The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-03-29
THE OTHER SIDE.

Those were dark days, boys, with US
young men-the days of the spring OF
81, when the pews came that war had
been declared and that every able
bodied man must shoulder his gun and
60 out in defense of his country. Yes,
those were days that the soldier boys
can never forget.
When we ran over to John Jones' to
bid our best girl goodbye and request
ed of her parting kiss when she slyly
crept around the corner of the cabin
with tear in her eye, then and there
our pledges were made to return and
carry out the rest of the program, if
we were permitted to live and see the
end OF the difficulty. Well we went
but long before our return an enemy
had crept in and captured our promis-
es.
But ] started out to. relate war
story. So let US lay these love affairs
aside until the bloody strife is over, and
luSu VIC VIII ICtuih w Jul Oh0 Mug
bors and see what we can accomplish.
as civilian. The writer was q dwell
er in one of those deep hollows among
the mountains of old Virginia, and was
just II years old when that bloody
strife known as the War of the Rebel
lion broke out. Our father was an old
line Wing, despised the very name Of
democracy and consequently raised
rather poor set Of democrats.
Well, we were poor folks and had
no negroes and consequently we
thought we would not fight any.
Father aid we must not go, and of
course You know il is very natural for
well-raise children to be obedient and
mind what father se-s. But there
were others of more determined in.
fluence who thought that we would
go-and go we did, while father went
to cave in the rocks, at which place
he remain ed until he too, became a &C.
cessionist.
Well we young men were very po-
litely given our choice to shoulder an
old mountain rifle and 60 to the front
or hang, and as we did not think hang
ing would be at all pleasant or healthy
we went.
rhe company that we enlisted in
was made up in our immediate. neigh.
borhood and differed by my intimate
friends and relatives. But we had not
been mustered long before I found that
little military authority made a
mans relatives treat him like brute.
We were ordered to Charleston
Wsst Virginia, and as there was no
railroads through the mountains in
those days, our neighbors took US to
Gouiey bridge in wagons through and
over the mountains, distance of 100
miles. We we're going down there to
whip few Yankees and establish a
Confederate government and then re-
turn and carry out the promises made
in the first part of this letter. And in
fact we looked upon the job before us
as such small undertaking that we in
sisted on our dads to remain with the
wagons until the work was done which
We thought would not take US more
than two weeks at most and then we
would return with them.
o, the folly. But is good thing for
us aud especiallyfor the other side that
we were ignorant, and knew not what
was before US, for had the union troops
known what they had to do
to accomplish the great end
for which they fought, fear they
would have sickened ..and fell by the
wayside and the south have succeeded.
Aud long since We would have been
swallowed up by old England or some
other great power, and instead of elect
ing a new ruler every four years we
would have been paying homage to
some despot. Thank heaven for the
glorious result.
But the old men did not take our
advice and wait, but hurried back to
their homes after seeing us in our first
camp OH the Gauley river. How well
do We remember that bright,
beautiful morning on the 10th
day of June, when our fathers
took us by the hand, with tears in
their eyes and delivered their last ben
ediction, and then jumped into their
wagons and were off. We had just
Que week before parted with mother
and our hearts were yet sore, and I can
truly say that the writer felt more like
deserving and following those wagons
home than anything else. prayed
my first fervent prayer tn at night, and
what do you think ] prayed for? I
prayed that all, or at least our
part of the Yankees might come
forward the next day so that we could
kill our share of them and return home
Sure enough they did come, q scouting
party, and killed two of my comrades
and made US skedaddle up the river
some two miles.
This put quite q different face on
things and that night ] prayed but
prayed a different prayer. After learn
ing that the Yankees could kill too, I
prayed that they might never come
again. But this prayer has never been
.aoxuorod