The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-05-12

ago found a skeleton, some dragoon
 buttons and piece of army blue. The local papers were mystified as to who was buried there. It was Benny Gun ningham.
 Should omit. to mention in this con- nection Pete Sweeney would overlook a most remarkable character. Pete
 was born in Tennessee. His father
 was an Irishman. his mother a Tan kee girl. Sweeney was six feet five
 inches in heihgt and our late deceased
 of chest whe:l compared with Pete. Pete was the same width and depth all the way up until one reached his neck; that was of the pipestem order
 and fully six inches in length, at the
 extreme upper termination of which
 was anchored-though seemingly inse- curely-a head very like in size. shape
 and appearance to our every day Ben Davis apple. But, strange to say, as a musician, both Instrumental and vo- cal, he was truly marvel. He had a voice for every song, from bewitch- ingly pathetic to ludicrous. His favor ite instrument was the banjo.e from which he could extract the sweetest of
 sweet tunes. Sweeney's favorite song
 with the army, and especially with Stu art, was "Jine the Cavalry" This twas of his own composition, and consisted of some tifty verses, of which I re-
 membef only the chorus:
 Wander afar. enjoy all that you see; But if you want fun, jine the cav al-ry."
 Sweeney was a private in Stuarts cavalry company. He cast his for tunes with Stuart, and followed him from Kansas to Virginia. where he
 was killed, falling in the same battle | where Stuart fell. hope Sweeney and
 his banjo rest in the same pit. The following extract Is taken from Gen. James Longstreet's letter in the Century Magazine, published in 1886. As will be seen, 1t speaks highly of Stuart, and makes manifest that Jeb had not forgotten "Jine the Cavalry" "Jeb Stuart was a very daring fellow, and the best cavalryman America ever produced. At the second Manassas, soon after We heard of the advance of
 Mcdowell and Porter, Stuart came in and made a report to General Lee. When he lad done so General Lee said he mad no orders at that moment, but he requested Stuart to wait awhile.
 Thereupon Stuart turned round in his tracks, lay down on the ground, put a stone under his head and instantly fell asleep. General Lee rode away and in an hour returned. Stuart was still sleeping. Lee asked for him and Stuart sprang to his feet and said,
 Here l am, General
 General Lee replied, I want you to
 send a message to your troops over on
 the left to send a few more cavalry over to the right .,.... .. "'I would better 20 myself said Stuart, and with that he swung him self into the saddle and rode off at a rapid gallop, singing as loudly as he could Jine the Cavalry"
 Truly wonderful collection of nota-
 bles, drifted into Kansaa and, drifted out again into the heady currents of
 the great war, where so many of them
 became immortaI. .
 But to the hunt. With our dogs
 safely leashed and snug in wagons, we
 took the road from Lecompton to Big
 Springs, thence the California road
 through the then little settlement of
 Washington to a point near TecuulseI.
 Here We were divided, Major Sedgwick
 taking the bottom, with half the men
 and half the dogs, the balance of the
 party. under Judge Fillmore. beating
 blum and brush, all moving eastward.
 We failed to rouse our game for
 weary miles. and not until we ap- proaehed the Big Spring branch did our dogs become uneasy, some of them
 throwing their heads up as is their
 wont when "Winding' the game. The
 hunters were quickly placed in twos
 down the bottom and about 100 wards