The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-07-29
IN THE PICKET PIT.

and II was directed against Snake-In-the-
Grass. He had put me In tight fix, had
made me run as had never run before, had
dumped me into puddle, so to speak, and
filled my eyes, ears and mouth with mud.
All this, to say nothing of the countless
picket murders traced to his door, which
swore to avenge. Ughl what fate was hor-
rible enough for the wretch-him, the in
vulnerable? His weight in lead q dozen
times over had been hurled at him by the
crack shots of our corps. Yet there he was
at that. moment doubtless gloating over an
other Yankee gone to his doom.
Back to the post / crawled, where there
happened to be, owing to the truce of the
day, small fire burning There man.
aged to partly dry my uniform, and by the
time the pickets were relieved, which was a
couple Of hours later, just after dark, I was
ready for business.
When the new picket detail came out
from camp, said to the one who was to re-
lieve me that would substitute for him
the next "a hours. One of the members OF
my relief had shortly before got hold of one
of the new repeating rifles just about that
time introduced into the army, and asked
him to send it out to me as soon as he got
back into camp. It arrived about o'clock
with q good supply of cartridges. Snake
In-the-Grass had not been heard from
since the time disappeared from his view
headlong into the ditch, but I knew his
habits so well that / supposed, especially
as we allowed the fire to continue to burn,
that we should hear from him before mid
night In order to come to issue with him,
I adopted the well worn ruse of exposing
hat upon a stick in the ditch alongside Of
the picket pit, moving it up and down so
that by the light of the fire he would get
sight Of it. This was continued for some
time without effect. had taken my place
alongside the pit about four feet from 1t
In position unsheltered except byperhaps
10 or 10 inches Of earth. There I lay steadily
watching the tree, supposing that il he
fired at our dummy could tell by the
fash of his piece about what his position
was. The night was just dark enough to
obscure small objects, but l could see the
outline of the tree. / had watched in that
way perhaps an hour and my eomrades Sss
all Of a sudden there was report, and a
bullet grazed the muzzle Of my repeater
and barely missed hitting me In the head.
Then knew that Snake-In-the-G Grass was
there. Evidently he knew that was there
too. His shot had been so sudden and the
clcCt 81 uucAptCJt11 JIldU III Vic COulublOu Il
failed to note from what part Of the tree
the flash came. However, 1t put me on the
alert, and kept my piece ready for quick
aim. The waning campfire sputtered and
hared and at one moment happened to
throw up an unusually bright hight, when
bang went the rifle Of Snake e-In-the- Grass,
and my eye happened to be directed at the
point whence his fash came so that It SEEM
ed to me, although probably 1t was only
imagination, that saw the outline Of his
whole figure in the thick foliage of the tree.
1t could not have been possible, but all the
same l steadied my nerves, drew bead, and
just as fast as 1 could pull the trigger
planted, as believed, seven good sized bull
lets in the body of Snake-In-the-Grass. I
was also conscious although probably that
was Imagination, too that the body had
seen outlined in the tree at about the fourth
or fifth shot had tumbled from limb to
limb and reached the ground with thump.
However, as say, was not certain, so
refilled the magazine Of my repeater two or
three times and emptied II with spiteful
rapidity on that part of the tree where I
believed the sharpshooter had been. / lay
quietly In my place, expecting that per-
haps 1t was not the last OF him or that he
self In case had had as good aim as hoped,
but my comrades were not so cool, and two
or three of them crawled along the ditch
TO say. to me, lyon pumped him." We
did not take any chances on the fact that
Snake-In-the-Grass had been silenced for
some hours, but observed the usual pre-
cautions, kept we'll behind our shelter,
which, though slim, we always believed
was an armor we could not safely do with
OUTLET the fire burn away, and gradually
the men dropped to sleep. did not.
We had vidette out about ID feet in front
of the post, and along in the wee small
hours he heard the well known whistle Of
the swamp bird which was signal that
there was q Confederate lying out in the
grass who wanted 70 talk. The Johnny"
was allowed to come into the post, and the
first remark he made was:
WELL you have settled Spake-1D-the-
Grass at last, and, boys, we 'uns are Jest as
glad OF IL as you are. We'd "a been glad IL
he'd got it long ago.
why, is he deadi" I said, speaking up
quickly.
well, I won't say about that, but he
came down out OF that tree like log of
wood, and the last saw OF him two or three
of the boys was carrying him TO the rear to
the hospital. He's got IL pretty hard, and
We 'uns never expect TO see him again, and
we don't want TO. IL served him right. We
don't believe In that sort Of thing, and just
because the orders are that we must keep
up shootin now and then man takes It
as though the order was especially meant
for him. That was the way with Snake-In-
the Grass, and what could we sayf We
couldn't stop him, though we knew that
every man he hit would be retaliated by
you uns every chance you got. Besides, it's
murder, cold blooded murder, the best you
can say for it." GEORGE Il. KILMER