The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-08-03


iards fred their deadly volleys from
the brush, and he spurred his steed
forward and shouted, SsCharge EN-
boys! Charge the damn yankees; run
EN- out Of the brush!-the damn
Spaniards, Imean!' And now they tell
it on General Lee that when his hand
some blue uniform came and his wife
took it out Of the case, he looked at it
with solemn countenance and said
''Put it back, wife; let it stay there a
while till I can get reconciled. I'm
afraid I might shoot at it all Of a sud-
den.'
The boys in camp get up many a
joke, and they go on the grand rounds,
and that reminds me Of Pat Doolan, a
fresh Irishman, who was put on picket
and ordered to let no man pass with
out the password. When the officer
came round to change the guard Pat
challenged him with, ssHalt, be Jesus,
and give the password. "OHicer on
the grand rounds" said the lieuten-
ant. Grand rounds and be damned
to yet said Pat, san if ye don't
come forward and Bull Run I'll be
after shootin' into ye, Mr.. Grand
Rounds
The boys say chat down at Camp
Griffin, when new recruit comes In,
the devilish fellows take him off to
drill him. ssYoung man, you must
remember the Maine, and also remem-
Der that you are a private. When
you meet an officer you must salute
him and say, I am your dog, sir, and
the officer will wave his hand and
( smile and say, I know it. and pass
on They haze the green ones as
bad as college boys haze verdant
freshman. There is many wag
~
around the camp fires and they spice
the weary hours with wit and wisdom.
The average soldier bears no malice,
not even toward the foe he has been
sent to fight. Ceryera and Hobson
are the best Of friends and if tits pos
sible for us to like Cervera, it is pos
sible that the people who placed him
in high command have some redeem
ing virtues. In, our civil war the pri-
Yates Of both armies exchanged civili-
ties on the picket lines. Stonewall
Jackson rebuked them and once when
a picket brought him a New York pa
per he refused it and said Take
nothing from them, sir, and give them
nothing but lead. They are our enc
mics But the common soldier has
not considered the casus helli, the
aggravation from a national stand
point nor can he, like Cromwell or
f
Stonewall Jackson, worship God by
killing his country's foes.
A soldiers life is good training
school, and he soon loses some Of his
conceit and sel6shness. When boy
who has been humored and petted at
home becomes q schoolboy and has to
rub against other boys, he soon learns
to give and take and tote fair with his
schoolmates. just so these young
soldier boys, whep far away from
father and mother, soon find them
selves enduring a common hardship
and in peril common danger, and it
softens their nature and takes away
their vanity. They learn from one
another, and like these commercial
travellers, absorb knowledge by con-
tact. The best informed people I
meet with are the veterans of the
civil war. However dull and unedu-
Gated were the boys when they entered
service in 1861, they were bright and
genial when they came out. I'll ven
ture that there was more good sense
and more forbearance, more real re-
hective patriotism and less sel6shness
in the recent grand gathering Of veter-
I ans in Atlanta than in any body of
men ever assembled In the United
States. These veterans all look alike
to me. Hard service has hammer
ed them down, like steel used to be
hammered out Of iron. Their faces,
their hearts, their walk, their solidity,
their considerate conservatism, all
mark them as men who have been
tried and refined in the crucible Of
war-the dross expelled and the pure
gold left.
But war is bad thing-the worst
thing in the world. A philosophic
friend Of mine says no and he argues
that periodically nations must have
war, pestilence or famine to purify
them, to purge them and to kill of
3 the unproductive surplus and give