Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1885-02-12
WAR "REMINISCENCES.

>'~&S 1850
Writton for the NORTHERN TRBUNE
Was soldier life ia the late war all
hardship aud suffsring?-far from it
it had its dark side and sometimes the
bright side was not only bright, but fair
ly blazsd with the sunlight Of r0llicking
sport. why, the men that could not
crack joke or enjoy . good laugh were
like the "good boys" mostly died young.
Jokes, tricks, and sells were the sondi-
msnts that gave relish to soldiers "a.
tions and soldier who digsssed his
"hxrd tack" and "sowbelly" without any
fan soon disappeared, either mustered
out or detailed on some special duty as
N. G. for soldier, or was laid away with
military honors while yet in his early
youth--as q soldier.
In '62 after the evacuation Of Corinth.
Miss, in May, we were located at differ
ent points along the G. s. M, R. R., we
reached Memphis, Tenn, the 22d of July
and Immediately commenced building
Fort Pickering. The left or upper end
OF the fort was we'll up in the city. ex-
tending south or down the River about
mile, tho angles and bastiOns making
over one and half miles Of solid earth
work some Of it very heavy. Within five
or six weeks about six Thousand contra
bands or slaves came through the "lines"
Of all ages, colOrs and conditions, about
fifteen hundred Of them able bodied
"bucks" were put to work on the fortifi-
cation. One of cur mess" was detailed
to work Atty of thsm-well we wanted a
cook and bill" was instructed or re-
questsd to pick out coed one from his
gang" We thoughtsBill had Imade q
good selection, he brought over nice
clean looking fellow about thirty years
old, near six feet in his new government
shoes, whose name was Eli and who by
the way said he was Evangelist" Well
Eli got along very we'll for about a month
he boiled out meat and made our coffee
very we'll and nights and Sundays he
was laboring "wid dozs people jus freed
frem do house of bondage" bat he be-
came little careless aad whom asked
why the coffee was not made on time
hs had had such "glewious season" or
had "ges stopped for One minute to
seOurss wild do ladiss-declare gracious
massa forgot myself sure"
We had messpan Of bacon grease saw
Cd up to fry our bread in and one day
we noticed his finger marks in it where
he had taken out a handful to grease
his "hair" as he insisted upon calling
the bundle OF wool that adorned his era.
mum. 1t did not take long to arrange
for his trial and punishment. tom
goes up to bastion Ne. 2 where were al
ready placed one inch and two six incl
columb iadS and got cartridge as biz
rs bundle of wool. Eli had pup
tent" all to himself, he had pat som
boards down and we had given him
good supply Of blankets, well We arrest
cd him and took him to the captain
tent where he was kept until we ha
"things nxsd." We took up the boards i
his tent, dug hole in the ground an
put in about five pounds Of powder an
laid a train" out under the side Of tn
tent. Then Eli was sent to his quar-
tiers" while the captain should sets
mine whatIshould be done with his cas-
He Of course went direct to his "litt
bed" We loaded = lot Of muskets Al
took position, then such such pand
monium. we yelled the Rsbs are comm
in fact yelled everything, fred the "trai
and fred off the musksts. well. If yo
never saw a tablsaux with contrabar
cook for center piece your imagiRatio
cannot picture the scene, off went Il
mine and up went boards. b ankets, tel
camp kettles. eolored eooki and all In
the air. OF course we did not mean
hurt him but the smell Of singed wo
showed that something besides powd
had been burned, but say, did you sv
see q wild Artisan, i can American cit
zen Of African descent, whose nervO1
system had just received slight ruff
well, 1 don't wish to exaggerats. but
think you could have hung an army 81
die and camp kettle on each one
that darkies eyes.
OLD SOLDIER.