Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-10-22

I'LL 1hAGNtAADM0s hNQ Lee Mitc DfE,1AlR
back the enemy. The battle days
q the Wilderness had just passed,
and the Federals We're swinging
around the circle, looking for weak
spot The Confederates were NOV
ing on an inner line, closing up the
gap. On our side great wagon trains
heavy artillery, drOves Of beeves
and munitions Of war were moving
to the left. From the front new
regiments were advancing to the
battle-ground fresh horses. cavort-
ing in the fields of Virginia clover
were smelling the battle from affair.
On every side We're the movements
of a great aTfny-cavalry artillery,
infantry, endless trains of wagons,
tremendous parks Of guns, hospital
tents, with the yellow flag, ambu-
lances carrying the wounded to the
rear. The base was the White
House.
There stood the two lone CHM
neys of the Washington mansion,
that had been burned down. There
was left the spring-hOuse of stone,
and from tfn bubbling fountain SOL
dIers, teamsters, and stragg1ers were
filling their csinteens. The river
was TANNED with its fleet of ships
of all kinds. There was Il fleet Of
the Sanitary Commission, there
were the hospitals, there a thousand
tents; reporters from all the North
ern journals; excitement on every
side, apparent confusion everywhere
every man intent, however on his
duty, and every one with something
TO do. There was the great COM
missary fleet, bringing stores pro-
vision and ammunition, moving
out in q column, protected by cav
airy; wagon trains passing ON to
the front whence came the noise of
reverberating cannon.
This beautiful morning / found
myself an unnoticed unit in this
multitude, mounted on comfor-
table horse, with canteen. and can
vass-bag well filIed-brandy in the
flask and hard tack in the bag-fur-
nished by the Reverend John An
derson, once a clergyman at Stock
ton, and now member of congress,
then captain Of one OF the Sanitary
Commissions well provided steam
ers. He knew / would give my
brandy to Il wounded soldier, il /
found one. And | did. For on the
third day thereafter, / found, walk
ing from out the hell of conflict, a
soldier from Brady Smiths brigade
his arm fairly torn from his shoul-
der by a shell.
1 gave him a drink, and clinging
with his unwounded hand to the
pOmmel of the saddle, turned him
over TO the operating surgeon, saw
him tossed upon the table, sniff of
chlOrofOrm put to his nose and in a
moment the cleaning knife had
done its work, and one-armed sol
dier was placed in q comfortable
ambulance and driven TO the rear,
with my brandy flask. l went to
the front i'm company with regi-
ment from Maine-great handsome
Americans from the pine North
brOad-shouldered thin-faced Yankee
stalwarts, enlisted for no bounty,
going out to give their service, and
lives if necessary, in defence of their
native land. j am writing this to
tell a love story-an incident of
those heroic days-and so / hasten
on with my tale. Some ten miles
on my way came to a Virginia
farm. From field there came a
twO-year-old colt, thoroughbred,
too young for the saddle. He joined
the cavcalade, and would have gone
forward to the battle-ground had
not the colonel ordered some of his
men to drive him back and close
the gate. This was done, and i tell
you the story to illustrate the kind
ly feeling of the Northern soldiers.
/ reached the farmhouse, a nice,
spacious, Old-fashioned Virginia
mansion, with a broad porch, stand
ing in a grove of trees. Cherries
were ripe, the orchard being full of
the red, ripe fruit, and it was guard
ed by Yankee soldiers from Yankee
spOliatiOn. Had / been the colonel
/ would have saved the colt, but /
would have given the boys all the
cherries in Virginia. Behind the
house a Well-an Old-fashiOned well,
with sweep and irOn-bound bucket
and here the soldiers were drink
ing from gourds and filling their
eanteens, falling out of line as it
went marching by. Soldiers were
not permitted to enter the house. l
was not a soldier, and entered. /
sat myself, unlimited, upon the
porch. / was asked to enter the
house by one of the sweetest of Vir.
ginia girls. AS she saw was not a
soldier, think she wanted some
body to whom she could vent her
rebel indignation against LincOln's
Yankee hirelings. She was gen.
uine rebel, saucy and splendid, /
have no doubt genuinely sorry that
she could not go out to fight the
barbarian North-men, to come
home as her brother had-whOm L
saw-minus a leg and with his
right arm in aslingmutilated for life.
Taken into the drawing room, with
the mother and daughter and rebel
soldier, / spent an hour in CONVEX
satiOn over the war, its causes and
its consequences. As Californian,
l was treated as a neutral. The
rebel soldier was willing to admit
the gallantry of the Northern sol
diers. He admitted also their gem
erosity. 1t was Northern man
who had found him on the skirmish
line, wounded and bleeding to
death, and carrying him out from
the carnival of strife and hid HIM in
"A clump of bushes, given him water,
bound up his wound, and after
nightfall had stolen to his hiding
place and carried him into the rebel
lines, at the peril of his own safety.
The MOTHERHOOD, pious, loving
sOul-loOked upon her handsome,
pale-faced, and wounded boy and
dropped a tear as again he told the
story of his rescue, but away down
in her unforgiving heart was hatred
of the invader; hatred of the men
who had saved her sorrel colt, for
on the sire of this colt her husband
was away with GUSTS Lee, in the
Virginia Black Horse Cavalry, fight
ing for her loved South. But the
girl! how her black ewes flashed in
rebel indignation how she tossed
her head in audacious defiance of
the Yankees. Sweet seventeen is
brave. In answer to my badinage.
that when the cruel war was ended
all the Northern officers would re-
turn to Virginia and marry the
girls, she vowed and declared with
all the resolutenesS and confidence
that is begOtten of youth, beauty
and patriotism, that indeed she, for
one, would not marry the best man
that ever was born North of the
Potomac. Filled with cherries and
admiration of the saucy rebel beauty
l mounted and overlook my COM