The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1905-08-03
A Cook Under Fire.

A Cook Under Fire.
YES" said Captain Fowler, IT have
seen colored men under fire. In the
march to the sea my cook was as faith
full a fellow as ever lived, but he had
had little experience with bullets
When We were getting on well toward
Savannah, however, we had more trou-
BILE with the enemy, and cooks as well
as foragers were warned to keep
sharp lookout. One afternoon our
brigade went into camp about the
house of a well-to-do planter. The
General took the house for his head
quarters and l took the carriage house
for mine.
Before we were fairly settled fol
the night, and while my colored boy
Henry was cooking supper, we were at
tackled by the enemy, who opened q
furious fire on headquarters and on my
battery. Bullets came so thick that
they seemed to touch every part Of the
grounds about the house. In a few
minutes we drove the rebs off, but il
was a lively scrap. AS the firing ceased
1 looked about for my horse, which
had ordered the colored man in charge
to bring to me. I found the horse tied
to a bush in the rear of the house, but
no colored boy. 1 then went toward
the carriage house, my own headquar.
tcrs.
AT the fire in front was Henry, the
cook, cooking pancakes, or fapjacks.
Apparently he hadn't missed note, as
he had several very fine pancakes on
a tin plate and was cooking more. But
he was in great rage and was talking
loud to the men about him. / asked
Henry what he was grumbling about
He replied that he wasn't goin' to cook
any noah under fire. He wasn't hired
to be shot at, and if there was any
noah such foolishness dar would be
one less cook, dat was all. He wasn't
goin' to be pestered while he was cook.
in, for no man, no sah.'
IT asked him why he didn't do as
Bob, the hostler, did-slip off behind
the house while the bullets were flying
/ said further that nobody asked him
to cook under fire and that was sur
prised that he didn't get under cover
as l certainly expected he would. Hen
ry gave me a reproachful, indignant
look, and, giving his pancake a skillful
turn, said: 'Goshamighty! Go off and
leave desc pancakes? No, sab.
wouldn't do dat for no man, sab. Wher
I stahts to cook pancakes 1 cook 'em
bullets or no bullets. But 1 don't like
to be pestered, sab. l don't like tc
cook under fire, sah.'
1.-The fact was that Henry had stood
by his pancakes all through the fool
ishness' and hadn't thought of getting
mad until the fight was over and the
boys asked him how it felt to be under
fire. AS a rule he was good forager
but in the march through North Caro-
lima he had bad luck, because things
had been eaten up. One day after
hard march he reported, when we were
going into camp, that all he had for
supper was some long, thin sweet po
tatoes. He added that that was a good
deal more than the Colonel had, be
cause his cook had come in with an
empty haversack.
lust then the Colonel Of the Ninth
Ohio cavalry came over to me and ask,
ed if l had anything to eat l pointed
to the sweet potatoes and said l would
gladly share them with him. He was
so hungry that he began on the pota.
toes raw, and finished on some cooked
in Henry's best style. he was very
grateful. and said he would remember
me in his will and intimated he would
see me later. But he didn't. The bat
terry and Ninth cavalry, acting as rear
guard, were ten miles behind the NAH
part of the division, and we had gone
into camp because we couldn't go any
farther in the dark.
THAT day, remember, l had six
teen horses to one gun, and it was
hard pulling then. We had little rest
however, because that night Wade
Hampton made his dash on the divis.
ion, and we were ordered forward
early in the morning, before breakfast
In fact, there was no breakfast in
sight, and was never hungrier in my
life. 1 was riding along dismally, and
we had gone three or four miles, feel.
ing worse every minute, when caval
ryman galloped up to me, and, taking
a pancake as big as dinner plate from
under his arm, where he had carried
it as he would bundle, presented it to
me with the compliments Of the Colo
mel. The Colonel had remembered the