Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1912-04-19
In many Of the homesthe children

oil the LOAF bread mad been given tf
the hungry of our men as they moved
rapidly in retreat. Then came the
Yankees who were tired of army bard.
tack, canned baked beans and picked
pork. They wer glad to sit down t.
a square meal at table In the house
or to stuff themselves with home made
pies. They paid for what they got,
and their gold and silver money were
! gladly taken by not few of the good
and thrifty housewives of the town.
1t was later reported of the good wife
OF blacksmith, living in the south
end OF town, who was full of southern
enthusiasm, and yet was not unwilling
to get an honest quarter or dollar
even from the hated enemy, that she
said to the Yankees, "If you men
want something good to eat don't
come to the front door but go in the
side gate and come to the kitchen door
and you can get all you want for gold
and silver, specially gold" But this
was not that blacksmith's wife who
was reported to have declared, with
all the vigor of her strong nature, just
at the opening of the war, "My Dave
can kill five thousand Yankees
Then were observed for several
days the many and varied scenes of a
big army camp and on the march. The
deserted camps were treat to big and
little of the residents. ''The enemy"
in their eagerness to go forward as
free from membranes as possible
had abandoned and discarded many
things. Warm weather was coming
and winter equipments would soon be
burden. Many captures were made
by the boys OF the town-overcoats,
blouses, pants, caps, blankets, guns,
pistols. canteens, hand-mirrors, parts
of wagons, broken down horses, and
other things too numerous to mention.
For months, and perhaps years some
of the boys land girls also) went
about in garments made from cut
down "army blue" but now changed
in color by good mothers and big
sisters by the use of native hickory
bark and walnut-hull dyes. "Dia-
mond dyes" were not then known, and
if they had been they probably would
not have produced the desired shade
of color for hiding qualities.
There were others, but among the
more important captures from the
camps were two particular horses.
The first of these was taken by the
boys. He was big black, found
lying on "the commons" just west
of the Methodist church, fat on
his side, breathing, but skin and
bones and very lame. The experts
standing by said, from the worn spots
on his body, that he was an artillery
horse and that he would die before
the sun went down. The boys ran
home, brought two buckets of water
and ten ears of corn and watered and
fed him, by holding his head up, then
repeated the dose at dusk and then |
with the aid of their father got him
up on his feet and made him hobble
TO a nearby pasture lot. There they
tended him carefully for days until |
there was rupture of hoof at the |
edge of the hair and relief came from |
gravel; and the horse became one OF |
The best work and riding horses in the |
sown, gentle for man, woman or child, |
until he was taken from the family by |
a fake" lieutenant of the Confeder-
ate army, under the inspiration of |
some good people of the town, be-
cause he had been branded with the
initials 'U. S."
The other horse was captured by
one of the most beautiful young ladies |
of the town and in honor of his origin
she called him 'Charlie Banks"
" hen he recovered from his years
he was, though abs olu:ely
oalky in work wagon, one of the
leetest horses under saddle and bare
pack in the whole country. A boy
riding this horse, carrying a message
10 a surgeon at Mt. Jackson, on his
return was chased in whirlwind run
from Narrow Passage into Wood
stock by three cavalrymen, whom he
believed to be Yankees, but who proy-
ed later to be of our Een. One of
these, huge sergeant mounted on a
big gray horse, when he got into
town declared be would have that |
black racehorse in exchange for his |
own, but the lieutenant, one of the |
three, said, "You touch that boy or |
that horse and l will shoot daylight |
through you"
After this victorious advance up
the Valley by Gen. Banks and his
army their rapid and disastrous re-
treat, few weeks later, is "another |
story"
A BOY OF 1862.
April l, 1912.