Laudator Temporis Acti

Regulations of a private cult association, from Philadelphia in Lydia, Asia Minor, late 2nd/early 1st century BC = Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum, 4th ed., Vol. III (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1960), pp. 113-119 (number 985), tr. Frederick C. Grant, Hellenistic Religions: The Age of Syncretism (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1953), pp. 28-30:

Good fortune! They were written for the health and common welfare and the noblest thought, the commandments given to Dionysius [by Zeus], granting access in sleep to his own house both to free men and women, and to household slaves. For here are the altars of Zeus Eumenes, Hestia who is seated beside him, and the other Savior Gods: Eudaimonia, Plutus, Arete, Hygiaea, Tyche Agathe, Agathos Daimon, Mneme, Charites, Nike.

To him Zeus gave commandments: To observe the purification and cleansing rites, and offer the sacrifices in accordance with ancestral rites and as now practiced. Those who enter this house [i.e., temple], both men and women, both bound and free, are to take oath before all the gods that, conscious of no guile toward man or woman, they will not [administer] an evil drug to men, nor will they learn or practice wicked charms, nor [give] any philter, or any abortive or contraceptive drug, nor [commit] robbery or murder, either carrying it out themselves or advising another or acting as witness [for his defense], nor overlook complacently those who rob [or withhold—i.e., offerings] in this house; and if anyone shall do any of these things or advise them, they will not consent or pass over it in silence, but will bring it out into the open and see that [the crime] is punished.

A man [is not to take] another woman in addition to his own wife, either a free woman or a slave who has a husband, nor is he to corrupt either a child [boy] or a virgin, nor is he to counsel another [to do so]; but if he should witness anyone [doing this], he must not hide it or keep silent. Woman and man [alike], whoever does any of the things above written, let them not enter this house. For the gods who dwell here are mighty and watch over these things and will not hold back [punishment] from those who transgress their commandments. A free woman is to be pure and is not to know bed or intercourse with any man other than her own [husband]. If she does she shall not be pure [as before], but is defiled and full of corruption within her family [i.e., she has corrupted the family line] and is unworthy to worship this god for whom these rites were established, or to offer sacrifices, or to . . . [about twelve lines are missing] to stumble upon or to see the mysteries observed. If anyone does any of these things with which the commandments here copied have to do, terrible curses from the gods will come upon those who disregard them. For God does not by any means will that these things should come to pass, nor does he desire it, but to obey [i.e., God wills that men should obey the commandments, and not be punished for disobedience].

To those who obey the gods will be gracious and will always be giving them everything good, such as the gods are wont to give to men they love. But if any transgress, they will hate such persons and will lay upon them great penalties.

These commandments were placed [here] by Agdistis, the most holy Guardian and Mistress of this house, that she might show her good will [or intentions] to men and women, bond and free, so that they might follow the [rules] written here and take part in the sacrifices which [are offered] month by month and year by year, even those, both men and women, who believe within themselves [i.e., are faithful to] this writing in which the commandments of God are written, so that those who follow the commandments may become known openly, and also those who do not.

O Zeus the Savior, graciously and favorably accept this account and ... [about eighteen lines are missing] provide a good requital, health, safety, peace, security by land and sea ... . [about twenty lines are missing] likewise.

The Greek text is online here, from Tituli Asiae Minoris, V: Tituli Lydiae linguis Graeca et Latina conscripti, ed. Georg Petzl (Vienna, 2007), Vol. 3, nos. 1415-1953: Philadelpheia et Ager Philadelphenus (number 1539). The stone is now lost.

See Otto Weinreich, "Stiftung und Kultsatzungen eines Privatheiligtums in Philadelpheia in Lydien," Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse 16.3 (1919) 1-68, and María-Paz de Hoz, "The Regulations of Dionysius in the So-Called Lex Sacra from Philadelphia in Lydia," Epigraphica Anatolica 50 (2017) 93-108. There is another (partial) translation by Arthur Darby Nock, Early Gentile Christianity and its Hellenistic Background (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1964), pp. 20-21.

