Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1894-03-29

front OF his position that the plckets
should not fire on each other, and that
discipline was not interrupted by the
rule.
"Now, it may seem strange, but l
discovered just the reverse. The in
humanity of picket firing had often
struck me, and determined that if
ever | got separate command should
stop it. My opportunity came when
my regiment was posted on the Cum
berland facing command of Rebels.
There was a continual firing of pickets
and as the enemy had superior guns
they rather got the best of it. But
one day we got lot of new guns, and
/ determined to teach the other fell
lows lesson, and also to try and stop
the firing. The determination was
fastened upon me by an incident that
happened one day when l went to the
picket line to inspect my men. A
young recruit presented arms in front
of me, and a bullet from one of the
Johnnies cut off the top joint of one Of
his fingers.
81 had n trench dug, where the
pickets would be out of range of the
Rebels. They were in the habit of
coming down to the river to wash ev-
cry morning, and when they were per-
forming their ablutions one morning
our pickets shot half dozen of them.
Then / sent q flag of truce to the enc
my and asked them if they were will
ling to come to the agreement not to
fire. The compact was made and the
firing stopped But l soon found that
if the p.ckets did not try to kill each
other they would become excessively
sociable. My officers continually came
to me with complaints that our pickets
and those of the Johnnies got together
drank whisky and played cards"
"Why don't you stop them?" l asked.
"We do stop our men from going
over 20 the other side, but we can't
prevent the Johnnies from coming
over and visiting our men. They
bring the whisky with them
"One day an officer came to me and
said, Get on your horse and I'll show
you sight 1 mounted and rode
down to the bank of the river, and we
did see sight. Stretched out in the
sun were dozen men in drunken
sleep. First there was blue coat,
then gray coat, then another blue
coat, and so on, with their arms thrown
over each others necks, and in the
happiest state of ignorance that there
was such thing as wicked war.
One of our men and one of the John
MES had rowed down the river to q
distillery and got supply of new
whisky. If there is anything that will
make a man drunk rapidly it is newly
distilled whisky, and that accounted
for the state of the men.
"That settled my determination to
go back to the old arrangement of let
ting the pickets fire at each other. If
1 did not, the discipline of my COM
pany would be gone. So l sent word
to the Rebel Commander that the next
day at certain hour we should resume
hostilities. The Rebels kept faith.
They did not fire until the hour had
arrived, but when it did come they
fred the first shot.
Besides convincing me that two
commands cannot face each other
without either firing at each other or
losing discipline, it also made me feel
that if the war was not forgotten it
would not be the fault of the soldiers
that wore the blue and the gray.
They were quick enough to becom
brothers when they had chanc t
show their friendly feeling"