The Maine bugle ... campaign; 1-5 Jan. 1894-Oct. 1898 - Maine.gov

FIRST, TENTH AND TWENTY-NINTH INFANTRY. 373
girl has a ring on her finger that she says was made from the
thigh bone of a Yankee killed at Bull Run. The ring is cer-
tainly made of bone," he added. General Hamilton called the
girl's mother immediately and told her to shut that girl up or
get her out of the way quick, for if she was inclined to talk
about that ring and if his soldiers knew that she was wearing
such a ring they wouldn't leave one stone of the house standing
upon another. Later General Hamilton asked the girl's mother
to send a servant to get him a drink of water. The woman
looked at him and said: "I cannot understand how a federal
officer can ask a southern woman to get him a drink of water
and not expect it to be poisoned." Again she made this remark-
able statement, and she meant it. The general replied
" Madam, if you were to get the water for me I might not
expect to drink it with impunity; but no woman of that race
(pointing to the colored servant) will ever do harm to a federal
officer." The southern woman was silenced.
But how did it happen that General Schuyler Hamilton of
New York was at Long Island? He had been stopping at Old
Orchard and the veterans learned of it and went out and brought
him over. He is a grandson of Alexander Hamilton, is a retired
officer of the regular army, and served through the war with a
distinguished record, rising to the rank of major general. He
was born in New York city in 1822, graduated at West Point in
1 841, was on duty on the western plains, served with honor in
the Mexican war, being brevetted for gallantry at Monterey, as
aide-de-camp to General Winneld Scott from '47 to '54, volun-
teered as a private in the Seventh New York at the beginning of
the civil war, and was made a major general in September, 1862.
Dr. D. W. Bland was at Long Island because he had been
stopping at the Ottawa House for a week previous. He was a
famous army surgeon through the war, and his Pennsylvania
regiment was brigaded with the Fifth Maine. He became
acquainted with many Maine officers. He told the following
anecdote of Colonel Jackson of the Fifth Maine. The colonel
was a very rough, loud-spoken and profane man. In fact he