The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1906-09-21
Mr.. GRAHAM AND HIS GOOSE
STORY.

TO the Editor Ocala Belner:
Dear Comrade:-I see that in tn
Banner you made reference to m.
lstealing goose, so l thought j
would be a good idea to tell tn,
whole story and if you will put it il
print, it will, perhaps, cause man,
Iold Johnnies to uncover some of thei
shortcomings in the times that "triet
mems souls'-when they were forces
by starvation to do such deeds as
did. You know fighting had to g
on with us whether the pot boiled
or not.
About May or June in the year 1S6:
John C. breckenridge division wa.
sent from Tennessee to Jackson, Mis-
sissippi. General Joseph E. John
ston was then gathering up as large
an army as he could to reinforce Gen
Pamberton at Vicksburg, Miss, but
Vicksburg fell before Johnston coulc
get there.
While stationed at Jackson our
brigade q mean the Florida brigade)
was camped on Pearl river, in tents
with brush shutters in front of them
to keep off the heat. There were
three regiments in the brigade and
we had heavy guard duty to per-
form. One regiment from the bri-
gade had to go out every three days
about three or four miles. One of
our posts was at Union mans house
and we got along fine with him until
he took the bucket and rope off his
cistern and we could get no water to
drink. He had a lot of geese and
chickens and to get even with him
we went to work on them before
night. / was not in the party but
when one of the boys came in and
said: Boys, we have ten geese now
killed" / said, did you leave any of
them?" "Yes;o said the comrade, I'VE
left one." asked if it were young
goose or an old one and he said it
was a fine young goose and that he
left it at the pond.
That was about shutdown and
started out for my goose, which was
only about ESQ yards away. l killed
1t and threw it into a bunch of bushes
and got in there myself and remained
there until dark. Then / came in
with the goose.
had had some experience with an
old goose and this was the reason
why / wanted to know if this one
was young or an old one.
Just after dark several of the boys
went to the chicken house of our
Union friend and cleared it of its in
mates. We now had thirty-two head
of geese and chickens on hand.
About this time the old man found
out that something was wrong. He
took a light and went to his chicken
house and found it minus the chick
ems and also that his geese were
gone. He came to our camp and re-
ported his trouble. The captain told
him that he did not think that his
men had taken his fowls. 'I1l re-
port to your colonel in the morn
ing" said our Union friend. "All
right" said our commander. The cap
tain then said, boys you will have
to carry your geese and chickens out
of the camp tonight and come back
so you will be here in the morning
to answer to roll call. The colonel
will have us searched and all will be
we'll"
/ being on the first guard mount
after dark and had the countersign
had to go and pass the crowd. So
we went out with our geese and
came back all right.
The next morning our colonel (Col,
Edw. Badger had US searched to a
man and of course found nothing.
We did guard duty every three
days when it came our turn and don't
you forget it, that old Union man
Jared all the worse for this episode.
The Florida brigade belonged to
Breckenridge's division and Stovalrs
brigade at that time. We had one
regiment in the brigade that did not
belong to our state, to wit: the Goth
North Carolina. 1t was composed of
Did men and boys and had not been
put very long. Our boys took advan-
tage of the fact and did whole lot
Of bad things and made the Goth
shoulder it.
L. M. GRAHAM,
Co. G, Fourth Florida Regiment.
We have recently received some