The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1904-11-24
SOLDIERS AT HOME.
THEY TELL SOME INTERESTING
ANECDOTES OF THE WAR.
How the Boys Of Both Armies Whiled
Away Life In Camp-Foraging Ex-
periences, Tiresons Marches-Thril.
ling Scenes On the Battlefield.

ling Scenes on the Battlefield.
''The Russians and the Japs on the
Shakhe," said the doctor, seemed for
a few days to be getting quite socia
bic. AT least. they were close enough
to each other to be sociable If such
fellows ever are sociable. Close as
they were, however, they couldn't
have the fun we had in the old time,
because they don't speak the same
language or read the same papers.
And then it is a mis.a to say that
no two great armies ever remained In
such proximity before for 80 many
days without fighting. The army of
the Cumberland and Bragg's army re-
NAMED. after the battle Of Chicka-
manga, in easy speaking distance for
several weeks.
After the heavy fighting at Chick
amauga Rosecrans' army, as every
body knows, withdrew to Chattanoo-
ga, while the Confederate army closed
up around it on three sides. But only
the old soldiers know the incidents Of
our withdrawal tn Chattanooga. / left
General Thomas late in the afternoon
of Sept 20 to carry a message to the
medical officer in charge at Chattanoo-
ga, and to General Rosecrans, If
could find him. / rode from the tur-
MOL Of battle across Missionary Ridge
into the quiet of the plain between the
ridge and Chattanooga. 1t was so
quiet there and so noisy beyond the
ridge that 1 could hardly believe my
ears. AS / rode toward the town
met no one, and no guard or outpost
challenged me. AS / logged along l
came upon a strange group, posing,
it seemed to me, for a picture.
There were probably a dozen men
on horseback, and all except one were
quiet as statues, the low sun In the
west lighting them up in a way to
make them look like figures in a tab
leau. One Of the figures was point
ing here and there, and this man was
Rosecrans. As / came nearer l saw
that he was marking out positions fer
the divisions of his army. In a few
minutes the group moved to another
point and the marking out process was
repeated. Then / rode out to Chat
tanooga and across the river to find
my man, and came upon another sur
prise Here were parked long wagon
trains with hundreds Of horses MUNICH
ing corn, and teamsters going uncon-
cernedly about like men at home doing
their evening chores. And yet not ten
one Of the fiercest battles of the civil
war to standstill.
North of the river there was no
confusion or disorder. The scene was
quite pastoral, and nobody seemed I'M
der strain or greatly concerned about
the battle except a chaplain holding
services in a forest glade, who prayed
that the God Of Battles might give VIC
tory to our arms Even the chaplain
didn't seem to understand that crisis
was at hand. Perplexed and indig-
nant, rode back toward the front and
met our division going quietly into DO
sition In Rossville Gap told the
boys what had seen in town and be-
yond, but they didn't believe me. ex-
cept as to Rosecrans, and they didn't
believe he meant to give up Mission
arr Ridge They knew better the next
day, when the army retired from Mis-
sionary Ridge and our division began
TO build Fort Palmer just where Rose
Grams sat on his horse when l first
saw him on Sunday. We expected the
rebels to occupy the ridge at once and
charge down it tc our lines, and we
worked with feverish haste After a
day or two, when the Notifications
began to assume shape, we knew the
rebels wouldn't charge, and we began
to feel at home.
I'VE agreed, in the talk about the
camp fires, that Rosecrans might be
right about giving up Missionary
Ridge, but we bet all our money thar
he wouldn't give up Lookout Noun
tain, only few miles to the west. In
agine our surprise when one afternoon
the rebels opened on us from batteries
well up on our slope of Lookout. This
put a heavy load on a good many
hearts, because with the rebels or
Lookout we were cut of from the
road down the river to Bridgeport. But
as shot after shot was fired, and not
a sh I'll or cannon ball came near us.
we felt better. The bombardment was
spectacular affair, but we didn't care
for it as we did for the sharpshootcrs
on our front pushing the rebel picket
line under our noses. At last we were
permitted to give these sharpshooters
serious attention, and we esta blisned
our picket line under their noses. They
kept creeping forward, and we kept
doing the same until we were in con-
versational range.
"Our pickets were in little holes I'm
the tail grass, and few yards away
the rebs were curled up in holes, blaz-
Ing away at every Yankee who showed
his head. 1t was very exciting and un-
comfortable for several days, but one
night reb in our front suggested con-
versationally that we were keeping one
another on the jump without doing any
good, and asked why In thunder we
couldn't be decent and quit shooting
every time fellow sneezed. One Of
our fellows saiig out, 'Shake on thatr