Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1866-12-04

his tents and precipitately retreated merel,
wish, in this connection to relate one other o
my adventures as Confederate Captain.
was officer of the day. We were expecting
Rosencranz to attack u.s. | wished to see tht
old officer Of the guard. I did not know wht
had acted in that capacity the day before, anc
had not been enabled to find out by enquiry
| went to the guard tent and mentioned that
wished to see the old officer of the guard A
drummer suggested that if he were to sound his
drum, perhaps the individual wanted would
come to the guard tent. | cannot understand
why thought the beating of the drum would
produce such a result or why the drummer
thought so. l know, however, / caught at the
suggestion, and when the drummer asked me
if he should sound the long roll, answered af-
firmatively, adding that | supposed that would
do as well as anything else. The fact was had
not heard of the long roll before, and did not
know that any special significance attached to
1t. Well, he commenced beating the long roll.
There happened to be one or two officers in
camp who knew that the long roll was a call to
arms to repel an attack or something of that
nature. In other words it was an alarm. They
seized their swords, sprang out and called on
their men to fall in, Instantly; other officers
caught the infection and followed the example.
In moment the entire camp was in an uproar,
rivaLing that of Babel itself From every tent
officers buckling on their swords, and priyates
with cartridge box in one hand, and musket
in the other streamed forth like angry bees from
SO many hives, while above all other sounds,
were heard the excited commands of officers,
fall In, men-fall in ~ Back ON the left =
Out little in the center There, steady, front !!
Right dressv' &C., &c. -
Had l been capable at that moment, of re-
membering anything at all, that | had ever
read, it would certainly have been Byron's Wa
terloo:
''Ah then and there was hurrying to and fro
And there was mounting in hot haste; the steed,
The mastering squadron, and the Gathering car,
Went pouring forward with impetuous speed.
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war;
And the deep thunder peal on peal affair."
And near the beat of the alarming drum,
Reused up the soldier er the morning STAR
While thronged the citizens with terror dumb,
Or whispering, with while lips: 'sThe foe! They
come, they come!"
But cries of ''the long roll p 'the long roll |"
arising on all sides, assured me that [ was the
author OF the mischief, and in the extremity of
my modification, | was senseless and dumb !;
and when Col Spaulding came rushing from
his quarters, calling for his horse, and demand.
ing, IN an excited manner, what all that
meant! if ever man desired
"a lodge in some vast Wilderness
Some boundless contiguity Of shade,'
deep, dark, impenetrable shade, at that-one of
the Bengal jungle VARIETY was certainly that
man.
In reply to his question, [ succeeded, by a
desperate effort, In stammering out that there
was nothing serious the matter; that | had told
the drummer to beat for the old oficaEkof the
guard, and he had with my sanction, beat the
long rolp''-I being ignorant of the peculiar
import and probable effect thereof sJ
Eor a,,d n t-oaY ~Pt tho,
ridiculous appeared to struggle for the mastery
but the latter triumphed, and, directing his Or
derly to tell the captains to dismiss their men,
with an emphatic smile on his countenance, he
invited me to his tent, and there good -humor-
edy explained to me the mysteries Of the 'long
roll ~ Brave, accomplished, generous Spauld-
ing Two weeks later his body, bloody
corpse, was borne, in blanket, to camp, by
four of his men. He had approached too close
ly the pickets Of the enemy, and received two
balls through his breast.
A few days after the retreat of the Federals
from Sewell, General Lee sent out two famous
scouts-one of them, afterwards Capt. William
Hehner, who was killed at the battle of Lewis
burg, in May, 1862 They were ordered to
leave their guns in camp, as the object was in
formation as to the location of the enemy
They found the enemy encamped in field be-
longing to Colonel George Anderson. Under
cover of the brush, the scouts crept up to the
fence enclosing the field, and while lying there,
Generals Rosecranz and Cox rode up within
thirty yards, halted, and sat on their horses en-
gagged in conversation for some time. Capt
Heffner told me he could have counted the but
tons on their coats. Had the scouts carried
their guns the career Of the two Federal COM
manders would have ended that bright October
morning-for Heffner and his comrade were
HaoH chn xrItb thofr 1onn -,Goc ,4
two hundred PAGES.
But | fear | grow tedious. Suffice it to say,
that | afterwards saw much service, and en-
dured much suffering, for [ was in the field
from the beginning to the close of the war, ex-
cepting from the 9Th of June, 1864, to 10Th
June, 1865, during which time was prisoner
of war at Johnson's Island. | was with Lee,
in the swamps of South Carolina on the sand
hills of Wilmington; in front of Mcdowell, at
Fredericksburg in the 'tSeven Days Battles, :"
on the Chickahaminy. With Jackson, at Ce-
dar Mountain; with Loring, in the Kanawha
Valley with Ransom, in the Southwest; with
"IFger Johnp McCauseland, at Piney, Prince
ton, and the Narrows; with jenkins, at Cloyd' s
Farm, and William T. Jones, at fatal Pied
mont; but during those first Ninety Days"
with Wise, in the Kanawha Valley and on Sew
ell mountain, [ underwent more real suffering
and hardship, than in all my after military life.
And the ''Dixie Rihes" where are they now ?
Alas some are sleeping beneath the Magnolias
Of the South some on the hills of Fredericks-
burg; Some at Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor,
and Fraziers Farm; some at Piney, Princeton,
and the Narrows; some at Cloyd's Farm some
at Piedmont, Winchester, Kernstown, Cedar
Greek, Fishers Hill, and on the banks of the
Oquequon = some at the White Sulphur, Rich
mond, and Lynchburg; some at Camps Morton
and Chase some at Point Lookout and Emi-
ra; some have gone home with broken consti-
tutions; some manned and almost helpless for
life With their gallant comrades Of the glo-
rious old Goth" they everywhere bore their
full share of suffering, and danger, and death !;
and when, at the close of the war, they, with
streaming eyes and aching hearts, turned away
from the Conquered Banner" which,
though CORY,
Yet is wreathed around with glory,
And will live in song and story
Though its folds are in the dust;
For its fame on brightest pages,
Penned by poets and by sages
Shall go sounding down through ages,
Furl its folds though now we must;"
in that sad hour, not more than dozen of the
original Dixie Rifles answered at roll-call.
son Fame's eternal camping ground,
Their silent tents are spread;
While Glory guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead r'
FLOWERS. Flowers are the silent yet elo-
duent teachers of innocence, and their preach
ing has worked good in many places. Woven
into poetry into religion, and into art, ilustra-
ting the most attractive morality Of the Bible,