Cheraw chronicle. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1896-2005, 1907-02-21
HOW the REDOUBT
WAS TAKEN
COriginal.l

Here comes old Paddock" said one
or half a dozen men sitting around a
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 desertion. To get his
story you must make him mad. How
dy. Mr.. Paddockr' And the speaker in
troduced the conner to his friends.
"How is it, Mr.. Paddock" he con-
ttnued. 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 It was. a mistake. You see.
twas this way. We was down there in
Virginny buckin' up ag'in q long line
0f fortineations at the base Of the
;'untsans. One night got a hanker-
inN to do some scoutin' on my own &C
count. reckoned the redoubt our bri.
gade was tryin' to take wasn't we'll
connected with the one next to It. I
had purity sharp eyes in them days,
and thought 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-tryin' to take. What dye suppose
seen? There wasn't twenty men in it,
and fully half the guns was Quaker.
eral could be weeks buckin' up ag'in
this measly showin'. but he'd wrote
LOT o books on the science O. war. and
l supposed he knowed all about it.
Anyway. I thought I'd go back and
tell him what I'd seen. | got down to
the ravine when was halted by n
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
hghtin'-I stole away one night. climb
ed up the mountain an circled around
the Johnnies' left flank an our right
nank. | was walkin' 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 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 I 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. I was mad. The idea O. gettin'
shot for discoverin' that there want
no strength in the rcdoubt! 1t want
RIGHT nohow. Waal takin' advantage
o the confusion. pickin' up n musl- ct.
| walked right up through the ravine
an the path I'd found on the mountain
side Hll | got to the spot where I'd
looked down OH the Johnnes in the
redoubt. There want as many Of 'em
as there was afore. I knowed my ad-
vantage. bein' in their rear. and how
could scare 'em, SO yelled Mt the top
Of my voice:
Surrender
"f' never see such frightened lot in
your life. One or two Of 'em fred at
me. fired back, an the rest skedad-
died. 1t happened that young off,
Ger on our picket line was Gurus to
know what the firin' meant. thinkin'
likely that the rebs were fightin' among
themselves. an he come cautiously,
with dozen O. the picket. up the slope.
l seen him an hollered to him to come
on; the redoubt was our'n. He KEN. an