The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-02-09
VOLUME XXIII.- NO. 3la.
STORIES OF THE WAR.

STORIES OF THE WAR.
Old Man Plunkett Gives His Observations
Of Virginia.
"l've lived on Flynt river er heap"
continued Plunkett, as all had gathered
around the freside, "but I didn't know
er thing erbout rivers till got up in
Virginia. You ask any old Virginia
soldier what he thinks of the Shenandoah
river and the cold chills will run up and
down his backbone as soon as the words
leave your mouth. The Shenandoah is
the coldest river in the world, 1 reckon,
and there is no soldier what followed Lee
but what waded it more than once. 1t
fairly cut er fellow in two either in sum.
mer or winter and that aint all, folks
what was never in the army don't know
what it is to wade er river. Ifyou stop
to pull off you shoes you get erway be.
hind and it will take you two or three
hours hard tugging to catch up and if
you don't pull off your shoes the gravel
and sand will get in your shoes and socks
and make you wish you was er yaller dog
before you got it out and so it goes, and
every old soldier will tell you the same
thing. rather be wollowed in the snow
and ice any time than to wade the She
nandoah."
The old man stopped to put the fire in
his pipe, and then seeing himself in
comfortable position, proceeded:
"Folks can't be made to understand
what genuine soldering is, and you
needn't talk to 'em erbout it. Fighting
yankees amt the worst part of soldering.
I've seed men march through the mud
and slush, so dark you couldn't see your
hand before you, apd every once and
awhile you'd hear er fellow stumble and
fall and founder Ground in er mud hole
till you'd think he was erbout to drown,
and when he'd get on his feet ergin the
first word you'd hear from him would be,
Il wish er million yankees would come
right down on u.s. and that's the way he
felt. I've seed men sleep walking erloug
the road, and you'd better not tackle 'em
then either, for when men got in that
sort of fix they'd fight mighty hard and
take it as er sort of desert.
"And soldiers didn't have no more
clothes than what they needed, and they
didn't have no more to eat than what it
took to keep er fellow fat, and I seed one
mess, as they were called, one night that
would er whipped any yankee regiment
you'd er brought before them and it was
this way:
"The soldiers on the march would cut
down er tree at night and make their
fires and would use the stump for er bread
tray, smoothing off the top of the stump
and working up their dough on it. Some
Of the mess would go to the branch and
get water, another would make the fire
and another would make up bread and
cook. One night, just this side of Win.
chester, when it was raining like bringers
the soldiers stopped in 'er piece Of woods
and struck camps and the first rations
that they had got Ter hold of in three
days was given to the fellow what was
going to do the cooking that night and
he poured out the -four on top of the
stump that was fixed and made up the
dough and then turned Ground Ter fixing
of the oven and lid aud when he turned
back TO his dough he seed it all running
down the sides and on the ground. The
rain had melted his dough and the flour
was all lost. The cook was too full to
say anything; he jist rolled up in his
blanket and went to having on Ter raw
irish potato and left the other fellows to
do the cussing. He warn't needed in
the cussing business for the other fellows
done enough of it and 1 don't believe it
was marked down ergin 'em either, for
them were hard, hard times.
"When we got down to Fredericks.
burg, after coming out of Maryland,
everybody was as good as naked, and
something had to be done. The officers
said build winter quarters, for they
thought that the yankees were going to
be quiet till spring, and so the soldiers
went to work and built little pens, some.
thing like potato houses, and covered 'em
with dirt and everything was er moving
erlong pretty well, tell one morning just
before day, Longstreet's signal gun went
bum and erway down the river Jackson's
sgnal answered back b u-m. We knowed
it was er fight and so it was-the first
battle of Fredericksburg. Snow was on
the ground, and Lees army was naked,
you might say, and after old Burnsides
was run back ercross the river the boys
went on the battlefield and dressed them.
selves up. You youngsters that don't
know nothing erbout war may think it
was mighty wrong to strip the dead, but
it warn't, for Lees army had to have
clothes and they didn't have no where
else to get 'em.
"There was one fellow, though that
didn't get no clothes and he froze to
death in or few nights after, but it haint
no harm in telling you erbout what kept
him from getting 'em. Three of 'em was