DUFFIÉ & THE MONUMENT TO HIS MEMORY
go to page [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] - TRADUCTION FRANCAISE par Jean-Philippe Chereul
He took command of this cavalry division at Staunton, Va.,
and was frequently engaged with the enemy while under command of Major-General
Hunter in his advance upon Lynch-burg, capturing several wagon trains, a large
num-ber of horses and one hundred prisoners. During the retreat from Lynchburg
General Duffié was for ten or twelve days in command of the rear guard, and
repulsing the vigorous attacks of the pursuing enemy brought the large wagon
train of the army safely into Charleston, West Va.
From Charleston General Duffié was ordered to march to Maryland and join the
forces operating against General Early, then making the raid that ended in front
of the fortifications at Washington. Duffié found one of Eanly's trains near
the Potomac and captured two hundred men and three hundred wagons loaded with
part of the plunder gathered by the raiding enemy. After General Sheridan took
command of our forces in the Valley Duffié was kept in active service with his
division.
General Sheridan appreciated Duffie's remarkable ability in organizing, drilling
and preparing recruits for effective service and sent him to Cumberland, Md.,
to organize a division of cavalry, which duty having been soon and well performed,
he was ordered to Hagerstown to organize another cavalry force. October 21,
1864, Duffié found it necessary to visit his commanding officer for instructions,
and, escorted by a squadron of the First New York Cavalry, he went to the headquarters
of General Sheridan near Fisher's Hill. On his return, four days' later, General
Duffié was furnished an escort at Winchester and took with him, in ambulances,
some officers who had been wounded in the battle of Cedar Creek October l9th,
but becoming impatient at the slow progress required for the comfort of the
wounded, he pushed on at greater speed in a private wagon, followed by a detail
of only ten men. About five miles from Winchester, Moseby, the rebel guerrilla,
was lying in wait with three hundred men, watching for an opportunity to capture
an expected wagon train, and this force opened fire on the approaching wagon,
killing the driver and the horses and severely wounding Captain Stevens, General
Duffié's provost marshal, and the General found himself for the first time a
prisoner.
General Duffié arrived in Richmnond early in No-vember and was confined in Libby,
where I was also at that time a prisoner; but as an unhealed wound had sent
me to the hospital I did not have the pleasure of meeting my old commander.
Duffié had a little trouble with Dick Turner, the turnkey, and was confined
in a cell for two days, but his life in Richmond was short, as he was soon sent
with other officers to Danville, Va., where he suffered hunger, cold and the
nameless evils of a prisoner's life in the Confederacy. Duffié could not endure
such trouble with patience and he led the prisoners in a desperate effort to
effect their release by seizing the guards, hoping to secure the stacked arms
and capture the town. Two of the guards were disarmed but an alarm was given
before the guns could be reached, and a storm of bullets was poured into the
prison which killed several brave men and put an end to all hope of escape.
On the 22d of February, 1865, Duffié was paroled and ordered to Cincinnati,
where on the 20th of March he was declared exchanged. On the 1st of April he
was ordered to report to Major-General Pope, in the military department of Missouri,
and was sent to Fort Gibson to organize a force of six thousand cavalry under
Major-General Blunt for an expedition to Texas. On the 25th of May, while Duffié
was on his way to Texas, General Kirby Smith surrendered his army and the cavalry
was ordered back, and on the 5th of June were mustered out of the service at
Lawrence, Kansas. General Duffié was ordered to the city of New York to wait
for or-ders; and on the 24th of August, 1865, by a general order from the War
Department, was, with eighty--six other major-generals and brigadier-generals,
hon-orably mustered out of service.
Duffié was married August 19, 1860, to Mary A. Pelton, daughter of Daniel Pelton,
of West New Brighton, Staten Island, New York, and when peace came and his services
as a soldier were no longer required, his fortune was ample for his wants and
a happy and honorable life was apparently before him in his adopted country.
His health, never firm after his European battles, had been further impaired
by his soldier life in our service and especially by his experience as a prisoner
of war. He suffered greatly from asthma, and in the hope of benefit from a more
favorable climate, he finally applied for a position as consul, and, in May,
1869, was appointed to that post at Cadiz, Spain. After leaving his home at
Staten Island his health greatly improved, but even the climate of Spain could
not heal, it could only retard the progress of disease.
