The National tribune., 1904-08-25
The Tables Turned.

EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: In the
Spring of 1864 l was on duty at Tod Bar
racks, Columbus, o., taking recruits to the
front The first trip l made was with re-
cruits to Nicksburg, Miss. At Memphis
had to stop to take another boat, and
while waiting ut the landing fell in with
a Lieutenant in charge of few soldiers,
also waiting for a boat for Vicksburg.
While waiting he told ME something of his
history. He said he had been a steamboat
engineer, and was one OF the engineers
who volunteered to run the batteries at
Vicksburg, and handled the lever on one
of the boats that ran the batteries. l do
not remember either his name or regiment,
but l will call him Lieut.. Brick. After
waiting two days. the Pauline Carroll, a
new boat, came along, and we all boarded
her. Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant-General
of the United States Army, and his son,
Capt. Thomas. went down on the same
boat; and Us a mark of honor the post COM
mander at Memphis sent an Aid to COM
mand the boat. This Aid imbbed too
much river water,'' and got glOriOusly
drunk. He ordered Lieut.. Brick to turn
out his men for guard duty on the boat
This the Lieutenant refused to do, where
upon the Aid reported HIS action to Gen
Thomas, and the General ordered Lieut.
Brick to his stateroom, under arrest.
did not know of this at the time, but as
was passing through the cabin the Lieu
tenant called to me and asked me if
would hand a letter to Gen. Thomas for
him. l said: Certainly" and taking the
letter l found the General, and, saluting,
said: General, Lieutenant on board re-
quested me to hand you this letter" 'Ah,
l presume it is from the Lieutenant l put
under arrest" said the General. 1t de-
veloped that Lieut.. Brick explained to the
General that his reason for disobeying or
ders was that the Aid was drunk. In q
few minutes after l delivered the letter
Capt. Thomas came TO the Lieutenant and
asked: "Where is the Aid you say is
drunk?' Just then the Aid was lOlling over
the rail, outside, close to the Lieutenants
stateroom, feeding the fish. Opening the
outside door of his stateroom. the Lieu
tenant said: Come here; | will show him
to YOU" The Captain looked at the Aid
moment, then. without a word, turned and
went away. In few minutes he returned
and said: Lieut.. Brick, the General re-
leases you from arrest and puts you i'm
command of this boat. and directs that
you put this Aid under arrest" So ''de
bottom rail was on de top We arrived
at Vicksburg after dark. and remained
on board till morning. At late hour.
when Lieut.. Brick went TO his stateroom.
he opened the door and stepped i'm. face to
face with robber going through the pock-
cts of Jew who occupied BERTH Quickly
drawing his revolver he captured the thief
and turned him over to the police Another
trick that he did on the boat was to clean
out river gambler of All he had i'm n
game of poker. The gambler put up a Job
on the Lieutenant, and thought he had him
beaten-bet all his money and as he
reached for the pile said: -Four Kings
beats four queens" but the Lieutenant
quickly laid his paw" on the pile and said
But they don't beat four aces.' throw
ing down his hand. The gambler had
made Il mistake: but he did not try any
bluff game on the Lieuteant. He was nm
against the real thing. and discretion was
the better part of valor.
If this Lieutenant is living, l would like
to hear from him; or from any of the SOL
diers who were with him.-S. +. MooRE.
Captain, Co. III, 11Sth Ohio.