Part 10

On the 12th of September he was commissioned Major of the 12th. Regiment of Wisconsin Infantry, serving with it in Kansas, Missouri, and New Mexico. In October of 1862, he was assigned to duty on the staff of General McLean, as Inspector General of the first division, right wing of the Army of the Tennessee. He served in this capacity two months and was then assigned to duty on the staff of General James B. McPherson, as inspector General of the right wing of the Army of the Tennessee. In February, 1863, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and became Assistant Inspector General of the Seventeenth Army corps. On the 20th of April, 1864, he was appointed Inspector General of the Department and Army of the Tennessee, serving in that capacity until the close of the war. He was chief of staff to General O. O. Howard, on the march to the sea and through the Carolinas to Beaufort, Goldboro, Raleigh and thence to Washington. At Atlanta he was promoted to a Colonelcy, dating from July 22d, 1864, for “gallantry on the field of battle,” and on the 21st of March, 1865, he was brevetted a brigadier general of volunteers, having attained this distinction while still under 24 years of age.

After participating in the grand review of troops at Washington in May, 1865, General Strong was assigned with General Howard, to duty in connection with the conduct and management of the Freedman’s Bureau, and in September, 1866, was then mustered out of the service at his own request, having served in all over five years.

Throughout his entire term of service he was recognized as a brave and capable officer, and his gallantry was attested on numerous occasions. It was he who raised the stars and stripes over the Courthouse at Vicksburg immediately after the capitulation of the confederate forces.

He received the last order from the brilliant and lamented McPherson, while acting as his chief of staff, and led the desperate and daring charge which was made to recover the dead chieftain’s body. The following is a list of battles and campaigns in which he participated; The battles of Blackburn’s Ford and Bull Run in July, 1861. The campaign in Kansas, and also the campaign in Kentucky, Tennessee and Central Mississippi in 1862-63; the campaign against Vicksburg by way of the Mississippi River; and also in the battles of Port Gibson, May 1st; battle of Raymond, May 12th; battle of Jackson, May 14th; battle of Champign Hills, May 16th; battle of Black River Bridge, May 17th; Siege of Vicksburgh, May 17th to July 4th, 1863; the campaign against Meridian, Mississippi, and that against Atlanta in 1864, in which he participated in the battle of Resaca, Dallas, New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Ezra Chapel, Jonesboro, Lovejoy Station, and later Fort McAllister, and Bentonville, one of the final contests of the war, and was present at the final surrender of Johnston’s army on April 26th of that year. Esteemed by his superior officers and subordinates alike for his soldierly qualities, he was equally noted for his uniform courtesy and his efficiency as an executive officer.

In 1867, soon after he left the military service, General Strong formed a business connection with the Peshtigo Company, one of the largest corporate organizations engaged in the lumber trade in the United States. The same year he was married to Miss Mary Bostwick Ogden, an accomplished young woman, daughter of Mahlon D. Ogden, one of the pioneer citizens of Chicago. Establishing his home in Chicago at that time it continued to be his place of residence to the date of his death, and with many of its most important enterprises and undertakings of late years he was most prominently identified. Chosen secretary and treasurer of the Peshtigo Company in 1867, he retained that position until 1873, when he became president of the corporation. This position he filled for eighteen years, and was holding at the time of his death, April 10th, 1891. He was one of the promoters and builders of the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, became a director and was also treasurer and assistant secretary of the Sturgeon Bay & Lake Michigan Canal Company, and was largely instrumental in developing the resources of the lumber regions of the northwest. In his business life he showed great capacity for the conduct of affairs of more than ordinary magnitude. His management of the important interests committed to his care was uniformally successful. He never lost his interest in military affairs, and after he became a citizen of Illinois was among those most active in promoting the organization and providing for the proper discipline and equipment of the National Guard of the State. In 1876, he was commissioned by Gov. Beveridge, Inspector General of the Illinois’ National Guard. Gov. Cullom, the immediate successor of Gov. Beveridge, commissioned him Inspector General and Inspector of Rifle practice on his staff, with the rank of Brigadier General in 1877, and again in 1879. In addition to his interest in the National Guard, he was active in building up and promoting the growth of the veteran organizations particularly of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, of the Illinois commandery of which he was a charter member and also commander.

In politics he took a moderately active interest as a member of the Republican party to the principles of which he was devotedly attached. He was a member of the Local Committee of Arrangements which had charge of the preparations for the meeting of the National Republican convention of 1880, was designated to take charge of the convention building, and to act as sergeant-at-arms after the sessions began. This convention was memorable for the length of time it lasted, for the large number of distinguished men who participated in the proceedings, and the multitude of people from all parts of the country in attendance. The great crowds were handled by General Strong with remarkable skill, and at the close of the convention he was publicly thanked for his services by General James A. Garfield, who had been made the Presidential nominee.