Scholars compare Didache 2 (tr. Bart D. Ehrman):

[1] And now the second commandment of the teaching. [2] Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not engage in pederasty, do not engage in sexual immorality. Do not steal, do not practice magic, do not use enchanted potions, do not abort a fetus or kill a child that is born. [3] Do not desire what belongs to your neighbor, do not commit perjury, do not give false testimony, do not speak insults, do not bear grudges. [4] Do not be of two minds or speak from both sides of your mouth, for speaking from both sides of your mouth is a deadly trap. [5] Your word must not be empty or false. [6] Do not be greedy, rapacious, hypocriti­cal, spiteful, or haughty. Do not entertain a wicked plot against your neighbor. [7] Do not hate anyone—but re­prove some, pray for others, and love still others more than yourself.

Demosthenes 19.65-66 (On the Dishonest Embassy; tr. Arthur Wallace Pickard-Cambridge, with his notes):

For when recently we were on our way to Delphiⁿ we could not help seeing it all—houses razed to the ground, cities stripped of their walls, the land destitute of men in their prime—only a few poor women and little children left, and some old men in misery. Indeed, no words can describe the distress now prevailing there. Yet this was the people, I hear you all saying, that once gave its vote against the Thebans,ⁿ when the question of your enslavement was laid before them.

What then, men of Athens, do you think would be the vote, what the sentence, that your forefathers would give, if they could recover consciousness, upon those who were responsible for the destruction of this people? I believe that if they stoned them to death with their own hands, they would hold themselves guiltless of blood. Is it not utterly shameful—does it not, if possible, go beyond all shame—that those who saved us then, and gave the saving vote for us, should now have met with the very opposite fate through these men, suffering as no Hellenic people has ever suffered before, with none to hinder it? Who then is responsible for this crime? Who is the author of this deception? Who but Aeschines?

§ 65. on our may to Delphi. Demosthenes had been one of the Athenian representatives at the meeting of the Amphictyonic Council at Delphi this year.

gave its vote, &c. After the battle of Aegospotami at the end of the Peloponnesian War, the representative of Thebes proposed to the Spartans and their allies that Athens should be destroyed and its inhabitants sold into slavery.

ὅτε γὰρ νῦν ἐπορευόμεθ᾽ εἰς Δελφούς, ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἦν ὁρᾶν ἡμῖν πάντα ταῦτα, οἰκίας κατεσκαμμένας, τείχη περιῃρημένα, χώραν ἔρημον τῶν ἐν ἡλικίᾳ, γύναια δὲ καὶ παιδάρι᾽ ὀλίγα καὶ πρεσβύτας ἀνθρώπους οἰκτρούς· οὐδ᾽ ἂν εἷς δύναιτ᾽ ἐφικέσθαι τῷ λόγῳ τῶν ἐκεῖ κακῶν νῦν ὄντων. ἀλλὰ μὴν ὅτι τὴν ἐναντίαν ποτὲ Θηβαίοις ψῆφον ἔθενθ᾽ οὗτοι περὶ ἡμῶν ὑπὲρ ἀνδραποδισμοῦ προτεθεῖσαν, ὑμῶν ἔγωγ᾽ ἀκούω πάντων.

τίν᾽ ἂν οὖν οἴεσθ᾽, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, τοὺς προγόνους ὑμῶν, εἰ λάβοιεν αἴσθησιν, ψῆφον ἢ γνώμην θέσθαι περὶ τῶν αἰτίων τοῦ τούτων ὀλέθρου; ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ οἶμαι κἂν καταλεύσαντας αὐτοὺς ταῖς ἑαυτῶν χερσὶν καθαροὺς ἔσεσθαι νομίζειν. πῶς γὰρ οὐκ αἰσχρόν, μᾶλλον δ᾽ εἴ τις ἔστιν ὑπερβολὴ τούτου, τοὺς σεσωκότας ἡμᾶς τότε καὶ τὴν σῴζουσαν περὶ ἡμῶν ψῆφον θεμένους, τούτους τῶν ἐναντίων τετυχηκέναι διὰ τούτους, καὶ περιῶφθαι τοιαῦτα πεπονθότας οἷ᾽ οὐδένες ἄλλοι τῶν Ἑλλήνων; τίς οὖν ὁ τούτων αἴτιος; τίς ὁ ταῦτα φενακίσας; οὐχ οὗτος;

The name Aeschines doesn't appear in the Greek, just the pronoun οὗτος.

