Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1902-10-09
HATS AND CAPS IN THE ARMY.
"Reminiscences Of Civil Wac Vet
eran, IN Which the Former Zig
ure the More FavOrably.

my granddaughter" said the ser
geant, in the Chicago Inter Ocean,
asked me the other day if I
wore IL hat or cap in the army.
wore both, but just when I wore the
one and when the other couldn't re-
member at first. But remembered
day on the long march from Tennes-
see to Louisville in 1862, when l car
ried water in my hat to battle the face
Of an exhausted comrade. 1 remem-
bered that at Stone river slept with
my hat over my face one night, and
that when came to lie down the next
night there were three holes in the
crown of the hat I wore and piece
out of the rim, and I thought some of
the boys had taken my hat and left
ragged one in it's place.
"My memory was a little hazy in
the matter of hats at Chickamauga,
but I remembered that while we were
at work on the forts in front of Chat
tanooga two days later the rebel
sharpshooters put two bullets
through the upper part of the hat l
wore, without my knowing it, and that
all the boys thereupon pushed the
crowns of their hats up to their full
height. I remember that when the
pontoon bridge at Bridgeport broke,
and I went into the water, my hat
foated and was not two feet from me
when I came up from my journey to
the bottom.
II remember that in starvation
times at Cha ttanooga one of the, boys
brought in about peck of shelled
corn in his hat. remember that just
before the battle of Stone river rode
into Nashville and wore a cap. But
I remembered also that on the first
day of hard fighting at Stone river
I clapped my hat down over squirrel
which, crazed by fear, ran over me
two or three times trying to get into
my pockets. I remember that I lost
my hat going up Missionary ridge,
and that the colonel called me down
week later for wearing an officers
cap. I remember that on the night of
the big snow in May, 1864, at Ooltewah,
I slept in comfort with my hat over my
face. In fact, I must have worn
hat good deal of the time.''
"A hat" said Fourteenth Ken
lucky man, "was serviceable in more
ways than a cap. 1t was better in
the rain, and more protection against
the sun. It could be damned and
beaten into many shapes, and could
be used in DISCUSSES to better advan-
tage than cap. A fellow could break
guard with high-peaked hat, and
change it in minute to low-crowned
fedora-like headpiece. A prisoner
could wear his hat jauntily fluring
escape the next with hat slouched
like an old farmers, and when it was
necessary to deceive the enemy as to
reenforcements or as to the strength
of a defensive line a few deft pats
and bangs at the hats of a squad or
company made great change in the ap-
pearance of men.
'In August, 1862, our brigade, COM
posed of the Thirty-third Indiana,
Forty-second Ohio and Fourteenth
Kentucky, and commanded by Gen
John F. De Courcy, was stationed q,
Tazewell courthouse, Tennessee
When Gen. E. Kirby Smith advanced
to Richmond. KY, and moved toward
Frankfort with intent to inaugurate
Richard Halves governor of the state,
our brigade fought Gen. Stevenson's
division at Tazewell. The instructions
were to hold Stevenson as long as
possible, and Gen. De Courcy proceed.
ed to do it in his own way.
"The Forty-second Ohio and the
Fourteenth Kentucky formed the line
of battle to resist Stevenson'sa advance,
and while we were skirmishing with
the enemy Gen. De- Courcy would
march the Thirtythird Indiana quiet.
ly around our flank and then noisily
in on the Bulls Gap, or Cumberland
Gap, road with drums beating and