Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-06-14
HAVING FUN UNDER FIRE.
Amusing Incidents in the Franco-Prussian
War and the Riei Rebellion.

A retired major of a foreign service
was talking the other night of expert
ences under fire, says the New YORK
Sun. He declared that it was not all
serious work. He said:
Il have had fun when soldering. ana
that, too, under fire on the skirmlsa
line. | remember once in France dur
ing the Franco-German war, when we
We're with Bourbaki at Montbeliord,
was surprised to hear some of my men
laughing when we were about 400 yards
from the Germans and while we We're
lying on dirty, damp ground and with
just the smallest incline in our front
to protect US from the enemyS lire.
We were hungry and cold, and were
obliged to hug the dirty ground in or
der to get cover 1T was no place for
hilarious amusement. and yet the men
kept laughing, and they laughed 50
loudly that l am sure the enemy heard
them
II could not stand up with any safe
ty, and the only way l could reach the
men was to crawl, which | did, and
after crawling about twenty yards
found myself in good sized depression
in the ground, where there was fair
shelter, and there | found out the
cause of all the amusement. We had
been out on our post eight hours, and
had used up a good deal of ammuni-
ton and l had ordered the men to
keep what they had left for an emer-
gency that | expected any minute.
This gave the men leisure to grumbie
or make fun, just as they thought best,
and in this case ii was all fun.
They We're playing ninepins with the
enemy. And they did it this way:
They made nine piles of mud in the
form and about the size of sugar loaves,
and they placed these a distances of
about yard from each other. They
they made bets as to which pin would
be first hit, or which would be hit the
most times, and as each pin was hit
there was laugh. but | found that
each pin was named after some un-
popular member of the battalion, and
when one of the pins was shattered the
men would laugh and say: There goes
Long Legs or Saw bones is over or
'Fly-by Night is disembowelled, and so
on. | stopped the game.
Il remember an amusing incident
during the Riel rebellion in the Cana
dian Northwest in 1885 The Indians
and half-breeds had duS Its at Bal
oche. and We We're pounding at them
for three days With little or no effect.
During that time our men We're on the
skirmish line all day, and a night they
retired to the corral We had built imme-
diately in our rear. But the half-breeds
and Indians We're evidently having fun
at the expense of our youngsters.
'Of course, even our militia men We're
prepared for the old ruse about putting
a cap on the end of stick but the In
dams made dummies. and they would
suddenly expose a part of those dunn
mics, the head or shoulder, or the side
or in one case the feet, and then Uul
young fellows would begin an indepen-
dent firing rapid enough to resist a
charge of cavalry. But the best part
of the joke was that a great many Of
the youngest soldiers who fired at the
dummy We're sure to say. I hit him.
1 hit hint While there is no doubt
even the stoical Indians in their pits
We're laughing and |. too. enjoyed the
joke, for | had an excellent field glass
and could see the dummies very
plainly"