Bacchylides, Victory Odes 1.159-177 (tr. Richard C. Jebb):

The best glory is that of Virtue, so deem I now and ever: wealth may dwell with men of little worth, and will exalt the spirit; but he who is bountiful to the gods can cheer his heart with a loftier hope. If a mortal is blessed with health, and can live on his own substance, he vies with the most fortunate. Joy attends on every state of life, if only disease and helpless poverty be not there. The rich man yearns for great things, as the poorer for less; mortals find no sweetness in opulence, but are ever pursuing visions that flee before them.

    φαμὶ καὶ φάσω μέγιστον
κῦδος ἔχειν ἀρετάν· πλοῦ-        160
    τος δὲ καὶ δειλοῖσιν ἀνθρώπων ὁμιλεῖ,
ἐθέλει δ᾿ αὔξειν φρένας ἀν-
    δρός· ὁ δ᾿ εὖ ἔρδων θεούς
ἐλπίδι κυδροτέρᾳ
    σαίνει κέαρ. εἰ δ᾿ ὑγιείας        165
θνατὸς ἐὼν ἔλαχεν
    ζώειν τ᾿ ἀπ᾿ οἰκείων ἔχει,
πρώτοις ἐρίζει· παντί τοι
    τέρψις ἀνθρώπων βίῳ
ἕπεται νόσφιν γε νόσων        170
    πενίας τ᾿ ἀμαχάνου.
ἶσον ὅ τ᾿ ἀφνεὸς ἱ-
    μείρει μεγάλων ὅ τε μείων
παυροτέρων· τὸ δὲ πάν-
    των εὐμαρεῖν οὐδὲν γλυκύ        175
θνατοῖσιν, ἀλλ᾿ αἰεὶ τὰ φεύ-
    γοντα δίζηνται κιχεῖν.

See Herwig Maehler, Die Lieder des Bakchylides. Erster Teil: Die Siegeslieder, II. Kommentar (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1982), pp. 20-24.

Sophocles, Oedipus the King 1076-1077 (Oedipus speaking; tr. David Grene):

Break out what will! I at least shall be
willing to see my ancestry, though humble.

ὁποῖα χρῄζει ῥηγνύτω· τοὐμὸν δ᾽ ἐγώ,
κεἰ σμικρόν ἐστι, σπέρμ᾽ ἰδεῖν βουλήσομαι.

Euripides, Orestes 1022-1024 (Orestes to Electra; tr. Edward P. Coleridge):

Be silent! an end to womanish lamenting!
resign yourself to your fate. It is piteous, but nevertheless
you must bear the present fate.

οὐ σῖγ᾽ ἀφεῖσα τοὺς γυναικείους γόους
στέρξεις τὰ κρανθέντ᾽; οἰκτρὰ μὲν τάδ᾽, ἀλλ᾽ ὅμως
φέρειν σ᾽ ἀνάγκη τὰς παρεστώσας τύχας.

1022 γόους MB: λόγους rell.
1024 del. Kirchhoff (non habuit Σ)

C.W. Willink ad loc.:

Gilbert Highet (1906-1978), Explorations (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 112:

