The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1904-07-21

sary as smashing Lees army. There
| couldn't be any permanent peace for the
country without them. I'm not a very
religious man, Major, but the conviction
| is growing on me that God Almighty
shaped this war, and made it come out fol
the best"
They rode slowly down the gentle slope
studying the ground and the surroundings
For a mile or more, until it began to as
cend the hither slope, the road was a mar
| row track, just wide enough for a single
wagon, through a dense jungle. Every
| inch of the moist, rich soil had sent up a
strong shoot to grapple with those around
it in a struggle for life, and Irvine and
twist in the wrestle. into an impenetrable
| thicket. There were alders an inch or two
thick, and not six inches apart. Swamp
| oaks, swamp hickOries. sycamores and elms
had managed to lift their tops above the
| underbrush of alders and spieewood, but
| they were followed and clambered over by
knotted and interviewed clumps of cat
briar. Cat-briar was everywhere. 1t did
not leave an inch of ground unoccupied
1t seemed to grow ont of the roots of other
| plants, shrubs and trees. Ii wound itself
about them, shot out here and there wher-
| ever there was a particle of space, and
climbed to the topmost branches. to hang
| out its glistening green leaves and blue
| black berries in greater profusion than
| bristling with sharp thorns. and covered
everything with network of keen. lacerat-
| ing points.
''There," said the Adjutant, pointing
back to the fortified nights. and then at the
| jungle. There you have natural fort
of the strongest kind and there you have
| natural abatis and Instructions stronger
| than any men could build I'd rather try
to get line of men through all the abati>
between Chattanooga and Atlanta than
| through that cat-briar ENHANCEMENT"
lis there no way of flanking thiS?" in
quired the Major, trying to look to the
right and left.
None whatever: All the roads across
| the Chckah ominy bottom are just like this
mere tunnels through the jungle-witf
batteries at the head. raking them for their
whole length. The moment you get off OF
| them you have to cut every step of the
/ way, and it's hard cutting through nest
| of cat-briar. l don't see how the snakes
| even, get through"
said the Major. Il don't see how men ever
got through"
"They didn't get through" answered the
Adjutant. 'They couldn't. That was the
| trouble. 1t would take a locomotive. built
| of brass and iron. and of 40-horse power
strength, to push through that mass. / tel
you, Georgia laurel wasn't anything to it.
DttH u great utdl Oh ram, dHu
| the road was so soft that their horses sank
to their fetlOcks at every step.
I'm afraid the wagon is going to have
| hard time following" said the Major
Better ride back, Adjutant. and look after
it little"
The road was too narrow to give any
room to ride back. The cruel thorns of the
cat-brias tore the poor horses hide the
moment he attempted to go to the side.
The Adjutant could only stop. and let the
men pick their way by him.
"Say. boys, how's the wagon?" he in
quired.
''Stuck in the mud back there" they re-
piled. Go. q is trying to dig it out. Say,
Adj, this Virginia mud is the worse we've
struck yet. Beats South Carolina mud
all hollow. Got heap more glue in it
Nice fellows. you. to be complaining of
the mud. on a May day. away up here i'm
Virginia" retorted the Adjutant "Wouldn I
the Army of the Potomac fellows give You
the hoarse boot. if they heard You. after
all your blowing of what you did in South
Carolina? 2"
'Well, if they had much of this Chick
ahominy swamp they didn't have any pic
mic, after ALL" they answered IF this is
the road in May, what must it have been
in Winter?"
Presently the column nassed and the Ad-
Jutant rode back to where Go. q was
stornlnS ana swearing IN It's struggle to
get the wagon out of rut worn by a
thousand passages Of heavy army wagons.
Never. in all their struggles with the evil
roads of Kentucky. Tennessee Georgia and
South Carolina had the Adiutant seen
them in worse plight. Their clothes were
Dlastered from head 10 foot from their eff
forts to lift the wheels out BY main
strength. Their faces We're bleed ng from
contact with the cat-briars on either side
the road. their tempers were sharper and
more aggressive than the cat -briars, and
their strength was almost worn out.
The column behind them was damming
ND on the hill. and the men in it were
shouting angry inquiries whv they did not
go ahead. and clear the road. Why were
they monkeving around so about a little
thing like that. and DELAYING the whole
division? One would think them raw re-