I think it was probably in September 1862 that I went horseback with Father to the annual fair which had been held regularly for years at Russelville, a town about seven miles from Portland Mills. There was a fine display of agricultural and horticultural products, and fine stock consisting of horses, mules, cattle, sheep and swine and a great variety of beautiful poultry. The things though that attracted my attention almost exclusively were the splendid music furnished by a brass band and the races, in which the contests were between running, trotting and pacing horses. I liked the running races the best but there was one pacing, in which several horses in sulkies with jockey drivers competing, that was very interesting and caused great excitement among the spectators. A famous horse, Red Bud, won the race. He was a beautiful chestnut sorrel gelding and was a fine looking animal. There was public speaking too, as that was campaign year. United States Senator Daniel W. Vorhees, an anti-war Democrat, spoke, and the Republican orator I think was Governor Oliver P. Norton. They engaged in an impassioned discussion of the political issues upon which the congressional campaign was being waged and their efforts and splendid orations created great enthusiasm among their party supporters, and elicited great applause. I was very much interested in many other greater attractions and did not pay a great deal of attention to the public speaking. It was the first fair I had ever attended and for many days afterward it was my chief topic of conversation. The day at the Russelville Fair had been a high spot in my boyhood career and one to be long remembered. Many of the events of that day are fresh in my recollection, though it was 67 years since.

The fall and early winter of 1862-1863 passed about as usual. Although the war was raging in the South, we had the customary holiday festivities and people took part in the various events of the yuletide with apparently great enjoyment except that some, whose bereavement over the loss of loved ones in the war, was so great that they refrained from attending any public gatherings except religious services. No event of any consequence in our immediate family occurred that winter, until on January 1863, Brother Dolph’s first son was born, and they named the child Thomas Horace, for its deceased Uncle Thomas Slavens and its maternal grandfather, Horace Stanley. This, the second grandson of Father and Mother, was destined to become many years later their most distinguished descendant.

We had heard occasionally from Sister Nancy Ann Hollis since we left Missouri. She had lived with her husband’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. James E. Hollis, after her husband had joined the Confederate Army. We heard of the death of her father in law, which occurred soon after the war commenced and of the promotion of her husband to the official position of Colonel of a regiment in the Confederate Army. She had written of the birth of her dear little son Jimmie in one of her first letters received after we went to Illinois in 1861, telling about what a pretty child he was and a little later about how smart he had become as he grew a little older. Then after Jesse had been away in the Confederate Army a year or more, a letter was received from her stating that her dear husband had been killed near Du Valls Bluff, Arkansas, a little later came the sad news of the death of her darling boy, after a short illness of fever. We were grieved to hear of Sister's double bereavement in the loss within a short time of her beloved husband and her precious baby boy and wished we could have been with her to comfort her in the greatest sorrows of her life. We desired very much that Sister would come to us, but she decided to remain with her mother-in-law and her two small sisters-in-law, who were all of the family then at home, as all of Mrs. Hollis‘s sons were in the Confederate Army. I think there were five of her sons living at that time who were John, Wilson, Thomas, Charles and Frank, and I believe they were all alive several years after the Civil War ended.

In the spring of 1863 Brother Dolph, having after a long time of poor health, following his serious attack of jaundice, became well again. He enlisted in the Federal Army, and was given the official military rank of Surgeon of the 122nd Regiment of Indiana Infantry Volunteers, which regiment was in the division of the army commanded by Major General Law Wallace, who after the Civil War was ended became famous as the author of Ben Hur. General Wallace’s home was in Crawfordsville, in the same section of Indiana in which we lived. Dolph's regiment was soon ordered south after his enlistment, and he did military service in many states of the South, principally in Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee.

During the year 1862 and the first half of 1863, thousands of patriotic men and boys from 18 to 45 years of age, all over the northern states and in many of the border states, had responded to the President’s call for volunteers, but the last call of President Lincoln in 1863 had not brought anything like the number of men needed and in July 1863 the government began to draft the troops required. The draft was made to compel men chosen by lot from among all who were between the ages of 18 to 45 and in good physical condition to do military service in the Federal Army. Then there were riots in various parts of the country, especially in the large cities, such as New York, Chicago and Baltimore, and in many country districts where there was a large element of unpatriotic, anti-war opponents of the federal government and sympathizers with the cause of the southern Confederacy. There were vigorous efforts made by these anti-war cohorts to resist the draft. Meetings were held by them, some openly, but most of them clandestinely, the purpose of which was to encourage men in such resistance to the draft. I remember on one occasion at one of these public meetings held near Portland Mills, which was addressed by Senator Vorhees, a bitter anti-war democrat. His unpatriotic onslaught on the administration of President Lincoln in his efforts to subdue the rebellion, excited the feelings of his sympathetic auditors to such a height that after the meeting closed, there were many riotous demonstrations and only the presence of some peace officers and several federal soldiers, who were at home on furlough, prevented a violent attack on some patriotic citizens who were at the meeting. Soon after the meeting closed some horsemen who had evidently imbibed too much strong drink, came rapidly on the main street from the direction of the grove where the meeting had assembled, riding at full speed, and whooping and yelling as they came. Just as they arrived at the flagpole in the street near our house on which floated the stars and stripes, one of them yelled "Hurrah for Jeff Davis" and repeated the yell several times. There were few people on the street at that time and the miscreants flagrant exhibition of disloyalty seemed about to be unresented when old Mr. Ball, one of our neighbors, who had some sons in the Federal Army, gathered up a large stone, and rapidly but silently approached the yelling man and deliberately knocked him off his horse, the hurled stone having hit him a violent blow on the side of his face, almost crushing his jaw. He fell to the ground where he lay sprawling and motionless for several minutes until his companions dismounted from their steeds and assisted their badly stunned and bleeding comrade to mount his horse, and then they all rapidly made their escape before they could be apprehended. They had probably not done anything for which they could have been criminally prosecuted but the Union people were terribly incensed at the gross acts of disloyalty of the yelling riders, and if some of the furloughed soldiers in the town had got hold of him, he would have met with a severe chastisement. Soon several parties came to the assistance of Mr. Ball and had not the felled horseman and his companions made such a hasty retreat, they would have been caught and given well-deserved punishment. In the strenuous effort of Mr. Ball to assault the disloyal rider, he lost his hat and it was tramped upon and ruined by the fleeing horseman. Mr. Ball received high praise for his loyal heroic act and the citizens present immediately bought and presented him with a fine beaver hat. Nearly everyone in Portland Mills and immediate vicinity was loyal to the government, but there were some remote sections of the counties, whose inhabitants were disloyal and many of them were members of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a treasonable organization which was bitterly opposed to the prosecution of the war and the suppression of the rebellion, and held secret meetings of their order regularly. The members were taught to resist the draft by every possible means, and if any of them were drafted in the federal army, to desert at the first opportunity. The organizations were constantly vigilant in their efforts to give aid and comfort, in a secret way, to the cause of the southern Confederacy, but cowardly refraining from going south and enlisting in the Confederate Army. Such people were detested by brave men, North and South, who fought in the armies of the Union and of the Confederacy, from a sense of their duty and sincere belief in the justice of the causes which they had respectfully espoused.