The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1895-06-04


was the 10Th of August, 1862, just the
day before the awful fight at Lone
Jack. F"
1t seems that ON that date all the COM
panies in Lewis regiment were reor-
ganized, and that the voting for officers
was all done by ballot. When it came
to Bronaugh's company, every vote read
was cast for him for captain, except the
last one To the surprise of every one,
the last vote was called out in stentorian
tones: ~
1.-THE DEVIL"
At the announcement of this unex-
pected vote the men stared around at
each other in amazement.
'sSay, I" remarked the wit of the COM
pany at last, s.that fellow ought to have
better manners than vote for himself.
In the laugh that followed all the
company joined, except Jones. He stood
stiff as ramrod, with countenance
like that of Mephistopheles, until the
laugh had subsidized, and then he re-
marked:
He voted for blamed sight better
man than Bronaugh, anyway"
think that the reader will concede
that when the captain compliments ME-
Jones fighting qualities it is not be-
cause of any special personal friendship
for him. He was man of about 30 years
of age, below medium height, slender,
clean shayen, dark complexion, and was
very much like a hawk in the keenness
| of his eyes, the curvature of his nose,
the musicalness of his voice and the
general amiability of his disposition
The captain sums up the case by say.sltss,-;-
"He was soured on the world and all
the rest of mankind "
He was never known to agree with
anybody ON any subject that could be
mentioned. The nearest he ever came to
it was one day in camp, when the sol
diers happened to be discussing the char
acter of Abraham Lincoln, and one of
them forcibly expressed the opinion that
he was the greatest scoundrel that ever
! lived.
"Yesp' exclaimed Jones, with pro-
fusion of lurid language. There's only
one more contemplate hound in the
universe than Lincoln" g
"Who's he?"
jeff Davis, he replied, with all the
whitening contempt he could crowd into
the words From this speech it may be
imagined that while Mr.. Jones hated
the Union he did not adore the Confed-
eracy. The boys in camp suggested that
he wore the gray merely because he had
more men to shoot at than if he wore
the blue. There was no duty too hard
for him, no night too cold or rainy for
him to stand guard, no fight too danger
Gus for him, provided only he was al
lowed to have his fill of profanity and
abuse for the world in general Once
when it was limited that the artillery
was not strong enough to dislodge GER
tain battery belonging to the enemy,
some one suggested:
"Put old Jones up in front and let
him cuss at em. If that dm'tclean 'em
out, there's no use to try bonabshells"
He would not only curse the Federals,
but the Confederates also, the officers as
well as the men. Several times he was
known to knock his messmate down with
the fiat side of spade, and then if he
to threaten him with the edge. Owing
to such traits in him as these, the men
gradually grew unwilling to eat with
him, SO that for months he was veri-
table hermit, though surrounded by men.
No one spoke to him or had anything of
any kind to do with him when it could
in any way be avoided, and this seemed
fc no xx-ho he Tod
this time he was nicknamed "Bruin,"
not only on account of his bearlike tenn
per, but also because the solitary figure,
squatting about by his campfire, eating
his own food and holding converse with
no one was very much like that of a
bear Gagged by itself to prevent it from
injuTing anything.
In this way things worked tolerably
smoothly for awhile. but before long
Captain Bronaugh and his men decided
that if it could DO done they would like
very much to get Bruin transferred to
some other company. There were just
two difficulties in the way of this In
the first place, no captain who knew
him very well would consent to take
him, and, in the second place, if Bruin
knew that Bronaugh and his men did
not want him he would insist most
strenuously ON staying Both these diff
culties were circumyented by little
strategy. In the company of Captain
Boles there was a man named Eph Goff,
Henry county man, brave soldier
and an ardent friend Of Bronaugh. He
is at present living on his farm near
Clinton and is said to be as rollicksome
and as fond of his joke now as he was
then One day Bronaugh approached
Boles, explained the situation and asked
that Goff be transferred to his company.
"All right" said Captain Boles
"Who can you give me in his placer"
well, I've got a man named Jones
you can have.
Is he good soldier?"
s'The best fighter ever saw"
Done, said Captain Boles, and that
part of the matter was settled. The only
thing now remaining was to get Bruins
consent to be transferred, and this was
done in the following manner:
''Mr Jones, said Captain Bronaugh
one day, II understand you are trying
to get out of my company and into Cap
tain Boles'. want you to understand,
sir, that don t propose to permit you to
do anything of the kind If any officer
has got to be losing his men for every
little fool reason that may come up,
there'd just as well not be any officer at
all -
Bruin looked little dazed at this
statement of the case, and then remark
ed that he d be dash blank, dashed if he