The Van Buren press., 1896-04-18
BILL ARP ON WARS.
Talks About the Rough Expert
ences of the Sixties.
Some Scenes Described Lees Army Cross
Ing the shenandoah by Torchtight-
Stories Told by the Soldiers
Who Survive.

ODc PHEASANT morning we were taliA-
ing about war-war with England, wan
with Spain-and, as usual with old sol
diers, our conversation drifted back to
our late civil war. We call it late, |
reckon, because it is the last war we
had, but it is not SO very late. Almost
everybody down south who was en-
gagged in it is dead. A generation dies
ottt IN 80 years. and it has been IS years
since that war began. But there are
few of us left, and we We're talking
about the war like we used to talk
around the camp fires, and | was asked
what scene or battle or event had left
its most vivid impression upon my mind
and memory. / knew very well, bit |
can go back to scenes and events that
| have lasted longer and been more per-
sonal. l remember when | had fight
at camp meeting on Sunday and got
whipped by country boy and my Sun
day clothes were all torn and nuddied
and my father whipped me that night
and the teacher got ready to whip me
next morning and | showed him the red
whelps on my legs and he let me off
with d Calvinistic lecture on the sin
of breaking the Sabbath day. Well, the
way of it was, / had got up on the hub
of watermelon wagon to look ut the
tempting fruit and the country boy
pulled my foot eff so as to get my place
and | bounced him, but he was bigger
and stronger and had country boys to
sick him on,and they didn't like my ruff
| fled town shirt, and he got me down
and nobody wouldent part lis, and l
| got the worst of it, and my Sunday
clothes were all soiled and my face
scratched and had no friends and it
| grieved me for a month that / had been
| imposed on and whipped me besides. /
watched for that boy to come to town,
and at last he did come. l spied him
on the other side of the square, and |
| got George Lester to back me, and |
everlastingly licked him and my father
never knew anything about it, but |
| told my mother that | had licked Tom
Fountain, and she Rugged me and
kissed me and told me that it was
wrong to fight, but somehow or other
| kenw she was glad that had whipped
him. l remember yet how the big tears
came in my mothers eyes when she
pulled up my pants and saw the marks
on my legs that my father had made,
and laid my head in her lap and cried.
Well, you see that was war-a big
| ger war than | ever found afterwards,
and has left deeper impression.
But about the late war | said that the
most vivid and lasting impression on
my mind was the midnight scene of our
army crossing the Shenandoah by
torchlight, when we were going from
Winchester to fight the first battle of
Manassas. | stood on the bank and
saw 1900 men ford that river. The
water was about breast deep to most
of the soldiers and they held their guns
and cartridges up high and it strained
the little fellows like McQsker and jim
Smith and Zach Hargrove powerfully to
keep their footing ard the water out of
their mouths and not wet their ammu-
milton. Ii was the 18th day of July,
1861, and next morning the boys all
laid down on the hillside near Paris
and went to sleep in their wet clothes
and by noon resumed the march to
Manassas. They had had a good wet
ting, if not good washing. The army
left Winchester just at twilight. Not
a drum was heard-not camp fire
put out-not an alarm of any sort.
"They folded their tents like the Arabs
and ct1antltr Ctp1a - Tho
was left at Martinsburg preparing for
to-morrow's battle and they never
knew where we were until after the
battle of Manassas was fought and
won. 1t was old Joe Johnston's first
military strategy. But the crossing OF
that river was the most historic and
graphic scene that / had witnessed
and brought wildly before me a pic
! ture | had seen when boy of Bona
! parte crossing the Rhine. 1t was a
wild, weird sight and / had never seen
so many men at once in all my life,
1t seemed to me there were enough to
whip all creation, and they were eager
to do it.
! Another one of the party said.
"Well, / was in that same battle, and
saw abe killed and wounded around
>Tne, But it was not till next day that
l came to myself and had to command
a squad that was detailed TO dig the
trenches and to bury the dead. ! shall
never forget the field where the New
York Zouaves lay dead, nor how thick
they were upon the ground. They were
dressed like Turks and had on turbans
and wide, loose pants and CATERS.
| They were large men to start on, and
| during the night had swollen up and
| their faces turned almost black, and il
took about four of us to roll one into
| the ditch. Their faces were distorted,
their clothing bloody, and l never re-
allied the horrors of war until then.
we dident give them full length
apiece, but put the head of one be-
tween the feet of another and covered
them about Is inches deep
THE most horrid sight 1 ever saw"
said another comrade, twas the battle
field of Malvern Hill. MIME balls don't
mangle up the boys like shell and
canister. Our boys were awfully torn
up on the last days fight by the shot
aud shell from the gunGoats. The
next morning after the fight | walked
over the field, and there was hardly a
complete man TO be found among the
dead. Legs and arms and hands and
feet were seen scattered in all kinds OF
| mutilated shapes and fragments.