The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-03

| tured letter which now lies before me.
1t was dated Camp near Dalton, Ga.
Dec. 4th. 1854" 1t is addressed MY
dear Sister" and is signed Ned" the
writer being Lieut.. Edward Spurrier,
! Fiftieth Tennessee Infantry.
His whole letter is Accordingly as
| well as historically interesting as de-
| picting the desperate fortunes and ter"
rible sufferings of Bragg's troops dur
| now only this part which refers to the
| stone throwing episode:
"Maney's brigade fought upon the
| right and acquitted themselves with
| great credit, resisting every charge
| that was made against us. We fought
| them at twenty PAGES for over half an
| hour.
Many of our guns becoming so foul
| ed as to be rendered unserviceable. the
men threw them down and fought with
| rocks Our Colonel knocked the col
ors out of a Yankees hands with
rock"
| I. may he necessary to state that In
| the Southern dialect rock" is equiva-
| lent to stone in Northern parlance. II
| is not necessary, however. at this late
! dat to explain that the term yam
| KEGS" as applied to the Union troops
was not used in derision any more than
| was that of Johnny Rebs as our
| troops called the Confederates.
/ When the pickets met. which was
| not infrequently. to exchange tobacco
| and papers for coffee and quinine. they
| alluded to each other as you Yankee
| and you rebs" without offending each
other. They were familiar addresses.
not opprobrious epithets. The women
| and children, with more of hate than
fgh, in them, used to call us yankee
| gorillas" in response to our omcial
! declaration that unenlisted Southerners
caught with guns in their hands shouia
be regarded as "guerrlllas' using the
term In the Spanish sense.
The second confirmation of this
! Miracle of war I got in 1884 from
| Gen. George Nancy when he was
guest of the Fifth Avenue Hotel dur
| ing the Blaine campaign" He com
manded the right brigade of Bragg's
! army, which threw the stones.
George Alfred Townsend and I hap
pened to meet. General Nancy at the
hotel. and in the course of the CONVEX
| sation / alluded to the fight, to my de-
scription of it. and of the stone-throw-
| ing episode and to Lieutenant Spur
rier's letter. Nancy said he personally
knew Spurrier and that he certainly
took part in the stone-throwing. He
added that not only were the muskets
| fouled. but that Ewing's troops got so
close to the summit of the hill he was
defending that his artillery could no
longer be depressed sufficiently to fire
on the advanced brigade, which they
| had to fight hand hand.
| So much for that miracle" which
am not certain my friend accepted in
| good faith or as better attested than
what he calls the alleged raising of
| Lazarus from the dead / don't sup
| pose he will credit the second instance,
| In support of The Times's correspond
ent's story of the destruction of the
artillery at Vanfangow, since I, in or
der to tell n similar instance, had my
self to rise after being interred'
On May 10, 1854. the army of the
Tennessee passed through an unguard-
ed defile of the mountains held by Cen
eral Joe" Johnston and appeared In
front of Resaca, Ga, on Johnston's left
flank. A hill overlooking Resaca had
been cleared of all underbrush and all
the forest trees except one stately old
oak around which were the stumps of
his fellow the smallest of
them at least three feet in diameter.
From this vantage point we could
look down into the mud fort in Resaca-
The captain of a battery bethought him
that II was a fine position from which
to batter down the mud fort. and with
this object in view he planted his six
guns near the summit of the hill and
on either side of the still standing for
est monarch.
thought to see fine artillery duel
from the safe vantage guard behind the |
stump of one of the fallen trees. So l
got into position. So did the battery
I opened my eyes widely. The battery |
also opened with shells fired from each |
of the six guns simultaneously. That's |
all the firing they did. however. |
The enemy opened In reply. and our
artillerymen never got chance to load |
their guns again. Every shot from |
Resaca landed right on that hill.
In five minutes the battery was ut
terly demolished. the guns dismounted |
the woodwork splntered. and the
horses and men killed or wounded or
fled to safety As for me, I was too
scared to run until l was frightened in
to flight.
solid shot struck directly in front
OF the stump which protected me and |
covered me over with a CARLOAD or two
of the moist earth 1T had plowed up,
literally burying me alive! I know I
was alive enough to rise up. throw off
the eartr as far as 1 could, and seek in
flight the seclusion to be
granted only IN vicinity out of range
Of that standing tree. which the enemy
had evidently been using as a target
ever since the fort had been built.
have no doubt whatever that the
japanese. having once before (ten
years ago. campaigned in the region of
the NafanRow hills. knew the range of
the demolished Russian batteries as
well as the Resaca artillerists knew
that of the hill which thew had been
using as a practice target for years.
So. after all. there arc 70 miracles
in war" but history does repeat itself.
--------
MANEGOLD's IRON BREW.
This IL nm Rge of risdom. and Man.