The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-07-08

1t was a rule we soldiers learned to recog-
nize, that if you camped down at night with
strict in functions to be ready to march on
at daybreak, with advice from your officers
that you'd better not waste any time in get
ting up comfortable shelter b ecause this was
the most temporary kind of halt, then for
a certainty, if you followed this advice you
were going to be kept right in that bivouac
long enough to repent not going to work at
getting comfortably housed. So after some
experience, we never took any stock in as
surances of brief stay; we went right to
work at house building on the assumption
that we should stay amonth; if we marched
next day no great harm was done. but if we
stayed week we were we'll paid for our
trouble.
This was our state of mind when we halted
back of Falmouth, opposite Fredericksburg,
at point on the railroad which thencefor-
ward, possibly to this day, be- came known
as "Stoneman's Switch" We halted at night,
and bivouacked in thick pine woods, which
extended for miles around. Before we left
that spot for the last time that forest had
disappeared; every tree had been cut, first
wastefully at shoulder height from the
ground, then down to a decent stump, and
then this stump was cut to the very quick.
Finally we had no wood at all.
Being, as l said, aware of the long dura-
ton of supposed temporary stays in military
life, this house of ours c'shanty" was the
correct name in camp language was
promptly begun. In our regiment they
were not SO strenuous for uniformity of
architecture as in some commands, and
allowed scope for individuality; as long as
the line of front doors was pretty straight
down the company streets, we could build
our shanties of size and style to suit our
tastes. Certainly, Eugene and l had about
the worst looking one of the settlement.
1t was, first cellar dug the full size of
the ground plan, about two feet deep Next
came a wall OF S. lit pine logs resting on
the ground and ned up by stakes, carrying
up the cellar wall to a height of five feet in
ALL Now, the roof was of canvas, made of
severa of the little shelter tents fastened
together and stretched over ridge pole,
which was supported by two stout upr gifts
in front and rear. The front, or door, was
also of canvas until we got our chimney
built, later on. Our next step was to caulz
our wall with mud Glorious Virginia mud
The one product of which there was always
enough. Plastic as butter but tough as
spruce gum when dried; for architectural
purposes, admirable; for pedestrian uses,
vile. We pIastered our wall pretty tightly
with this natural stucco, and banked up the
lower edge. We ditched around our house,
and conducted the waters into the COM
pany gutter Our bed, which COM
prised all our furniture, being also
chair, sofa and table, was our
next care. 1t was spring bed.
We split long, straight pine saplings and
laid them crosswise of the shanty on Np-
ports which held them about level with the
surface of the ground. The bed was about
three feet wide. Eugene and were both
slender. When sitting on the edge of the
bed our feet rested against the front wall of
our mansion. Here we talked; here we
smoked; here we read; in pleasant weather,
with our front canvas fastened back, we
conversed with our neighbors, discussing
every So sect under heaven, and here we
sat, Eugene and l, by our own Preside after
the chimney was built
Our chimney was a picturesque structure
Of sods The mortar which held together
these substitutes fol>brick was the aforesaid
mud. An open fireplace faced the right
hand man Of the two inmates who sat on
the bed, and that man did the cooking from
that position. Our chimney was a large
one, covering more than half the front of
the house and forming our front wall, vice