The Falls City tribune., 1909-12-17


ed every morning from each com
pany. making forty or fifty from the
regiment, who would gallop away
early in the morning across the coun.
try, and away from the roads fol
lowed by the marching army, They
would pass the poorer looking farms,
and dash up to the rich looking plan
t%ations, dismonnting, some going 10
the smokehouse, others to the kiteh.
en- and cellar; some would tackle
the bee-hives with water and smoke,
and others dig sweet potatoes. Chick
ems, turkeys, ducks, and geese would
be caught; flour barrels emptied into
sacks and canteens filled with mol
asses.
Darkies were easily threatened in
to disclosing the hiding places of
horses and mules. These would be
harnessed to a wagon or carriage, the
plumber loaded up, the foragers re
joining their regiment by nightfall.
1t would be distributed among the
several army messes, and feasting
would last we'll into the night.
In the southern part of Georgia,
they struck a sWampy country
Here teams were often mired in the
mud holes. The nights were cold,
but they built rousing camp fires Of
fence rails, which were very plenty.
At Savannah immense quantities
of rice was found stored nea the
river. Darkies were put to work
with mortar and postal huiling the
rice. and details of soldiers ran the
rice mills day and night. while a con-
slant stream of wagons were engaged
in hauling it to the numerous army
camps.
Entertainments that the soldiers
used as roads, ran across the low
rice fields near the streams. in the
center of which were canals hat fill
ed with water at high tide. BY
means of sluiee gates, rs the canals
were higher than the land, the water
was distributed over the rice planta-
tons.
Christmas 1864 was a decidedly
gloomy and cherries day n camp.
1t had been raining hard every day
for nearly a week. 1t was very wet
aud foggy, and a hard matter TO keep
up fires out doors, and in the tents
the fire made more smoke tban heat.
When on guard or picket duty he
would get wet to the skin, His only
recreation was playing cards and
swapping yarns. He did not hang up
his stocking, or receive any presents.
New Years day was the coolest
that had been experienced in this
country for many years, and in Geor-
gia it was e zero. This ex-
IRENE cold ~oceasioned a great deal of
suffering among the soldiers who
were poorly clad to stand such ex-
IRENE cold.
Early in February, 1865, the army
broke camp at Savannah and start
ed northward, straightforward strong,
moving in our columns, with a front
covering the country forty miles
wide, cavalry and foragers swarming
on each flank.
Columbia, the capital of South Car
DINA, was captured and nearly the
entire city burned, and Charleston
was evacuated by the rebels the
ext day.
At Charlotte. on the Charleston and
Augusta Railroad, his regiment for
three days was engaged in destroying
the railroad. The soldiers would
string out along the track, and at the
word of command from the officers,
each soldier would grasp a railroad
tie, and by united effor; the track for
side down. The ties were then torn
loose from the rails, the ties piled up
like cord wood, and the rails put
across them. and fired. When the
rails were red hot in the middle, they
wee bent or twisted so that they
could not be used again.
His regiment was in the fierce
fighting at B%entonyille. where rebel
General Johnson and his army were
dri3 en- back.
A. Goldsborough he drew new
Jothlng, and then the soldiers of his
aged regiment appeared in an en-
Tire new suit of blue.
The route TO Raleigh was swampy
and it was during the rainy season,
so that the roads We're terrible. Day
after day and sometimes at night his
regiment built corduroy roads through
the swamps, so that the artillery and
baggage could move.
He was here taken sick with a drop
steal trouble, rendering him unable