The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-12-08
A CONFEDERATE NEwSBoY.


 ss,npaign to the private who fought it 5a,. each and all have told story of the ate civil war. but as yet have neither read nor heard narrative of the siuggle rom the Eewsboy on either side. The aewsboy of the seders! army ne.e. sa~, pa, the youthful peddler of papers. pea nuts and tobacco among the tarered eeions ot Lee l knew well. for, in the anguage of distinguished southerner. :: was my proud privilege to serve the i.ost Cause as a small but honorable member of this festive and fearless band. which daily trudged along the covered ways" or ducked their heads at the sound ai the whizzing bullet at the front" The newsboy of the confederate army VAS always ragged, of,entimes reckless. and forever hungry. He made plenty of money and was always iiush," for he read;ly obtained dollar piece for his papers, bu, when |; is known that biscuits xere also a dollar apiece, it may be quickly understood why the newsboy. .hough gay and light-hearted. was still a snild of sorrow and acquainted with griet. He stood on the crimson edge of battle with the grand old soldiers of Longstreet and Hill trading tobacco for hard ;ack or giving peanuts for salt meat. The newsboy was Tn active service every day. Then why can; he tell story of he war
 General Grant having determined to feel for General Lee on the south side of he lanes river set about his task early T May, is6l. He told General Butler that the place he was after was Rich ,I tE ,L Ia,a 1a,, taA .t ne Massachusetts democracy should pack up his traps and move up the James river. On ihe ,'h of May General Butler nut his infantry then at Yorktown and Gloucester on transports and by the morning of the n had landed al Der flQda Hundreds. d neck ef land al the soin, where the noble James receives the eiuddy waters of he Appomat;ox. AnN- ous To start the ball General Bu,ler's 5oys walked about five miles further on, and made then selves at home in a line of amendments across narrow point of and stretching from the shores of the ippomattox river To the banks of the anes. Butler WAS now within few niles of this city, with the Richmond and ae,ersburg railroad just in front; dis,ar. aooa, two miles. \ brigade was sent ou, y General Butlerto destroy the railroad, oci unexpectedly Y come across a few >oa;h Carolina troops. who had been aa.:ed a, that point Port Walthall lunc- .oa. by order of General Pickett, while their way ,o Lee $ forces on the north ,.de of the lames. Here a skirmish took pace. and this was one of the first ewakenings ,o realization that sure enough war was right at the door of their aomes the people of Petersburg eNpe- renced Old men for that was about the or!y class. excepting invalids, who were a: home) gre. excited and went about ;he streets saying Tn a wild soit of way,
 Butler IS coming Butler is coming. he Yankees have got us this time sure. some even went so far as to say that the gunboat Pawnee was al ,ha, very mo- raent steaming up the Appomat,ox river. and in a few hours he. big guns would be dropping red-ho, shot down the ehim- neys and into the backwards of their dearly beloved homes. Now was the time to show the vandals tha, Iirglnians -ould strike hard blows for their altars and their tiresides. The ladies were loud n their denuncia,ions of the Yankee xretches, whom they were expecting every moment to walk nigh: in the par lor and smash the piano or punch hole through the old family portraits of their .lustrious ancestors. The b,h was an ex- .iting day. but, thanks to the brave sons ef the .Palmetto' . state. the aocursed aordes of Butler did not deseora,e the aallowed homes of Petersburg with their -gly presence on that day. They hurried tack from Port Walthall Junction 10 -rink their black coffee and res, them selves in the in,rcnehmen,s near Der nuda Hundreds When night came on he citizens felt easier, and bowed down n honor and adora;ion of Hagood's brigade, who had saved them from such dreadful fate but, alas there was to De no more quie, and peace for the in- habiiants of the |" Cockade City From ,ha, time on the days we're full of rumoFs and ihe nights were passed in dread. One day the old cry of the Pzwnee IS coming would bring ou, the fire depart ment. the Home Guard and the women and the children: he next day the news hat Kautz's cavalry was galloping in on the plank-road would cause a hasty hid ing of ,he family plate, the gold watches and the good things 10 eat. And thus ], went on day after day and night after nigh. kaut7 was active he was pug ,le to the people. Unlike the politicians ef the present day, not knowing any north, south, east or west, kautz seemed 10 be acquainted with them all. 4 farmer would come in from Wakefield, GAS, of Petersburg, and relate how kautz took all his pigs and chickens that morning, and then, after tearing up the Eo~EolL and p>ferS h,rvO r1iirozd hurr1Ai away without paying for them another would state how, in the afternoon of the same day, at his house, near Stony Greek. on the Petersburg and Weldon railroad, due south, Mir. Kautz kindly relieved him of several barrels of corn and his best horse, burning the bridge to light his route down the turnpike. The next morning Mir. Smith, living on the Notfo- way river, due west, would tell just how many thousand of the same cavalrymen