Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-06-26
Civil War Stories
Rooseve1t's Beef stew.

4
| An incident illustrating Colonel
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 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.
There was one case in particular that
illustrates this better than l 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 humor. The usual shouting,
cracking of Jokes and snatches Of song
were missing, and everybody appeared
| to be in the dumps. I 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 a 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 a
man can best be reached through his
stomach, and I 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. It was prob
ably an hour or SO after this, and dur
| ing a 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 sniff, and those who had
stopped work for 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 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 win, 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
"We were finally summoned to feed,
and then you can imagine our surprise.
There was a big boiler and beside it
crowd of mess tent men dishing out
real beef stew! We could hardly be-
lieve our eyes, and I 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 it all 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 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 with him. There
was a 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.
II 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 I'D with him. If Colonel Roose-
welt lived in Arizona we would give
| him any office he wanted without any
! election nonsense. New York Sun.
Prison Life In Rebellion.
Like voice out of the past, a letter
written in 1864 by Union prisoner
at Charleston, s. c., has come to light,