Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-05-19
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.

said Geoy:e IIarter of Company NJ. hi
nois Light Artillery. THAT was at
Shelhyyille, Tenn, in 1893. prior TO the
Chickamauga campaign, and | was
quaIantined in the woods outside of
town and away from camp. Season
and climate were in my favor and |
was soon convalescent. hat very LAZY.
Lying IN the shade of yellow poplar
one day, | was reused from my leth-
argy by the chattering and tiuttering of
scores Of birds which were acting In
q very excited manner My nurse.
! George Dalton, and set about TO learn
the cause of the connection 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
revolyers and awaited Developments.
| The number of birds Increased. as did
| Finally we thought the crisis had ar
rived. and we turned loose and killed
the snake. AS 1t fell TO the ground
the one bird dropped to the ground at
about the same distance it had main
tained ON the limb of the tree from
the snake and kept hopping about. We
made II noise and the bird disappeared
| However, the singular thing about II
was that for the three succeeding days
birds in numbers returned to the pop
lar and chartered and fiuttered in va
rious degrees of excitement, Later we
| followed the army and were in posi-
ton at Chicamauga both days"
In the last days of September.
1864 said the Captain. Colonel Dan
| McCook's brigade deployed in front of
| the Entertainments at JoueSboro, Ga.
Barnetts battery was doing its best to
silence the rebels. and all the guns
! of General jeff Davis old division
were playing in harmony like good
| band. The brigade moved forward and
| in the field there was a small riyulet
| in rayinc that the Eighty-siXth Hi
noiS crossed. Corporal Rlea of Com
| pany X found a blind path and fol
| lowed it, and behind and close up, was
| the Colonel OF his regiment, Colonel
/ FahneStock. All ut 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 a little pile of brush on which was
| snake with about two feet of it's
| length erect, shooting it's tongue out
| al 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 Il long handled shovel such rs are in
use on farms and that the forks Of its
tongue were the length of IA six prouged
fork. The Corporal always insisted
! that he never made a 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 ne never did like
| snakes anyhow"
That reminds me-" said the Ser
! gean:, "of some of the snakes sc met
! In Tennessee and Georgia. In the sum
] 4. IL.
considerable wetnesS On our line of
march. The high water IN the streams
spoiled n good many of our plans, and
il drove good many snakes from
| their regular camp grounds one day
there was great commotiOu In camp.
most of the regiment Joining in a head
long chase after two blue racers driven
out Of Il brush heap by the detail
policing camp. Men were wild to
catch the snakes and they went over
the lines of pup tents like Il herd OF
stampeded cattle. In one of the more
pretentous shelters George Brindley
was sleeping and snoring one Of the
racers cut through Georges tent. went
RNtl LIZ tpIS Inv d iidSii ~ biht- ItSUN.
and was lost to view.
Immediately there was such Il per
formance under the SHELTER as to stop
the chase George roared. yelled
shrieked stood on his head aud Kick
el the blankets and tent high in air
moaned, rolled this way and that, and
| finally shouted Run for the doc,
| Oh. Lordy. | am Il dead man When
the surgeon came George was still
writing as If In great pain, but no one
could explain, except 10 say that n
snake six feet long had run over him.
The doctor, turning to George, grab
bed him by the shoulders, and, hold
iug him 10y force, said: BE quiet
Tell me what is the matter. The
quicker you are about il the better il