The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-02-23

mind in connection with droll scene.
1t was the day after the hardest fight at
Stone River. Boney had been left in
an exposed situation as guard for the
knapsacks of the company. In this way
he had been kept out of the fight on the
I'd of January, and after spending the
most of miserable rainy night in try
ing to find the company, he came to
where our brigade was bivouacked, an
athematizing everybody, from the or
derly sergeant, who had detailed him
for knapsack guard, to the general COM
manding the army. At that time it
was clear that the confederate army
had retreated, and the men who were
not asleep were drawing the damp
cartridges from the guns, and some of
them, under special permit, were fir
ing tie loads, so as to have their guns
in good order for the pursuit.
"Boney came on this scene exploding
with the concentrated irritability and
indignation of his long vigil. He re-
ported to the captain, explained that
he had carried his gun in the rain all
night, and he couldn't draw the load,
and, as other men were shooting off
their rifles, he would like to make sure
of his. He was given permission to
Shoot, and he asked where he should
go. The captain waved his hand and
said: oh, any place in the rear of
the regiment, but be careful to fire into
tree or stump Boney stepped back
about 20 PAGES, and, seeing Il large
stump in the foreground, took delit,
l crate aim and blazed away. He did not
know, as the other boys knew, that that
stump had marked, during the battle
and since, regimental headquarters,
and at that very minute the colonel,
lieutenant colonel and others were
asleep behind it.
"Such was the case, however, and the
shot precipitated most astonishing
commotion. The bullet knocked bark
and splinters from the stump, and so
startled sleepers behind it that the
colonel rolled out on one side, the lieu
tenant colonel on the other, and men,
be-s of their staff jumped here and
there, the general effect being that of
a squad demoralized by the explosion
of a shell. AS the colonel, who wore
his hair long, and was proud of very
long reddish brown beard, came up on
his hands and knees, he looked like a
raging lion. The scene, however, was
so comical that Boney laughed in spite
of himself.
"As he stood, with the rife dropped
to the bend of his elbow, taking in the
comical side of the situation, the colo
mel glared at him, SO angry that for a
minute he could not utter word. Then
he burst out with:
"'What do you mean, sir? What dc
you mean, sir, by such conduct? II
you ever do thing like that again, sir
by the Lord, sir, I'll cut your ears off!
"By this time all the company were
Interested spectators, and they were
anxious about the fate of Boney. Boney
himself was cool and self-possessed. Hi
said, in an easy, conversational way:
"'Colonel, that's what my old grand
mother used to tell me when she want
ed to scare me. She didn't scare m,
then, and it don't scare me now. Blu
I beg your pardon. II didn't know
that the army was so'reduced that th
colonel of the First Kentucky had II
find refuge behind stump
"Explanations followed, and the af
fair ended by the colonel saying II
Boney, confidentially, that if ever an
other battle was fought, he would Sc
that Boney Meredith was at the front
and he kept his promise. Chicago In
ter Ocean.