The Bossier banner., 1893-10-26


us that we had not only left home with
out breakfast, but that in organizing
we had aleo entirely overlooked the COM
nissary department.!
To our minds soldier was d fighter,
pure and simple. We had never for an
instant associated soldering with eat
ing, That the soldier might get killed
was likely; that he might get hungry we
had not dreamed of.
My men oegan to murmur, and now
aGu then to halt and lo6R batSS. |
! urged them on, reminding them that it
was q soldiers duty to suffer and even
die FOR his country, and that the more he
did of both, the greater and truer
| soldier he was. With many other cheer
ing words that l had picked up, from
| listening to the grown people, I exx,
horted my army to do its duty,
But in spite of all could do the com
mand began to straggle so badly that l
was forced to detail Private Lanny as
a rear gu2rd, with strict orders to keep
the men in line. But as the rear guard
| itself soon began to straggle, l was
forced to quit my place at the head Of
the column and fill that place myself,
urging my men on, sword in hand.
After awhile we began to skirt pas
ture IL which grew many persimmon
trees. Among them was dead CHE, to
whose branches some of last years
fruit still clung. The moment the COM
mand espied these, all order was lost.
1t scrambled over the fence and began
to feast.
Knowing that an officers place was
with his men, and also being
ingly hungry myself, 1 was not long in
joining them. The persimmons must
really have been dry and tasteless, but,
plentifulIy saueed with hunger, we
thought them the daintiest food we
had ever eaten. We swallowed them
by handfuls.
While 1 was ii the tree loud rush
ing in The leaves of the adjoining
woods attracted my attention. We
were so tired that l was sure that we
must have traversed *ast region, and
thought it more than likely that we
were at last in face of the enemy. l
ordered my men down from the per-
simmon tree and threw them hurriedlg
into line. drew my sword and ad-
vanced my force with cooked pieces,
to where wood and pasture met
Here the noise grew so much louder,
indicating the approach of such a SUI
perior force, that we halted to decide,
by council of war, whether officer or
privates ought to occupy the front
rank. The privates were sure that the
officer should. The officer was equally
positive that he should not.
AS each party at once set about put
ting his theory on this point into prac-
tice, the company was soon back at the
persimnlon tree which stood on the
6fest of the hill Here we had an open
space at our front, and, what seemed
just then still more important, an open
one in our rear, with a line of retreat
downhill.
We were not as brave as we had been,
but here we made a pause, deter
mined to end the war one way o1
the other, and that pretty soon-that
is, so far as we We're concerned. Oul
hearts thdndered like trip-hammers in
our ears. Our views of military duty
as well as of military glory underwear,
serious change.
The rustling of leaves and swapping
of twigs swept neaEcr and nearer. The
edge of the wood was reached. The
outmost fringe of bushes was now
a-quiver
| have a confused recollection of q
roar, rush of wildly flying earth and
leaves, and still more wildly flying he'll
NETS and cutaway coats. Then found
myself astride persimmon limb safe
distance from the ground, which wa:
held by raving bull. The animal Has
dividing his attention between my tree
and the three others that held the re
mainder of the battalion.
"Aim! Fire!'' shouted as soon as
took in the situation.
No response came. | repeated the
command still louder and more per
emptorily, and continued to do so until
having at some risk wriggled mysel
around on the limb so as to face the
battalion, found that the reason why
my soldiers did not fire was that they
had nothing to fire.
The armament of the battalion was il
the hands, or rather under the feet, Of
the bull reached for my sword onl,
to find it also missing.
The bull took his stand under tn,
tree. The afternoon stretched out into
an interminabie expanse of time. M!
persimmon branch became intensely
uncomfortable; but still the bull KEEP
watch for u.s. By and by a thunder
storm arose and made matters mucl
. worse.
Accompanied by binding flashes o
lightning that seemed to play aroun'
our very heads, and deafening thunder
peals, the rain fell in such torrents tha
we could scarcely breathe. AS tn
horsehair helmets had been abandonet
with our arms, the rain poured into ou
gaping collars till we were soaket
through and through.
Twilight arose from the woods like &
, black mist and began to envelop us
The rain slackened, but the bull, in
stead of departing, lay down among tn,
trees, springing to his feet bellowin,