In the summer of 1877, while on a brief visit to this country, he came to Providence
without writing to any of his old friends here of his intention. He tried to
find some of those he had known, but those he sought were dead or out of town,
and as he turned from a house on Benefit street, where not even a servant remained
to answer his summons, he was indeed feeling like a stranger in a strange land,
when suddenly a carriage stopped and Sergeant David S. Ray, of his old regiment,
greeted him with a warmth that convinced him of a cordial welcome, and he was
soon surrounded with a host of friends. His recognition by an old soldier who
had not seen him for thirteen years warmed the General's heart. With what enthusiasm
he described it. "He stops his carriage; he jumps out; he runs to meet me; he
tells me everything." He was pressed to tarry a few days; at least, until his
old veterans could be notified and rally around him, but he could stay only
a day. So with Major Farrington, Captains Baker and Bliss, he went down to the
Squantum grounds, and as, unfortunately, it was not a club day, tried for the
first time a clam-bake at Silver Spring. He enjoyed it hugely, said it was worth
coming here from Spain, and he would come again next year. At the close of the
day he sat, with Major Farrington, Captains Baker and Bliss, at the table of
his old chaplain, Rev. Frederic Denison, who remarked that he alone of the five
present had escaped a wound in the War of the Rebellion. We could keep him no
longer, though reluctant to part, so escorting him to the New York boat, we
saw him for the last time as, standing on the dock of the departing steamer,
he waved his old comrades a soldier's farewell.
After his return to Cadiz he went, under medical advice, to Cauterets in the
Pyrenees, to drink the waters of that place as a remedy for asthma, but the
disease developed into consumption, and, after fifteen months of suffering,
he died November 8, 1880, having given the United States over eleven years of
faithful service as Consul.
At the annual reunions of his old regiment many a reminiscence is heard of the
commander, now lost to mortal sight, and some of them are deemed worthy of preservation
here as characteristic of the man.
General Duffié was constantly trying to extend his knowledge of the English
language, and as con-stantly amusing his officers with his struggles. In autumn
of 1862 the regiment received a number of recruits called by the old soldiers
"thousand dollar men," in allusion to their bounty money. The war demonstrated
the curious fact that the more you paid for a man the less he was worth, and
these new recruit's, as they became short of money to spend at the sutler's,
commenced to improve the night by stealing from the old soldiers their revolvers,
which they sold to the privates in some of the new regi-ments of infantry camped
near us. The Colonel learned of this, and the chaplain being absent at the time,
determined to attend to the matter himself, and on Sunday night, at the close
of dress parade, thus addressed the regiment: "One man, he go steal his comrade's
pistol; he go sell it to one infantry man; he think nobody see him; God see
him; God go give to him hell." Nobody laughed then, but after dress parade was
dismissed the Colonel was very much astonished by the roaring laughter throughout
the camp. He was not aware that he had said anything to call forth such hilarious
con-duct. One day, while riding with another officer, he said to him, "See them
goose," and was respect-fully informed that the proper phrase was "those geese."
Ah!" he said, "geese, geese. I get him right next time." Shortly after he had
some trouble in instructing the Fourth New York Cavalry, whose gallant Colonel,
Di Cesnola, was afflicted with officers, many of whom could speak almost anything
except English, and who persisted in repeating in different languages the Colonel's
orders, instead of giving the proper orders in accordance with their rank. In
describing it Duffié said: "The Colonel, the Fourth New York, he give an order;
all the officer, they stick up their head; they holler like one geese." When
informed that he was again wrong on the goose he exclaimed, "My goodness, what
a language !" Although the Colonel did not always use such lan-guage as would
have met the approval of the pro-fessors on College Hill, he had no trouble
in making himself fully understood, nor did he fail to enforce his ideas with
apt illustrations. At a meeting of officers in his tent he was urging upon them
earnest application to perfect themselves in all their as soldiers, saying,
"You can all do something when you wish to do it. You all know Captain Bliss;
he is not quick. He get a leave of absence to go home to Rhode Island. My goodness
! He is off like a shot."
Duffié's son, Daniel Pelton Duffié, born March 17, 1862, married Adele Prudence
Miner, October 30, 1888, and they, with the widow, joined the First Rhode Island
Cavalry Veteran Association in the dedication of the monument, of which a full
account will be found in the Appendix to this paper. Another son, August Duffié,
born August 13, 1866, died September 5, 1866.
In December, 1880, Duffié's body was brought across the stormy Atlantic, and
each year, upon his grave at Staten Island, the soldiers on Memorial Day place
the flowers of spring and the flag he served so well. Let us hope that until
time shall be no more the veterans and their descendants will an-nually place
similar tributes of affectionate remembrance upon the stone in the North Burial
Ground which, upon Wednesday, July 10, 1889, his surviving comrades dedicated
to the memory of Duffié.