From early boyhood General Strong was a lover of field sports, and was passionately found of hunting wild fowl and large game, and visited at one time and another, almost every portion of the United States, having attractions of this kind to offer. In company with General Phil. Sheridan—for many years, one of his most intimate friends—he made several visits to the Yellowstone Park region, and wrote numerous interesting sketches of these experiences, adventures and explorations. While the busy life he led did not allow him to give as much attention as he would have liked to literature, he gathered together a valuable library, one of the most conspicuous features of which was the amount of war literature which it contained, inclusive of rare manuscripts, autograph letters, papers, documents, and photographs, which it is said can scarcely be duplicated in the United States. He was a member of the Literary Club of Chicago and also of the Commercial Club. His last public service was rendered to the city in the capacity of a director of the Worlds Fair, an enterprise with the inception and inauguration of which he had much to do.

General Strong was in the prime of a splendid manhood when failing health admonished him that he must seek rest and a change of climate. Accordingly on the 14th of March last, he sailed from New York to join his wife and daughters in Europe. Traveling by easy stages he reached Florence, Italy, where the end came suddenly, and at least to his thousands of friends in the United States, unexpectedly on the 10th of April. His remains were brought back to the land of his nativity and to his former home in Chicago. From thence they were carried by the comrades of former days and the devoted friends of his later years to his last resting place in Graceland cemetery, where he sleeps peacefully, wrapped in the national colors which he so bravely defended in his young manhood.

At the obsequies of General Strong the fact was made apparent that a man had passed away whom a great busy community, felt called upon to honor, and the tenderest tributes of love, respect, and admiration were laid on his grave. Said one who paid tribute to his character and worth as a man and patriot: “It is befitting to preserve in memory and hand down to the generations something about a man who has helped to make citizens heroic soldiers, and to render possible the triumph of liberty and manhood. While his was a beneficent existence of many manly years, it seems to the view of man that he died before his time. It is but just to say of him that his conduct as a soldier, sprang from a truly patriotic, martyr spirit which enabled him to dare unflinchingly, with a smile to the green earth, and a smile to the bright heavens, and a cheer to his companions.”

Of striking appearance, pleasing manners and great personal magnetism, he drew around him a circle of friends which was composed of many of the men best known in public and official life, in the world of trade and commerce, and in the various professions. These men were drawn to him by his geniality, his candor, his culture, his broad liberality and his unswerving fidelity to his friends. He was of that chivalrous nature which was regarded as the distinguishing characteristic of the Preux Chevalier in the days of knight errantry and with it all, was the practical, level-headed man of affairs.

A brave soldier, a good citizen, a courteous gentleman, General Strong was a splendid type of American manhood.

HOWARD LOUIS CONARD.

MISTAKES IN HISTORY—THE PILGRIMS NOT PURITANS BUT SEPARATISTS.

Among the wrong impressions and mistaken ideas which have been conveyed by writers and speakers during the last two hundred and fifty years, and even down to the present day, there are, perhaps, none more prominent and important than those relating to, and connected with, that most interesting body of people and most important event in our history—the Pilgrims and their coming to America. In no instance that is now called to mind, of the settling of a country or planting of a colony, have the motives and purposes of the colonists been so misrepresented and falsified, and so much fiction made to hang about their acts, as in the case of the Pilgrims. It is proposed in the present article to deal with two main ideas—who were the Pilgrims, and what were their objects or motives in coming to this country.

With regard to the first idea there seems to be great and unpardonable ignorance and confusion, for they were not Puritans nor Persecutors, as the latter became both in England and early in America, but were Separatists. Much has been done by Mr. Benjamin Scott, Chamberlain of the City of London, towards setting this matter right and putting it in proper shape before the public, and, he in turn, obtained much information through the studies and investigations of Dr. Waddington. The latter says: “The ignorance still existing on this subject is almost incredible. We find men of education who seem to have no exact information respecting the Pilgrim Fathers. Quarterly reviewers, members of Parliament, Christian divines and ecclesiastical historians speak of them with the same complacent disregard of facts.” The church presumed to dictate as to what kind of christians the Puritans should be, and the form and manner of worship they should adopt and be governed by. To these requirements there was a partial submission.

