The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1900-08-16
BLUE AND THE GRAY
eRAvE MEN WHO MET ON THE
FIELD Of BATTLE.

rhrillias etSriec Of the Rebellion-
Old Soldiers and Sailors Relate Remi.
niscences Of Life In Camp and ON
the Field-Incidents Of the war.
Log shouldering ,b,d TO be a regular
guardhOuse punishment when l was in
the regular outfit" said an old soldier
OF the regular army. "A man sentenced
10 ten days In the guardhouse would
either be sent out TO work in the morn
ing. policing around the post. or he
would be given his twO-hOurs- n-and-
four-hours-off tours of log-humping
He'd have to carry his log just as the
men on guard carried their rifles. in SO
far as hours of duty were concerned.
except that he was permitted TO sleep
in at night. The logs weighed from
50 to 100 pounds when the punishment
was first employed In the regular army,
but this was finally considered too
much Of good thing. and when the log
humping punishment was abandoned
the chunks Of trees only weighed some
thing like fifty pounds. But it was no
soft snap to pack even a fifty-pound
log up and down in front Of guard
house. in the hot sun especially. for two
hours at stretch, as happen to know,
In truth, the punishment was CALLING.
and not so many men drank and fought
themselves into summary courts mar
tial when the log punishment was In
vogue as is the case now, when policing
around posts is the guardhOuse punish
ment of military offenders on a minor
scale.
when I was stationed at Fort
Leavenworth in ~. Chief Douglas, one
of the high muck-a-mucks Of the frac-
tiOus Neg Perce tribe that had recently
been rounded up. was put in the guard
house for safe-keeping. The whole
tribe Of Nez Perces was cOrraled and
under a strong chain guard back Of the
post, and at first Douglas was permit
ted to remain with the tribe. But he
was an Indian Of the agitating kind.
was Douglas, and he caused SO much
mutiny among the pent-up bucks that
the commanding officer thought it wiser
to put him away from the tribe. So he
locked him up in the guardhOuse. Doug
las was q magnificent specimen Of a
brave, and after he had been in his
cell for a week or so the
officer Of the day recommended to the
officer that the Indian he
given some log exercise to keep him
from pining away. The commanding
officer agreed, and Douglas was led out
Of his cell to the porch running around
the second story OF the guartihOuse and
shown the log he was to carry. Four
or five soldiers. serving guardhOuse SEN
tences, were humping their logs some
distance away, under the eye Of SEN
try. Douglas looked at the log with
an expression of contempt, grunted as
il to say, Not much, 1 won't! and the
officer Of the day, seeing that the chief
lidn't want any exercise, had him taken
back to his cell.
After thinking II over, however,
Douglas sent for the officer of the day |
and told him that he was not only will
ing to pack log up and down the
porch, but that he was anxious to do |
so. So he was given an eighty-pOu |
og. and began his march up and down.
The sentry patrolling No. l post. in
front of the guardhOuse, was told to |
watch the Indian. hut the sentry didn't
anticipate any treachery, and SO he
lidn't pay much attention to the strap
ping chief walking up and down the
porch above with the log on his shOul-
Ter. But about ten minutes after |
Douglas had begun his long patrol the
sentry saw dusky figure flying
through the air from the porch above,
md by the time he had got his wits and
saw that the dusky figure was Douglas.
he Indian had picked himself up. and
was OF for the woods, only 100 yards
,r so away, like q deer. The sentry
gave a whoop. and he yelled after the
lying Indian to halt. There wasn't any
lalt In Douglas, however, and he kept
light on like a racehorse. The sentry
ired after him twice, but the Indian
.hief disappeared In the bush. Fort
was big post at that
ime, for 1t was the national school of
application, and there was over 1900
rOops there. They were all turned out
within six minutes after Douglas made
lis leap, cavalry aud infantry. but II
vas no 60, although the sun shone
brightly for six hours. after the chief
made his escape. They got Douglas
ust four months later In Oregon, a
.Ood $500 miles from Fort Leaven-
worth. ."-WashinstOn Star.