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“My Goodness, Man, Don’t Go Over There”
- Johns Hopkins University Press
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13 “My Goodness, Man, Don’t Go Over There” John Pierson of the Seventh Iowa Infantry was captured at the Battle of Belmont, Missouri, on November 7, 1861, and interred in a prison camp in Memphis, Tennessee. He escaped four months later but was caught and taken to Jackson, Tennessee. On April 6, 1862, with the sounds of battle from nearby Shiloh distinctly audible , Pierson and other inmates were moved south to a more secure location in Corinth, Mississippi, and locked up in a small wood building. Pierson described the events that followed: “The guards off duty had lain down and were asleep; all was quiet except the patter of rain. Just at this time Gen. Prentice12 and seven hundred men who had been captured at Shiloh, were marched in front of the building. The guards, anxious to see the Yanks, rushed to the door.”13 Pierson and another soldier slipped out a back door. “We were soon halted by a guard and advanced to give the countersign, seized the end of his gun and hit him over the head, then ran out of the way.”14 Over the next three days, the escapees traveled only at night, slowly sneaking past the defeated Confederate army retreating from Shiloh. On the morning of the fourth day, they encountered a woman in the doorway of her house. “I asked the nearest road to the Confederate camp. She stepped to the end of the porch, pointed down the road and said it was a half mile to where they were guarding a bridge. Just at this time we heard drums beating to our left. On inquiring where they were, she said: ‘My goodness, man, don’t go over there, or the Yankees will get you.’”15 When out of sight of the house, they started toward the sound of the Union drums. Some time later, they saw a soldier. “We asked him what army he belonged to. In a kind of positive way he said: ‘The Union army, of course.’ I asked him what regi- 14 Cpl. John Wesley Pierson, Company C, Seventh Iowa Infantry Carte de visite by Howard (life dates unknown) & Hall (life dates unknown) of Corinth, Mississippi, about 1862–1864 [44.200.74.73] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 13:15 GMT) 15 ment he belonged to. He said ‘the 57th Illinois.’ I asked him his colonel’s name and his division commander, which names were familiar to me. Satisfying ourselves that he was a Union man, we told him we wanted to go to his camp, which he allowed we were joking, but seemed willing to go, leading off, and we following, and in three minutes we were inside of the lines.” “We went to a hospital and told the doctor that we were very near starved. He gave us a drink of wine, examined our pulse, and pronounced us in critical condition. He ordered us some potato soup and hardtack, and watched to keep us from eating too much, he requested us to stay all night, which we did. Next morning we ate breakfast and started out to inquire for our regiment. In a short time we found it, where we were met with a ‘Hurrah.’ After a short stay with the company the colonel took me to [Maj. Gen. U.S.] Grant’s16 headquarters, where I stayed some time, and then returned to my regiment, but was not able for duty for several weeks.”17 Pierson mustered out when his term of enlistment expired in 1864. He married and settled in Mokane, Missouri, where he lived with his wife and five children until his death in January 1906. He was sixty-two. ...