Los Angeles herald., 1907-10-27
fknD 5KEEsICKs is deady' This
was the message brought down
W tho Earn Co hrin nnrn n at rEraalr

~ the San Gabriel canyon last week
from the mining district at it's head, and
all the frequenters of that wonderful
summer outing place viii miss the queer
old man who, though surly in speech
and manner, made 1t pleasant for scores
of visitors who took their summer out
ings up that wonderful canyon.
Thomas v. Donlan, locally known as
90 Skeeeicks," was a man with MIS-
tory and the writer was one of the few
privileged to hear 1t from his own lips.
Born in Belfast. ireland, of Presbyterian
stock, he was articled in youth to
manufacturer of musical instruments,
and many of the horns that made music
for the besieging forces at Balaklava and
lukerman and the historic 'Redan' or
the Crimean war passed through MS
hands. He claimed his master made
bugle which sounded the charge OF the
"Six HUNDRED" of Lord Cardigans com
mand and was particularly well versed
in the many disputes of which that MS
toric incident Is the center
Was His Bunkie
"Ol' Skeesicks'' was tent mate with me
in Hookers old brigade and all through
the hell of the peninsular campaign that
made fame for Little Mac" from the
advance on Yorktown through all the
"Seyen Days Fight" and back from
Harrison's Landing we were together,
and both escaped rebel bullets ana
swamp fever. During the siege OF I ork
town when 10000 armed men were helu
In check for many days by wooden guns
on dummy carriages, and all the arts OF
military engineering were used to as
lodge the enemy, we used TO reheVe
nicket guard at night for the reason IL
was Impossible to do so in daytime, as
the lines were go close together through
running rifle pits and lunettes and para
lele up to the works that We couio- potn
see and hear the men on duty among tne
enemy 1t was often sudden death TO
careless men who staggered out IN ue-
fiance of the danger and fell TO snarp-
shooters rifle just as they reached the
no MT of possible cover. The ground was
q swampy surface and always had more
or less of water on it and as these pooles
could not be buried or removed we nao
to lie close to them for all that night and
next day till night again and our rehel
came to us through the dark.
Tbe men of our command had hit upon
the following plan to relieve the picket
nosts We cut reeds from the sWamps
and made whistles of them with whlcn
the men could make good duplicate OF
the cail of the whippoorwill, a very com
mon cry in the swamps at night' anu
with your gun over your back you would
crawl on All lOulo al inv AAASeN'
every few minutes to sound your call ana
hear the answer from the man on post,
and then worm your way to him as pest
YOU could Frequently we crawled on
TOP of a corpse and it was anything put
pleasant, especially as the BODY was
that cf someone you knew In lie ana
YOU could not tell who. After snaking
and crawling some 800 yards you would
1nd vour man and fix yourself behind
.,cb cover az he had and he returned
the way you came.
~SN One Might Sleep
9yas a species of grand guard ana TWO
Awere CLOSE together, one OF wnom
Al sleep If he could while the other
+ faiert on duty All through the
the hours punctuated with rlfle
and the sound of the movements
and talk of the enemy, no man couiu
sleep and the water and awful mlasma OF
the swamps and putrefying human hesn
was something to stife one. II one
oo,,sbsd n would almost always bring
rifle bullet near you, and frequently
tbe relief found their man corpse. killed
hv auch a pot shot, or in seeking relieI
from mis- cramped position, making noise
sufficient to attract fire to him.
The weather was warm ana rains "ele
FREQUENT. We were poorly ciotneo, ~
tbe men had discarded most OF thelI
kits and retained only a rubber planket
and shelter or "dog" tent. Such clothing
as thew possessed they wore on tnelr
nersons. and when night came ana the
chill arose from the swamps sense
Of physical numbness attacked the PICK
cts In desperation to get relief from
49, ora rnned position many a good man
ioe+ his life. for the rebel sharpshooters
we've good marksmen and rarely missed
a shot. ~, ,,or ~ onv
kind from tie ground, as 1t was too
swampy, but we used such pooles as
we could roll together from near dls-
RANGES and covered them with brush ana
anvthing that lay around, and 1t was
the discovery that we-"Old Skeeslcks
and myself-had been, covered all nlgnt
by the body of an old company chum'
killed three days before, that led TO tne
following story. Crouching behind our
human cover and speaking III d AZ" pu'
distinct voice, he said:
Brings Out Story
.rrhis reminds me of the land trans
mort, service in the Crimea. There was
Nc, stretch of ground from the base
of sIpplies to the lines in that war ana
ORD Raglan had called for land trans
nort brigade to get supplies and ammuni-
tion to the men in the works. l was
told off to work with party OF raw
recruits just arrived for that duty we
81 ammunition and clothing when night
came Coming from Simperopol to In
herman by rail these chaps did not see
much of wars hardships, but as soon
as we got to the first line and they saw
the great Congreve rockets being thrown
Nv rs and the huge shells coming back
they got Called and 1t seemed lmpos-
sibIe to get them to go ahead. We had
the supplies on hand-barrows, two men
TO barrow and If one halted the other
could do nothing.
"An occasional shell would come our
wav and that made things worse. The
men ON duty in the trenches were as
unconoerned as If on parade. They sang
songs. chatted and laughed at our awk-
ward crowd till I was beside myself
with shame and anger. A French aide
with several orderlies came up with dis
patches from Caurobert, looking for the
engineer officer of that section. He and
his orderlies also Joined in the fun at
our expense.
Starts Race Fight
eve Englishmen all dis4--ed the
Johnny Crapeans, and when l caught
one of them by the leg and threw him
off his horse his comrades rode In among
us and hell was up in a minute. The
regulars were scattered all about and in
...,I5 MT oil friend from foe.