The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1862-10-18

The oak ard cedar bend and writhe
When roars the wind through gap and braken.
But It's the tenderest reed of oil
That trembles FIRST when Earth is shaken.
1t is with infinite satisfaction, my boy, that
record the recognition of Commodore Head.
priceless services on Duck Lake by the Secret,.
~ of the Navy. Our grim old son of Neptune
is created Rear Admiral, with the privilege Of
snubbing gunboat captains, receiving seransdes
attending launches and layishing untold scorn
upon the feeble limitations of affrighted Europe
Hence, there would appear to be an imper,-
tive demand in current literature for an authori.
tative
SKETCH OF COMMODORE HEAD.
This venerable ornament of our peerless naval
service, to whom the eyes of the world are nov
directed, was born of one of his parents at An
early period of his existence and has since in
Cured the years temporarily elapsng between
that epoch and the present suspicious occasion,
The subject of our brief biography entered the
navy when he was only fifty years old as COM
mander of the Mackerel iron plated squadron On
Duck Lake, where he became widely noted for
success in fishing; as well as for his skill in eu
ding vessels running the blockade At one time
indeed, he came very near capturing Confed-
crate ram, being only prevented by failing to find
the key of the box containing his spectacles in
time to reconnoiter the willy foe. Commodore
Heads conversation concerning the speedy can.
ture of Vicksburg, Charleston, Savannah and
Mobile, is instructive to all minds, and his pro
motion is an event calculated to prove that the
war is about to begin in earnest.
Rear-Admirals, my boy, are an aristocratc
Spct ifntinn and ka;r
convince besotted Europe, that in making a ma
val distinction between rank and file, our dis
eliminating Government knows how to compro-
mise matters by bestowing new rank upon an
old file.
1t was on Wednesday that my architectural
steed, the Gothic Pegasus, renewed his usual
weekly journey to desolated Accomac, cheerfuly
conveying me thither at speed that did not
keep the same roadside house in view more than
half an hour at time. Having hitched the fu-
nereal stallion to a copy of Senator Summers
recent Faneiul Hall speech, believing that docu-
ment to be sufficiently heavy to hold him, I gave
him discarded straw hat of mine for bs din.
ner, and then strolled into the Mackerel camp.
To the everlasting disgrace of our rulers be it
said, my boy, found the devoted Mackerel
Brigade progressing toward deep suffering at
rate which made me thank Heaven that owned
Being thoughtlessly supplied with three days
rations at time, these neglected martyrs incur
all the perils of sufocatior and cruel nightmare
by doing nothing else on the first day but eat
from morning till night what is left over at mid
night being used to pelt each other with Then
for two whole days these gallant men who are
fighting our battles find famine staring them in
the face, and 1 actually heard one emaciated
Mackerel chap Offering a whole weeks pay to
another Mackerel chap for a Confederate cracker
which he had picked up in a field. wishing to
consign that cracker to his friends at home as
sample of the unnatural food with which an IN
grateful Republic feeds its faithful soldiers. |
even found many Mackerels without knapsacks
and blankets, which they had lost in ventures at
"Old Sledge"; and there was that in the coun-
tenances of others which assured me that their
poor faces had not been washed since the CON-
mencement of the war.
My soul turns sick at these things my boy,
and they even have an effect upon the behold
er's stomach. To think that our noble voluu-
teers our country's preservers, should be sub
jected to sufferings in which they have not even
the poor consolation of knowing that some
body else than themselves is responsible therefor
Refectively I turned from the scene of agony,
and had rambled some fifteen minutes in an ad-
jacent bit of woods when the sound of voices
u
peer eagerly through an opening in the nearest
thcket
Seated just beyond some evergreen bushes
we're four dilapidated Confederaces, solemniy
discussing the great Emancipation Proclamation
of our Honest Abe; whilst close by them, and
astrids of amossy stone, was that accomplished
swordsman, Captain Munchausen, franticallv,
and with many hiccups, endeavoring at one and
the same time to catch phantom fly and main
tain his equestrian position.
One of the Confederates took bite from a
cold potato which he held in his hand, and,
says he:
81 reckon that it's near timesfor the unsubju-
gated South to adopt Retaliatory measures, and
proclaim that all prisoners hereafter taken by
the Confederacy shall be previously shot and
made into bone-ornaments.
Here Captain Munchausen burst into an IN
seemly peal of laughter as he made another wild
clutch at the phantom fly, and says he:
"Wbsr-where's Mary's-ary's-snuff box?n
Not perceiying that this special remark was
relevant to the question in view, a second Con-
federscy merely frightened the string which held
his ine1pressibles in place, and, says he:
"What has been proposed by the Honorable
Gentleman from the Aims House is not sufi-
cientiy severe No mercy should be shown to
the Washington demon, and move that any
roueiai ulsturDluR d COnteucfaCy
during the progress of battle shall be at once
executed for arson"
The impression created by this motion e1-
tended.even to Captain Munchausen, who fell fat
upon his face in frantic attempt to catch the
special insect, and exclaimed, in tones of awful
sublinity:
81 don't want ibic) to b. marri-ry-arried
Hep
After moments pause, the third Confederacy
finished buttoniug his coat with bit of corn.
cob, aud says he:
81 move that the last Resolution be amended
to make it capital crime for any person what
ever to be guilty of Federal extractioL."
Now, it Glanced, my boy, that there was a
Mackerel picket eating confscated watermelon
in clump Of bushes close behind me- and just
at this crisis OF the debate, he casually tossed q
piece of the rind in the direction Of the Conied.
eraces. 1t happened to fall in their very midst,
whereupon the enraged Statesmen were seized
with great tremblings, and Immediately skedad-
died in all directions, the last to depart being
Captain Munchausen, who at first endeavored to