Page:Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs (Volume One).djvu/321

Rh volver loaded. I took with me a young man named Augustus Bixby, who then lived in Groton, but who had seen something of the world, and was not daunted by the uncertainties of life. He was afterwards a cavalry officer. During the war I one day read in the papers that Bixby had been promoted for gallantry in an affair in the Shenandoah Valley. Within a few days after I met him in Washington on a crutch, or walking with the help of a cane. He had been wounded in the contest. I said:

“Bixby, what did you do?” He replied:

“I don’t know, except I sailed in.”

At New York I telegraphed Vice-President Hamlin, then in Maine, that he should come as far South as New York, that he might be in a situation to act in case of the death or capture of Mr. Lincoln, of whom we then knew nothing. At New York, April 24, I telegraphed Governor Andrew: “General Wool and Vice-President Hamlin are in favor of your taking the responsibility of sending two regiments to take charge of the forts, and to furnish and arm three vessels for the protection of the coast. You can exercise the power, under the circumstances, better than anyone else.” The same day I sent this despatch: “Send without delay a steamer with provisions for General Butler’s command at Annapolis.”

At Perryville, at the mouth of the Susquehanna, I sent Bixby with the despatches by the first boat to Annapolis, with