The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1906-06-08

PEN.PICTURES OF THE OLDEN Time
BY COL w L. CLAYTON.

army to cook day in and day
out through all the long years
of the war. And then the YES
sells in which we cooked had to
be washed and scrubbed, and
often we had to use sand instead
of soap with which to clean the
vessels. | read Of a peculiar,
rich old man in Australia who
always used sand instead of soap
in his baths, but was never en-
abled to appreciate the tale till
| saw the sand used on our cook
ing vessels during the war.
But the worst Of it was we.
had to wash our wearing apparel!
Think of a man who had never
had any experience in that line
moving off to some running brook
to wash his clothes, often without
soap or fire to heat waterl But |
want to say to the honor Of these
men that as a general thing they
went about this work in a patient
manner and with a cheerful
spirit. Some even hilarious,
while others carried the calm
outward demeanor Of dogged
persistence, but inward repug-
nance. We were lined up every
Sunday morning for inspection,
and every soldier was expected
and required to have his gun as
bright and shining as a silver
dollar, and his accontrments
clean and snowy, and woe to
the poor fellow who neglected
his duty in any of these respects!
| never knew why the officers
required the inspection to take
place on Sunday, unless that and
dress parade on Sunday evening
was all the work the soldier was
required to do on that sacred
day.
Another very important, bur-
densome and often dangerous
duty of the soldier was picket
duty. The first thing a wise
commander did after camping,
whether for a night or indei>
nite!y. was to send oat plckets
on all approaches to the camp.
Often it would be pouring down
rain, or a drizzling rain, would
be falling, and some times the
snow would be drifting into our
faces, Or irregular blizzard would
be blowing. No difference what
might be the weather, the pick
cts had to be sent out to protect
the camp. 1t was the duty of
the orderly seargents of the diff
ferent companies to furnish the
details for this duty, and woe
on his head if he failed to keep
the record correctly! If the wrong
man should be put on duty, and
especially on one of those cold
snowy or rainy night, and it was
discovered, that orderly seargent
would wish he had never had
the position.
But the vidette, the sentny
posted nearest the enemy to
give notice of any approaching
danger, had the hardest time of
all the pickets. The Vidette SEN
try generly consisted of at least
four, if at a pretty dangerous
place, one occupying an advanced
position to watch for two hours,
while the others occupied a po-
sition somewhat in the rear,
ready to take their turn, or
any message to the command
which might be necessary. The
Vidette himself was supposed
generally to be stationed at some
elevated place to enable him to
see an enemy approaching from
considerable distance. On the
faithfulness of the picket service
depended the safety of the COM
mand, and woe to that soldier
who should SO fo. forget his
duty as to sleep on his post!
Another burden to the soldier
was tho proper cleaning uo OF
the camp. thatit sao I'LL be ke>s
in sanitary condition. Tae
efficiency Of an army consisted
very largely in the health OF the
men, and their health depended
upon the cleanliness Of their diff
ferent camping places. All filth
of every kind was required to be
burnt or buried, and the soldiers,
| by detail, were required to do
! the work. But to Offset these
various duties and burdens, there
were many things to intecest
and direct the attention away
from the unpleasant things OF
camp life. You know there are
many men who never lack for
sources of amusem ent. There
are wags and funny men of the
army, ever ready to turn every
occurrence to the amusement of
of the crowd. | have no doubt
Private John M. Allen in war as
mall as in nlacp. never missed an