Connecticut western news., 1909-12-30
By THOMAS eRIswoL0.
19vy. by American Press
 Association.
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 to give the alarm"
 A dust covered farmer mounted on q foaming horse, who had come tear ing down the Richmond turnpike, shouted this startling news to two barefooteI newsboys who were resting in the shade on the side of the turn pike, few yards from the point where 1t crossed the Richmond and Peters burg railroad.
 The time was ill the early days of he siege of Petersburg, when General Benjamin F. Butler was operating on the James river.
 The older of these two newsboys was fifteen. 1 will call him Jack. was the younger one and was eleven years old.
 We discussed the question whether we should go home or go on toward Richmond and endeavor to get glimpse of General Butler, whom Con federate boys at that time regarded as a sort of monster.
 We started at a brisk walk along the railroad, with our unsold stock of Richmond papers under our arms.
 AS we turned n curve near the Swift creek bridge we saw, about q mile be- yond, a.sight that greatly excited us. The air was full of black smoke, through which we saw an occasional flash of flames. Presently we came close enough to discover that the source of the flames was a great pile of tele- graph poles and railroad ties.
 hnt IL "Well have to be mighty cautious. Let's get into the ditch along the track and keep sharp lookout"
 Just beyond a slight rise of the ground north of the house was a Un- ion encampment. The smoke lazily , rose from Il hundred campfres. and the white tents gleamed In the bright sunshine in manner that was almost painful to the eyes.
 Gradually it dawned upon us that the camp had been suddenly abandon ed-so suddenly, indeed, that the din , ners were left cooking on the fires, and all sorts of camp utensils and pro visions were scattered promiscuously around.
 . We made straight for the big tent
 
 Jack lowered the flag. With q beating
 heart I entered the tent. l found it } filtered with torn papers and maps. In one corner was a camp chest upon
 which were painted the words, Gen
 eral l.. +. Butler, II. s. A" s In a tent in the rear of General But ler's, which was probably used as a
 kitchen, we found a stock of provi-
 sions that set us wild with delight. s We had little to eat at home and now had been for several hours without ~ food.
 \ A pot of coffee steamed on the fire V in front of the tent. On the shelves in
 side was a boiled ham, and about 1t
 lay q variety of canned meats and fruits, while q chest was found to COZ ? tain quantity of freshly baked bread oh" said Jack, If we only had q wagon we might carry home lot of these things"
 2 Well" said I, "the next best thing is to tote home as much as we can on our backs. What are we going tc take?"
 2 II reckon" said Jack, that the folks at home would like tea and coffee best They are scarcest." We decided to load ourselves down 2 with those two articles. We found some empty sacks and divided tho contents of the sack of green coffee II General Buffers kitchen tent into two 2 parts of thirty or forty pounds each Then into two other sacks we poured z chest of Oolong tea. These were tiet md n4L n 3 coffee, and Jack also stuffed into hi. sack the flag ill front of the generals tent, which he had taken down wher he first entered the camp. v He suggested that l give him a pnrt of my coffee in order to tighten tho D load, and at first 1 was inclined to dt 5 so, but when thought how the people | at home after many months use oi \ chicory, parched corn, roasted sweet S potato parings and other poor subsu tutes for coffee would enjoy the gen uinc article 1 made up my mind that \ would carry home the contents of tho , sack if l had 10 drag it over the en tire five miles.
 We had been so much excited witt \ our discoveries that we had not no
 
 would be dark before we could reacl home. We gazed longinglS at wha \ we were leaving behind and started S homcward.
 k We took the turnpike with the hop \ of getting a lift in some passing ve S hicle. As we trudged along we sav @ two Confederate cavalrymen riding to waru Us. In our fear lest they Shoui' rob us of our precious possessions w ( slouched along as near the woods a S we could get, hoping they would pas ! without noticing Us. [ Vain hope. "IIalt!" wc lcard e. | If them shout just as [, " wer S abreast of us. One of them, who wa \ corporal. dismounted. He was a cruel looking fellow, an \ we soon discovered that his looks di = not belle him. Walking up to Jacl