Omaha daily bee., 1883-05-11
MILITARY
How q Confederate Utilized Crlpp!es
and Damaged Weapons.

ant iEhNcltTs
II never will forgive the confeder.
ate government" said Col. Wartick,
when aeked to relate q war reminis-
cence. II started out with q ripe de-
termination of doing everything in my
power for the cause, but men who had
more authority than 1 had pulled
ss"in1t n,o,nnd consequently l stepped
sside. They even went 30 far as to
court martial me. Now, II there is
anything in military life that takes q
mans appetite 1t is to he court mar.
tailed. 1t is pretty bad in civil life to
be tried before q Justice Of the peace,
but that isn't anything to compare
with a court martial, and especially
when he knows full we'll that he
has done nothing to merit such severe
handling"
"Why were your court martialed7"
asked n of the company.
"For the simple discharge Of my
duty. Just about the time 1t be-
hooved the oonfederacy 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,
I went to work and discharged the
duty In accordance with my oonstruc.
tion Of the order. At one place We
seized . large number of double
barrel shot.guns. In examining them
We found many that were damaged 30
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. In this
community there were q great many
saw-mills and family feuds, and Jon.
sequently there were Q great many
o%ne.legged men. One day I Issued
order that all the one.legged men to
be found within a radius of twenty.
five miles should be brought into
camp. The order was strictly obeyed,
and within two weeks we had seventy.
five crlpples. Forming them in line
one day, l ordered the disabled shot
guns to be brought out. When I took
up q gun whose right barrel was use.
less, l would give 1t to a man who had
lost the use of kis right leg, and so on
until the seventy five men we're armed.
This was strictly appropriate, for we
had no other use for the crippled guns,
and the country certainly had no
other use for the crippled men. l
took great pride In this crippled
company. l wanted 1t to make
a name-wanted each man to feel
proud of himself. They elected
as captain a tall fellow who lost hi,
left leg while rafting logs. We pre-.
sented him, attended by disabled
ceremony, with q broken sword and
double barreled pistol with one ham,
mer gone. 1t would have tickled you
to death to have seen them on dress
parade, and their quick time would
have made Napoleon pull off his Int
and grin. Well, pretty soon l had oc.
cason to use them. The enemy came
upon me Unexpectedly, and In the
hurry Incident upon such OCCASIONS
placed the one.legged company In the
warmest part of the field. The battle
lasted several hours and was a draw
fight. My one-lgged company suffered
greatly. The captains peg was shat
tered by a ball and during the fight he
sent an orderly into the woods to
make him another leg. Other mem.
beers of the country were similarly
served; and, sir, the amount of splint-
ers on the battle-ground was simply
astonishing. The enemy had fired
low, and three out of six wooden legs
' were disabled. Before complete re-