The Coeur d'Alene press. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) 1906-1907, 1907-02-15
HOW the REDOUBT
WAS TAKEN
Ioriginal.1

IOflBinal.
Here comes old Paddock" said one
Of half dozen men sitting around q
country store stove. He's the only |
hero l ever knew who didn't know he
was a hero. Anyway. he thinks his |
comrades believe he ought to have
been shot for desertion. To get his |
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 a cor
poral? They say you came pretty |
near being shot for desertion."
Il can't never get rid o. that mis-
take" said Paddock ruefully, ''for
that's what 1t was, mistake. You see.
twas this way. We was down there in
Virginny buckin' up ag'in a long line
OF Notifications at the base of the
mountains. One night / got a banker
In to do some scoutin' on my own ac-
count. l reckoned the redoubt our bri-
gade was tryin' to take wasn't well
connected with the one next to II. Il
had purity sharp eyes In them days.
and ! thought l seen a way to git In
between 'em. Stealin' along a ravine,
managed to git by the pickets O. both
armies, climbed the mountains and
looked right down into the fort we was
a-trytn' TO take. What dye suppose /
seen? There wasn't twenty men in IL.
and fully half the guns was Quaker.
II couldn't understand how our GIN
eral could be weeks buclnn' up ag'in
this measly shown, but he'd wrote a
lot O. books on the science o. war, and
l supposed he knowed all about it.
Anyway, thought I'd go back and
tell him what I'd seen. got down to
the ravine when l was halted by a
rebel picket and taken prisoner.
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 clrcIed around
the Johnnies' left flank an our right
flank. | was wallzin' into camp one
mornin' thinkln' how I'd like some real
United States coffee when met some
O. our men. The officer in command
arrested me for a deserter | tole him
where I'd been and what I'd seen, but
he didn't believe me.
"Waal, d'y' know, they court mar
tailed me for desertion-yes, they did
an, wo'se, they sentenced me to be
shot. The only bit o. luck had was
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 discoverln' that there want
no strength in the redoubti IT want
right nohow. WAL takin' advantage
o. the confusion, plckin' up n musk ct
/ walked right up through the ravine
an the path I'd found on the mountain
side till | got to the spot where I'd
looked down on the Johnnies IN the
redoubt. There want as many Of 'em
as there was afore | knowed ms ad
/ vantage, bein' in their rear. and how !
could scare 'em, so yelled at the toG
OF my voice:
Surrender"
"Y' never see such frightened lot l.
your life. One or two of 'em fired al
me. fired back, an the rest skedad
died. 1t happened that young on
Ger on our picket line was Gurus "a
know what the firm meant. thiukin
likely that the rebs were fightin among
themselves. an he come cautiously
with a dozen O. the picket. up the slope
l seen him an hollered to him 10 CON.
on; the redoubt was our'n. lie ken. m
1t want long afore the United States
flag was a-futterin' over them Quake
guns.
."'waal, I'll he gol darnedy said the
officer. We've been three weeks
tryin' to take this fertilization, ano
you've TUX 1t all alone! And our gin
eral one o. the fust strategists in th6
army
Hes all right" says l. Them in
gineerln' books o. his hain't got nothin
In 'em bout Quaker guns, l says
How d'y' expect him TO know what
his books don't teachY
81 went down the slope and met tbs
gineraI ridIn' up with his staff. He[
seen the United States flag a-6yin' ovei
the redoubt and didn't know what j
meant He stopped me and asked ms
who l was and where I'd come from
/ told him | was the man that was t