Prestona: Company E’s First Encounter With A Contraband

    William Tweed, Private, Company E, 10th Illinois Infantry

 One hundred fifty years ago, in February 1862, Company E, Tenth Illinois Infantry (My grandfather William Tweed’s regiment) managed to get in the middle of the conflict over slavery early in their service. We have found three separate accounts of the Company E hiding a runaway slave; Matthew H. Jamison’s book Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life, The Oquawka Spectator from February 1862, and Memoirs of the War by Captain Ephraim A. Wilson.

     Matthew Jamison’s account: “ During the winter of 1861-62 general orders were issued for the concentration of troops at Bird’s Point, opposite Cairo, in Missouri, and on the Kentucky and Illinois shores in that vicinity, for a projected movement down the Mississippi under General John Pope, and a similar movement up the Tennessee against Fort Donelson, and on to Pittsburg Landing, under General U. S. Grant. Preparatory to these movements and for the purpose of confusing the enemy, our regiment became part of the 4th Brigade of 10,000 men, under the command of Gen. John A. McClernand, to threaten the fortified rebel post at Columbus. It was a mid-winter march, the weather was severe, with a considerable fall of snow and rain, and the reconnaissance, while it fulfilled its purpose, was far from a round of pleasure; the rough clay roads, worked into an almost impassable condition by the artillery and trains, made the progress of the infantry slow and difficult. While in camp at Fort Holt, after our return from this detour, an incident occurred which will throw light on the status of the slave at the opening of the war. We were still splitting hairs over the question, whether we were fighting to save the Union as it is, or as it ought to be. We had men on both sides of this question, and while the majority, if put to the test, undoubtedly were anti-slavery, the North through observation had become so accustomed to the “peculiar institution” that many doubted whether we might or could get rid of it. Ben Butler had not as yet defined the slave as contraband who had taken refuge within our lines.”
     From an anonymous contributor to the Oquawka Spectator, who signed his letters “On To Memphis”: “Pvt. Rice of Company E was performing his morning ablutions when he spied the runaway. “Hello there, you raven!”
     “Yes Sir! Dat’s me! Just up from de south! Started ‘fore daylight this morning. Massa whipped me. Massa gwine to sell wheat to them Rebels at Columbus. Prestona wouldn’t help; no sir, wouldn’t help. Prestona trabelled!”

     Captain Ephraim A. Wilson, Sixteenth Illinois Infantry, the sister regiment to the Tenth, also wrote about Prestona in his 1893 book, Memoirs of the War. “ After our return to Fort Jefferson on the banks of the Mississippi, where we awaited transportation for several days, an incident occurred that changed the history of the Regiment for the war, and, no doubt, luckily decided the fate of many of its men and officers….
…A slave escaped from his master and was given refuge in Company E. He was the first of his kind our men had received, and by his plantation songs, dances, and talk, was a source of much amusement to his protectors. The master learning where his man was, sought the assistance of General McClernand for his recovery. This suggested to the General, then commanding the Camp, the necessity for a field order that in substance forbade the harboring of slaves within the lines, and their peaceable surrender to their lawful owners. This was then in accordance with the policy of the government and complied with orders from Washington. Armed with this order the master returned to our Regimental Camp for his man, but his friends in Company E had concealed him the woods, and any amount of searching was of no avail. The day the Camp was broken up the slave-master was on hand to take his man but the men of Company E again foiled him by getting the slave in a tent and rolling him up in it when it was taken down, and in this shape he was loaded into the company wagon. His master was satisfied that some stratagem had been played to conceal his slave, and offered a reward of fifty dollars to any one who would tell where he was. Shame to say a man mean enough to take his money was found in the Camp. The master went to Gen. McClernand with his information, and when the team of Company E was about to be put on the steamer, McClernand stopped it, had it unloaded, the tent unrolled and the negro came out of it smoking hot, to meet his master and return to slavery—doubtless, to to a cruel whipping, and, perhaps, a transfer to the auction block at New Orleans.
     It could not be shown that Capt. Cowen was in the least responsible. It appeared to be wholly the work of some enlisted men and without the knowledge of the officers. But the spirit shown by Gen. McClernand in the matter, provoked the indignation of the officers of the Regiment, and a petition was generally signed asking Gen. Grant to assign the Regiment to some other Brigade. The 10th Illinois Infantry, at that time, was the brag Regiment of the celebrated Illinois Brigade, and held their right of the line. It was taken from that place of honor and ordered to Bird’s Point, where it was doing garrison duty and chasing Jeff Thompson, until ordered to Pope’s Command at New Madrid. Had that slave remained at home and suppressed his yearning for liberty, the 10th Illinois Infantry would have continued to hold the right of line of the Illinois Brigade, and would have been in the attack on Donelson, in the line where the 18th Illinois lost the flower of its officers and men. The contrast of that hot place and the quiet of garrison duty at Bird’s Point, is very great. Later on our Regiment went to New Madrid, Island No. 10, and Fort Pillow, instead of being at Shiloh, with its comrades of that first march in Kentucky to the rear of Columbus.”
     …And, returning to Matthew Jamison’s narrative: This incident had a marked effect on our personal fortunes….our regiment was omitted from the troops selected to fight the battles of Fort Donelson and Shiloh. But for that colored boy doubtless the bones of many of us would now be resolving to earth on those famous fields.”
     The men of Company E changed the fate of the 10th Illinois Infantry, no doubt. Instead of going to Tennessee, (From Matthew Jamison): “On the 12th of March, 1862, in the evening twilight, our brigade formed and silently moved out from the camp, the artillery muffled, and the men cautioned against making unusual noise.”

     In our next visit to the 10th Illinois, we will be visiting New Madrid, Island No. 10, and Tiptonville, Tennessee.