The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1898-10-07
CAPT. HOWELL'S
ANTE-BELLUM STORY

From the Washington Tines
Captain e. P. Howell, of Atlanta, who is
serving on the Alger relief commission, is
adding to his already well established
reputation as a story teller. Whenever
the investigation work 1ags, which has
been pretty often up to date. owing no
doubt to the many pressing business en-
gagements of a private character of Chair
man Dodge and other members of the
board Captain Howell comes to the rescue
and relieves the monotony of the session
of the commission with a story The fol-
lowing is the gist of a story tald by How
ell to former Governor Woodbury., of Yer
mont Woodbury. and Howell have be-
come fast friends since they met together
on common grounds in relief work. Wood
bury was a union soldier and left an arm
somewhere in the south. Howell served
throughout the war in the confederate
ranks:
There used to be a time" Captain How
ell went on to say, addressing his remarks
for the most part to his friend Woodbury.
when labored under the impression that
one well equipped southern man could whip
half dozen Yankees with one of his hands
tiSo pCh.iiu MN NilHOut Hall Trying. InaL
was just before the war, and don't you
know 1t was the general impression that
existed throughout the south at that time?
If our people had only known the truth
perhaps things might have been different;
our men would not have been so eager for
scrap. But 1 am not going to moralize,
but relate to you a little experenue that
came under my personal observation. A
short time before Sumter was fired upon,
a strong lunged man appeared in our To-
cality, no one knew from just where and
one stopped to inquire, so far as l know,
who would be designated today as a pro-
fessional agltator, walking delegate or
something of that sort. He let himself
loose every night in the court house square
to an enthusiastic crowd of men and boys.
The burden of his talk was that the south
ern people were the bravest and very best
people upon the face of the earth. Every
mothers son of US knew how to ride and
shoot and there not the slightest
doubt about it, one southern man could
put whole reg ment of Yankees to fight.
They were towards by nature and did not
know one end of a gun from another, ana
bes DIES, they were SO wrapped up in max
ing money that they would not fight any
how. Well, Sumter was fired on in rev
days after that, and most of us young lei
lows, burning with desire to whip d
whole regiment of Yankees, made haste
to enlist Our only fear was that the Yam
KEGS would surrender before we had q
chance to get at them and win any glory.
IA few months later L went into my first
engagement. Somehow the Yankees did
not retreat very fast. In fact, they stood
their ground and shot back at us.
Il turned to Bill, my chum: Say, Bill,
there must be some mistake Our COM
mander must have attacked some of
fellows for those d-n Yankees
Looks like it, certain, said Bill. The
next moment Bill got ball in the leg and
1 dragged him back behind a tree. The
tree was fully foot thick, but it seemed
to me to be the smallest tree that L had
ever seen. 1t didn't begin to be big enough
for the occasion. The firing in front grew
very hot, and presently entire Inc be-
gan to fall back.
whats the matter?' inquired BIZ
from his position on the ground.
Looks like our felers were retreating,
says 1.
There was silence for a moment.
"'Say, Bill says L, do you remember
that fellow who came down to our town
just before the war started and told US
as how the Yankees were all blank cow
ards and that one of us could knock out
a regiment of them?
"'You bet I do said Bill, and l just
wish we had him here now. ;"