The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1901-05-31

wedid those things
during that remote affair known to Amer
leans as THE war" The looting was not
always of the enemy. Uncle Sam was
sometimes himself the victim. The incl
dent / am about to relate took place in
the fall of 1868, after the Gettysburg
] remember the camp of the battery in
the angle of a wood, the officers tents on
the high ground at the upper end of a
small field, and directly in front of them
the park of guns with hastily constructed
harness racks of poles alongside the can
vas, where the men oiled the harness
and polished the brasses, and the parallel
line of dark eolored horses at the picket
rope, with a group of grays at one end,
used for hauling the battery wagons and
forge. We were somewhere in Virginia,
and the month November.
1t was a temporary camp, and the men
had been allowed to take the great can
vas paulins from the carriages, with
which, over frame of fence rails, they
had made an irregular line of wigwams
just within the edge of the woods. l was
a humble sergeant, in command of the
sixth gun at this time, and occupied the
wigwam at the end of the row with an
other sergeant and two corporals.
1t was just that time of year when the
soldiers appetite is most vigorous. 1t
was not exactly hunger that prompted
the raid on the commissary, but a crav-
ing for Injuries. Our idea of luxury was
ham and an extra so pound box of
hard tack. We could pound the hard
bread into crumbs and fry in ham fat,
,ab do dicbfi FOR
king. One of the corporals, who is now
the editor of a western paper, and my
self left camp just after dark one even
ing armed with Ratchet and bound for
the stores of the commissary of the ar
tillery brigade of our corps. AS we pass
ed around the park of guns we noted the
guard tramping silently between the lines
of carriages and his fellow marching back
and forth along the picket rope, calling
now and then to refractory horse. The
glitter of camp6res marked the ground of
the different batteries and wagon trains,
and half mile away on the crest of
hill was the camp of the commissary, to-
ward which we were tending.
The commssary had begun the cree
ton of a log house, the walls of which
were already breast high From their
shelter we were able to survey our field
of operations. Fifty feet in front of US
was the collection of stores ranged in two
compact rows of boxes and barrels, under
a roof of canvas The stores formed the
sides of the tent, piled up to the caves,
and through the open center streamed the
light from a fire of rails, where the in
fantry guard was listening to the yarns
of group of teamsters who were smok-
ing their pipes and drinking their quart
cups of coffee.
There was box of hard bread on the
top and end of the wall of stores and to
this Corporal +. made his way, keeping
the boxes and barrels between him and
the group at the fire. The canvas paulin
was drawn over the top of the coveted
box and corded out to a stake.
Slowly and patiently the corporal work
ed, gradually sliding out the box until an
unavoidable grating of the canvas stop
ped the conversation about the fire. The
corporal sat down in the shadow until
the alarm was over.
cts nothin but the wind" said one of
the Transfers upon which the stories
about the campfire were resumed. When
he had finally secured the prize, the cor
poral brought it back behind the log wall
After whispered consultation / started
for camp with the 80 pound box of hard
bread on my shoulder, leaving him the
Ratchet and the more difficult task of Sc
curing the ham. | had been comfortably
in bed for some time, lazily watching the
smoldering logs and listening for the cor
porals return. | was just falling off into
a doze.
'Are you awake, sergeant? Stir out
the boys I've got barrel of sugar open
over in the woods, and we must bring it
all into camp at once Here is a haver
sack full tied up in my blouse"
After my departure the corporal haG
transferred his field of operations to the
lower wall of stores, which he had reach
ed by going back into the field beyond the
bright light from the guard fire. Here
the ground sloped rapidly down into a
meadow bottom. With great deal of
patience he had finally succeeded in work
ing out barrel which he felt sure con-
tanned hams. After rolling this down the
hill, always keeping in cover of the other
stores from the group at the fire, and to
a distance where it was safe to spring the
head and examine the contents it was
found to contain white beans
An ordinary workman would have left
the barrel in the field and probably aban-
doned the whole dangerous business. Cor
poral b. was not q man of ordinary meth
DDS. He was not the shabby fellow to
leave a barrel of beans exposed to the
night air, so with painstaking care he re-
stored it to its place in the commissary's
stock before trundling out the second bar
rel. If he had found the desired hams in
this barrel, he would have restored the
head after taking out one ham and would
then have devoted another hazardous
half hour to returning the remainder of
the package to its original place. In
stead of hams, however, the second bar
rel was found to contain sugar, and this
the corporal rolled joyfully across the
wide field into the edge of the timber,
where he opened it with the Ratchet and
came into camp with the sample have
described.
Besides our own household we took the
quartermaster and the harness maker
into the secret, and before morning half
the sugar was in grain bags at the bottom
of the battery wagon and the other half
nailed up in cracker boxes with the com
pany stores.
In those days l served as company
clerk in addition to my regular duties,
and each morning after breakfast l went
up to the captains tent and made up the
daily reports. After completing this duty
on the morning following the adventure
have related, knowing that Captain R.,
with whom | was on rather easy terms,
would hugely enjoy a description Of our