Border ruffians killed her husband, almost within sight of her home.
She passed months in terror and distress and, until I became old enough
to provide for her, often suffered from direst poverty. Yet she never
complained for herself; her only thoughts being for her children and
the sufferings that were visited upon them because of their necessary
upbringing in a rough and wild country.
My sister Julia was now married to Al Goodman, a fine and capable young
man, and I was free to follow the promptings of an adventurous nature
and go where my companions were fighting. In January, 1864, the Seventh
Kansas Volunteers came to Leavenworth from the South, where they had
been fighting since the early years of the war. Among them I found many
of my old friends and schoolmates. I was no longer under promise not to
take part in the war and I enlisted as a private.
In March of that year the regiment was embarked on steamboats and sent
to Memphis, Tennessee, where we joined the command of General A.J.
Smith. General Smith was organizing an army to fight the illiterate but
brilliant Confederate General Forrest, who was then making a great deal
of trouble in southern Tennessee.
While we were mobilizing near Memphis, Colonel Herrick of our regiment
recommended me to General Smith for membership in a picked corps to be
used for duty as scouts, messengers, and dispatch carriers.
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