The Pilgrims separated from them because of this church imposition, and so became “Separatists.” Parliament declared, in Mary’s reign, the Pope to be the spiritual head of the church in England. When Elizabeth ascended to the throne 1558, she was confronted with this state of affairs respecting these matters, and issued a proclamation forbidding any change in the forms of religion, until they should be determined according to law. Thus it happened that there was no freedom to worship according to conscience for either Roman Catholics or Protestants. Elizabeth was opposed to Popery, but she was just as vindictive toward Protestants who did not shape their religious course and belief in accordance with her standard and the law of the State.

This Act of Supremacy, which she caused to be passed soon after she came into power, was not long after followed by the Act of Uniformity, which required everybody to worship, not only as the State directed, but also in the parish churches. Two years later came the crowning act in the adoption of the Articles of Religion; and the Church of England was established by the highest authority of the realm, and then commenced separations and persecutions. There were a few people, a small band, who found some errors yet left in the wake of the Reformation against which they protested. They also objected to any human power assuming that headship which they claimed belonged alone to Christ, and also asked the privilege of worshiping according to the simplicity of form and practice of the primitive Christians. Minor questions, such as baptism and the like, which have since given rise to divisions and sects, were not considered, and this little band of people, together with the Roman Catholics, were the only persons throughout England who objected to the church as the law had established it. Accordingly they formed themselves into distinct bodies, or associations, or churches, chose their own teachers and determined their own affairs. They claimed that the church was a spiritual association and should, therefore, be separated from the world, and was amenable only to the laws of Christ as given in the New Testament. Hence the name “Separatists.” They were simple in their manners and conduct and morals, and all these things rendered them unpopular and drew upon them the ill-will and enmity of the church, which found plenty of reason and many excuses and opportunities for persecuting them. There arose at this period another party, some of whom were English reformers, who had been driven from the country and had returned on the ascension of Elizabeth, but were disappointed to find that religious matters and laws had been settled and established.

Many of them however, accepted the change, including Royal Supremacy, Uniformity of Worship and Articles of Religion. They were nevertheless much dissatisfied, but hoped to effect still further changes and reformations. But in this they failed. This as will be seen, was a party within a party, a church within a church, or a party within the “establishment,” and they were the “Puritans.” In other words, the Protestants may be said to have been divided into three classes. The High Ritualists, Puritans and Separatists. High Ritualists claimed divine authority for the form of government, and the ceremonial of the Church of England. The king, they claimed, was the head of the church, as well as supreme in all civil matters and had power and authority over persons and property. The Puritans, on the contrary, believed none of these doctrines, although they were as devoted to the Church of England as was the other party, the High Ritualists, and the reforms they desired, they sought to make from within the church. Separation they regarded as the rankest kind of an offense, a terrible sin. To draw a comparison, or to make an illustration—the Puritans were Episcopalians—the low-church wing of that period. In another sense there was a difference or distinction between Puritans and Pilgrims: The Puritans had among their number, as influential persons, many of the nobility, men of business, capitalists and educated, fashionable and accomplished people. Indeed, during the entire reign of James I, they formed a majority in the House of Commons, and no person not a communicant of the Church of England could then sit in that body.

From this body of Puritan Episcopalians sprang that company who landed at Salem and settled at Boston in 1630, not the Pilgrims who settled at Plymouth in 1620. The latter, the “Separatists,” renounced the Church of England, and separated from it. They were likewise socially from the humbler walks of life. Some of their number, it is true, were persons of education, culture and refinement, but as has been said, the great bulk were from among the common people, without means, power or influence. Indeed, they sustained about the same relation to other classes and denominations that the Methodists, in their beginning, did to other religious denominations. In short, they were persecuted by the Church of England by the Puritans and by the Roman Catholics.

The Separatists, one and all, suffered every indignity, privation and want, while many, among them Barrow, Greenwood, Dennis and Penry, were hung. Others still were thrown into prison, and died from neglect, hunger and cold. Others were permitted to leave the country, but were informed that if they returned, their lives would be the forfeit. Later on, this was even denied them, and their departure from the country was forbidden. For these reasons, the Separatist congregations fled secretly to Holland, and even in Holland the Dutch shunned them, for they were afraid of offending King James, whose good will and help they wanted. These “Separatists,” or Pilgrims, therefore gradually disappeared from English soil, and from the English mind, and in 1607, there remained in the kingdom only one organized congregation of this kind, which was within the limits of the little town of Scrooby. Here their pastors were Richard Clifton and John Robinson, the latter a somewhat rash and inconsiderate young man, but they depended chiefly for material aid and favors, as well as sympathy and encouragement, on William Brewster, afterwards their “venerated elder.” He was postmaster, and his duties included the charge of public travel, which necessitated a house of large dimensions, and in this building he permitted the “Separatists” to worship weekly, lodging and entertaining them. About this time there appeared another person, a mere lad, who became interested in, and identified himself with, the Pilgrims, and who subsequently occupied a useful and prominent position in their history.

