The record-union., 1893-03-09
A DREAM.
What a Half-Famished Soldier Dreamed
About-Nivid Picture.

w nat IL i1alI-e alfl-neu soldier Dreamed
About-Vivid Picture.
A writer in the Contributors Club in
the Attdatic vividly describes a dream
that came to him when half-famished
soldier on Il forced march:
Soo:hed by the rocking motion of nv
horse l fell asleep, Notwithstanding the
most strenuous efforts to keen awake
Soon my hunger-haunted brain found
rest and refreshment III such dreams as
came. l dreamed of food. Through the
weary raid we had all of US dreamed of
little else; and We woke to find the un-
satisfied longing still persistent, and that
the hopes popular tradition had held out
to US that our hunger might be blurred
with slckness-were not to be realized.
L had supposed that famished man, in
the prime of youth, abandoned wholly to
his lmaginings, Ibis helm of reason lost, !"
as Young says, would reyel in dream
land flowing with milk and honey, he
might even be pardoned for repeating in
thought such robust feastings as that
wherewlth the SaXonS ushered in the
morn at Hastings. But no; it would
seem as though peculiar sense of loneli-
ness pervaded our hunger-stricken bod
les as well as our minds; for our dreams
were usually of home and kindred. of
cheerful firesides and most frugal sup
pers. l do not recall eating, in these
Barmecide feasts, anything more substan-
tlal than the smoked beef and flapiacks
of a New England tea. Something small.
neat and tasty was what the boys wished
when hunger had tanned the tiger and re-
duced the flesh. Many told me, with
grim humor, that they dreamed of pickles
and Goldfish balls, and know that bread
and molasses was tavorite Wand among
the starving sleepers Of George Crook s
army.
on this particular occasion 1 had no
sooner lost consciousness of present sur
roundlngs than L found myself seated at
farmhouse teatable, before a Lucullian
banquet of hot biscuit, peach preserves. I
think, and apple butter, this last being a
favorlte ''condiment" the local word1 at
d Virginia tireside. The rosy faces around
the table had given me much Joyous well
come as dreams and strangers give al
ways-and friends sometimes. | passed
slowly from this scene and entered an
other which was but reminiscence; tho
whole incident of my being wounded at
Antietam and nursed at a farmhouse
hard by was re-enacted in my mind with
a vivldneSS and a celerity that were like
the magic illusions conferred upon the
hasheesh- eater. | saw the torn roof
which a cannon ball had plowed justover
my head, as l lay, tranced with pain and
still with blood, IN log outbuilding near
the house, and one sight, too startling to
relate, awoke me, all quivering and weak.
Looking around l beheld what caused
me to clutch my horses name for a mo-
ment with something like terror. There
was the very scene of my dream in vivid
realty before me! There were the house.
the shattered roof still unmended; the
fence still lacking the rails which had
made our campfire two years before: the
familiar bridge; the turn in the road
which brought us 10 the creek that two
years before had run red with the blood
of thousands of men. Hurriedly | leaned
forward and asked negro sitting on a
fence lit was yet early evening" where
we were. We were indeed passing over
the field of Antietam, which had been
hailed as our hrst victory over the enc
my, and the greatest battle ever fought
on this continent. 1t was all peaceful
now; two crops had grown over the one
that we trampIed, and, looking at the tall
shocks of ears l unconsciously repeated
the line
How that red rain has made the harvest grow,