The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-07-13
SOLDIERS BUDGET.
Testing q Spy,

soldiers under Grant and Sherman
fighting our way northward toward
| Vicksburg, Spies were necessary and
l was called upon to do spy service.
Col. Raymond said he wanted twenty
young men who had nerve, and who
would go into the enemy's lines, ready
to die if necessary, without whimper-
ing or divulging of secrets. He also
informed me that several Confederate
spies had been recently hanged at Cor
inth and that the enemy would surely
retaliate on Federal spies. L agreed
to go.
That afternoon each of us was in
structed in the particular information
he was to get, and the respective part
he was to play as a civilian in the en-
emy's camp.
L was given the task of observing
some Typographical facts and seeing
what artillery Gen. Johnston's army
had. l was instructed to be a deaf
mute. The surgeon on Gen. Grier-
| sons staff had been the head of a deaf
and dumb school at Cleveland, and he
| spent several hours in drilling me as a
dummy.
l was to 90 over to Jackson with a
satchel full of shoe backing, shaving
soap, paper collars and notions, appar-
emily earning my livelihood by selling
my wares to Confederate soldiers. A
pencil and slate were my mode of com
m%unication.
l started out from the Grand Gull
late on the night of May 5. l knew
that L would be suspected of being a
spy, and that the least indication that
my hearing was at all coed would for
felt my life.
1 was within the enemy's lines by
noon the next day. | ate under a COW
shed while the rain drizzled down.
In the afternoon l was going along a
road lea a hamlet known as Griggs-
bys. l heard a troop of cavalry CON-
ing down the road behind me. l put
on a blank expression and trudged
along with my black satchel over my
shoulder.
A lieutenant rode up to me and call
ed:
"Hello, herel where are you going?"
l had had time to prepare myself for
this test. 1 started as if at the appear
ance of the horse under my eyes, and
looked vacantly up at the cavalryman.
He repeated his question. In a sec
ond l had my pocket slate out, and
handed it courteously to the officer.
The others in the troop laughed and
said:
20, he's a Oh fool dummy"
The lieutenant wrote on my slate,
"Who are you, and where are you
~going?"
1 wrote that l was Daniel Freeman,
and that l was peddling for a living.
Several of the troop remarked that it
was foolish TO waste time or such a
dumb m%utton-head as l, for I'd be
caught anyhow, and the troop galloped
away.
saw a camp of fully ], 1000 Confeder-
ates down in a valley. l knew that my
presence would be reported at head.
quarters by the cavalrymen, and il
would be folly to go past a camp if
were really seeking trade. l was
stopped by a sentinel about the camp,
l wrote for him my name and business
on my slate. He growled something
about lunk-head dummies wandering
about in war time, and, catching me by
the coat sleeve, led me to the Cfficer oil
the guard. The sentinel explained
that | was deaf and dumb, and went
away.
The officer had evidently known thai
the role of dummy was not uncommon
with up.to-date spies. "Stand over
there a second, till l finish this" sale
he to me in the most artful off-hand
easy manner.
My knees did move slightly, ard
alD,Not otannnI N Fnnt Drt oatnh
myself while the cold chills chased ur
and down my spine at my almost for
g%etfulness, and l resolved not to risf
my neck 30 easily again. "Your han(
is bloody said he, turning carelessly t.
me. I stood like a post, looking va
cantly at him.
"He's about as dumb as they make
'em," said the officer Ct the guard
when it was seen how obvious l was t.
all their tests of my hearing. "Isn't i
strange that such a poor cuss should &C
peddliDg around the lines Of warfare
He'll get over the Yank lines and it'll
go hard with him some of these days.
/ was dismissed. / went peddlinl
about the camp, all the time keeping
my eyes open for typographical ant
armament information.
Two days later l was seven miles far
Their in the enemy's country. / hat
met hundreds Of Confederate soldier
on the way, but the fact that 1 hat
passed an outlying camp all right wa
an indication that l was a genuine foo
dummy.
I was standing in the door of a shant,
cookhOuse in a camp, and without
moments warning down came abou
five gallons Of cold water over my heat
and shoulders. / shudder now when
think how near l came to cussing tn,
Confederate soldiers who stood abou
TO watch me.
Instead of saying a word 1 gurgeled
lot of inharmonious sounds of fright
and looked the more like a thing o
wood. -I...
In another camp 1 was squatting OF
the ground, mechanically showing m,
soaps aud tobaccos, and playing deaf Il
the thousand and one questions art
fully put to me, when / saw by q sol
dier's eye that some test of my hearinI
was to be made.
That moment I heard the click of