One variation of this idea appeals to me, although I know it is not to be taken seriously. This is the notion that some words, when they are written or printed, look like the thing they denote. My favorite is pool, where the two o's evoke the deep water with its reflection of the sky, and the downward stroke of the p and the riser of the l resemble the tree reflected in the still lakelet. Moon is also very good. Meat looks to me like a slab of tenderloin oozing with juice; and now that I think of it, ooze looks like something oozing and the word juice both looks and sounds like juice. The printed word potato is very like a big lumpy Long Island potato with two bumps on it. Bulb is just right, whether it means an electric bulb narrowing upwards to its neck, or a bulgy tulip bulb. Tulip is pretty good too, both in sound and in appearance. The r's in mirror seem to me to mirror the shiny surface of the mirror. Ankle and elbow both resemble bent joints. Tongue looks like the flexible boneless organ which curls and has a thin projecting tip. Dante thought a man's face looked like the old Italian word for man: omo, the strong bony nose being the M and the two round O's the eyes on each side of it. One scholar claimed that Hungarian was the ideal language because the Hungarian word for scissors, ollò, looked exactly like a pair of scissors. Stop. Stop! That way madness lies!

Homer, Odyssey 14.96-105 (tr. Peter Green):

Great indeed, past telling, were his resources: no other
heroic warrior, either away on the dark mainland,
or on Ithákē itself, could match them. Not twenty men
together had as much wealth: I'll list you the sum of it.
On the mainland, twelve herds of cattle, twelve flocks of sheep,
as many droves of swine and wide-ranging troops of goats
are pastured alike by outsiders and his own herdsmen.
Eleven wide-ranging troops of goats browse at the farthest
end of the island, and over them good men watch.

ἦ γάρ οἱ ζωή γ᾽ ἦν ἄσπετος· οὔ τινι τόσση
ἀνδρῶν ἡρώων, οὔτ᾽ ἠπείροιο μελαίνης
οὔτ᾽ αὐτῆς Ἰθάκης· οὐδὲ ξυνεείκοσι φωτῶν
ἔστ᾽ ἄφενος τοσσοῦτον· ἐγὼ δέ κέ τοι καταλέξω.
δώδεκ᾽ ἐν ἠπείρῳ ἀγέλαι· τόσα πώεα οἰῶν,        100
τόσσα συῶν συβόσια, τόσ᾽ αἰπόλια πλατέ᾽ αἰγῶν
βόσκουσι ξεῖνοί τε καὶ αὐτοῦ βώτορες ἄνδρες.
ἐνθάδε δ᾽ αἰπόλια πλατέ᾽ αἰγῶν ἕνδεκα πάντα
ἐσχατιῇ βόσκοντ᾽, ἐπὶ δ᾽ ἀνέρες ἐσθλοὶ ὄρονται.        105

Related post: Wealth in Cattle.

Hesiod, Works and Days 238-247 (tr. M.L. West):

But for those who occupy themselves with violence and wickedness and brutal deeds,
Kronos' son, wide-seeing Zeus, marks out retribution.
Often a whole community together suffers in consequence of a bad man
who does wrong and contrives evil.
From heaven Kronos' son brings disaster upon them,
famine and with it plague, and the people waste away.
The womenfolk do not give birth, and households decline,
by Olympian Zeus' design. At other times again
he either destroys those men's broad army or city wall,
or punishes their ships at sea.

οἷς δ᾽ ὕβρις τε μέμηλε κακὴ καὶ σχέτλια ἔργα,
τοῖς δὲ δίκην Κρονίδης τεκμαίρεται εὐρύοπα Ζεύς.
πολλάκι καὶ ξύμπασα πόλις κακοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἀπηύρα,        240
ὅστις ἀλιτραίνει καὶ ἀτάσθαλα μηχανάαται.
τοῖσιν δ᾽ οὐρανόθεν μέγ᾽ ἐπήγαγε πῆμα Κρονίων,
λιμὸν ὁμοῦ καὶ λοιμόν· ἀποφθινύθουσι δὲ λαοί·
οὐδὲ γυναῖκες τίκτουσιν, μινύθουσι δὲ οἶκοι
Ζηνὸς φραδμοσύνῃσιν Ὀλυμπίου· ἄλλοτε δ᾽ αὖτε        245
ἢ τῶν γε στρατὸν εὐρὺν ἀπώλεσεν ἢ ὅ γε τεῖχος
ἢ νέας ἐν πόντῳ Κρονίδης ἀποτείνυται αὐτῶν.

