Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1906-05-25
SOLDIERS AT HOME.
THEY TELL SOME INTERESTING
ANECDOTES OF THE WAR.
How the Boys of Both Armies WhiIed
Away Life in Camp-Foraging Ex-
periences, Tiresome Marches-ThriI-
ling Scenes on the Battlefield.

Il had the smallpox in the army"
said George Harter of Company NJ, ILL
nois Light Artillery THAT was at
Shelbyville, Tenn, in 1868 prior to the
Chickamauga campaign, and [ was
quarantined in the woods outside Of
town and away from camp. Season
and climate were in my favor and l
was soon convalescent, but very lazy.
Lying in the shade of yellow poplar
one day, | was reused from my leth-
argy by the chattering and fiuttering of
scores of birds which were acting in
very excited manner. My nurse,
George Dalton, and / set about to learn
the cause of the commotion. We saw
lying along a limb of the poplar about
twelve feet from the ground, a snake
over five feet long. Further out on
the limb was a bird hopping around,
apparently afraid to approach nearer
and unable to get farther away.
Il had heard of snakes charming
birds, and Dalton and | got our navy
revolvers and awaited developments.
The number of birds increased, as did
their noise, chattering and flying about.
Finally we thought the crisis had ar
rived, and we turned loose and killed
the snake. AS it fell to the ground
the one bird dropped to the ground at
about the same distance it had main
tanned on the limb of the tree from
the snake and kept hopping about. We
made a noise and the bird disappeared.
However, the singular thing about it
was that for the three succeeding days
birds in numbers returned to the pop
lar and chartered and fiuttered i'll va
rious degrees of excitement. Later we
followed the army and were in posi-
ton at Chicamauga both days"
I'm the last days of September,
1864 said the Captain, Colonel Dan
McCooks brigade deployed in front of
the intrenchments at JonesborO, Ga.
Barnett's battery was doing it's best to
silence the rebels, and all the guns
of General Jeff Davis old division
were playing in harmony like a good
band. The brigade moved forward and
in the field there was small rivulet
in Il ravine that the Eighty sixth Hi
noiS crossed. Corporal Rilea of Com
pany X found blind path and fol-
lowed it. and behind and close up, was
the Colonel of his regiment, Colonel
Fahnestock. All at once the Corporal
let out an unearthly yell and jumped
as far as he could to the right-shout
ing to the Colonel to look out. The
Colonel had no trouble in finding the
cause of the trouble, for near the path
was Il little pile of brush on which was
a snake, with about two feet of its
length erect, shooting its tongue out
at the Corporal The Colonel fired
once, overshooting, and the second shot
went under the snake. which crawled
back into the brush heap.
''The Corporal told the boys that the
snake had head as large as the blade
of long handled shovel such as are in
use on farms, and that the forks of its
tongue were the length of Il six prOnged
fork. The Corporal always insisted
that he never made d better run in
his life than he did to get to General
Govan's rebel works, and he tells the
boys when they accuse him of leading
the charge, that he saw the boss snake
of Georgia. and that he never did like
snakes. anyhow"
THAT reminds me- said the Ser
geant, "of some of the snakes we met
in Tennessee and Georgia In the sum
mer before Chickamauga there was
considerable wetness on our line of
march The high water in the streams
spoiled a good many of our plans, and
it drove a good many snakes from
their regular camp grounds. One day
there was Il great connection in camp,
most of the regiment joining in a head
long chase after two blue racers driven
out of & brush heap by the detail
policing camp. Men We're wild to
catch the snakes and they went over
the lines of pup tents like herd of
stampeded cattle. In one of the more
pretentious shelters George Brindley
was sleeping and snoring. One of the
racers cut through Georges tent, went
over his body like fash of blue light
and was lost to view.
"Immediately there was such per
Torrance under the shelter as to stop
the chase. George roared, yelled,
shrieked-stoOd on his head and kick
ed the blankets and tent high in air.
moaned, rolled this way and that and
finally shouted: Run for the doc!
Oh. Lordy, l am a dead man! When
the surgeon came George was still
writing as if in great pain. but no one
could explain, except to say that a
snake six feet long had run over him.
The doctor. turning to George, grab
bed him by the shoulders, and hold
ing him by force, said: Be quiet.