest of us, she is in need of 
 help from above." 
 
 The fulfilment of the duties of man to man, of 
 the creature to the Creator, it belongs to the world 
 to know, for we are social beings ; but how lift 
 the veil of that inner sanctuary of the domestic 
 shrine, how expose even to the friendliest gaze 
 the sacred recesses of the hearthstone ? General 
 Ewing was married to Virginia Miller, of Mount 
 Vernon, Ohio, on December 20, 1870. The cere- 
 mony was performed by Archbishop Purcell, and 
 those who witnessed the scene observed that, at the 
 moment the bond was knit, the groom turned and, 
 with a grace all his own, kissed his fair bride. 
 From that moment till those same lips closed for- 
 ever in death, no word of impatience, of harsh- 
 ness, of fault-finding, was let slip by him in ad- 
 dressing his wife. By that simple act, in such a 
 solemn hour, he had added a new seal to the sacred 
 bond of marriage, and that seal was never broken. 
 Of the eight children who are the fair fruit of 
 these nuptials, heaven claimed the eldest in her 
 infancy. Alluding to the survivors, he said, in his 
 jovial way, " My family is, as you know, a big 
 
112 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 little one, — the children are growing like corn 
 under a July sun (of a still night I fancy I can 
 hear their little joints crack)." It is apart from 
 the object of this sketch to say aught of the living, 
 but I cannot forbear mentioning that of the seven, 
 each bears in look and manner the impress of the 
 father, and in their calm cheerfulness and repose 
 of manner show forth the softening effects of the 
 gentlest training. 
 
 Toward subordinates he displayed firmness tem- 
 pered by kindness. At the moment Captain Smith 
 was shot by his side in the attack on Arkansas 
 Post, a wounded rebel near our lines called loudly 
 for water. Captain Ewing, taking the canteen 
 from the nearest soldier, and stooping, lifted the 
 head of the wounded man on his arm, and soothed 
 him with a mother's tenderness. 
 
 It is in moments like these, when the tide of 
 passion runs high, and the awful excitement of 
 battle stirs the most moderate, that Christian charity 
 shows its depth and strength in helping a fallen 
 foe. 
 
 When his men were prostrated by disease, not 
 content to leave the care of them to others, he 
 went from tent to tent with kindness and tender- 
 ness for all. 
 
CHARLES EWING. 113 
 
 With his equals he was a boon companion, wel- 
 come at every headquarters, a merry comrade, ever 
 ready for a story or a chat, ever blithe, gay, and 
 genial, with a depth of affection for those more 
 intimate with him which bound him by hooks of 
 steel to all whose sterling worth he had tried. 
 
 The following letter from one whom he loved 
 bears evidence in every line of manly and gener- 
 ous friendship : 
 
 " Fort Wingate, New Mexico, July 4, 1887. 
 
 " In reply to your request of June 27th, I regret 
 very much that I am unable to comply with a 
 demand which would be to me a labor of love. 
 
 " Immediately after the death of General Ewing, 
 — my kind friend and companion, — I destroyed all 
 his letters, etc., as I did not wish to retain in my 
 possession what would be to me sad reminders of 
 one I learned to love so dearly and so sincerely. 
 • " As every one of his letters would call up some 
 recollections of the past, and awaken old memories 
 long buried in the depths- of my heart, I deter- 
 mined, after his death, to destroy every scrap of 
 paper in my possession in any way relative to him. 
 
 " I regret now having done so. We were warm 
 personal friends from the moment we first met 
 
 8 
 
114 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 each other at Jefferson Barracks, in Missouri, in 
 1861, and corresponded with each other from that 
 date until a short time before his death. The im- 
 pression of the many happy and pleasant moments 
 passed with him will never be obliterated from the 
 tablet of my memory. The pen of intense love 
 has written eternal affection on the page of my 
 soul. 
 
 " And who could know Charley Ewing and not 
 love, honor, and admire him. He was gentle as a 
 woman, generous, confiding, kind, and afiectionate. 
 He had a heart impressed with the most honorable 
 sentiments, and nothing could make him forget 
 those principles of honor and integrity by which 
 all his life had been regulated and governed. 
 General Ewing was a man who was always in- 
 spired with high aims and purposes, and a lofty 
 and chivalrous spirit, and, being the very soul of 
 honor, would shrink with repugnant horror from 
 what he considered mean or contemptible. 
 
 " He possessed an open, honest, manly heart, 
 and a most kindly, loving, and forgiving disposi- 
 tion; and no matter whether fortune smiled or 
 frowned upon him, he was always the same 
 courtly, genial, pleasant, and affable gentleman, 
 neither elevated in prosperity nor dejected in ad- 
 
CHARLES EWING. 116 
 
 versity. He was esteemed, loved, and respected 
 by all who came in contact with him, and was 
 looked upon as the true type of the perfect Chrisr 
 tian gentleman. 
 
