The Republican., 1897-09-23
WAR "REMINISCENCES.
AN INNOCENT BOY spy.
The War Experience of Very Small
Soldier.

The War Experience of n Very Small
Soldier.
"Did 1 ever tell you about nv nephew.
Albert Boynton?" asked Col. Sam Bovn-
ton, of Chicago.
For some time after the battle of
Shiloh supplies for the army were
hauled by team from Pittsburgh Land
ing. Our regiment had sent three teams
for rations. My company was doing
provost duty in Corinth when the teams
returned. l noticed a little boy on a
load of hard tack. He was covered with
dust; his hat was badly torn and his
clothes were ragged. When the team
stopped in front of my quarters he
called OUT: Hello, Uncle Sam, 1 guess
you don't know me-
81 didn't, but said: Come here He
climbed down from the wagon and tim
idly came to my side. Then l recog-
nized him. He was my brothers bov,
the brother then living in Galena. l
said to him; What on earth are you do
ing down here, Alberto
"'Well, uncle, wanted to see a fight.
and father wouldn't let me go to the
war; he said was not old enough to be
q soldier, so [ ran away
"'How did you manage to get here?'
81 crawled out of the window at
night and went to the depot and laid in
with the engineer and he took me to
Chicago, and then Clipped in with an
other engineer who took me to St. Louis.
There l got on board the steamer John
"a, l,n, a.,
me off at Cairo, but hid away in a bunk
and he couldn't find me. After we GOT
started l came out and told the captain
l wanted to find the Eighteenth Wiscon-
sin; that my Uncle Sam was in that
regiment, and if l could find him he
would pay for my passage. The cap
tain told me that the Eighteenth was at
Corinth, 20 miles from the river. When
l got Ftf the boat At the Landing I asked
some men if they knew where the
Eighteenth was camped, and one of
them said he belonged to that regiment,
so piled onto his wagon and came with
him. Uncle Sam, do you think you fell
lows will have a fight here soon? 1
want to see fight awful bad
"'I can't tell. We may and we may
not
after he had cleaned up a little the
boys got him some supper and then he
lay down and was soon fast asleep. |
wrote to his father telling him that his
boy was with me and would be back
home as soon as he saw a fight. He re-
mained with me until October before nc
had a chance to see fight. About the
1st of October he came to me and said:
Uncle Sam, [ want to get out into the
country and see what | can find out
there l had bought him some new
clothes, a regular butternut suit, and
he being a small, thin, sallow-loollino
boy, one would bet he was a Jonny's
son. He was only 13 years old and quite
small for his age. 1 told him 1 did not
like to have him go away alone. But he
was bound to go. l saw no more of him
for four days. l was greatly alarmed.
On the fourth day he came back He
had three chickens and a lot of dried
peaches tied up in a woman's skirt. l
asked him where he had been. L have
been to Ripley That was about 20
miles from Corinth. 4 saw Price and
Van Dorm. Both were there. | stayed
oil night with one of the Arkansas regi-
ments. The colonel's name is Roger
i was close to Price. He is quite an old
man and fat. Van Dorm is a young man,
tall and slim, with dark hair and chin
whiskers with mustache. They are COM