The Sioux City Journal, September 15, 1901

The Sioux City Journal, September 15, 1901

THE BOYS IN BLUE OF ‘61

J. A. DEAN (2 Photos included)

J. A. Dean enlisted as private in Company D. One Hundred and Twenty-fourth regiment Illinois volunteer infantry, and rose to the rank of first lieutenant and regimental quartermaster, and at the close of war received a commission as captain by brevet.

His company, and especially the mess to which he belonged, was composed of men whose natural good humor disposed them to get as much fun as they could out of the best hard life of the soldier in active service in the field.  He tells a good story at his own expense illustrative of this fact.

During the early part of his service his entire mess was detailed for picket duty, with himself as sergeant in command.  The post was an advanced one and guarded an old rickety bridge across a stream that, owing to its steep banks and muddy bottom, was not fordable.  The day and the night were stormy, and the boys became restless and finally proposed that one of their number be allowed to go outside the lines and across the bridge on a foraging expedition for chickens and sweet potatoes.

Sergeant Dean would not give his consent, and the boys put their heads together to get even with him.  During the day they got hold of an old cavalry horse that had been turned loose to shift for himself and then waited till the still hours of the night and, when the sergeant took his turn off duty and was rolled up in his blanket under a sheltering bush, fast asleep, the conspirators led the horse to the bridge and gave him a sharp prod with a bayonet.

Mr. Dean confesses that he wakened with a sensation that there were not less than 5,000 cavalrymen crossing the bridge at full lope and that he was on his feet by the time he was wake, but he declares that the first glance he got of the faces of the boys who came rushing to him with a lantern and a yarn that “the rebel cavalry is upon us!” convinced him of the real situation and that he lay down immediately and finished his nap, leaving the boys somewhat dissatisfied with the result of their plot.  But he says he has never been able to figure out just how it was that there was plenty of sweet potatoes and fried chicken for breakfast the next morning.