Sophocles, Oedipus the King 1065 (Oedipus to Jocasta; tr. Hugh Lloyd-Jones):

You will never persuade me not to find out the truth!

οὐκ ἂν πιθοίμην μὴ οὐ τάδ᾽ ἐκμαθεῖν σαφῶς.

Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar, rev. Gordon M. Messing (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, ©1984), p. 624, § 2745:

Any infinitive that would take μή, takes μὴ οὐ (with a negative force), if dependent on a negatived verb. Here οὐ is the sympathetic negative and is untranslatable.

οὐκ ἂν πιθοίμην μὴ οὐ τάδ᾽ ἐκμαθεῖν σαφῶς I cannot consent not to learn this exactly as it is S. O.T. 1065.

See also William Watson Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb (Boston: Ginn & Company, 1890), p. 326 (§ 815, 2).

Homer, Odyssey 13.362 (Athena to Odysseus; tr. A.T. Murray):

Be of good cheer, and let not these things distress thy heart.

θάρσει, μή τοι ταῦτα μετὰ φρεσὶ σῇσι μελόντων.

Also at Odyssey 24.357 (Odysseus to Laertes) and Iliad 18.463 (Hephaestus to Thetis). Cf. also Iliad 19.29 (Thetis to Achilles):

τέκνον, μή τοι ταῦτα μετὰ φρεσὶ σῇσι μελόντων.

Donald Davidson (1893-1968), "The Breaking Mould," Poems 1922-1961 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1966), pp. 167-172 (at 167-168):

And lo, I was seized, marching from Baltic forests,
Or pressing beyond the Danube, the Rhine, or the Seine.
Salty with wash of the fjords, rimy with sea-spray,
I in my great boar-helmet was seized and won
By a lean priest whose eyes were kindling with dreams
Of the blessed Rood. I was gentled with Latin hymns,
Cleansed with holy water and crowned with thorns,
And told to remember a sin I had not known.
The hammer of Thor was fallen forever, and Odin
Looked upon Asgard sadly. Twilight came
With a mild Christian splendor of bells and incense.
The Goths unbuckled the sword. The sons of the Goths
Remembered the saints in stone with arches leaping
Heavenward like my soul from the desolate earth.

Homer, Odyssey 13.353-354 (tr. A.T. Murray):

Glad then was the much-enduring, goodly Odysseus,
rejoicing in his own land, and he kissed the earth, the giver of grain.

γήθησέν τ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἔπειτα πολύτλας δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς,
χαίρων ᾗ γαίῃ, κύσε δὲ ζείδωρον ἄρουραν.

Arie Hoekstra on line 354:

κύσε: as he did at v 463 (which has the same formula) and Agamemnon did on his return (Od. iv 522). Both ζείδωρος (probably from *ζεϝέδωρος) ἄρουρα and its complementary formula φυσίζοος αἶα (cf. Bechtel, Lexilogus, I48) are probably highly archaic. For ζειαί, Triticum monococcum (and/or bicoccum?), see S. West on iv 41; on the problem of ζ (as compared with γ in Sanskrit yáva- 'barley') see M. Leroy in Mélanges Chantraine, op. cit. (xiv 199 n.), 106-17. ἄρουρα, lit. 'arable land', already in Mycenaean, PY Eq 213 (Ventris-Chadwick, Documents, no. 154), cf. also Ruijgh, Élément, 111 and 122-3.

Illustration by Jan Styka (1858-1925):

My 3rd great-grandfather, John B. Wagner, served in the pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard, 8th Division (under Brigadier General James Spencer Rains), 10th Cavalry Regiment (under Colonel William Hugh Erwin), from September 1, 1861, to April 22, 1862. It is therefore likely (though not certain) that he fought with his regiment in the Battle of Morristown, Cass County, Missouri, on September 17, 1861. Here are two accounts of the battle by participants, one (John Berry) on the Confederate side, the other (Thomas Moonlight) on the Union side.

