Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1907-03-15
MAsH1Nc7oN STANDARD
! HOW the REDOUBT
WAS TAKEN


lOriginall
Here comes old Paddock" said one
of half Il dozen men sitting around
country store stove. Hes the only
hero | ever knew who didn't know he
was a hero Anyway. he thinks his
comrades believe he ought to have
been shot for dcscrtion. TO get bis
story you must make him mad. How
dy. Mr. Paddock" And the speaker in
troduced the conner to his friends.
How IS 1t, Mr.. Paddock" he con-
tinued. that all your comrades in the
civil war got some sort Of promotion
and you weren't even made cor
poral: They say you came pretty
near being shot for descrtion."
Il can't never get rid o that mis-
take" said Paddock ruefully, for
that's what 1t was, a mistake. You see,
twas this way We was down there in
Virginny bucllin' up agin long line
of Notifications ut the base Of the
mountains. One night I got banker
In to do some scoutin' on my own &C
count. l reckoned the redoubt our bri-
gade was tryin' to take wasn't well
connected with the one next to It, I
had purity sharp eyes in them days,
and 1 thought l seen way TO git in
between 'em. Stealin' along a ravine,
I managed to git by the pickets O. both
armies. climbed the mountains and
looked right down into the fort we was
a-tr! in to take. What dye suppose I
seen? There wasn't twenty men in It,
and fully half the guns was Quaker
Il couldn't understand how our GIN
eral could be weeks buckin' up ag'in
this measly shown, but he'd wrote
lot O. books on the science O war, and
supposed he knowed all about 1t.
Anyway, I thought I'd go back and
tell him what I'd seen. l got down to
the ravine when was halted by a
rebel picket and taken prisoner.
1.-THE Johnnies KEEP me three days,
when, SEEM the discipline o. the guard
mighty lax-they was all tired out
fghtin'--I stole away one night, climb
ed up the mountain an circled around
the Johnnies' left flank an our right
flank. I was waikiki into camp one
mornin' thinkin' how I'd like some real
United States coffee when I met some
O. our men. The officer in command
arrested me for a deserter. l tole him
where I'd been and what I'd seen, but
he didn't believe me.
SsUoo1 6suS Iy~n~v <hor, oo,,~k ,r.ou
daled me for desertion-yes, they did
an. wo'se, they sentenced me to be
shot. The only bit O. luck I had was
a raid O. rebel cavalry that shook us all
up and interfered with my shootin'
The hubbub broke the line In our front
too. was mad. The Idea O. gettin'
shot for discoverin' that there want
no strength in the redoubtl It want
right nohow. WAL, takin' advantage
o. the confusion, pickin' up a musket,
I walked right up through the ravine
an the path I'd found on the mountain
side till I got to the spot where I'd
looked down on the Johnnies in the
redoubt. There want as many Of 'em
rs there was afore. I knowed my ad-
vantage, bein' in their rear, and how I
could scare 'em, SO I yelled at the top
Of my voice:
Surrender
"Y' never see such frightened lot in
your life. One or two or 'em flred at
me. I fred back, an the rest skedad-
died. It happened that a young off,
Ger on our picket line was Gurus to
know what the firm meant, thinkin'
likely that the rebs were fghtin' among
themselves. an he come cautiously,
with dozen O. the picket up the slope.
I seen him on hollered to him to come
on; the redoubt was our'n. He KEN. an
It want long afore the United States
flag was a-flutterin' over them Quaker
guns.
"'Waal, I'll be gol darned" said the
officer. We've been three weeks
tryin' to take this fertilization, and
you've TUX it all alone! And our GIN
eral one O. the fust strategists In the
army
Hes all right" says I. Them in
gineerin' books O his hain't got nothin'
in 'em bout Quaker guns I says.
How d'y' expect him to know what
his books don't teachY
II went down the slope and met the
gineral ridin' up with his staff. He'd
seen the United States flag a-fyin' over
the redoubt and didn't know what 1t
meant He stopped me and asked me
who I was and where I'd come from.
told him l was the man that was to
have been shot for desertion when the
raiders come down on US and spoiled
my execution. I was goin' on to tell
the rest when he rode on. orderin' one
o his staff to put me In arrest. The
aid went back with me to the guard
tent.
"Waal, there I was ag'in."
The speaker was interrupted by a
burst Of laughter from his listeners.
"Tain't no laughin' matter. How'd
know they wasn't goin' to carry out
the sentence o. the court martial7 I
didn't. And don't know to this day
why they didn't. After awhile my
cap'n he come and TUX me out the
guard tent, and he says, Paddock.
ooyC Nc JOu jedi ~ oOVoI yCT Ouo4-
ness. The gineral isn't goin' to shoot
ye, but yer wanderin' around without
leave Is prejudicial to good order and
military discipline. Anyway, this yere
brigade is supposed to be commanded
by one O. the most sclentlnc warriors
In the army. besides bein' backed by
six United States senators and twenty
congressman, and it wouldn't do for
It to git out how the redoubt was
taken
''That made me madden n ever I wa
afore, and said:
"Cap'n.' says I. you 60 tell the GIN
eral II he wants any more redoubts tax.
en- he kin take 'em hisself. I'll never
take another one so long as goddle-
nifty lives.'" F. A. mitchell.
The One Exception.
The topic Of debate at the Poets
club meeting was. (which of the Sexes