The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1893-09-07

| iarmyardS are abundantly suppllea with
tender and juicy poultry, the forests with
fat 'possums, and where in the Spring the
cows milk is strongly impregnated with the
nauseating and unpalatable taste of garlic,
and all the girls go barefooted.
ave crossed the Potomac at Harper's
Ferry, under the able leadership of Gen.
Banks, in the month of February-I think
it was, at least it was so internal muddy
| that all well-disciplined soldiers ought to
| have still been in snug Winter quarters-and
marched up the Valley at moderate pace,
thoroughly surveying the entire country
and examining and inspecting the contents
| of the numerous wel;-filIed spring-hOuses.
Corn-dodgers, hoe-cake, rich ham, hen-fruit,
mutton and nice, tender lamb and all kinds
of poultry frequently garnshed with cam
teen of honey to make the bread-stuff slide
down our gulleis more easily, were the regu-
lar rations issued always daily and often
hourly.
MY MOUTH FAIRLY WATERS
now thinking of the immense amount of the
dandiest kind of grub we saw hut couldn't
eat while sauntering along on that march.
Occasionally we had slight skirmish
with the enemy, who were continually fall
ing back, but after few days they disap-
peared altogether, leaving us alone in our
glory with excellent appetites, induced and
whetted necessarily by continuous mud
wading.
"Stonewall Jackson was the boss of the
4l,ot zT
like team of balIy mules-stop little,
back good deal, steady by jerks, you know
but didn't know enough to turn around
and go head foremost.
"On the 11th of March he skedaddled
from Winchester, or evacuated the place, the
Secesh citizens termed it, but the fact Is
he ran like the devil and never halle ed till
he reached Mount Jackson, away yonder up
the Valley.
ave csmped near Winchester for some
days, and during our stay continued to APP
propriate or confiscate whatever we saw that
we took a fancy to, and made ourselves gen.
orally useful by caring for and converting
to good use the surplus honey, eggs, milk,
hams, and various and sundry other kinds of
edibles for which soldiers have proverbial
penchant
about two weeks after Jackson skipped
ont of Winchester he came back in hurry
and pitched into us at KerHstown, as though
the devil kicked him in end. But If the
Prince of Darkness was kicking him in the
rear Gen. Banks was soon kicking him in
front, and we kicked him so vigorously that
we made him sick. He had several thousand
more men than Banks, but because he did not
have five to one he could not fight for shucks,
though he had previously declared his in
tenti0n to jump on to US all spraddled OUT
and larrup glory hallelujah out of US.
i" We took the kinks out of him, however,
in four or five hours. We gave him shot for
shot, and finally made
A BRILLIANT BAYoNET CHARGE,
cleaning up the field completely. He again
retreated up the Valley, and it was ul.i-
mately reported that he had Joined Lee at
Richmond.
After awhile we once more received
marching orders and sauntered off up the
Valley, but we used more caution than we
had previously done, and had good deal of
scouting 10 do Three or four days after we
broke camp Gen. Banks received orders TO
send division of troops to Mcdowell or
some other big General, and in a few days
more another division lett us. The boys
often remarked that somebody besides Stone
wall Jackson was after Banks, and got away
with more Of his men than Jackson had sue
ceeded in doing. We stayed awhile at Stras-
burg, then went on up to Harrisonvlle where
we went into camp. The country there was
mountainous, and contained more guerrillas
than honey and ham, causing us to he con-
tinually on the scout.
my blanket-mate, Dick Fowler, and ]
did lots of accommodating as extra duty
penalty for devilment we perpetrated in
camp, stealing socks ETC., from the boys.
During the night of the second day be-
fore Jackson lit on us all spraddled out the
second time, my pard and robbed the COM
pany bean-hole, and it raised merry - in
camp Some of the boys wanted to put US
in where we took the beans out, and some
wanted to either buck and gag or make
spread-eagles of US, while others, still, want
ed to hang us.
But the Captain said he had a good, easy
job for us, and after we had lain in the guard
tent for IL hours, with a knapsack-strap
drawn under our chins and buckled so tight
on the top of our heads that we conld not
open our mouths and our hands behind u.s.
he would condescend to inform us of the
nature of said duty. He said he didn't
think we'd eat more than a peck Of stolen
beans during our pleasant interview with
the guard-tent.
"The boys laughed heartily, and gave
him three cheers and tiger at the conclu-
sion of his facetious remarks; but Dick and
did not appreciate the funny part of the
performance. We had been out n
CAyoRTING AROUND THE COUNTRY
for two days, and came in about midnight
hungry as mcat-axes, SO we had gone for
the bean-hole without any ceremony.
after we lived our time out, or served
out our sentence in the guard-tent the Cap
tain, with patronzing grin, told us that he
had received intelligence from reliable
source that there were about 800 rebels over
Il. L.