The Press., 1911-03-01
By THOMAS cRIsWoLD.


Buffers coming! Railroad tracks all torn up and the telegraph wires cut! You boys had better get right back to Petersburg. Pm going there to give the alarm"
 A dust covered farmer mounted on a foaming horse, who had come tear ing down the Richmond turnpike, shouted this startling news to two barefooted newsboys who were resting in the shade on the side of the turn pike, few yards from the point where it crossed the Richmond and Peters burg railroad.
 The time was in the early days of the siege of Petersburg, when General Benjamin F. Butler was operating on the James river.
 The older of these two newsboys was fifteen. I will call him Jack. 1 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 a glimpse of General Butler, whom Con- federate boys at that time regarded as 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 curve near the Swift creek bridge we saw, about a 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 great pile of tele- graph poles and railroad ties.
 "Butler's men did that" said Jack. 'We'n have to be mighty cautious. Let's get into the ditch along the track and keep a sharp lookout"
 Just beyond a slight rise of the ground north of the house was a Un- ion encampment. The smoke lazily rose from a hundred campfres, and the white tents gleamed in the bright sunshine in a 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 in front of which the flag was flying. Jack lowered the flag. With a beating heart I entered the tent. I found it Uttered with torn papers and maps. In one corner was camp chest upon which were painted the words, Gen eral B. F. Butler, U. s. A."
 In tent in the rear of General But ler's, which was probably used as a kitchen, we found stock of provi- sions that set us wild with delight. We had little to eat at home and now had been for several hours without food.
 A pot of coffee steamed on the fire in front of the tent. On the shelves in- side was a boiled ham, and about 1t lay a variety of canned meats and fruits, while chest was found to con- tain a quantity of freshly baked bread.
 "Oh," said Jack, If we only had a wagon we might carry home lot of these things"
 Well" said I, "the next best thing is to tote home as much as we can on our backs. What are we going to takeY'
 "I reckon" said Jack, ''that the folks at home would like tea and coffee best. They are scarcest."
 We decided to load ourselves down with those two articles. We found some empty sacks and divided tha contents of the sack of green coffee in General Buffers kitchen tent into two parts of thirty or forty pounds each. Then into two other sacks we poured a chest of Oolong tea. These were tied up and put inside the sacks containing coffee, and Jack also stuffed into his sack the flag in front of the generals tent, which he had taken down when he first entered the camp.
 He suggested that give him part of my coffee in order to tighten the load, and at first l was inclined to do SO, but when I thought how the people at home after many months use of chicory, parched corn, roasted sweet potato parings and other poor substi- tutes for coffee would enjoy the gen. uine article 1 made up my mind that would carry home the contents of the sack if l had to drag it over the en- tire five miles.
 We had been so much excited with our discoveries that we had not no ticed that the sun was very low. It would be dark before we could reach home. We gazed longingly at what we were leaving behind and started homeward.
 We took the turnpike with the hope of getting a lift in some passing Ve- hicle. AS we trudged along we saw | two Confederate cavalrymen riding to- ward US. In our fear lest they should rob us of our precious possessions we slouched along as near the woods as we could get, hoping they would pass without noticing us.
 Vain hope! "Haltp' we eard one of them shout just as they were abreast of us. One of them, who was a corporal. dismcunted. He was a cruel looking fellow, and we soon discovered that his looks did not belle him. Walking up to Jack. he gruffiy asked, "What have you got thereY' and at the same time roughly Jerked the sack from the terrified boys \ shoulder.
 Plunging his arm into the sack, he drew out the United States flag. At sight of this the corporal shouted ''Spies-traitoIs1 and danced about wildly.
 It was useless for us to try to ex, plain to the infuriated man, and, tC tell the truth, we were too badly frightened to give a good account o1 ourselves.
 "Pm going to carry you to General Beauregard's headquarters" the cor. poraI said, ''and you'll be shot as spies
 We believed him. It was not, there fore, with very good spirits that we