The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1881-02-11

thoroughfares, and have, on their re-
| turn, Il more exciting steamboat race.
Escaping from Ship Island.
Does it smack of egotisn, or will il
be regarded as a kind of sshow OFF, to
tell Il tale of our late war: Will it
seem stale to speak of an incident,
when there are perhaps thousands be-
longing to the camp life of nearly
every Southern soldier: We hope not,
since we know that to the heroes
who participated in the late war,
nothing is more interesting than some
remindcr-some thought impulse that
will wake into thrilling vivacity the
"reminiscences of our long and terrible
struggle.
1t was upon an evening of a glorious
March day in the year 1865 when the
cold, dark season Of winter was oscil-
tating between the genial setherial
mildncss' of spring that we lay an en-
campment of prisoners upon the bar
rem sandy beach of Ship Island. The
huge fort that stands upon tho ex-
| SASaAAS "toICIh SAu VI liz OOlc
upon us with its huge columbiads,
while just in front the renowned ship
of war Vincenncs stood ready to open
upon us a hundred guns in case necess-
ity demanded. Just in our rear and
bordering our encampment, the waters
of the tsMeXic gulf broke in sullen
monotone, to hush themselves for
ever upon the shore, while far-stretch-
ing to the east, for five or six miles
lay this narrow strip of land upon
which we were confined. All around,
save next the beach, in rear of us, the
lazy pacing sentinel strobe in all the
dignity and 'stop-rair' arrogance of
his African glory, andere the deadline
was trenched upon would seize the
opportunity to threaten and curse the
! ID rebel, or cXclaim Hwhat you dom
dar: better get back in dat tent''
Without comment upon Encourages,
both by word and action, made by
the sable crew that garrisoned Ship
Island, (for language would fail in as
sisting us to say what we might, es-
pecially if we were unmindful of the
;esthetical character of our ,7ernacular),
we pass on. The hour of p, m. had
arrived when the drum sounded the
signal to form squads to go after wood,
and the command "fall in" fell with
accustomed force upon our ears. We
say force, from the fact that if this or
der was not promptly obcycI Il kind
Of "vis Il tergo" was applied with a
bayonet, and an impclling act was in
stitutcd to an observance of a virtue of
which the impcllcr was us ignorant rs
the mule, to which his nature is most
closely allied. Soon thereafter, we
were marching upon our tramp to the
woodland, about four miles distant.
On the march, after passing The out
posts, we were allowed to talk to each
other, and were not compelled to OBJ
serve that enforced silence which is
usually maintained when marching
son PARADE or to the martial notes of
nusic. The better expression would
be the popular 'sgo-as- you-rlease" of
now -a-day Professionalism, save ours
was ssu To ntIi0irc."
something over an hour brought us
to the woods, where We were halted to
await the order "brcall ranks,' upon
which general dispersion took place
to get each of It's two sticks of wood
which we were obliged to carry back
to camps. No sooner had we halted
! than we deserted Il life boat driven
ashore perhaps from some shipwrCck-
cd vessel far away in mid-occan.
"btli:" said my comradc on my left,
'lt that boat stays there tonight | am
gong to leave these diggins.' No
sooner had these words cscapcd his
lips than another on his left whisper
ed, 500, | am with you" All. oh +!
said we. in alludinS to the danger of