Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1907-04-19
THE BAT,TLE-FIELDS.
OLD SOLDIERS TALK OVER
ARMY EXPERIENCES.
The Blue and the Gray Review Incl
dents of the Late War, and in a
Graphic and Interesting Manner
Tell of Camp, March and Battle.

James Walker was born near Knox
Vile, In East Tennessee, about the year
1888, so that he was in his 2Sth year
when our civil war began. When 26
years Of age Walker accepted the place
OF master mechanic in the railroad ma
chine shops in Atlanta, Ga. The war
nad been going on for eight months,
when Walker escaped from Atlanta one
saturday night, and before his flight
was discovered he had reached friends
IN the Cumberland mountains. Within
month, for the man was a born lead
or, Walker had recruited 1877 mountain
GERS, and, without any warrant, swore
them into the union service. With
these men, dressed in butternut and
armed with old-fashioned hunting
rifles, Walker Travelled by night through
the lines of Kirby Smith, and succeed
ed In reaching the union forces under
Nelson in central Kentucky.
Walker received captains commits
sion and he and his men were regularly
mustered into the service; but instead
Of being consolidated into one of the
many East Tennessee union regiments,
they remained a separate command
known as walkers Scouts" Because
Of their great familiarity with the
country over which the armies of East
Tennessee and Of the Cumberland were
then operating, Walker and his men
were Of the greatest service, and it
may be added that it would be impos-
sible to find in either army a harder,
mounted men.
l first met Walker at Chattanooga, a
few weeks before the battles Of Look
out Mountain and Missionary Ridge.
He had gone through the enemy's lines
alone with message for help from
Burnside, then starving in Knoxville.
Three weeks after he had started back
to Burnside, we had our big fights, and
in the hot pursuit of Bragg that fol-
lowed was captured with some sixty
men. All the union prisoners were
sent on to ''the bull pen," an unroofed
Enclosure in Atlanta, from which point
the officers were forwarded to Libby
prison, and the enlisted men to Belle
Isle in the James River.
1t was a cold, sleety evening in early
December when we were marched from
the cars at Atlanta to the bull pen at
the edge of the town. The Enclosure
was more than ankle deep in mud. In
less than the space Of half an acre
1000 shivering men were packed. About
the center Of the Enclosure there were
two brick piles, remnants of the chin
neys of a house that had been burned
down. AS 1 was stiff, my comrades
helped me to the chimneys, and made
a seat of some Of the bricks.
sat down, and had just uttered a
groan caused by mental rather than
physical suffering, when my attention
was attracted by the clanking of a
chain near by. Looking qHlckly up, I
was surprised and shocked to see the
tall form of Captain Walker bending
over me. About his right ankle there
was a heavy ring, and fastened to this
q log chain, at the other end Of which
was an iron ball that looked like a
1OO-pound shot. This ball the captain
carried on his shoulder with the great
est ease; but he dropped it beside me
and made a seat of it, when he took
nv hand in both Of his and whispered
as he wrung it:
my, Cap, but I am glad to see you
here"
"Glad to see me here, WalkerT' re-
peated.
That's what l said, old fellow"
"Well, 1 don't think l hate any man
so much that I'd like to see him in this
pen." And I waved my hands at the
guards on the high platform about the
stockade, and the poor fellows trudging
through the mud to keep warm. Bend
ing nearer and sinking his voice to the
low, soft pitch that seemed so out Of
keeping with his character, Walker
said:
"God knows, I'm not glad to see you
a prisoner, old fellow, and you know it,
too. But as you see," here he shook
the chain, I'm in a bad Ak, and I'm
here waiting for some man to show up
that I know has the interest in me 10
see me through"
"You can count on me and my boys,
Walker responded. But what does
this ball and chain mean on a prisoner
of war and an officer?''
"That is just it" he fastened to say.
II am not regarded as a federal sol
der as they call our people"
"How, then, do they regard you?" /
asked, though, knowing much of his
past, 1 half guessed at the truth. In
his habitually quiet way Walker went
on to explain his former place in At
lanta. and how he had been eonscripted
and then detailed to work in the rail-
road shops. After his escape to the
union lines, he had been set down as a
deserter, and as he had retained his
own name and had become coDspicu-
Gus figure in the war, a reward was Of
L