"The Battle of Morristown in Cass County Was Sixty-Five Years Ago," Cass County Democrat (June 10, 1926), p. 9 (excerpt, cols. 2-3), rpt. in Missouri Historical Review 21.2 (January, 1927) 284-285 (I quote from the newspaper):

On September 17, 1861, one hundred and twenty-one Confederate troops were encamped just a short distance northeast of the main part of Morristown. The soldiers were under the command of Colonel Will Hugh Irwin and for the most part were untrained and poorly equipped.... [T]he location of the camp ... was not far from the town's main thoroughfare. Colonel Irwin and his company of men were there for the purpose of recruiting a regiment of soldiers to join the army of General Sterling Price who was then fighting at Lexington, Mo. Colonel Irwin was a Cass county citizen, making his home on a farm near the present town of Peculiar.

A member of Colonel Irwin's company of men at that time was John Ed. Berry, then just nineteen years old. Mr. Berry is now eighty-four years old and lives in Harrisonville. To watch him in action one would set him down as being twenty years younger, for he did not show fatigue after recently conducting a party of sight-seers over the old battle-ground, and telling how the handful of Confederate soldiers escaped after being surprised by two regiments, or some 1,500 Union soldiers, under the command of General Lane.

The night of September 16 was quiet, with no one stirring except those on guard duty. Just at the break of day, however, the pickets rushed to the sleeping camp and notified the officers that hordes of Federal soldiers were approaching the camp from the east. There was no time to prepare for defense, for the camp was unprotected and its occupants outnumbered ten to one, so the Confederate soldiers deployed along the brushy stream ... and soon were surrounded by the enemy.

There was a saloon located near the first bend in the stream, and it was here that Mr. Berry was ensconced, having a plain view of all that took place. While the Union soldiers were deploying, a column of cavalry headed by Colonel Johnson, rushed down Morristown's main street, while a body of infantrymen was stationed northeast of the Confederate camp. There was no disciplined order of battle, for the Confederates, using the dry stream as a trench and its rocky ledges as a parapet, were firing whenever there was a good target, Colonel Johnson being killed almost in front of Mr. Berry. The battle lasted until 8:30 o'clock that morning, with the Union soldiers getting decidedly the worst of the engagement. Not only were the Confederates outnumbered, but the enemy used two pieces of field artillery, which were not of much effect under the circumstances although a barn across the stream, south, which is yet standing, can show evidence of artillery fire.

Seeing that the Confederate forces would be annihilated if the battle continued, the officers ordered a retreat, which was accomplished, although Union soldiers had the southern soldiers pocketed. Being thoroughly familiar with the terrain, Colonel Irwin selected Mr. Berry to lead the retreat. This was successfully accomplished by following the stream east, during which they could see and hear the Union soldiers but could not be seen. The escape was miraculous, and after leaving the battle scene, the soldiers made their way to Harrisonville. As near as Mr. Berry can remember, one hundred and nineteen Union soldiers were killed and a great many wounded, while none of the Confederate forces lost their lives, although several were wounded and five were taken prisoners. The Union forces, after destroying the camp, left Morristown about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The prisoners were taken toward Paola, Kans., and were executed just after the Kansas line was passed. The Union soldiers were stationed at Paola on recruiting duty and had marched to Morristown to drive out the Confederate soldiers, the march, about thirty-five miles, being made at night. Mr. Berry did not receive a scratch in the skirmish, and as far as he knows, there are now only four Confederate survivors of this battle. Besides himself, there are Jim Beegles of East Lynne, Mo., Tom Dolan of Rocky Ford, Colo., and Robert White of Kansas City, Mo.

Mr Beegles was not far from Mr. Berry when the former was wounded by a bullet piercing his right side. After the retreat to Harrisonville Mr. Berry and Hale Beegles, a brother of Jim Beegles, went back and after some difficulty, located the injured man. Jim Beegles recovered and for years has lived in East Lynne, in this county. He still possesses the bullet which went clear through his side.

