Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-06-19
Civil War Stories


I An incident illustrating Colonel
Rooseyelt's devotion 10 the men of his
regiment was told by Trooper Burk-
holder of the Rough Riders. Burk-
holder was all through the active cam
pasgn with the Rough Riders. He was
away on furlough ON account of slight
attack of swamp fever when the Rough
Elders were mustered out, and thus
missed, as he puts it, IAN opportunity
to say good-by to the most gallant com.
mander and the truest man that a sol
der was ever privileged to fight I'M
der
only us few men who were with
him, said Burkholder, know how con.
siderate he was of us at all times.
Ihere was one case In particular that
illustrates this better than l can recall.
+ 1t happened after the fight at La
4 Quasimas. The men were tired with
the hard march and the fighting, and
hunger was gnawing at every stomach.
Besides, we had our first men killed
there and, taking 1t all in al, we were
In an ugly humor The usual shouting,
cracking of jokes and snatches of song
/ 1sere missing, and everybody appeared
10 be IN the dumps. l suppose we were
all thinking of poor Ham Fish and the
rest of the poor fellows who had been
dropped in the short scrap
Well, things hadn't improved Il bit.
in fact, We're getting worse along to-
ward meal time, when the colonel be-
gan to move about among the men,
speaking encouragingly to each group
| guess he saw something was up, and
no doubt he made up his mind then and
there to improve at least the humor of
the men. There's an old saying that a
man can best be reached through his
stomach, and guess he believes In that
maxim. Shortly afterward we saw the
colo et. his cook and two OF the troop
ers Il , ompany | strike out along the
narrow road toward the town, and we
wondered what was up. 1t was prob
ably an hour OF so after this, and dur
ing little resting spell in our work
OF clearing ground and making things
little camp-like, that the savory and
almost forgotten odor of beef stew be-
gan to sweep through the clearing Men
who We're working stopped short aud
began to sniff, and those who had
stopped work for a breathing spell for
got TO breathe for a second Soon they
Joined in the shifting. and I'll wager
every one of us was shifting as hard as
he knew how. Oh, but didn't that
smell fine We weren't sure that IL
was for us, but we had a smell of II
anyway. Quickly dropping spirits re
vived, and as the fumes of the boiling
stew became stronger the humor of the
men improved. We all jumped to oul
work with a will, and picks, shoyels
and axes were piled In race horse fash
ion, while the men would stop now ant
then to raise their heads and draw ,
long breath and exclaim:
Wow but that smells good
I'VE We're finally summoned to feed
and then you can imagine our surprise
There was big boiler and beside ii 8
crowd of mess tent men dlshng out
real beef stew! We could hardly be
lleve our eyes. and had to taste mine
first to make sure it wasn't a dream
You should have seen the expression on
the faces Of the men as they gulped
down that stew, and we all laughed
when one New York man yelled:
And it's got real onions in it, too (.
After we had loaded up we began
to wonder where II ali came from and
then the two Troop | men told how the
colonel had purchased the potatoes and
onions while his own cook secured the
meat from Siboney.
You probably won't believe It. but
the bushe of potatoes cost Colonel
Roosevelt almost $50 and he had Il
pay thIrtyodd good American dollars
what his men wanted and il was al.
ways his men first with him There
was a rush 10 his tent when we learned
this, and II you ever heard the cheer
ing I'm sure you wouldn't wonder why
the Rough Riders all love their colonel.
Il see" said BurkboIder. that in
his address to the men at Camp Wlkoff
the colonel told how he had to hurry at
the San Juan lin fight 10 save himself
from being run over by the men. That's
Just like him to say that but he prob
ably forgets that more than half Of
the men never ran so fast before and
never Will again as they had 10 run to
keep up with him. II Colonel Roose-
welt lived In Arizona we would give
him any Office be wanted without any
election nonsense. New York sun.
Prison Life in Rebellion.
Like voice out OF the past, letter
written In 1864 by Union prisoner
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