The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-02-01
SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF
 CONFEDERATE CAMP LIFE
BY W. R. H oUcHToN.

peas came to Tom Coleman from his ta- ther in Columbus Ga. Big hearted rom made it common property to the com
 pany, and what a feast we had! trust Tom has his reward in the beyond.
 Mall facilities were not very good most
 of the war, especially whilst campaign ing but in camp we had letters pretty regularly. Paper was poor and hard to
 get and we often got supplied rom captured knapsacks. l noticed that south
 erners seldom carried their letters into
 battle. When moving into line in hear
 ing of shells, one could see men tearing
 up precious missives from loved ones at
 home, and the way was filtered for miles
 with the fragments. l am inclined to
 think this was also common to the bet
 ter class of federal soldiers, as the let
 ters found in their knapsacks, whilst
 numerous. l counted fifty-two in Asa Frear's at Savage station, indicated that the writers did not belong to the culti7 vated class. but the contrary
 Of course there was nothing wrong about taking property on the ibattlefeld but robbing the dead was never favored by most soldiers. Yet, strange to say al- most every corpse had his pockets turn out very soon after he fell. In the tumult of a charge and retreat and return, one would think that killing and victory NOulQ DC lIt supreme lnOuBnl Ol lltllp yet in a very few minutes after a charge and repulse, I have returned over the ground and saw where the robbers got in their work, and neither side seems to have been exempt
 At Chickamauga near the pond, now drained, In front of the Kelly house, lay
 a federal breathing heavily, but insens-
 ible from a bullet in the head. We camp
 ed near him all night, and the next
 morning I saw a dozen or more confed-
 crates sitting like vultures over their
 expected feast He had gold watch
 chain plainly visible, and just as he was
 gaspins his last, a man reached for 1t
 took out the watch saying: Well I reck-
 on he wont need this any more" The
 others, had been waiting for the man to die.
 near relative in a northern prison
 wrote me that he was ragged and starv- ing and to send him some money Hav- ing none, I determined to get some on the next battlefield. and took a pocket book from man headless by reason of cannon shot, named John w. House, Of Wheeling, W. Va wrote to his moth CT and sister according to request found In the book.s and sent the letter by nag of truce, but l devoted the money to the relative. This and taking the shoes rom dead federal at Manassas com pleted my experience in such matters. Ihose may condemn who will, but under the same circunstances, l would again aet Tn the same way, and I believe they would
 At Fredericksburg, from the top of hill, l saw the morning sun shining brightly over some hundreds of dead !y- Ing on the frozen ground. and nearly all stripped of clothing taken by our men to ward off the cold.
 To supply blankets, the people at home cut up their carpets, took the carpets rom the churches and sent them to us under such covering I slept the winter or oz-S. One ingenious fellow having worn out his clothes, made himself an en- tre suit, including peak shaped hat or cap out of a flaming red carpet, with ngures on 1t so large that 1t took his whole body to display one rose. When we left quarters 1t was showing and our command waited by the roadside to al- 10" ms regiment to pass. and as he ap- peared against the white background, the shouts that went up attested the ad- miration for his genius. It took a brave man to stand the gibes hurled at him.
 The succeeding winters we had no car pets and suffered much discomfort from want of blankets.
 was wounded at Second Manassas, and my comrade, Oliver Cromwell lost his blanket. Staggering along In the rain the following night he spied form up- der a federal blanket by the roadside, and he crept under the good shelter, for these blankets turn rain, and spent a eomforta ble night. Awakened by the pro- vost guard the next morning he found that he had shared the blanket with a dead federal. The same night, weary and weak from loss of blood, I slept on the portico of the Compton house, whilst the busy surgeons were amputating limbs In the yard. A wounded captain was placed besides me, and when I awoke he was dead.
 Next morning I wandered in the chilly rain looking at the dead and the debris Of the battle field. I was hungry and the smell of so much blood. made me sick, Approaching a party of wounded federals who had on oil cloths, they were very polite, they had coffee and rations, but wounded in the legs, could get no wa ter or fire. l had feet and one hand so I got wood and water. and around a cheer full fire we had hearty meal and friend- ly talk.
 One, a polished Pennsylvania captain, with a crushed ankle, gave me his card ana told me If ever prisoner or in hap pier days visitor to his state, to call on him I parted with him with regret when the long line of white ambulances came from Washington for him, whilst l. with ill-fittlng shoes taken from a dead foe, turned in the opposite direction to trudge through the mud forty miles to Culpepper, and hospital
 Our men generally treated prisoners well. l never permitted harsh treatment to them in my presence. nor did others to my Knowledge. On two occasions I carried water to wounded federals under a heavy fire and I have repeatedly seen others risk their lives to aid wounded foes.
 Of course there were exceptions On a scout l captured a German who could not speak a word of our language When LOOK him to the others of my party, I heard the click of gun hammer, and was just in time to throw up the rife of a Texas scout. had a sharp controversy with him, and afterwards learned that his brothers wife. with an infant of three weeks, had been driven from her home in far away Missouri into the snow and wit hout clothing, by union men while they burned her house. She and the in fant both died, and 1t was said. the two brothers never took prisoners. He was one of the handsomest men I ever saw. and daring to rashness. I had to guard that prisoner, shared my scant rations With him, and when nightfall came he had hundred opportunities to escape, but each time I lost him among the wa gon trains he would find me with a glad cry If he did not understand English. he underst ood the gesture with the rife of the Texan.
 l have captured many of these creatures whilst alone on scout. Tempted bv the huge bounty, they were gathered bv the thousands in foreign countries. and drilled on their way over, even in the harhAr at I.iNarnnol n.,d l.l