The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-03-28
BILL ARPS' LETTER.
sac NARRArEs THE ROUGH IN.
PERuENCEs or WAR
Describes somo scenes Of the "Lato
Unpicasnntness."


soldiers, our conversation driitod back
10 our late civil war. We call 10 late, I
reckon. because IL is the last war We
bad, but tits not 80 very late. Almost
everNEDdy down south who was ON.
gagged in Il is dead. A generation dies
out IN thirty years and it has been
ihirty-hvo years since that war begun.
But there are few OF ms left and We
we're talking about the war like We
used to talk around the camp fires, aud
was asked what scene or battle or
event had left It's most vivid impression
upon my mind and memory. / knew
very iyell, but i can 20 back 10 scenes
aud events that have lasted longer and
been more personal remember
when / had fight at camp meeting
on Sunday and got whipped by a
country boy aud my Sunday clothes
we're all torn and muddied aud my
father whipped me that night and the
teacher got ready to whip me the next
morning and i showed him the red
whelbs on my legs and he let rue
of with a Calvinistic lecture on the
sin Of breaking the Sabbath day.
Well, the way OF il was, / had got
mp on the hub of watermelon
wagon to look at the tempting fruit and
the country boy pulled my foot of so
as to get my place and I bounced him,
but he was bigger and stronger and
had country boys to sick him on and
they didn't like my ruflled town shirt
and he got me down and nobody
wouldn't part us and / got the worst OF
1t and my Sunday clothes we're all
soiled and my face scratched and ] had
no friends and it grieved me for a
month that 1 had been imposed on
and whipped besides. / watched for
that boy to come to town and at last
he.fid come. l spied him on the other
side of the square and L got George
LeBter to back me and i everlastingly
licked him and my father never knew
anything about it, but told my moth
er 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 knew she was glad
that l 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 1 laid
my head in her lap and cried
Well, you see that was war-R big
ger war than ! ever found afterwards
and has left deeper impression.
But about the late war | said that
tina most vivid and lasting impression
ON my mind was the midnight scene of
our army crossing the Shenandoah by
torchlight, when we we're going from
Winchester to fight the first battle of
Manassas. 1 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 McOsker
apd Jim Smith and Zach Hargrove
powerfully to keep their footing and
the water out of their mouths and not
wet their ammunition. It wa the
18th day of July, 1851, and next morn
ing the boys all laid down on the hill
side near Paris and went to sleep in
their wet clothes and by noon resumed
the march to Manassas. They had
had good wetting, if not Il good
Awashing. The army left Winchester
A3nst at twilight. Not drum was
= heard-nOt a camp fire put out-not
an alarm of any sort ''They folded
their tents like the Arabs and silently
stole away" The enemy was left at
Martinsburg preparing for tomorrow's
battle and they never knew WHERE we
we're until after the battle of Manassas
had been 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 /
Mad witnessed and brought wildly be-
fore me a picture I had seen when q
boy of Bonaparte crossing the Rhine.
It was wild, weird sight and I 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
we're eager to do it,
Another one of our party said,
''Well. / was in that same battle and
aaw the killed and wounded all round
Re. but il was not till next day that l
came TO myself and had to command a
squad that was detailed to dig the
trenches and bury the dead. shall
never forget the field where the New
York Zouaves lay dead, nor how thick
they were upon the ground. They
we're dressed like Turks and had or
turbans and wide, loose pants and
CATERS. They we're large men to star
on, and during the night had swoller
mp and their faces turned almost black
it took about four of us to roll one int
the ditch. Their faces we're distorted
their clothing bloody, and / never
realized the horrors Of war until then