, 1891-07-30
AFTER THE U R
AN INCIDENT OF CAMP LIFE sPolLs
sUNDRY DINNERS.

ohe hekiment Got the Laugh on
Company of YRnkees-Jsrseymen Feast
cd on Roast Dog-It Was Then Serve.
to yermonters as Head Cheese.
Every old soldier of the Army of tn
Potomac remembers Burnside's mut
march 1t began on Jan. 22, 1868. Thit
was forty days after his defeat at Fred
ericksburg. In an effort to retrieve i
he followed the example of Charles III
and opened a winter campaign Ht
tried to strike the Rappahannock som
miles above Fredericksburg, cross this
river on pontoons and reach Lees rear
1t began to rain on the evening Of the
22d, and 1t rained necessarily for three
days. The pontoons never reached the
river. They were stuck in seas OF mud.
Nearly every man in the army was wet
to the waist for days in efforts to drag
them to dry ground.
The C~onfederates on the other side OF
the Rappahannock quickly OWNED the
situation. They stuck up immense pla-
cards on the bank of the river bearing
such inscription as "Burnside's Army
Stuck in the Mud" Burnside is not Nc
Clellan," and other pat sayings. When
h sun began to shine and the pontoons
were dragged from the sloughs the army
went back to its old camp
Everybody was disheartened. The pen
tnsula veterans, who were stanch Nc
Clellan men, shook their heads mourn
fully, saying, 81 told you how it would
be- The discomfort rose to such a pitch
that there was a spirit of mutiny in some
of the regiments. Hundreds of deser
tions occurred every day and the army
had no confidence in its commander un-
Ill Joe Hooker succeeded Burnside.
THE REGIMENTS
was n sergeant in Company G of the
Twenty-sixth New Jersey volunteers at
this time. The New Jersey regiment
was part Of the Second brigade. This
brigade had won a brilliant reputation
on the Peninsula and at Antietam. 1t
was known in the Army of the Potomac
As the Vermont brigade 1t was COM
posed, with the exception of the Jersey
regiment, of Vermont troops.
They were tall, ungainly Yankees,
They drawled their words, and gave
them a peculiar nasal twang. Their feet
were so big that the Johnnies compared
them to old-fashioned griddles.
A Mississippian nee told me they were
90 big that whenever he killed a Yer
mont Yankee he had to go mp and shove
him over before he would tumble.
1 saw some captured North Carolinians
sent in from the front at the first battle
Of fredericksburg In stature, gait aud
accent they resembled the Vermonters.
1 believe that il they had worn the Fed
eral uniform the Vermouters themselves
would have taken them for brothers
We went into camp after che mud
march near White Oak church. About
two weeks afterward Bill Young, n hig
Scotchman in our regiment, contiscated
a sheep owned by some farmer in the
vicinity. BE had found a little copse in
an out of the way nook. where he butch
cred the the sheep, hung the carcass to
the limb of a tree by its hind legs and
dressed it He had hardly finished the
work when he was frightened by n file Of
men who were approaching the spot
After hastily c%oncealing the carcass he
sneaked back to camp.
Two hours later he returned to the
copse. The mutton seemed to be all
right, 1t did not appear to have been
disturbed. He avoided collision with
the camp guard, and managed to get it
TO his shelter tent after dark. Then be
cut 1t up and distributed it among his
friends in the ranks and the commits
stoned officers.
o INSTEAD OF MUTTOS
Twenty-four hours afterward a Yer
mont regiment, then commanded by
Louis A. Grant, now assistant secretary
of war (and by the way, Redtield Proctor
was a captain in the same regimenD,
noaaad tbrpuuh our Damn on pfgk.t do
tail. AS they struck company Cs street,
through which they marched down the
hill. they all began to bark like dogs.
The Jerseymen rushed from their tents
and wondered what the barking meant
The yermonters kept up the canine dem.
onstration for half a mile, yelling with
delight.
Commissioned officers who had par,
taken of the mutton were the first to
solve the riddle. Some of the cold meat
was left. After the Vermont demonstra-
ton 1t did not taste like mutton. 1t was
a little rank, one said, and tasted more
like coon meat that hadn't been par
boiled. Many who had received the gift
were sick at the stomach
1t turned out that some bright Yer
monter had seen Young at work on the
sheep. He rang in his comrades and
frightened the Scotchman back to camp
Then they stole the carcass, and put in
its place the dressed body of an old New
foundland dog that had been following
a Wisconsin brigade.
When the Vermonters returned from
picket duty and began to cross our camp
the barking was resumed. This time the
Jerseymen were ready for them. From
700 Threats came the cry; Head cheese
head cheese, you Yankeesl"
This cry gave a palor to the Vermont
faces. Their stomachs were turned
While they were on picket duty some
Germans in the Jersey regiment had
gathered all of the cold roast dog in
camp, turned it into head cheese. and
peddled it on the Vermont picket reserve
Head cheese wa a delicacy rarely seen
in the army. 1t had gone like hot cakes
Everybody bought it. Possibly even Sec.
Rotary Proctor and General Louis A
Grant got their share of 1t. AT all events
there was nc more barking and no more
buying of head cheese on the picket line
Amos J. Cummings in New York Sun
A Well Known