Morning journal and courier., 1883-05-12
Military Ingenuity.
A COnfederats's Effort to Utilize Lam Men and Crippled Guns.
 From the Arkansas TrayeIer1

Confederate's Enort to Utilize Lame
 Men and Crippled Guns.
 From the Arkansas TraveIer.J
 q never will forgive the Confederate gov ernment," said Colonel Wartick, when asked to relate war reminiscence. 'I started out with ripe determination of doing every thing in my power for the cause, but men who had more authority than I had pulled against me, and consequently I stepped aside. They even went so far as to court martial me. Now, if there is anything in military life that takes mans appetite it is to be court-martialed. It's pretty bad in civil life to be tried before a justice of the peace, but that isn't anything to compare with court-martial, and especially when he knows full well that he has done nothing to merit such severe handling"
 ''Why were you court-martialed, Colonel2' asked one of the company.
 ''For the simple discharge of my duty. Just about the time it behooved the Confede- racy to make every edge cut that could, I was sent into community to press guns and to draft and arm every available man. We'll, went to work and discharged my duty in accordance with my construction of the or der. At one place we seized large number of double-barrel shotguns In examining them we found many that were damaged so greatly that only one barrel could be used. told my men not to throw them aside, but to keep them, that they would come in han dy. In this community there were a great many sawmills and family feuds, and con- sequently there were great many one-legged men. One day issued an order that all the one-legged men to be found within radius of twenty-five miles should be brought into camp. The order was strictly obeyed, and within two weeks we had seventy-five crip- ples. Forming them in line one day, I ordered the disabled shotguns to be brought out. When I took up 8 gun whose right barrel was useless, I would give it to man who had lost the of his right leg, and so on until the seventy-five men were 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. I took great pride in this crippled company. I wanted it to make name wanted each ,man to feel proud of himself. They elected a captain, tall fel- low who lost his left leg while rafting logs. We presented him, attended by disabled cer- emony, with 8 broken sword and double-bar- reled pistol, with onef hammer gone. It would have tickled you to death to have seen them on dress parade, and their quick-time would have made Napoleon pull of his hat and grin. We'll, pretty soon I had occasion to use them. The enemy came upon me un- expectedly, and in the hurry iDc cident upon such occasions, I placed the one-legged com pany in the warmest part of the field. The battle lasted several hours and was draw fight My one-legged company suffered greatly. The captains peg was shattered by a ball, and during the fight he sent order Iy into the woods to make him another leg. Other members of the company were simi- larly served, and, sir, the amount of splin- ters on the battle ground simply aston ishing. The enemy had fired low, and three out of six wooden legs were disabled. Be- fore complete repairs could be made, my general came along, and not being able to understand why so much kindling- wood should be scattered over battlefield, asked the reason. I explained, expecting him to compliment me on my ingenuity, but the un- appreciatiYe fellow had me court msrtialed. I left the service and during the remaining time of the war aided the cause by captur- ing mules from the Union men and burning cotton that might have fallen in possession of the enemy"