The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-08-13
A Nearly Fatal Mistake.

San Marcos, Texas, August We'll. yes.
should say. Scared only once that was
from the time l enlisted until the time |
unonlisted and then / was afraid for a
long time that they might force me to
enlist again. though when l skunk ont there
was only a part of me left, There was
enough gone to give a canniha good
steak for breakfast and soup bones for din
ner, but you know there had To be cou-
siderable lacking of that which was neces-
sary TO make up a man to keep from being
enlisted, and there was enough of me left
to make fairly good target to draw the
enemy's fire, though | might not have
stopped a bullet as we'll as some of us, for
some were thicker than was. though
had done pretty well in stopping the frag-
ments of bomb she'll. But then fellow got
worse scared sometimes than de did at
others, though like myself he was so
scared all the time he did not see how it
could possibly be worse.
Well, it was this way our colonel Will
lam p. Rogers, had great deal of curl
osity about knowing what the other fellows
at the great hazard of his own life he
would slip out at night and peep around Mt
them. 1t was after we had captured luka,
in the morning, and were preparing us d
meal out OF the bountiful captured stores,
and had dinner 30 nearly cooked that we
could almost taste it, orders came to form
companies" and the bugle sounded fall
In" and before we were fairly formed the
/ second courier delivered orders TO cook up
three days ratlons and be ready TO move ut
moments notice" and Just as we We're
dsbanding the third courier delivered Or
ders Ito move forward at double quick ana
engage the enemy" and we ran up hill
and met 'our friends, the enemy, in our
and their usual cordial manner, and had
spent the remainder of the day in our usual
jollity, and the bad night shut out the
light We were picketlng at ten PAGES, and
the colonel had, as usual, slipped out to
End out all he could about what the other
people were doing, and had gotten SO badly
lost as to be unable to find his way back
to the part OF the line on which no had
gone out-Aand the only person who knew
he was out were picketlng at that partic-
ular point.
/, though only orderly sergeant was In
charge Of the left Of the line of pickets
Of our regiment, the Second Texas infan-
try. The plckeis, as usual, We're rallied by
fours, one man on post, balance at rest,
Along in the small hours OF the morning
the picket ON post became slck--doubtless
on account Of the good Yankee rations he
did not get to eat. and I being too scared
as usual, to sleep, instead OF waking up
one OF the three slumbering pickets, TOOK
the place OF the sick one. / had not stood
long on pest, when was mentally, rather
than by vision or hearing. impressed hat
there was something advancing iume-
diately before me. That part OF the picket
line extended through a black JACK thicket
difficult to peer through, Looking as
keenly to the front as my frightened
vision would permit. l fancied l saw a
dark object through the dense foliage
Our orders were strictly to fire at any
object we heard or saw advancing In our
front. raised my rife to my shoulder
and aimed at the dark object, and placed
my finger on the trigger and pulled But
as ! did so my nerves refused to respond
to my command and my right hand quiz
cred, but yet ] could not understand why
my gun did not FIRE ! took my gun down.
examined the lock; II worked all right
The object In my front became more ana
more distinct. Again raised my gun to
my shoulder, took careful aim and again
attempted to pull the trigger, But again