Daily Kennebec journal., 1880-10-21

FROM THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY OF OC-
ToBrR 1865.
Among the many brave men who have
taken part in this war, whose dying en-
hers are now being trodden out by a
poor white man, none. perhaps. have
done more service to the country. or won
less glory for themselves, than the poor
whites, who have acted rs scouts to the
| Union armies. The issue of battles. the
result of campaigns, and the possession of
wide districts of country, have often de.
pended on their sagacity, or been deter
mined bv the Information they have gath
cred; and Yet they have seldom been
heard of in the newspapers, aud may never
be read of in history.
Romantic. thrilling. and sometimes
l:nghable adventures have attended the
operations of the scouts of both sections;
but more difficulty and danger have un-
doubtedly been encountered by the parti-
sans of the North than of the South. OPP
Grating mostly within the circle of their
own acquaintance. the latter have USUALLY
been aided and harbored by the Southern
people, who, generally friendly to Seccs-
sion, have themselves often acted as spies,
and conveyed dispatches across districts
occupied by our armies. and inaccessible
to any but supposed loyal citizens
| The service rendered the South bv these
volunteer scouts has often been of the
most important character. One stormy
night, early in the war. u young woman
set out from garrisoned town to visit
sick uncle residing a short distance in the
country. The sick uncle, mounting his
horse at midnight, rode twenty miles in
the rain to Forests headquarters. The
result was. the important town OF MUIR
ireesboro' and promising Maior-Gencral
fell into the hands of the Conlederates;
and all because the said Maior-Gencral
permitted pretty woman to pass his
lines on "A mission of mercy
At another time, a rebel citizen. profess
ing disgust with Secession Tor having the
weakness to be on its last legs took the
oath of allegiance and assumed the Union
uniform. Informing himself fully of the
disposition of our forces along the Nash
vile railroad. he suddenly disappeared,
to reappear with Basil Duck and John
Morgan in a midnight raid on our slum-
bering outposts.
Again, a column on the march came
upon n wretched woman, with child in
her arms, seated by the dying embers OF
burning homestead burning. she said.
because her sole aud only friend. her
uncle these ladies seldom have any
nearer KIM stood up street fur the kentry.'
No American soldier ever refused a lift TO
a woman in distress. This woman was
soon lifted into an empty saddle by the
side OF staff officer who with many wise
winks. and knowing mods, was discussing
the intended route Of the expedition, with
brother simpletoH. A little further on
the woman suddenly remembered that an
, other uncle. who did not stand up quite so
'stret fur the kentry.' and, consequently,
still had house standing up for him,
lived plump up thet AR hill ter the
right o the highroad.' She was set down
and the column moved on, Streight's
well planned expedition miscarried But
| no one wasted Il thought on the forlorn
woman and the sallow baby whose skinny
faces were SO long within earshot of the
wooden-headed staff officer
Means quite as ingenious and quite as
curious were often adopted to conceal dis
patches. when the messenger was In
danger of capture by an enemy. A boot
with a hollow heel, a fragment OF corn
pone too stale to tempt starving man, q
strip of adhesive plaster over fostering
wound. or a ball cf cottonwood stuffed
into the ear to keep out the west wind,
| ofreD hid a message whose discovery
would cost lie. and perhaps endanger
All army. The writer has himself seen the
hollow halfeagle which bore 10 Burnside's
beleaguered force the welcome tidipps
that in thirty hours Sherman would re-
lieve Knoxville.
The pcrls which even the .natiye'
scout encountered can be estimated only
by those familiar with the vigilance that
surrounds an army. The casual meeting
with an acquaintance, the slightest act in
consistent with his assumed character, or
the smallest incongruty between his
speech and that Of the district to which he
professed to belong. has sent many a
good man to the gallows. One Of the best
of Rosecran's scouts. native of East
Kentucky. lost his lite because he would
bounce (mount) his nag, pack (carry)
his gun, eat his bread dry So (without
butter), and guzzle his peck o. whiskey,
in the midst Of Bragg's camp, when no
such things were done there, nor in the
mountains of Alabama. whence he pro-
fessed to come. Acquainted only with a
narrow region, the poor fellow did not
know that every Southern district has its
own dialect, and that the travelled ear OF a
close observer can detect the slightest de-
Walton from its customary phrases. But
he was not alone in this ignorance. Al.
most every Northern writer who has
undertaken to describe Southern life has
fallen into the same error. Even Ohm
stead. who has caught the idioms wonder
fully, confounds the dialects OF different
regions, and makes Northern Georgian
right smart when he had been only
powerful stupid all his life.
The professional scout generally was
native Of the South.-some illiterate anG
simple-minded, but brave and self-deyotec
poor white man. who, if he had worr
shOulder-straps, a;1d been able to write in
teresting dispatches, might now be knowr
as a hero halt the world over. Some o
these men, had they been born at tn,
North, where free schools are open to all
would have led armies, and left name /.
live after them. But they were born q
the South, had their minds cramped an,