The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-08-13
USED TO SOLDIER LIFE
Anaconda Men at Chickamauga
Becoming Injured to Hardship.
DOESN'T LIKE THE SOUTH
Charles e. johnson, Formerly of This
City, Tells About Life in Camp.
Pork and Beans Straight Have
Terrors No Longer.

Mrs. X. X. Stuart of No. 2O4 East
Fourth street has received a letter
from her son, Charles f. Johnson. a
well known young man of this city.
who Is now with the cavalry troop that
left Missoula at the time the Butte cav
airy also left the state. The letter is
dated Chickamauga park. Aug. Z, and
the following extracts will be of inter-
est to Anaconda people:
we have just lately moved camp
about a half mile from our former site,
out of the timber and on higher ground.
We are now on a hill where some of the
hard fighting was done in the last war.
We get more sun now and also more
breeze, and the drainage is a good deal
better. We all like the change, as 1t
takes US away from the stagnant pools
OF water and the tenet OF the old
camping place.
This is the worst place ] was ever
In for rain. The natives here would
laugh at the little showers we call
heavy rains in the North. 1t seems as
though somebody was up above throw
ing water at us in barrels. We all got
soaking wet the day we moved, but 1
was lucky enough to get our tent up
and drains dug around, so / had some
dry clothes to put on and a dry bed
for the night. You ask me how l like
the Southern country to live in. Not a
bit. Montana, they say. is 20 ear be-
hind the times, and this place is 20
years behind Montana. The people here
are all dead, but not buried yet. They
have no life or get-up at all.
ut is raining now and coming down
hard, too, and when / started this let
ter there wasn't a cloud In the sky. We
are getting to be good soldiers-that is
to say, taking things as they come,
good weather or bad, work or sleep,
and duties we would growl at when we
first came here, now we do as a matter
of course. Straight pork and beans
hav very little terror for us now. You
ought to see us rustic for extras to eat
things W. would pass and never no
tice at home are gobbled up in a rush
by hungry bluecoats.
"AlI the Anaconda boys are well and
nave been so from the first. 1t takes
something more than the South to
bother them. Storey is the life Of the
troop still, and has a strong rival in
Jimmy O'Mara, another of the Anacon-
da football players. Our mess, that is,
four of us, are going to buy a tent
10x12. 1t will give us more room and
will be better all around. We are now
crowded into a little tent 7xS, and with
all of our belongings we are squeezed
III AR vi IN " N w no
learned one bit of philosophy down
here, and that is, 1t is better to plan
how TO better our surroundings than to
waste that same amount of time grum-
bling at how we are fixed. My time is
taken up mostly by trying to keep my
accoutrements and arms clean. our
guns and sabres are very hard to keep
from rusting, and especially the sabre
~scabbard. 1t is made of unpublished
steel and the way the rust gathers on IL
Is a caution. Some ~scabbards in the
troop look like relics of the former war,
in fact we call them so. We have a
band forming in our regiment, and /
suppose we will have all kinds of mar
tial music in a week or two. Our horses
are in pretty good trim now. having
only -four on the sick list. My horse is
one of the best drilled in the troop. He
will go through all of the movements
without reins to guide him.
There doesn't seem to be much show
for us to get TO the front, as cavalry
are not needed. That is one of our
|