 " Gratitude, fidelity, gentleness, and generosity 
 were inherent virtues of his nature. Though a 
 soldier, and accustomed to all the licentiousness of 
 camp life, he never forgot his duties to his Creator 
 or his country, and nothing could tempt him to 
 neglect any of his moral or religious obligations. 
 Honor, duty, loyalty were his guiding stars, — 
 honor and duty to his God, duty and loyalty to his 
 country. 
 
 " I often think how it shall be when, after the 
 last sleep of death, the reveille shall rouse us for 
 ever. I seem to think that my old comrade and 
 myself shall meet at the great roll-call in the spirit- 
 land and be reunited again. God grant it may 
 be so ! 
 
 " Your friend, 
 
 "F. E. DE COURCY." 
 
 To superiors General Ewing was respectful, 
 obedient, and docile, with a promptness, gener- 
 osity, and ardor in the discharge of military duty 
 which won for him the most honorable mention in 
 
116 IN MEMOEIAM. 
 
 the official reports of General Giles A. Smitli, 
 General Frank P. Blair, and others under whom 
 he served, thus opening the way for well-earned 
 promotion. For General Sherman he entertained 
 an affectionate admiration that passed all bounds, 
 and his confidence in his chief was so intense from 
 the outset that he never doubted the outcome of 
 events in the West, or regarded the splendid 
 achievements of '64 and '65 as anything more 
 than what was naturally to be expected when the 
 idol of his young manhood held command of th^ 
 Department of the Mississippi. 
 
 In June, 1883, General Ewing was attacked by 
 pneumonia. His system, worn by work, anxiety, 
 and strain, was unable to resist the insidious dis- 
 ease. Once he rallied, and, seated in an easy- 
 chair, seemed to us who surrounded him like his 
 own genial self. It was but the flickering of the 
 candle before it goes out. Sinking again, he had 
 but strength to make preparation for death, and to 
 relieve his soul of the last weight which had accu- 
 mulated. After confession, he expressed himself 
 delighted that they had sent for " that big Jesuit."* 
 The next day it became necessary to administer the 
 
 * Kev. J. J. Murphy, S.J., attended General Ewing in his 
 last illness and delivered an eloquent oration at his funeral. 
 
CHARLES EWING. 117 
 
 Viaticum and Extreme Unction, and on the 20th 
 of June, fortified with all the rites of Holy Church, 
 Charles Ewing breathed his last. He was buried 
 from St. Aloysius' Church, and, as we looked at 
 the casket wrapped in the Stars and Stripes and 
 thought of the gallant soldier borne down to the 
 valley of death still bearing his banner of beauty, 
 of the young general decked with a star far 
 brighter than that which had shone on his shoul- 
 der, of a wreath on his brow far fairer than that 
 which had heralded peace, we seemed to realize in 
 its fulness the meaning of the life that was gone, 
 — a battle for a laurel crown eternal, a bright but 
 laborious preparation for everlasting bliss. 
 
 In a quiet neighborhood of our Monumental 
 City, opposite the house where Grant and Sherman 
 lived in the palmy days of their military suprem- 
 acy, there stands near the fire-place, in a modest 
 parlor, an azure banner with a golden fringe 
 drooped gracefully beside the hearthstone round 
 which flit the recollections so faintly recorded in 
 these pages. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 " Headquarters of the Army, "j 
 
 Adjutant-General's Office, j 
 "Washington, November 1, 1883. 
 
 " Statement of the military services of Chaeles Ewing, 
 of the United States army^ compiled from the records 
 of this office. 
 
 " He was appointed captain, Thirteenth United 
 States Infantry, May 14, 1861; lieutenant-colonel 
 and assistant inspector-general of volunteers (under 
 act of Congress approved July 17, 1862) June 22, 
 1863 (serving as such to April 1, 1865), and briga- 
 dier-general of volunteers to rank from March 8, 
 1865. He resigned the latter commission Decem- 
 ber 1, 1865. On the 21st of September, 1866, he 
 was transferred (as captain) to the Twenty-second 
 Infantry, and finally resigned from the army July 
 31, 1867. 
 
 " For gallant and meritorious services at the 
 siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, during the Atlanta 
 campaign, and during the war, he received succes- 
 sively the brevets of major U. S. A. July 4, 1863, 
 
 119 
 
120 APPENDIX. 
 
 lieutenant-colouel, U. S. A., September 1, 1864, 
 and colonel U. S. A. March 13, 1865. 
 
