Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1890-12-02

much for what Immediately preceded the
battle Of Port Gibson. As narrated in the
previous number, the night Of April 80 the
writer had slept beside companion aboard
q river boat upon two bales OF cotton, and
at early dawn next morning went ashore
with his companion and joined the regi-
ment then falling in line two or three
hundred yards distant The writer had
just reached the regiment when, putting
his hand in his pocket, he found that three
or four dollars in money, all he had, was
gone. He spoke Of his misfortune, and re-
teived a lecture from Wigton, his compan-
ion of the night previous, and some twenty
or thirty years his senior.
"Just like you" he began; "always los
Ing something. Your carelessness will be
the ruin of you yet. I'm thinkin' you'll
lose your head one of these days"
AS the firing from the battle then in
progress o few miles away could already
be heard, the last and greatest accident
was not at all an impossibility.
However, as the command was in the
heart of the enemy's country and was just
on the point OF cutting loose from its base
Of supplies, the writer felt as though he
could not give up his lost money without
making an effort to find it. Learning that
q few moments would elapse before the
command would start, he ran back to the
boat, made his way to the bales Of cotton,
anu turning IuGm dDOuIJ udu SbOOpS0 ONCA
and was looking around carefully, thinking
may be the pocket-book had slipped from
his pocket, when a voice just behind was
heard calling him by name and asking:
Have you found your pocket bookf lde-
clare mines gone, too" Looking up, who
did the writer see but Wigton, his comrade
of the night previous, who only moment
before was Gliding him for his ill-fortune
and negligence. 1t was clear now that
had ufOInn both nnCknf-h0OIxQ
while their owners slept.
The joke on Wigton, however, was too
good too keep, and it was many day before
his companions let him hear the last of it.
Poor Wigton, his beard was quite gray
and for one in actiN @ service was quite old,
but he was brave, true soldier, and when
last seel was very lame and hobbling about
on crutcheS with a prospect of remaining
SO from q wound received in the Red river
expedition in the spring of 1864. Just before
starting on the march, each man received in
his canteen little whisky. The regiment
had never been in battle, and whether this
was given to supply them with extra cour-
age or whether it was thought the en-
forced march about to be entered upon
required the use of stimulants, is not
known. But whatever the intention may
have been, no good came from the whisky,
and before night several in the regiment
were foolishly drunk.
When all was ready the regiment started
off at q brisk space towards the rising sun,
just visible through the tree-tops.
For two miles the road ran through the
river bottom, then up long hill of red
clay, next by quiet farm houses and Guilt
waited fields, through pretty wooded groves
and up quiet lanes, all bearing the marks
of peac }, and resting in supposed security
from the inroads of Invading armies.
The boom of cannon could be heard,
and after awhile the rattle of musketry f;
this excited the men, and they marched
thu faster. AS the morning advanced it
became very warm and many threw away
knapsacks, overcoats and any thing and
every thing that impeted progress towards
the sounds of battle in front.
By and bySbwards noon a field hospital
at the roadside was reached, and here a
s:aiwart soldier with his arm in a sling,
an the bright blood oozing through the
bandages over wound on his breast 9th
erwise bare, came and stood by the road
side and watched the reinforcements &c
forward.
His was the first blood the writer saw
flow from q Confed crate bullet.
Other field hospitals were s DON passed,
and after little fences thrown down,
corn fields tracked over, and every thing
disarranged and tramped upon, told that
large bodies of men had been deployed and
advanced over that ground earlier in the
day. A little ahead broken wheels and
dismounted cannon, and now and then O
dead soldier, with here and thexe a disem-
boweled horse, showed the advance of the
Federals had met with resistance. Next
the road ran down hill and into the tim.
Der; here the command halted for few