St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1868-04-17
from Hours At Home for APRIL
TIL TIE ROOF.

~ INCIDENT IN THE GREAT REBELLION.
Drcs>-paradc WAS just over. The last
notes of the post band fingered along the
face Of the Arkansas River, mingled
with the creeping foe Of the autumn eve
ming, and the short, deep peal Of the
..Sun-ct run came back, mellowcd and
-ottcurd. from the wooded hills, behind
which the red glow was already fading
into colder purple,
The short twilight. of that latitude
was fast deepening into night ms Captain
Blake ANA |. his lieutenant, left the last
traces OF the little town which was occu-
pied 10y our regiment, the Tooth Illinois
Cavclry, and struck into the sccludc,!
forest road which led up into the heart
of the tall hills five or six miles away.
Captain Blake was decidedly Il militia
" iop. He always wore taultless uni
torn, and on all proper occasions his
delicate white fingers were cncased i'll tan
rolorcd kids, produced from some mys-
tcr,ious nook of his I'aggage, the sources
of supply whereof, during nearly four
years of campaigning, remained as undis-
rovcrabe to his brother officers as the
authorship of ,Junius. lis hair was
long and flowing, and he never INDUCED
i'm the ncgliLc of blouse or citizens linen
sack. Eut his conrage had been proved
more than once, and many of his ruder
companions had learned to their cost
that under thcikid gloves slumbered mus
cies of steel.
This evening. like all others, fount
him buttoned to the chin in spotless blue
Ny own attire on the contrary, was thai
of the ordinary citizen. | was too pru-
dent. or cowardlv, ever to 90 out ofrangt
of our runs, in that busl-whacker coun-
try. wearing the national uniform.
Three miles from the post, with tw,
ur three faithful old servants-the last o
a huge plantation corps-livcd a youth
ful widow and Il still more youthful and
unmarried sister The husband OF the
| former had been a UniOnist and one of tn,
earliest victims of the remarkable manii
for murder which marked the outbreal
of the great rebellion, and, in some local
tiles. continued to its close. There wer
two brothers also. one of whom was said
to he away in Virginia with Lee. anC
the other sulky boy of sixteen. lounget
about the old place, and was sometime
suspected of guerrilla proclivitics.
1t was to visit these two charmin:
women - for charming in its highes
sense they were-that Captain Blake an'
| turned our horses heads up that dust
forest road and left behind the protection
of our friendly guns. We had taken tn
same ride otter during the preceding
three or four months, and had nevel
met with any symptom of danger through
it was said that a band of bush-whack
el's had rendezvous some miles tarthe
out Several months before we had ha
some rough experience of warfare, bu
we had passed a long, quiet summer
Away in virginia the tremendous battle
of the Wilderness filled one with a sol
of shivering awe of their impassive direc
tor. and farther south, men listened won
leringly to the chivalric story of Altoon
and Peach Tree Greek and kenesaw
Even on our side of the Mississippi
Shelby occasionally dashed in on tn
railway outlet from Little Rock, or Gan
eau's '.Texas Brigade" provokingly ''got
bled' Fort Smith camp Immediately o
the heels of the departing paymastel
But in our little post we had dreame