Following are the names of some the Confederate soldiers who took part in the battle: John Ed. Berry, Jim Beegles, Tom Dolan, Robert White, yet living; Captain Will Dolan, Frank Dolan, Eph Jones, Captain Robert Adams, Captain A. S. Bradley, Walter Adams, Sam Oldham, George Nowell, Green Williams, William Stark, Dan Stark, Hale Beegles, Ed. Dunn, John Dunn, ———— McGruder, Reliford Hook, John Hammond, "Doc" Peterson and John L.L. Stephens. Captain Bradley was the father of Mack Bradley, now a prominent farmer of this county, and had been doing recruiting in Everett, a village northwest of Archie, this county. There may be other Confederate survivors of this skirmish, but their names are not known.

There were other skirmishes in and near this scene. That part of Cass county was undeveloped then, many of the present fine farms being nothing but timberland. A relic of the Morristown battle was recently unearthed near the spot where the saloon stood. It was a demijohn, full of bullet holes.

Details of the battle of Morristown have hitherto been unpublished. We have consulted several histories of Cass county in which the affair was mentioned, and they indicate that the Union forces did not know that the southern soldiers were encamped at Morristown, but Mr. Berry is certain they did.

There may be inaccuracies in the above account of the skirmish, but we have been faithful to what we saw and was told us. Over half a century has elapsed since that stormy period, but we believe that Mr. Berry told us of the fray as he remembered it.

One incident of the battle he recalls very distinctly. A Yankee bugler was blowing some signal quite lustily, when Green Williams, a Confederate soldier stationed not far from Mr. Berry, raised up and said, "I'll stop that dam' music." He fired and the "music" stopped.

Kip Lindberg and Matt Matthews, "'The Eagle of the 11th Kansas': Wartime Reminiscences of Colonel Thomas Moonlight," Arkansas Historical Quarterly 62.1 (Spring, 2003) 1-41 (at 10-12):

My next skirmish was at Butler, a town in Missouri that was captured by Col. Johnson's 5th Kansas²⁴ about the 12th of the month [September, 1861]. Nothing of special interest occurred in the way of a fight as the rebels ran at our approach, several, however, were killed where they were found in their houses afterwards or in the brush. On the 17^th two columns left West Point, a small place right on the Missouri & Kansas line. This command left in the afternoon and marched as if going into Kansas, but as soon as darkness came on the head of the column was changed towards Missouri. During the night the command was divided into two wings, each numbering about 300 men- one moving under Col. Johnson and the other under Col. Montgomery; the latter was to march straight on Morristown from the westward and strike the rebel command there at daybreak. Col. Johnson was to march northward through fields, fences and whatever came in his way and strike the enemy on the northeast side in conjunction with Col. Montgomery. I accompanied, with one howitzer, the command of Col. Johnson.

A more dashing and brilliant march was never made, a distance of about 30 miles was made most rapidly without incident. Col. Johnson was a little too fast and Col. Montgomery a little too slow, the former getting to Morristown at early day break, and the latter about an hour after day. The enemy were encamped in Morristown and numbered about 500 under command of Col. Irwin,²⁵ all Missourians, and as completely did Col. Johnson take them by surprise that not a picket or even a sentinel killed until the bullets from our sharps rifles went whistling through their tents. Had Col. J[ohnson]. behaved and conducted the attack with as much judgement as he had exhibited of gallantry, the enemy would not [have] escaped.

My last conversation with Col. Johnson was within one hundred yards of the rebel camp, where we were hidden from view by the timber. He asked me for my opinion as to the mode of attack. I urged the dismounting of the men and the summoning in of the howitzer, by hand, double cannistered [sic], right into camp and play into the tents until they cried "Hold enough!"²⁶ The Colonel would not hear to dismounting but ordered 2 companies to charge into camp, while with the balance, including my howitzer, he would sweep along the street from the eastward and cut off their retreat southward. Supposing, I humanely believe, that Col. Montgomery, who had only about half the distance to travel, would immediately on the sound of his guns close from the westward and completely hem in the enemy. "Man proposes but God disposes," [and] as I said before Montgomery was slow, and sick.

