The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1886-06-23
A WAR INCIDENT.
A Rich Story of Adventure-The New Moor
and the Seven Stars, or the Bitter Bit.
ATLANTA constitutional

Atlanta constitutional
In the spring OF 1863 the regiment to which
1 belonged-to-wit.,t the Fifteenth Mississippi
Infantry, was ordered from Port Hudson,
La, to Tulahoma, Tenn. as was understood.
We went as far as Montgomery, Ala, and for
some cause unknown TO the writer were or
dered back to Mississippi.
But what / wish to tell you occurred on
the way from Port Hudson TO Montgomery.
We had not been paid OH in good long
while, and as a consequence, were all out OF
money. AS usual, we were extremely anx-
ious to get hold of anything to eat that was
more palatable than corn bread and blue
bull beef. If we did this we hal to buy it.
and, as | said, money was scarce. We were
in Jackson, Miss. / was emphatically hun
cry for something extra and set about bor-
rowing small sum with which to purchase
it. Our good Major Terry lent me 81 out OF
S. bill. Now, you must remember that
Major Terry had only So. He let me have
81, with the full understanding that So in
char ge was to be returned to him: so you
will see that had no control of s. of the
money. After got the money set about
investing it. / went to little shop on the
right hand side of the street that led from
the Confederate House, by the Governors
mansion, to the Capitol. The little shop
was just next to the Confederate House, and
was kept by an Irish woman, the wife of a
railroad man. as then understood.
Now let me, in few lines, describe an
average Confederate stores stock at that
time. 1t generally consisted of dIlapidated
wells, currycombs, ribbons-faded and an.
cient-sleighs, saws, artificial fowers-tan-
gled, twisted and old-calico, at several dol
lars per yard, boiled eggs. pies, breeches at
fabulous prices, and to cut the description
short, a Confederate stock consisted of con-
glomerated mass of misftted and iil-assorted
heterogeneousness. Such were the contents
of the shop to which 1 repaired, and it was
as good as the average-the very best stocks
generally had in addition to the above, para
soils and fish-hooks.
The question was, how should | spend my
but / wanted something Ito chaw," as we
used to classically express it. l knew the
women sold hard-boiled eggs, and knew
they were 81 per dozen. l thought dozen
eggs would Ego further" than g worth of
anything else, and decided to get them,
but while negotiating for the eggs,
saw very fine half-moon pie put into the
stove. WANTED it, too, but the s. wouldn't
get the eggs and the pie also. So l resolved
to lift mot steal the pie while the
woman went into a little back room
for the eggs, which she kept already boiled.
The strategy that put into practice was to
call upon the woman, hurriedly, for the
eggs just at the moment when the pie was
not quite ready TO take from the stove and
yet SO nearly done that it would Just be ready
for lifting while she was counting out my
eggs. Now, this was nice calculation, and
no one but regular rebel Infantryman with
just two borrowed dollars to go upon could
have made it. So, just in the nick of time,
/ said: Madam. get me a dozen eggs Just
as quick as you can. I'm in a big hurry"
Just as | expected, she glanced at the pie
| (the stove door was open-maybe it had no
door, it looked too pale-not quite brown
enough. | suppose she calculated that it
would be just about right to take up by the
| time she got the dozen eggs.
We were in kind of middle room. As
soon as her back was well turned l lifted the
| pie. Jerusalem, how hot it wasl l danced
| it around on the tips of the fingers of my
| right hand while / unbuttoned the bosom of
my overshirt, so that l might poke the pie
| into my bosom between my overshirt and
undershirt. worked fast, for l heard the
| woman coming with the eggs; in fact, so great
was my hurry that thrust the red-hot pie,
not between the two shirts, but under both
| of them, right next to the naked skin-slap
| up. against the hide "Gewhilikensl The
whoopee! 90 co. 90! oh hoo oop-eel hell !"
were something like the expressions that
| wished to give voice to-. No use a-talkin',
| fellow citizens, that pie hurt me, and as the
woman had returned, couldn't jerk it out
of my bosom, nor could l yell, but L
had to grin and endure it," while she
1--WE had gone to the front ROOM
was giving me my eggs and Major
and to wait for the So. AS she counted out
| the eggs and change leaned over to the left,
so that the hot pie could fall from my de-
| voted side. To make matters worse, by some
means or other squeezed several wads of
| hot dried apples out of that pie, and every
| wad put in its work, and the devil of it was
the woman was long time in giving me my
| change. As soon as 1 got out of the house
| clawed that pie out of my bosom with a kind
| of udeIscored emphasis. / had got beat at
my own game. / could not keep the thing
to myself l told the boys of my regiment,
| and showed them where / was branded with
| half moon and seven stars-the wads of
hot apples had fixed the stars-allow ME to
say they were fixed stars For weeks after
ward the boys would now and then bawl
out Hello, Judgel When Will the moon
changer
Now, the reader must not think that was
| thief and that stole that pie. What the
| lawyers call 1.-The felonious intent" didn't
enter into the taking of that pie. / didn't
feel mean while taking it. | only felt like
| owning the pie, and gotit and-well, it got
| me- too, and felt mean afterward.
| After the war was over and hard-boiled
| eggs had ceased to be a staple commodity,
| and half-moon pies and Confederate over
shirts had been elegated-numbered among
the things that were-I. in company with
/ one of my brothers. was in Jackson. / told
him this tale, and requested him to help me
hunt up the woman shop-keeper. We found
| her in much better and nicer quarters. She
/ was proprietress of West Jackson bakery
1 told her the foregoing tale. She enjoyed its
recital and exclaimed when | had finished
| it: "Oh, and knew you had the pie, jist
and that is the reason / was so long maxim
the change. honey but don't care at all, at
all. 1 wish you had got all my stuff, We
| Southern b'ys, for in a few wakes the
Yankees robbed me of all the goods had
Now be stated, yez, and yez brother, and ate
of whatever yez wants, at my expense, for it
is as free as wather;;" and we took our seats
at nice table in a clean room, and partook
| of a magnificent dinner, to which We were
truly welcome and for which the good
| woman would receive no remuneration.
| The American Rihla societr nrinted AZ /.