 " He served at Jefierson Barracks, Missouri, in 
 command of a detachment of recruits, in August 
 and September, 1861, and in command of his com- 
 pany to November 12, 1861 ; on recruiting service 
 to December 17, 1861 ; commanding company at 
 Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, to January 17, 1862 ; 
 on recruiting service at Lancaster, Ohio, to Feb- 
 ruary 3, 1862; commanding company at Alton, 
 Illinois, to August 14, 1862; on mustering and 
 disbursing duty at Springfield, Illinois, to Septem- 
 ber, 1862; commanding company in camp, near 
 Newport, Kentucky, to October 11, 1862; in the 
 field, district of Memphis, Tennessee, to November 
 26, 1862 ; with Second Brigade, First Division, 
 right wing, Thirteenth Army Corps, Army of the 
 Tennessee, to January 5, 1863; First Brigade, 
 Second Division, Second Corps, Army of the Mis- 
 sissippi, to January 12, 1863 ; and First Brigade, 
 Second Division, Fifteenth Corps, Army of the 
 Tennessee, to May 19, 1863 ; commanding the first 
 battalion of his regiment to June 15, 1863 ; in- 
 spector-general of the Fifteenth Army Corps to 
 April 30, 1864; and of the Military Division of the 
 Mississippi to April 1, 1865 ; commanding First 
 
APPENDIX. 121 
 
 Brigade, Third Division, Seventeenth Army Corps, 
 to July 18, 1865 ; awaiting orders to July 28, 1865, 
 when assigned to duty in the Department of the 
 Mississippi; on leave of absence from October, 
 1865, to date of resignation as brigadier-general of 
 volunteers, December 1, 1865, and on recruiting 
 service to July 31, 1867. 
 
 " In January, 1865, he was sent from Savannah, 
 Georgia, to City Point, Virginia, and Washington, 
 D. C, as bearer of despatches from General Sher- 
 man to Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant, and the 
 President of the United States. 
 
 "He bore an honorable part in the following 
 battles, campaigns, etc. : 
 
 "Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, Mississippi, De- 
 cember 27-29, 1862; battle of Arkansas Post, 
 Arkansas, July 11, 1863; skirmish on Deer Creek, 
 Mississippi, March 22, 1863; demonstration against 
 Haine's Bluff, Mississippi, April 30 to May 1, 1863 ; 
 battle of Champion's Hill or Baker's Creek, Mis- 
 sissippi, May 16, 1863; skirmish at Bridgeport, 
 Mississippi, May 17, 1863; assaults on Vicksburg, 
 Mississippi, May 19 and 22, 1863; siege of Vicks- 
 burg, Mississippi, May 23 to July 4, 1863 ; siege 
 of Jackson, Mississippi, July 10-17, 1863; action 
 at Colliersville, Tennessee, October 11, 1863; the 
 
122 APPENDIX. 
 
 Chattanooga, Tennessee, campaign, October 24 to 
 November 27, 1863; battle of Missionary Ridge, 
 Tennessee, ISTovember 28, 1863; expedition to 
 Knoxville, Tennessee, November 28 to December 
 31, 1863 ; the Atlanta, Georgia, campaign, May 5 
 to September 2, 1864, including battles of Dalton, 
 Resaca, Cassville, New Hope Church, Kenesaw 
 Mountain, Ruff's Station, Peach -Tree Creek, 
 Atlanta, Jonesboro', etc. ; pursuit of Hood's army 
 into North Carolina, September 20 to November 15, 
 1864; the Savannah, Georgia, campaign, Novem- 
 ber 15 to December 21, 1864; campaign of the 
 Carolinas, January 15 to April 26, 1865, comprising 
 the battles of Averysboro' and Bentonville, and 
 surrender of the Confederate Army at Durham's 
 Station, North Carolina. 
 
 " In his official report of the advance against the 
 Confederate works at Vicksburg, Mississippi, May 
 18, 1863, General Frank P. Blair says: 'The 
 pickets of the First Brigade, under command of 
 Captain Charles Ewing, Thirteenth Regiment 
 U.S. Infantry, pressed forward during the night to 
 within one hundred yards of the enemy's intrench- 
 ments, driving those of the enemy within the lines 
 of his fortifications.' Concerning the same affair, 
 Colonel Giles A. Smith, his brigade commander, 
 
APPENDIX. 123 
 
 says : ' At twelve, midnight, I sent Captain Charles 
 Ewing, First Battalion, Thirteenth U. S. Infantry, 
 forward with skirmishers to reconnoitre the ground 
 in my front. He drove in the enemy's pickets, and 
 reached within one hundred yards of the line of 
 intrenchments, when I ordered them to fall hack, 
 before daylight, some two hundred yards, to secure 
 cover from a hill.' 
 
 " Regarding Captain Ewing's conduct in the 
 assault of May 19, 1863, General Smith reports 
 that ' Captain "Washington, commanding First Bat- 
 talion, Thirteenth United States Infantry, was twice 
 wounded while gallantly leading his men to the 
 assault. The command then devolved upon Cap- 
 tain Charles Ewing, who carried the colors of his 
 battalion close under the parapets of the enemy 
 after three color-bearers had been successively 
 either killed or wounded. He was himself slightly 
 wounded in the hand, and received another bullet 
 through his hat. Captain Washington is a prisoner 
 in the hands of the enemy. I earnestly recom- 
 mend both these officers for promotion, for gal- 
 lantry on the field, as well as their eminent fitness 
 for high commands.' 
 
 " C. McKeever. 
 " Assistant Adjutant- General." 
 
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