This was William Bradford, who came from a very respectable family in a neighboring village. They were not long, however, to remain here in peace and unmolested quiet. Their retreat was sought out and persecutions anew visited upon them, and there remained only two alternatives, the one to yield a hypocritical conformity and submission, or to become exiles from their native land, from “the graves in which their fathers slept.” They accordingly gathered themselves together, and under the leadership of the youthful and brave Bradford, fled to Amsterdam—Brewster, Robinson and Clifton remaining behind, like the marshal of Napoleon’s grand army, to guard the rear, when, having seen all safely on their journey and beyond the reach of the “King’s hirelings,” they followed on and soon joined those who had gone before. They were disappointed however, and failed to find peace and quiet and rest, for at Amsterdam there were two societies or congregations of English worshipers who had fled their country, but they were in continual dissensions with each other, and rendered the situation of the little band of “Separatists,” uncomfortable and unpleasant. There remained therefore, nothing for the latter to do but to “move on,” which they did, forty miles distant to the “goodly and pleasant city” of Leyden. Here at last they found peace and quiet and freedom of worship, but were not without perplexities and disadvantages.

They had to depend upon manual labor for subsistence, which employment they sought from the Dutch, of whose language they understood not a word. In their own land they had been chiefly agriculturists, but many of them now became manufacturers and mechanics of various kinds. Thus were they, by the force of circumstances, fortunate in learning trades which were useful to the community in after years in their home beyond the sea. Bradford engaged in the silk dyeing business and Brewster set up a printing office. It could not be expected that this condition of affairs, even, although a great improvement, would long satisfy the spiritual and intellectual longings and demands of such men as the Pilgrims. Their life, on the whole, was far from satisfactory. True their numbers had more than doubled, grown from one to over two hundred, yet their lot here seemed to have been cast in a hard place. Their children were losing English habits, character and language. Sunday, as was generally the case in European countries, was a day of recreation and was given up to merry-making and the playing of games. Influences, associations and examples were unfortunate, and all these things caused serious apprehensions in the minds of the Pilgrims. The old adage, too, that “a rolling stone gathers no moss,” was strikingly illustrated in their case. Years and life were passing rapidly away.

They had, many of them, become physically weakened from the hardships they had endured and were nearing old age, Brewster being sixty at the time of the landing, and they had the very natural feeling and desire to “lay up something for a rainy day.” After much thoughtful and prayerful consideration, in view of all these facts and circumstances, they decided to emigrate to America.

At this period in their lives, from their wanderings, misfortunes and persecutions, nearly every member of the Separatist-Pilgrim Company had become reduced to the direst straits. Indeed, this had been the common lot and experience of a large majority of them from their youth up, and when it was determined to seek homes in the new world, they were without means to secure their passage.

To obtain this, they made the best terms and conditions that they could with the London merchants.

The conditions were hard, but they were in the power of the merchants and there was no alternative. Concerning this Mr. Cushman who, acted as agent in the matter, says: “Although they (the proposals) were very afflictive to the minds of such as were concerned in the voyage, and hard enough for the poor people that were to adventure their persons as well as their estates,” they had to be accepted. Had they not done so, Mr. Cushman adds, “the whole design would have fallen to the ground.”

At the end of the seven years all the original and acquired assets of the colony, were to be equally divided between the merchants and the Pilgrims. So practically, it cost the Pilgrims seven years of severe labor to get from England to America. Nor was this all. There had been disaffection among the merchants and some had withdrawn from the co-partnership, leaving an accumulation of indebtedness. Those remaining friendly to the Pilgrims, wrote the latter: “As there has been a faction among us more than two years, so now there is an utter breach and sequestration. The company’s debts are no less than 1400 pounds, and we hope you will do your best to free them. We are still persuaded that you are the people that must make a plantation in those remote places where all others fail. We have sent some cattle, clothes, hoes, shoes, leather etc., for Allerton and Winslow to sell as our factors.”

And these goods the Pilgrims were to purchase at an advance of seventy per cent. Thus matters went from bad to worse, until the Pilgrims, seeing no way of “making out” of the difficulty became convinced that the best thing they could do was to break up the co-partnership and wind up its affairs. With this in view, they sent Miles Standish to London to “oblige them to come to a composition.” He took up 150 pounds of the indebtedness at the rate of fifty per cent.