The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-01-31
STORIES OF THE WAR.
Old Man Plunkett Gives His OBJ
serVatioas CT Virginia.
WADiNG THE COLD SHENANDOAH

the hreside, but / didn't know err thing
er5out rivers till / got up in Virginia. You
ask any old Virginia soldier what he thinks OF
tie 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 coolest river in the world, | reckon, and
there is no soldier what followed Lee but what
waded it more than once. 1t fairly cut er fell
low in two either in summer or winter and that
aint all, folks what was never in the army don't
know what it is 10 wade err river. If you stop
TO pail off your shoes you get erway behind
and ii Will take you two or three hours hard
tugging to catch up and ii 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 ont and so it goes.
and every old soldier will tell you the same
thing. | rather be wallowed in the SNOW and
ice any time than to wade the Shenandoah"
The Old man stopped 10 put the fire in his
pipe, and then seating himself in a comforta-
bic position, proceeded:
Folks can't be made TO understand what
genuine soldering is, and you needn't talk to
'eia 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, and every
once and awhile you'd hear er fellow stumble
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, I wish er mil
lion yankees would come right down on US
and that's the way he felt. I've seed men
sleep walking erlong the road and you'd bet
ter not tackle 'em then either, for when men
got in that sort of fix they dfight 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 cat than what it took to keep or
fellow fat, and l 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 90 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 Winchester,
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 er hold
OF in three days was given to the fellow what
was going to do the cooking that night and he
poured out the flour on top of the stump that
was fixed and made up the dough and then
turned Ground 'er fixing of the oven and lid
and 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 -four was all lost. The cook was too full to
ay anything he jist rolled up in his blanket
and went to having on 'er 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 don't be-
lieve it was marked down ergin em either. for
them were hard, hard times.
When we got down to Fredericksburg,
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, something like potato
houses, and covered EN- with dirt and every
thing was er moving erlong pretty well, till
one morning just before day, Longstreet's sig
nal-gun went bum and erway down the river
jackson S signal answered back bum 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
ercToss the river the boys went on the battle
u, L
sters that don't know nothing erbout war may
think it was mighty wrong to strip the dead,
but 1t want, for Lees army had to have
clothes and they didn't have no where else to
get EN-.
There was one fellow, though that didn't
get no clothes and lie froze to death in er few
nights after, but it haint no harm in telling
You erbout what kept him from getting 'em.
Three of EN- was in er mess together and
they went down on the edge of Fredericksburg
on the night the battle closed and they seed
or dead yankee er laying cold and stiff with
his arms right straight ont on either side, and
he had on er mighty new overcoat and the
three proceeded to get IT off. They raised him
on his feet and one of 'em got on one side and
another on the other side. and were trying to
bend the stiff arms, when the fellow that was
holding him up give quick Jerk which turned
the dead body and brought the stiff arms
around with it and the open palm SLAPPED
Ned in the face, and it smacked as natural as
if the yankee had err been erlive and done ii.
Ned didn't stop 10 ask questions. He turned
his face for camp, and er way erlong up the
long slant of Mario's heights there was snow
enough to see him plain AS he'd bounce over
ridges like er ball, and he come mighty
nigh running himself to death before he GOT
nothing but that it was ghost that slapped
him, and he wouldn't have nothing more
TO do with getting overcoats that way
and so lie froze to death pretty soon after that
one night on picket.
Its not every one that knows il, contin-
ued PlUnkett, but Lees army had more
Georgians in its makeup than did any other
state. That's what makes me so mad when
think of old Sherman or coming down here
and er cutting such dash.
North Carolina was next to Georgia in
furnishing troops FOR Lee, and then came
Virginia. Texas had one brigade, includ-
ing the Third Arkansas regiment, which was
the only regiment Arkansas furnished TO the
Virginia army. South Carolina didn't have
many Mississippi didn't have no great sight
The AlabamiauS were mostly with the Ten
nessee army, and Florida kept out of the cold
climate OF Virginia by doing service somewhere
ON the coast. The SHOWS Of Virginia wouldn't
or suited them. guess.