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Governments on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line had an insatiable desire for military recruits.  Pennsylvania native Samuel H. Bulger found this out during the Civil War.

Samuel had moved to Clinton, Iowa, when he was 12.  At age 18, in 1857, he and his family moved to Texas, where Samuel worked as a laborer, and his father raised stock.

Texas seceded in 1861.  A year later, 22-year-old Samuel enlisted as a private in Company E, 6^th Texas Infantry.

The infantry was an unpopular choice.  A Confederate recruiter wrote:

[I] find it hard to get Texans to go into infantry companies.  They say they will go mounted, but no other way.  That is, a majority say so.

Years later, Samuel said he had been “pressed into the rebel service.”  He wasn’t drafted, but he may have felt pressured to enlist by his Texas peers, his neighbors, or his employer.

His younger brother, Philip, enlisted in the same company a few months later.

Samuel’s troubles began to mount.  For starters, he received no pay for eight months.

Their regiment was sent to Fort Hindman, also called Arkansas Post, on the Arkansas River. Union commanders considered Fort Hindman a stepping-stone to Vicksburg.

In early January 1863, Union troops and gunboats moved in, outnumbering Confederate troops 6 to 1.  Admiral David D. Porter’s gunboats began shelling the Confederate positions.

The Confederate infantrymen retreated to rifle pits outside of Fort Hindman.   Intense shelling lasted for a day, and the Confederates surrendered on January 11.

They were hustled on to steamboats.  Soaking wet from rain and snow, Sam, his brother, and other POWs suffered terribly, heading up the Mississippi.

The Bulger brothers and their fellow POWs went to Camp Butler in Springfield, Illinois.  After a month-and-a-half of captivity, in March 1863, Sam took the oath of allegiance to the U.S.  Dozens of his comrades did, too, including his brother, Philip.

Historian James M. McCaffrey notes:

Other prisoners referred to this oath taking as ‘swallowing the puppy,’ and called those who took the oath ‘razorbacks’.

Samuel returned to Clinton, but he couldn’t escape the war.  He was enumerated for the draft that summer.

Conflicting information creeps into the story.  Samuel claimed to have served the Union Army for three months, which would have made him a 100 Day Man.  However, I haven’t found any record of this.

His brother, Philip, was a different story.  Philip was a 100 Day Man.

Samuel claimed to have been drafted the following year, in 1864, so he scraped up enough money to hire a substitute to take his place.  He also married Alice D. Stockwell.  They later had four children and moved to Appanoose County, Iowa.

In 1890, Samuel and his wife moved to Guadalupe County, Texas.  Samuel died on August 28, 1893.

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