Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

278 ANNALS OF OUR ANCESTORS
of the struggle I was making for an education, gave me the
chance of living with her and earning my board by doing
chores. She was a good woman and treated me as well as if
I had been her own child. I owe her much. I went to school
six months, and at the end of that time I had committed
Pineo's Grammar to memory. There was hardly a question
in it that I could not answer or a rule I could not recite, and
yet I knew nothing about grammar — I could not apply it.
The same was true of geography. I had mastered Ray's
Arithmetic and was fairly good in figures, but my spelling and
writing were very bad.
"At this time I had a brother living in the wilds of Indiana;
a more benighted region did not exist, even in the imagination
of Edward Eggleston. The inhabitants had erected a schoolhouse
in the neighborhood and employed a teacher, but the
larger scholars had rebelled and driven him off, using sticks of
stove-wood to impress him with the fact that they regarded him
as an undesirable citizen. My brother wrote me all the facts
and asked me if I thought that I could teach that school, and
if so I could have it. The wages were thirty dollars per month,
which to me was munificent.
"I accepted the situation and whipped five of the largest
scholars the first day, including a girl sixteen years of age. I
had no further trouble; what was needed was a policeman more
than a teacher. I succeeded well and gave great satisfaction
because I established perfect order. My ignorance was great,
but nothing in comparison to theirs. My school terminated
in the spring of 1862. I had made up my mind to continue
my education, but the Civil War was in full swing and my patriotism
got the better of my judgment; so I enlisted in the
83d Ohio Infantry for three years, at Camp Dennison, Ohio,
August 25, 1862, and served my full term, to the end of the war.
A few days after we were enlisted we were taken into Kentucky
and helped chase Kirby Smith into Tennessee, following him
nearly to the Cumberland Mountains. We were then marched
back to Louisville and shipped upon boats to Memphis, where
an army of thirty thousand men was organized to descend the
Mississippi River and attack Vicksburg.