The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks - Donald Harington [68]
Jacob went at once to Noah’s treehouse and called up to it, “Oh, Brother dear. Come out.” But there was no answer, so he climbed up into the treehouse, and found both wings empty. He returned to his own house and saddled his horse and rode at a fast gallop into Jasper, where he inquired at the courthouse for John Cecil, but was told that Cecil was no longer sheriff since becoming captain of the county Confederates. He asked where Cecil could be found, and was told that the Rebels had no fixed headquarters but were roaming freely over the county, and, indeed, all over the Ozarks. Jacob asked where the Union headquarters were, and was told that the nearest fixed Federal headquarters were up in Springfield, Missouri.
Instead of returning to Stay More, Jacob rode his horse northward toward Springfield. The journey took him only two days, he was that impatient. In Springfield he found the Union headquarters and told the recruiting sergeant that he wanted to enlist forty-five men in the Union Army. The recruiting sergeant was experienced only with individuals, not with masses of men, so the sergeant passed him on up to a lieutenant, who sent him to a captain, who directed him to a major, who introduced him to a colonel, who delivered him to Gen. James A. Melton, commander of the Union Army at Springfield.
Gen. Melton was a meticulous diarist, whose writings survive. Here is an excerpt from the entry in his journal for that day:
I had the honor to receive to-day one Jacob Engledieu, who hails from the excessively bucolic wilds of Newton County down in Arkansas. Although Arkansas is one of the Confederated States, Newton County, I have it on the good report of my brother, Major John Melton, has thus far resisted being swallowed into the Confederacy, although there are scattered bands of Rebels operating there, and a somewhat crude and brazen recruitment effort conducted by a hired wanton named Verdy Boughtrite. Thus I welcomed the appearance of Mr. (now Capt.) Engledieu, all the more so because I had already known of his notoriety as the only delegate to the Arkansas Secession Convention who steadfastly refused to vote with the majority (although in the beginning of our interview, I refrained from telling Capt. Engledieu that I already knew he was a Union hero).
Capt. Engledieu is tall, lean but sinewy, and has eyes so blue that they seem always watering. He is a man of the soil and of the woods, and makes no pretensions to gentility or sophistication, in speech, manner or appearance. But I am persuaded he is keen of wit, a natural leader of men, and like all of his fellow Ozarkers most probably a deadly marksman. Every one of those boys can hit a squirrel in the eye at eighty yards. His first question to me was whether or not a man of his years (58) was too old to volunteer for the army. I asked if he had previous military experience, to which he replied in the negative. I said I did not think a man of his years would be happy as a mere foot soldier. To which he replied that he had a mighty fine horse, and, drawing me to the window, gestured at the animal tethered outside; indeed, a fine horse, but I said I did doubt as well whether he would be happy as a mere cavalry private. It was at this point he informed me that, if I would accept him, he would donate 45 additional men from his settlement of Staymore in the abovementioned County, each of whom also had a horse or riding animal (albeit not as mighty fine as his own, he intimated). In that case, I said, I could appoint him lieutenant in charge of a cavalry platoon. He let me know by his grin that this pleased him, and then he said he also intended to recruit as many men as possible from the communities of Parthenon, Jasper and elswhere in the County. In that case, I replied, I could appoint him captain in charge of a cavalry troop, which I did, on the spot, and then, because he was totally without any knowledge