Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1891-11-12

antly familiar, and there was a humor-
Gus twinkle in his gray eyes as he said:
"Gintlemin me an me friend, Com
modore Williams, belongs to the provost
guard, an as we was sint in here to ex-
anime all min passin an to look at their
papers, Yell plaze produce yer fur
loughs.
"Or yer discharges" said Commodore
| Williams. 81 attends to the discharges,
and my friend, Major General Nolan, of
the Swamp Rangers, attends to the fur
loughs.
"Boys," said Bell, with preliminary
oath Of great length and originality Of
construction, ''You uns is a-tryin to
be funny, and I'll allow hits purity good
| furs ken see hit. But we uns amt
got no papers along"
"Well, if yer ready to take oath that
yez has lost thin or sint thin home by
post, it'll do as well, for me an Commo-
dore Williams amt the min to be hard
on the bies; are we, commodore?"
Icould not help laughing at the wild
sense of humor of these two outlaws in
giving to each other titles that implied
their dominion of land and water, which
seemed to be mixed up in equal parts in
the country around them. They took
us to be deserters, like themselves, and
we fell in with and encouraged this be-
lief during our stay on this remarkable
island. Back Of the line Of dwarf mag
nolias there was a hut, with roof slop-
ing to the ground, and a fire in front.
Inside the hut there were half dozen
muskets, and the belts, blankets and
ragged coats hanging from the pegs
limited that these two men had compan-
ions in their retreat
Bell and professed to be East Ten
nessee conscripts, and, while carefully
concealing our sympathies, we confessed
that we thought the war was near an
end, and that we wanted to get home to
our friends. We told the major general
and the commodore what we had learned
about the searchers, nor were we sur
prised to find them far better informed
than ourselves. They cooked us some
dinner, and recall that with our corn
bread we had excellent fresh meat,
and it was, am very sure, either "'pos-
sum" or coon; but no matter the name,
it was as pleasant change from fat
pork as fat pork was from the dry corn
bread of our prison days.
Our hosts saw our fatigue and our sore
feet, and the commodore gave us bark
wash for the latter while the major gen
eral was preparing our bed in the hut.
After Bell and | lay down, which we did
without fear, one Of the men made
''smudge" that filed the hut with smoke
and drove out the mosquitoes, which had
been very annoying. This was the first
entirely restful sleep we had had since
our escape, for we knew these men
would protect us as if we were of their
own band.
| recall this sleep as the most refresh
ing | had had since my capture in De-
cember, and do not think it was equal
ed in solid comfort in the forty-three
days, or rather forty-three nights, which
we spent in trying to get back to the
Union lines.
was the first to wake up, and, with
the caution born of contact win danger,
| rubbed my eyes and listened quietly to
the sound of voices that had disturbed
me. 1t was dark, but the fact that there
was group of men eating about the fire
before the hut told me that it was either
very early in the morning or rather late
in the evening, and decided that it was
the latter. BY rising on my elbow
could look across Bell and see the men
cooking and eating about the fire. a
stalwart negro, with shiny face and
the merest apology for shirt, was doing
the cooking, while the major general and
the commodore, with three other white
men, were doing the eating. One of the
newcomers sat with paper in one hand
and his back to the light, and while he
helped himself with the other hand he
read and made comments something
like this:
"The Chronicle does SO lie, no one
can't hardly believe it when it tells the
truth, but 1 reckon it amt far wrong
bout our folks and the Yanks. Jest listen
to this, boys: so far in this campaign
every move made by Sherman has been
foiled by that master of strategy and
grand tactics, our own heroic Joe John
ston. With the GOODNESS Of Fabius and
the audacity of Pompey, he has been
drawing the Yankees further and further
into his toll. He led them from Rocky
Face ridge and Dalton to Calhoun,
thence down to Lost Mountain and Kene-
saw, and now on the banks Of the classic
Chattahoochee he is turning like lion
at bay, and when he strikes, as strike he
will within a few days, he'll keep on
striking till the Yankees are destroyed
or their splintered fragmentsa are captured
on the banks of the Ohio"
This and much more of the same kind
the man with the paper read, and it
struck me as not a little curious that
while all these men were undoubtedly
southern in their sympathies, and showed
decided dislike for the Yankees, yet
they were of one mind that the cor
rect one-as to the termination of the
war. The man whom | knew and still
think Of as ssthe commodore" appeared
to voice the sentiments of his comrades
by saying, as nearly as can recall:
81 fit as hard as any man so long as it
seemed to be the moth agin the south,
for I'm southern man through and
through, though amt never owned a
niggah, but I'll allow I've often wanted
to when they was worth id sight
more'n ever they'll be agin. But soon's
jeff Davis got to conscriptin, what did
he do? Did he take all alike, rich and
pore, and say, Boys, you've got to fight
for the Confed'racy and lick the Yanks,
no matter how rich or blue blooded yer
dads wasT No, sab. He says, "A man
that runs plantation with nine hands
amt 'bleeged to fight; he can stay home
and raise food and fodder, but you pore
vagabonds ez amt got niggahs or plan
tations, you've got to walk right up har
to the front and let them id Yankees
shoot YOU WAL, that let me out as it
let you boys out. It's now rich mans
quar'l and a pore mans fight, and by the
'tarnal amt goin to resk my life to save
rich mans niggahs. We're agwine to
be licked, shores yer bawn, an doggone
me if it don't kinder 60 agin the grain to
hev the Yanks come out atop. Still,
none OF this crowd brought on the muss,
an we wuz all fools ever to've gone
into it"
This speech was received with much
applause. The opinions, as well knew,
were rather threadbare, but they repre-
sented the views Of majority Of the