Ere we could make the little circuit as to get on the street, the rebels (or at least the most of them) had run from camp, crossed the street, [and] hid themselves in a ravine behind some brick buildings. As we came dashing along the street we received a crossfire from at least 400 rifles, at a not greater distance than ten steps. Col. Johnson was ahead of the chief bugler and received almost the entire fire. I came next and just saved myself and my men by seizing the bridle of the lead horse of the piece and dashing them round against the brick walls. Several of our men were killed and wounded at that moment, and but for the cowardice of the enemy not one of us would have escaped. We were huddled together, cavalry and artillery, in the street, and I trembled for the result until we changed our position; it became my duty to attend to this, as after the fall of Col. Johnson I was next in command, and none had seen him fall but myself, as it was still quite early in the morning. I immediately swung the command out of the street on to clear ground, opened on the ravine and houses with case shot²⁷ and sharps rifles, and in less than ten minutes the crack of a rebel rifle could not be heard.

We captured the entire camp and garrison equipage of the enemy, as well as horses, mules, wagons, rations & a number of arms; the loss of such property was of immense damage to the enemy as they could not possibly replace there equipage in the country, besides the demoralizing effect such a defeat had on a newly organized regiment, as was the case with this one. About 40 killed and wounded on our side, among the list of killed was the gallant Col. Johnson, with whom a braver soldier, a truer man and upright Christian never offered up his life a sacrifice on the alter [sic] of this country. After the wounded had been collected together Col. Montgomery's command came into town, which was thoroughly plundered and afterwards burnt.²⁸ Morristown was a den of rebels and a rendezvous for all the bushwhackers who ranged on Kansas soil, and the destroying of it saved Kansas in a manner from their depredations during that fall and winter.

²⁴ Col. Hampton P. Johnson, of Leavenworth, Kansas, was a Methodist minister and veteran of the Mexican War, having served under the command of his friend, James H. Lane. H.D. Fisher, The Gun and the Gospel: Early Kansas and Chaplain Fisher, 4th ed. (Kansas City: Hudson-Kimberly, 1902).

²⁵ Col. Hugh Erwin, commanding the Tenth Cavalry Regiment, Eighth Division, Missouri State Guard.

²⁶ Moonlight was proposing to advance the howitzer a short distance by hand, rather than by horse, in hopes that the movement could be more quietly accomplished. "Double canistered" is simply loading two tin cylinders of lead balls at once to double the blast effect.

²⁷ A hollow iron shell, filled with lead balls and a small bursting charge, which could be timed to explode at any distance from the cannon by means of a fuse. It was invented by Henry Shrapnel, a British artillery officer whose name became synonymous with explosive fragments.

²⁸ Because of their protective cover, pro-Confederate casualties were minimal, with only a single man known wounded. The Leavenworth Daily Conservative stated, however, "Twelve prisoners were taken, of whom five were subsequently shot." Witnesses reported the murdered men were first made to dig their own graves. Henry E. Palmer, "The Black-Flag Character of the War on the Border," Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society 9 (1909-1910), 456.

Morristown no longer exists. Its location can be seen on this map, west of Harrisonville on the railroad line: Related post: John B. Wagner.

Gilbert Highet (1906-1978), Explorations (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), pp. 97-98:

I am not a professional linguist, but I have learned and can read eight languages besides English. I have failed with two—Russian and Hebrew: Russian because it is too complex for me to learn it from a handbook without a teacher, and Hebrew because I have a block about the alphabet and the vowel points; but I'll master them both yet! And I still remember the excitement with which, at the age of eleven, I started learning French and Latin and ancient Greek. (Of course, that is the age when foreign languages should be instilled into the young: eleven at latest; ten or nine would be even better. At that period the young mind is flexible and the young character is pretty docile. It is perfectly ridiculous to postpone the study of languages to the high school age, when the mind begins to lose its concentration and the emotions are constantly interfering with its activities.)