The National tribune., 1895-01-24
A CONFESSION.
How Capt. Jack Got the Credit of Being q
Daring Defender of the Flag.

EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: Before
begin my story, want to tell little one,
| which / will call Father Toomey's Little
| Joke" At recent public installation of
one of the big Posts OF Chicago Father Dam
! iel B. Toomey, priest, and at that time
| Commander of Post in Cook County, ILL.,,
grand, good comrade, was invited to make
few remarks. The little father is very
witty, and i am inclined to think, from the
richness of his brogue and the athletic per-
formances of his tongue, that he was an
Irishman before he emigrated to this coun-
| try.
After the good comrades extremely witty
speech had been vigorously applauded / was
| called to the platform by the Commander
and ordered to fire a vocal volley right into
the unsuspecting audience. / had prepared
short poem for the occasion, and it had
been announced that / would read it. After
had made my bow and was standing with
my most reliable smile on my face, feeling
in the breast pocket of my coat for the
manuscript OF my verses, discovered to my
annoyance that l had not brought it with
me, and saw a way out of the dilemma only
through an apology With sort of scowl
of disappointment on my face / said:
Commander and comrades, have con-
fesson 10 make. p
Before could utter another word Father
Toomey was on his feet, and with great
earnestness cried out:
"Come here to me- Captain, and get down
on yer hunkers."
The audience roared. and it was some time
before could tender the necessary apology.
Now for the other confession. On May
6, 1864, Co. F. of which l was member and
Co. A of my regiment were ordered into a
piece Of woods as skiTmishers. We deployed
and advanced rapidly until a fusilade of
bullets caused us to hesitate. The Captain
of my company said, in clear, ringing voice:
STEADY, boys. Keep covered and adj
vance slowly, and don't fire unless you see
something move"
IL was hard to discover the butternut-
clothed Johnnies, and two Of our men were
wounded within a few moments. was lying
down loading and firing at will, when Dave
Thiel, 16-yearold boy, behind tree on
my left, stepped out and fired. / said to
him, Dave, don't come out so far" and
soon after Capt. Williams warned him to
not expose himself; but the boy did not
seem TO realize his danger, and the third or
fourth time he stepped out he was shot
through the head and killed. Two of the
men dragged bin back to cover, and for
about 10 minutes we kept on firing when
we could get shot.
The TWO nights previous we had marched
with no sleep, except such "cat-naps" as
We could catch when brief halt was or
dered so that the night of the 9Th we had
had no sleep but what we got in these short
intervals while moving along the bad roads
in The dark.
On the skirmish-line 1 suddenly fell
asleep, aud a few minutes afterwards two
companies Of Indians belonging to the 1st
Mich. Sharpshooters fell back, demoralized
by charge from the rebs, thus leaving
our right flank bare and unprotected, 80 that
Capt. Williams, after trying to stop the In
dian stampede, ordered our two companies
to fall back in good order. They went back
some 200 yards, leaving me sound asleep.
the men on either side of me-10 or IL
paces-not noticing that had been left be-
hind, nor was / missed until the skirmish-
ers halted, and it was then believed l had
been killed OF wounded where / lay.
After a time the Indians were reorgan.
lied, and, abreast of our two companies |
moved forward, crawling on their bellies
like snakes When they were within about
SO yards of where lay / woke up with a
start and sbudder, and saw the rebels in |
front of me, running as our boys advanced |
with yell.
1t was the yell that awoke me, and i'm
mediately got up on my knees and COM
menced 10 shoot. When our men got up to |
their original position / turned around to |
Sergt Pat Monaghan, and said:
"You are nice crowd, to run off and |
leave me here to fight the whole rebel army |
alone.o
Well, that's the story just exactly as it
happened; but you will say, Where does
the confession comes IMP" Right here. 1 |
never said word about being asleep, and |
got credit for being brave, when, the truth |
is, was half scared to death when / real |
allied where was and alone. That is one |
OF the many instances whereby great repu-
tations were often made by accident
Ca PIT. JACK CRAWFORD.