Morning journal and courier., 1886-11-27
Soldiers SuperstitiOns.
 TEropa tho nAtrOit Frae prass


 As to whether the Confederate soldier was
 any more superstitious than the Federal
 neither admit nor deny, but think the same
 superstitions in regard to battles probably
 prevailed to an equal extent ou both sides.
 We may laugh at them now, but we once ac-
 cepted and pinned our faith to them.
 The first instance to come under my obser-
 vation was at Gaines Mill. was then serv-
 ing with an Alabama regiment, and on the
 morning of the day which we were mak-
 ing our coffee at the early camp fire I heard
 a sort of groan from a comrade, and as I
 turned to look at him I noticed that he was
 staring into his coffee pot with something
 like terror, while his face was deathly pale.
 "What is its" I asked
 s'I shall be killed to day" he groaned out.
 "Fudge! We don't know that even sin
 gle musket will be fred"
 1T dreamed last night" he whispered, 'sthat I looked down upon sheet of water whose surface was covered with bubbles, and amidst them l saw my own dead face. shall be shot before night"
 I ridiculed the idea and brought up others to assist me, but the only reply to our rail- lery was 8 sad shake of the head. He was a believer in dreams and he certainly felt that his last day had come. In place of eating his breakfast he scribbled off letter to his mother and intrusted it to 8 comrade. In a | little time we got the order to march, and ] before noon my regiment was thrown for. ward to uncover 8 portion of the Federal | line. The first missile sent at us was solid | shot from & feld-piece and It struck the | young soldier in the chest and cut hlm falrlS l in two without inj juring another man. No6 1 another man was even wounded for the next | ten minutes.
 The night before Burnside crossed at Fred l ericksburg a second lieutenant in Virginia regiment received, with hundreds of others, some mail from the regimental bag. l car 1ied the pack of twenty or thirty letters over to the officers quarters and handed 1t to this I lieutenant. The top letter was for him and | on one end of the envelope was red stain | It looked like blood, but was probably ink. He no sooner saw it than he became greatly affected and said:
 :sI shall be the first officer out of the regi- ment killed tomorrow
 heard dozen officers ridiculing him, but | he became silent and serious and finally | walked away by himself We were down on the right where the first Federal attack was made. Our regiment was using long and deep land furrow rife pit, and the ad- vancing line of blue had just come within range when bullet struck the lieutenant in the head and killed him instantly. It came
 from the front and was probably from some sharpshooter, but it was afterward agreed that the officer who was killed was perhaps the least exposed of any
 There was a superstition in my regiment that anyone who went into battle with the foot of rabbit tied around his neck was safe. This was all right and rabbits feet ] were at high premium for two or three weeks My brigade then pushed ahead
 on reconnaissance, bumped up against the
 Tanks, and we not only got severely l thrashed, but we lost good many men. Out of the seventy men in my company l pre-
 sume that thirty had the talisman. It so l happened that the three killed belonged to | this '1ucky" set, and next day rabbits feet | took decided fall in price.
 was for time 8 brigsdier's orderly. His superstition was that he would be safe from | bullets as long as he rode chestnut horse. | In the first battle into which I followed him | his chestnut was shot, and of course I s'hustled" to bring him up another. Mine | was coal black and the only one which I could get for him was a roan. He didn't
 seem to notice the difference until the action l was over, and then I got a terrible rating. In the second battle he had chestnut, and