Omaha daily bee., 1883-05-30


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How a Confederate Utlli 2 ed Cripples
and damaged Weapons.
Artansaw Traveller.
81 shall never forgive the oonfsder-
ate government" said Colonel War
tick, when asked to relate o war rem.
~iniscence. vi started out with q ripe
determination of doing everything in
my power for the cause, but men who
had more authority than l pulled
against me, aud consequently l
stepped aside. They even went so far
as to court martial me. Now, II there
Is anything In military life that takes
a mans appetite 1t Is to be court mar
tailed. II Is pretty bad In civil life
to be tried before q justice Of the
peace, but that isn't auy thing to COM
pare with q court martial, and espe-
cially when no knows full well that
he has done nothing to merit such
severe handling"
"Why we're you court martialled,
colonel!" asked one of the company.
"For the simple discharge Of my
duty. Just about the time 1t be-
hooved the Confederscy to make
every edge cut that could, I was sent
into q community to press guns, and
to draft and arm every available man.
Well, l went to work and discharged
the duty In accordance with my con-
struction of the order. A. one place
we seized q large number Of double
bsrreled s%hot.guns. In exsmin-
ing them We found many that
were damaged SO greatly that
only one barrel could be
used. I told my men not to throw
them aside, but to keep them; that
they would come In handy III this
community there were q great many
saw mills and family feuds, and con-
sequently there were q great many
one-legged men. One day I issued an
order that oil the one legged men to
be found within q radius Of twenty.
five miles should be brought into
camp. The order was strictly, obeyed,
and within two weeks we had
seventy.five cripples. Forming
them In line one day, I ordered
the disbled shotgunsto be brought out.
When I took up q gun whose right
barrel was useless, I would give It to
q man who had lost the use of hia
right leg, and 80 on until the seventy.
FIVE men were armed. This wal
strictly appropriate, for we had nc
other use for the crippled guns, and
the country certainly had no other use
for the crippled men I took grea,
pride In this crippled company
wanted 1t to make a name; wanted
each man to feel proud of himself.
They elected as captain q tall fellow
who lost his left leg while rafting logs,
VIZ presented him, attended BY
disabled ceremony, with a broker
sword and a double-barreled pistol
with one hammer gone. 1t would have
tickled you to death to have seer then
on dress parade, and their quiokness
would have made Napoleon pull of
his hat and grin. Well, pretty soon
had occasion to use them. The
enemy came upon me Unexpectedly
and in the hurry incident upon such
OCCASIONS l placed the one-legged com
p,ny In the warmest part of the field
The battle lasted several hour
and Was o draw fight. My one
legged company suffered greatly. Th,
captains peg was shattered by q ball
and during the fight he sent an or
derby Into the woods to make hin
another log. Other members of tn,
company were similarly served, and
sir, the amount of splinters on tn,
battle-ground was simply astonishing
Tho enemy bad fired low, AMI thre'
out of six wooden legs were disabled
Before complete repairs could be made
my general came along, and, not bein,
able to understand why SO muol
kindling wood should be .c,ttere'
over a battlefield, asked the reason
explained, expecting him to compli
mont me Oh my ingenuity, but tn
unsppYeciative fellow had me court
martislsd. I left the service, an,
during the remaining time Of the va
I aided tho oaoue by capturing mule
from the Union mon aud buruini
cotton that might have fallen Int
possession OF the enemy.