The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1908-06-18
Civil War Stories


regiment was told by Trooper Burk
holder of the Rough Riders. Burk-
holder was all through the active cam
paign with the Rough Riders He was
away on furlough on account of a slight
attack of swamp fever when the Rough
Riders We're mustered out, and thus
missed, asshe puts it, San opportunity
to say good-by to the most gallant COM
mander and the truest man that a sol
der was ever privileged to fight IN
der"
Only US few men who were with
him. said Burkholder, know how con-
siderate he was of us at all times.
There was one case in particular that
illustrates this better than I can recall
1T happened after the fight at La
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 it all in all, we were
In an ugly hum0r. The usual shouting,
cracking of jokes and snatches of song
were missing. and everybody appeared
to be in the dumps. 1 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 bit,
in fact, were 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
man can best be reached through his
stomach, and guess he believes in that
maxim. Shortly afterward we saw the
colonel, his cook and two of the troop
ers of Company / strike out along the
narrow road toward the town. and we
wondered what was up. 1t was prob
| ably an hour or 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 were working stopped short and
began to snifr, and those who had
stopped work for a breathing spell for
| got TO breathe for 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 it
was for us, but we had a smell of it
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 our
work with a will. and picks, shovels
and axes were piled in race horse fash
ion, while the men would stop now and
then to raise their heads and draw a
long breath and exclaim:
Wow! but that smells good
1--WE were finally summoned TO feed,
and then you can imagine our surprise.
There was big boiler and beside 1t a
crowd of mess tent men dishing out
real beef stew. We could hardly be-
lieve 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:
land it's got real onions in it, too
AFTER we had loaded up we began
to wonder where it all came from and
then the two Troop i 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 bushel of potatoes cost Colonel
Roosevelt almost $50 and he had to
pay thirty-odd good American dollars
to get the onions, but then he knew
what his men wanted and it was al
ways his men first wish him. There
was rush to his tent when we learned
| this, and if you ever heard the cheer
ing I'm sure you wouldn't wonder why
the Rough Riders all love their colonel.
Il see,' said Burkholder, 'that in
his address TO the men at Camp Wikoff
the colonel told how he had to hurry at
the San Juan Hill fight TO 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 to run to
keep up with him. If Colonel Roose
Welt lived in Arizona we would give
him any Office he wanted without any
election nonsense New York Sun.