Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1881-12-22
'sONLY YANKEE SERGEANT"

"Only Yankee sergeant! But beneath
the course blue jacket, whose furnished
cheveron bespoke such humble rank. there
beat very true and noble heart, and hope
if "0ur Sergeant" (as he was always called
after the occurrence I am about to chroni-
icle) survived the perils and hardshlps of
the war, that these lines may by some good
chance fall under his eye, to prove to him
that the rebel girls he once defended away
down south in Dixie" are not lacking in
that gratitude which some one has happily
called the memory of the heart. If, on the
other hand, his name had been called and
he has answered "Adsum" to the great
final roll call, we know that the recording
angel has written him with "those of his
fellow men"
1t all happened in this wise: Towards
the close of the second year of the war our
little town might have been mistaken for
colony of AmaZons-not on account Of any
special show of metal or bravery made by
Us; simply on account of the overwhelming
preponderance of our sex. Within the
corporate limits of our town there were but
three representatives Of the heroic sex left
A superannuated druggist, crafty, crochety
and cross grained, towards whom we con-
Quoted ourselves with the greatest circum-
spection, as be was the possessor of the
only stock of drugs within eighty miles of
US. A blonde whiskered, mild hammered
Englishman, whose ostensible business
was speculation in cotton, but whose
| real occupation consisted in visiting from
house to house, to assure US all with clasped
hands and pallid cheeks, that he thought
it was awful, perfectly awful
you know, and he felt dreadful
about 1t, perfectly dreadful, you know. !"
| at" having reference to a sudden raid
which the enemy had made upon our town.
| capturing oil Of our males and carrying
them into captivity at Atom. The third
| was our minister, whose blind belief in the
| efficacy of prayer rendered him totally un-
available for any practical suggestion or as.
| sistance.
The exceeding helplessness of our situa-
| ton, the fact that we women had really no
protectors among US, and the unquenchable
conviction that women were not really
brought into this world simply to be petted
and cared for like so many sweetly dressed
| dolls, set MS to bordering over the necessity
for cultivating our independent faculties.
When we would all gather together Gas we
were certain to do) every evening on some
ones gallery, we would recall the spirit of
A76." What the women of the revolution
| did, why might not we do? We even went
further back, to the davs of Miles Standish,
when it was matter of presumably self
congratulation to woman every morning
when she found her scalp-lock entire. We
were liable at any moment to visitations
from the marine brigade" that pest of
southern water and southern homes.
| Without being quite clear as to what
practical use we would ever put the accom-
plishment to, we resolved to perfect our
selves in the use of the pistol We were all
as we'll supplied with pistols in those days
| as We were with pocket handkerchiefs (may-
be better). SO we selected a very pretty
grove, about half mile back of the town,
toward which every evening dozen or more
of US would wend our way, carrying our pis-
tolls resolutely pointed toward our feet, for
universal conviction prevailed among us
that pistols had the ability to load, cock and
fire themselves, without the aid Of any hui
man agency. Arrived at the grove we would
erect very large target, and by dint Of
standing pretty close to it, we would man.
age to put a good many balls into it. (Our
Englishmen would load our pistols for us
Def ore we started.) With such diligen ee
did we practice that by the end of two weeks
we felt confident that We could hit man if
We followed Gen. Pntnam's advice, to wait
oaeAi We DC" LILO WultcS VI tucir eyes.
provided they would kindly stand still.
We had gone out for one of these target
| practices on a lovely October afternoon.
The pyracantha hedging on either side the
lane through which our way lay, was ell
afame with fire-colored berries; the love.
vine lay like masses OF tangled yellow floss
on every bush; the very ditch sides were
glori6ed with the purple tufts OF the iron
| weed and the swinging crimson censers of
| the trumpet vines. But we had no eyes
| nor heart for the beauties Of nature, and
looked with rather sour condemnation
| upon one Of our number who frivolously
| persisted in loading herself down with
great branches of the golden rod and the
delicate little pink pea Of our wild
growth.
The sun was setting when we came in
sight of the town on our return, but it was
not tie sleeping hamlet we had left two
hours before. In dread array the black
smoke stacks of the marine brigade
topped up on our river front. The few
streets we breasted were alive with the
amphibious soldiery that belonged to it.
The sound of crashing glass and sphn-
terlng wood soon told us that the work Of
destruction had begun in the closed and
deserted stores, whose owners were then
prisoners and far awayi For ourselves we
had no personal fears, for we did not be-
lieve, nor had we occasion to believe dur
ing the whole course Of the war, that any
woman who conducted herself with proper
womanly dignity and reserve would re-