The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-12-19
A WAR YARN.
Cleaning Out From Chiekasavv-Every
Man his Own Circus.

| Cleaning Out From Chiekasayv-Ever!
| Man his Own Circus.
| Squills declares this to be a tru
| yarn, spun out of an incident of th,
late war. 1t is about throwing the com
missary stores into Chickasaw Bayou
on New Years night, 1863, when til,
Union troops concluded to return tx
| Uncle Sans transports on the Yazoo.
In those days Squills was ga boy il
blue, and signed himself Capt. and G
S., q. S. V. It was Squills' first attemp
at active duty. All through that New
Years day, Squills had been receiving
| stores and issueing rations, and hadn'
| time to think much about what was go
ing on at the front" About 7 in the
| evening a clerk came up and. said the
troops were in full retreat to the river
Squills didn't believe it, because ht
/ thought Gen. Sherman would certainly
take care of his faithful commissary
and request him to retreat too. In about
half an hour the same anxious CLERK
came again, and this time he said, dole
fully: Captain they're all gone.
It dawned upon the mind of Capt.
Squills, G. S., that Gen. Sherman was
laying a cOmmissary on the altar of his
country as sacrifice to the gods-he
didn't banker after Libby-and so he
vaulted to the summit of his warIike
steed, and in another minute was gal.
Looping over the fields to Gen. Sherman's
quarters, to ask William Tecumseh how
he thought it was himself.
It was beautiful southern winters
night and the camp fires blazed all over
the ground in front of the open fats
which lay between-what had been the
Union lines, and the first bluffs oi
Walnut Hills. Fires everywhere but
no troops! A soldier here and. there
piling on brush and half dozen army
wagons scraping together the fag,
ends of regimental equipage, and that
was all. Squills didn't half like the
look of things.
In a corner of Mrs. Lakes plantation
Gen. Sherman sat ON camp-stool by
the edge of ditch, and with back
ground of trees. As Squills dismount-
ed Hammond said, You'll find the
general out there somewhere;" and
Squills found him with his head well
down in his hands and his elbows rest
ing on his knees. Gen. Sherman was
keeping up a good steady thinking. He
didn't know Squills half so well as he did
afterwards, and he looked as if he didn't
want to know anybody very much just
about that time.
"Well, what do you want?"
"Come for orders about the stores,
general"
"What stores ?"
Commissary."
"Get a detail of wagons"
"No wagons here, general"
All the spare mules and horses had
been engaged that day in hauling out
heavy seige guns to deceive the confed-
crates into the belief that he had come
there to stay, and the general looked
down into the little ditch for inspira-
ton.
"Shall I destroy them?"
"No p almost fercely. "No don't
burn them they will know that we are
leaving. Throw them into the bayou.
Find deep water, Squills, and be
quick"
Then the soul of Squills was stirred
within him, and he made his way back
to find deep water. In less than no
time Gen. Morgan's (of Ohio bodyguard
were detailed to pitch the stores into
the bayou, and Squills couldn't help
thinking that throwing thousands of dol
lars into a deep ditch was about the
deepest water, figuratively speaking, he
had ever padded in.
His faithful body-guard of clerks
pitched in too. Everybody pitched in,
and Squills looked on almost with tears
in his eyes.
"Hoid on, boys; I'll be condemned
if 1 don't try and save these stores"
Squills didn't know so much about
courts martial for disobedience of or
ders as he did afterwards.
"Take drink, boys, and go back to
your quarters this to Morgan's body
guard. "And boys, let's make for the
river this lest to his own fellows.
One clerk mounted one horse with
the cook pots, and Squills took another
clerk up behind him with the balance
of the mess outfit in coffee-sack. Per-
haps there was a stove-Squills don't
exactly remember; but he thinks there
was a wash-tub. There were fout
miles between them and the river, and
the horses were fresh. Every stride
they made the pots and pans ratified
until the horses wondered what the
deuce they had got outside. They had
never run away from the enemy before
and carried kitchen. Squills' passen-
ger, to make the old thing work prop
erly, hung over on one side so as to
balance the coffee-sack, and Squills had
an elegant time of it, pulling at the
horse with one hand while he
held on to the faithful clerk with the
other.
The faster the horse ran, the louder
the Internal kettles and pots ratified
about the fanks, and it was Just as
good as a circus to anybody looking on;
but Squills was every now aud then
looking a deal good more off than on, and
besides this, he was busy and didn't
pine after circus, especially when he
was doing most of the heavy circus bu-
siness himself.
The Yazoo at last Black and blue
we're Squills and his clerk, and sweat
ng as bad as the horses who had been
running away about half this time.
On board the Continental, SQuills
,ound Gems. Steele and Blair and he
old to them his sorrows about the pork
md things.
$50 back, Squills," said Steele, in
MS thin, cracked treble tones" Go |
back, Capt. Squills, and save that pork
tuu 1tthS HALL "a 0Ao koCNCu1y y-oIA OuAo |
With you."
$50 back, Squills, " cried Blair pull
ng his moustache longer by half an
nch or So" Go back and take in that |
lard-tack out of the wet. If you get to |
Libby, will write to Mrs. Squills."
Squills almost dropped two tears at |
his evidence of friendship and then he |
.ook little weak, cold tea out of the
,snteens, and then he started down the
gangplank to find half the 10th Ohio |
Ill ready, but not at all willing.
The first thing Squills did when he
reached the stores was to break in the |
lead of barrel Commissary Squills |
1on't know whether the 10th Ohio drank
more whisky or slung more tack and
pork at all events, the boys worked
we'll, and about 2 o'clock in the morn