The National tribune., 1907-03-14
A DANGEROUS PIG
"A New York Engineer Had to XIII II in
Helf.DefenOO.

/ OuC VI tie Olu OOyS WIN WOIC luC OAuO
in the SOS, and fought upon the ques-
tfOn of mo, our Union shall never be
divided" and a reader of your Il should
say our) paper, The National Tribune,
in whose columns I find and read SO
many items from the old boys them
selves, which have stirred me to such
an extent that 1 shall have to say some-
thing myself of an incident in which 1
was the principal actor. I will give it
the title of How recruit pleaded his
own case and saved himself from pun
ishment for disobeying orders" 1t was
in the Spring of 1864, in the campaign
from the Wilderness to Petersburg, that
laid myself liable to punishment for
not obeying orders. The orders were
not to forage. 1t being the first or sec
ond march I ever made through Old
Virginia mud, it was hard one on me.
because 1 was young and inexperienced
with army life, or, more appropriately
expressed, the deaths of war: but,
nevertheless, I was there and into it
nearly kneo-deep, with full equipage,
| hardtack and all. The march was a
| three-days' rations of salt pork and
| hardtack; for when they were all gone
| the march was still there as far ahead
| as we could see. I could not help but
| think of home and the spareribs hang
| ing on the tree. AS to the spare part,
1 had lots of 1t there, but not rib
could I see. I was almost tired out
1 was almost dead. My mother used
| to say l was one of the lucky-born. and
I guess I was. for just then or a little
while after somehow or other l got my
eyes on good tat shoat. 1 just Up
and killed it. Why, I had to, or it
would have gotten away from me. and,
boys, you all know how bad hungry
| soldier hafa1 n a nico fat mig
Just for doing that I was reported to
the Captain by some of the company's
nOncoms, who, you all know, were big
ger men than the commissioned officers
themselves. OF course, my Captain,
whose name was James H. Mcdonald,
good old fellow that he was, could do
nothing less than to give me an exam
| ination. Consequently I was ordered to
| report at his quarters to answer to the
charge of disobeying orders. / knew
| him to be one of the strictest of the
strict in regard to doing duty and obey
| ing orders. I had been in the service
| long enough to know that recruit was
not among the favored ones with the
old vets, nor a pet of the officers, es-
| pecially one as green as 1 was.
| thought I was goner. There l was
| to stand trial, with no one that / wished
| to drag into the affair as witness; still
/ knew that / must have some evidence
on my side of the question. 1 thought
perhaps that about half of one of the
hams of the pig had killed would be
as good evidence as l needed, SO l cut
! one of them in two, wrapt one-half of
it up ;n piece of old tent cloth, tooh
it under my arm and started for the
Captains tent / found him sitting on
his old camp STOOL looking as stern
and surIy as an old Durham bull. /
saluted him as nicely as / could. He
af raf 1n6 10
salute, but, / thought, not in a very
friendly manner There / stood look
ing at him and him at me. He broke
the silence with, What are you here
for?"
ITO obey the order of Hi Lawrence"
"Serg't Lawrence, sir"
"Well," said /, "Serg't Lawrence or
dered me to report to your tent
What for?"
"I don't know"
"Wen," said he, "they tell me you
have been foraging, when it was against
orders. Now, what have you to say"
'Why, sir, I have not been foraging."
What! Did you not kill pig the
other day while on the march?"
"Yes, sir" said I. At the same time
looked down at the chunk OF fresh
ham under my arm, the end of which
towards the Captain had got uncovered
somehow. II had to kill it," I said
Or
Hold on. You say you had to kill
it? How SO? Explain yourself, please"
I saw his eyes change from my face
to the uncovered end of the ham. His
countenance also began to change. In
getting ready to make the explanation
laid this chunk of ham upon his lit
tie table. The cover all came off. 1t
| was nice ornament for the table. By
| this time his countenance showed quite
Oh Nd t. far, fov tt,a
preston was quite mild. I coughed,
stepped to the tent door and spit, then
began my reason why: We'll, as was
going thru field the other day ! saw
the pig in a corner of the fence, with
its head sticking thru, and 1 supposed,
of course, it was fast and might die. I
went up to help it out. But instead of
being fast 1t had rammed its head thru
the fence and was stealing potatoes.
When it heard me it drew its head out
of the fence, gave a savage growl, and,
| with bristles all on end, 1t whirled
around and made dive; 1 jumped; it
dove; I jumped and jumped; it dove
and dove; but let me jump where I
would that dod blasted pig would be
ting scared, and it made charge upon
me. / could see 1t was for me to he
run over or me TO kill the pig. 1t did
not take me long to make up my mind
which would suit me best. / got my
old gun ready, and when the pig came
1 gave a side spring, and at the same
| time lay the butt Of my old gun over
his head with all my might, and down
| went the pig. 1 stood with my gun
| ready to give him another whack over
the head, but it did not move and ]
saw 1t was dead. / knew If it lay thete
in the hot sun it would soon be spoiit,
so 1 just dragged 1t down to the road,
and put it into one of the boats. Where
our train parked for the night. ] dressed
| it and am dividing 1t up amongst the
boys. Now. If you cali that foraging,
that is all there is to 1t and 1 will take
that piece of ham from your table. go
back to my tent and wait my punish.
ment."
| 1 saw while I was relating the facts
of the case to him that his face began
to lose the dark frown that was on It
when I entered his tent, and became
more mellow and mild, and when I had
ended my side of the case thought /
saw little smile peeping thru his dark
and heavy moustache. He said to me:
"You need not take that piece of
| ham to your tent, but go, and as long
as you remain in Dixie don't be run
over by a pig, II you can help it,
In the Engineers, Of which I was a
| member, the privates were rated as
| first and second class. I had always