The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-12-08
SOLDIERS BUDGET.
Veterans Swap Stories.

The comrades Of post 500 continued
their storytelling. Sold comrode o.:
"Speaking of the anecdote OF tue cap
ture OF rebel brigade by Col Edwards
of the oh Maine and less than a dozen
of his men, reminds me of an ano cdote
of the Maine 7th. AT the battle of
Antietam, Capt. j. w. Walcott of the
1st Maryland battery, was stationed on
ridge near the bridge over the river
In front of him, some 100 yards distant,
rose another ridge, along which ran a
stone wall parallel with his position.
His pieces were trained obliquely, firing
at objects off one side from the last
named ridge. Meantime the enemy's
sbarpshooters crept up TO the stone
wall and opened fire on his gunners.
In very few minutes one of the pieces
was silenced, all the men working it
having been disabled, and the regular
ity of the others much impeded. Still
he held the ground with the obstinacy
that eventful day.
"Just then, when he was thinking of
the necessity of changing his line of
fire, he saw battalion of some 200
men, bearing regimental colors and the
Stars and Stripes, moving laterally
along the hollow intervening between
him and the foe. They deployed rap
idly, and went up the opposite hill,
toward the stone wall, at a charge,
with wild hurrahs. Suddenly the stone
wall became alive with rebels. 1t
seemed as if thousand rebels sprang
from behind the cover of the wall, and
poured a devouring, deadly discharge
full into the bosoms of the charging
Union battalion. Half of the battalion
fell on the spot, and the rest hurriedly
retired before the pursuing rebels.
Meantime Capt. Walcott had turned
his whole battery in that direction, and
the single gun that had lost its men he
had manned with teamsters and others,
and himself took charge of it, aiming
and firing. From all his pieces he now
poured canister, shrapnel and she IL
into the rebel column, while the enc.
my's sharpshooters from the stone
wall still sent their messengers of death
at his battery; but under the fire from
his pieces the enemy's column wavered;
it halted; it broke and fled. The shat
tered Union battalion in the valley had
formed again, and now, with scarcely
hundred men, swept up the hill once
more, drove the lingering foe from the
stone wall, and sent volley after volley
after the rebels, while the shells from
Walcott's guns swept far beyond The
ridge into the groves among which the
enemy were retreating. The little
Union battalion that thus so daringly
mounted the hill second time under
cover of Walcott's fire, was the rem
nant of Col. Mason's Seventh Maine
Regiment.
"Chaplains, even in the field" said
Comrade X, "are generally credited
with having been temperate men, if
not teetotalers; but there are not many
instances of chsplains having been dis
charged on account of drunkenness. l
know that the first chaplain of our regi-
ment was dismissed, or was allowed to
resign on account of his over indulgence
in alcoholic beverages. 1t calls to mind,
however, an amusing anecdote which
occurred in the army of the Cumber-
land, some time in the fall of 1862. 1t
is thus told by one who was there. He
says: On the morning of our arrival at
Strawberry Plains, captain on General
Sheridan's staff deserted man dressed
in a semi-miltary garb, common to
suffers and other army followers, riding
leisurely along in dilapidated carriage
drawn by a span of mules. The most
remarkable feature about this individ-
ual in the carriage was Bardolphian
proboscis of magnificent proportions
and gorgeous hue, at once suggestive
of luscious 'tods and invigorating cor
dials.
"The captain fatigued and thirsty,
taking his cue from the others illumin-
ated countenance, rode close beside
him, and asked, in a confidential tone,
if he couldn't give him suck NO,
sir was the reply, l am not a wet
nurse 90, but l mean drink of
whiskey; the fact is, I'm devilsh dry
No, sir, cannot; l never use intoxi-
eating beverages of any description;
therefore, have none But persisted
the captain, have you no friends or
acquaintance that you could recon-
mend me to. I am laundering nightly
after a "No, sir, do not frequent
the society of Incorporate men,
well, said the captain, looking hard
at him of the fiery visage and rum
blossomed nose, perhaps we have both
mistaken your calling; are you not a
sutler?' 'Sutlerl No, SIR returned
the now exasperated occupant of the
carriage, / am follower of the Lord,
Jesus Christ; the chaplain of the -
Ohio cavalry, and a. But the cap
tain stopped not to hear more, but put
ting spurs to his horse, left in twink
ling"
Considering the facial evidence
presented by the chaplain" said Com
rade z, II do not see that he was TO
blame in the matter. Men who paint
things red in private somehow get some
of the paint on their noses, and it won't
rub off easily. But there have been
good and brave chaplains in the army,
men who tried to do their duty in re-
lieving the sufferings of the wounded,
writing letters home for them, and
things of that nature, in addition to
holding religious services on occasion.
l am reminded, however, of some
what comical anecdote of one of the
cloth just after the close of the battle of
Gettysburg. Among the wounded in
the battle were several Germans from a
German regiment, and when one of
4. 4 a.