Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1890-07-30
They Stole Those Chickens.

| hOht was hhoWh dii 1urouBh oho
army as being the est foragers.
There wasn't thing to eat that they
couldn't and wouldn't steal. We
were marching through a terrible
country one day. There was absolute
ly nothing to be had to eat. We
pitched headquarter tents for the
night in a farmyard. About dusk
Capt. hammond, of this same Eighth
Missouri, started off on his horse to
hunt for forage, and in about an hour
he returned with a half a dozen fine
young spring chickens. "I'm going
to have these for breakfast" the cap
tain said, exultingly. "Yes, you will" F"
said l. "If those - Eighth Miss
ouri men don't steal them tonight" /"
"Never fear," said the captain, "I'll
get ahead of them this time."
In the yard was one of those old
fashioned corn cribs, made of split
logs. 1t was diamond-shaped, look
ing at it from the fore, and there was
only one entrance to it, narrow
door left in the front. The floor of
the crib was raised about two feet
from the ground, and even a hog
couldn't squeeze under.
There was staple and hasp on the
door and a good lock. hammond
put the six chickens to roost in the
crib, and then put the paddock on
the door and locked it. Guard No. 1
was told to keep his eye ON the crib,
and he marched up and down in front
of it all night. In the morning
hammond went out to get his chickens.
He came back in minute, his face
red, his eyes lurid, and, swearing,
he cried: "By -, General, the
chickens are gone" And so they
were. The guard swore no one was
near the crib, the lock was all right,
the door was tight, but those chickens
were stolen. How they got away
worried me more than a good many
bigger things. | never forgot it, and
always tried to find out how the boys
of the Eighth Missouri stole those
chickens, for l knew they stole 'em.
Last winter finally solved the
mystery of the spring chickens. Maj
Jack Heffernan, of the Eighth Miss
ouri, a gallant soldier, but man who
loved a joke always, was at the re-
union of the Army of the Cumberland.
| met him one day, and said, "Jack,
tell me how you boys stole Lammond's
chickens" Jack laughed and said +:
General, you know our boys didn't
like hammond. Well, that night
when we heard he had those six fat
young chickens in the corn crib some
of the boys swore they'd get 'em if
they were shot for trying. After
dark couple of 'em went out in the
woods and cut two long rails, which
they backed to camp. One of them
was sent to the surgeons tent, and out
of the chest he stole wad of cotton
and phial of chloroform. Then the
boys all stole quietly to the rear of
the crib. The guard was placing to
and fro in front of the crib, but they
were so quiet he didn't hear them.
Two of the boys took the rails,
and, putting 'em under the back of
the CRIB, which in the rear came with
in foot of the ground, they pried il
up softly, and made room enough for
slight drummer boy to crawl under.
The men held up the crib while the
kid was beneath it. The drummer
boy put his cotton soaked with chloro-
form on the end of twig, ready for
use. Then he quietly slipped aside
some of the loose boards of the floor
of the crib. In the dark he could see
the shadowy outlines of the sleeping
chickens on their roosts. He waved
the chloroform gently to and fro from
under them. One by one they drop
ped off, without uttering a squawk.
He wrung their heads off, and thrust
them into bag. Not a sound was
made, and the sentinel paced to and
fro in front Of the crib, all unconsci-
Gus of the chicken tragedy being en-
acted within.
"When the boy had all the chick
ems he showed them out to the men,
and crawled out after replacing the
floor boards. The crib was then low
cred gently to the ground, hay was
scattered about to conceal the fresh
soil, the rails were carried back into
the woods, and the next morning the
boys of the Eighth Missouri had
those chickens of Lammond's for
breakfast. We'd rather eaten those
chickens than captured company of
Johnny Rebs, and we got the chick
ems, too."-Gen. w. T. Sherman.