The National tribune., 1900-07-19
Z 81 Ne9g
IF ~ as q
Oz Veteran
Through to Our Lines.
Copyrighted lso9 by the publishers of THE NATIONAL
TRIBUNE.

Every turn of the worn, uneven wheels
brought jolt, clatter, as If of some
thing breaking, q shrek of grinding, un-
oiled aXles. and a visible straining of the
engines powers. The track was so sunk
en-, uneven, and warped as to gauge, that
it seemed strange that engine or cars
stayed on. The strap rails would occa-
sionally turn up into ''snake-heads,' which
would tear up the boards on the bottom
of the cars, and scare the inmates with
the danger of stabbing them and wreck
ing the ears, until the engine could be
stopped and backed, the rail released, and
spiked down again. Then the water tanks
had either rotted down, or the pumps
We're out of order. The engine seemed to
want to drink rs often as lazy school
boy on hot afternoon, and every time
creek was handy, the two hard-worked ne
grocS on the tender would replenlsh the
tank-by carrying up water in buckets
Then there We're no wOod-pIles, and the
engineer stopped whenever he discovered
fence-corner still standing, or likely
lot of deadwoOd anywhere, while the ne
groes cut it and piled it on the tender.
'They call this railroading," said
Shorty, scornfully. ''Taint as good as
pole-beating in high water on the Mud
Turtle River. If | couldn't take wash
biler and n set of wheels and tinker up a
better railroad than this out of any junk
shop in st. Louis, l hope l may never
see the back o my neck"
And see them niggers chop" said 81,
with the disgust of a genuine, skillful
Western axman Il think pap'd have a
fit if he seen any one on his place SWING
an AK like that ! believe | could gnaw
log in two with my teeth while they're
cutting 1t, and their kerfs must look like
the sides of q rat-hOle. How, in the name
@ goodness, did they ever Git this coun-
try cleared with sich timber butchers as
thcm?'
"Thcy haint cleared it up to any alarm
ing extent" responded Shorty, land
they've bin morn 200 years at it. If them
niggers was up in Injianny they'd freeze
to death while cutting wood to warm
themselves"
Their impatience was notified, how
ever, by seeing signs everywhere that
army, and presumably that of Sherman.
Whenever the country roads came in
view they were filled with wagons haul
ing forward supplies, or going back for
more. They passed trains on sidings,
loaded with lean, long horned cattle, the
''Theys wouldn't let sich rusty stock as
that live to cat up the acorns and beech
nuts and buckeyes up in Injianny," said
he. They're all horns, and skin and
bones. If the rebeis'd only butcher 'em
where they git 'em, and send on Just the the
pounds out o. every 1000"
Most gratifying were signs, increasing
in frequency, which told to their SOL
dierly eyes where our cavalry had sue
ceeded in reaching the railroad. They
finally came to Lovejoy Station, where
there had been terrific cavalry and in
fantry fighting July % and 30. Wild
havoc marked wide extent. The depot,
with large amount of cotton and pro-
visions, had. been burned, together with
hundreds OF wagons, and the unburied
carcasses of the mules made a horrible
stencil. Clouds of buzzards were wad
ding around, gorging themselves. The
track had been torn up for mile or two,
and hastily relaid with green stringers
and ties. Trees had been cut wholly or
partially off by shot and shells, and the
weeds and brush tramped down by the
furious ruSheS of horsemen and infantry.
First Time Lever wanted to belong to
the cavalry" said Shorty, gazing on the
broad range of blackened ruins. Seems
TO me that man on boss with one o
them runty, half-growed carbines, that
you load up Sunday to last the whole
week, kin scatter more various kinds o
hell over bigger stretch o ground than
he kin on foot with Springfield rifle
There couldn't have bin a great many of
our boys here, but they give them rebels
an awful raSsle, and raised as much par
ticular Cain as full army corps could've
done. Great boys, them cavalrymen OF
ours"
I'D like to see the whole Of Georgy
in the same condition." said 81, savagely.
Even that wouldn't begin to pay up for
Andersonville."
Some hours later they came to Jones'
boro where the fate of Atlanta had been
decided by their own old Fourteenth
Corps finging its mighty weight in a re-
sistless war-torrent against the works
which had protected Hoods remaining
railroad and his extreme left flank. 1t
was the strong, crushing blow which haG
toppled the rebel hopes into cureless ruin,
and changed the jubilations in Atlanta
into whitc-lippcd terror over the inevta-
bic doom. But though the event had
been infinitely greater than at Lovcjoy's
Station, the black, far-reaching wrack
and ruin were not so impressive. There
were the long lines of red earthworks
over which the fight had ragged so fear
fully that September afternoon, with
their tanglng abatis and Instructions
that had cost such a sad reckoning of
ighsouled, patriotic lives, and there were
wrecked houses and shattered trees and
numerous carcasses of horses and mules
But what to soldier eyes, told the tale
most imprcSSiycly, We're the long rows OF
newlymade graves soaring the hillsides
| ltavaged fields and hOuseleSS chimneys
| and foundations had no tongues so elo-
quent as the length of those lines of clay
mounds.
What had encouraged the boys even
| more than the uninterrupted progress
northward was the conduct of the guards
On the way TO Andersonville there were
guards in and on top of every car, every
| movement of the prisoners was sternly
| watched. and every order enforced by lev
| cling a gun. Several men were shot on
| the way down, and many more shot at
| Now there was only Il handful of guards,
| under Il Lieutenant, and they seemed so
| indifferent as to what the prisoners might
| do that they! all went back into the ca
| boo&e and stayed there.
"Mebbe they think it's no use guarding
| us," suggested 81. .'rhere is nothing TO
steal, after our cavalry and the rebels has
bin over the country, and if a man run
away he'd starve to death before he'd
git very far
While they We're waiting at one of the
creeks for the negroes to fill up the tank
with their buckets 81 and Shorty took the
boys down to the water for Il good wash,
which they sadly needed, since the heat,
| dust and Crime. were fearful They
| cleansed out Pete's and Sandy's gan
grenOus sores tenderly with soft paw-paw
leaves, and applied Alf Russell's favorite
prescription of a poutice of white-oa K
bark, bound on With paw-paw strips.
The engineer Of the train came up TO
| them wiping his hands on piece of cot
| ton waste, in the perfunctOTy manner of
his tribe. He cast glance around to see
| that all the guards were about the ca
boOse out of earshOt and their attention