The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1913-02-14

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him before we came.
So we went on with our hunt for
prisoners and got a good large num-
Der, don't remember how many. AT
ter that we moved back into the
woods and went into winter quarters.
1t was about the middle of December,
1862, and getting very cold. We
soon had a big snow and one day
some other brigade, l don't remem-
Der which one, gave us bad thrash
ing, and nearly run us out of our
camp. had gotten enough of it and
crawled into my tent. l was not fond
OF snowballing anyway. They were
just a short distance from our tent
snowballing each other like the mis-
chief and there was an officer about
twenty steps from me standing upon
stump encouraging his men. He
was side-wise to me, and l saw what
good target he was for another
ball, so l stopped down at the front
of the tent, where the snow was
thawed enough to make tight, hard
ball and let drive at him and hit him
on the side of the head, down he
went. About the same time some
balls were thrown at me and I ran
back in the tent and they went ball
ing on somewhere else. Some two
or three years ago l saw something
In newspaper about a SNOWFALL
fight, at that time, at Fredericks-
burg and of some captain or major
getting his eye knocked out or hurt
so as to lose it. All at once that
SNOWFALL fight flashed into my mind
and my throwing that hard ball and
striking him somewhere on the side
OF his head. 1t shocked me so I
could not or did not want to read it
again. Could it have been me that
threw the unfortunate ball and hit
near enough to that poor fellows eye
to deprive him of the use of it. I
hope and trust not.
Now there is one little incident
that occurred on the night between
the two days fight at Fredericks-
burg. We were on the front line,
little below town and our company
was sent out after dark on picket.
just as close to the enemy as we
could possibly get without being dis
covered, and to fire house in case
the enemy attempted to assault us in
the night. The captain was to watch
the right end of the line and I the
left, to keep the men from going to
sleep, as they had lost so much sleep
and were very tired. This was a par
ticular point to watch. I was crawl
ing from one to another all the time,
so as not to make any noise as they
were placed about five PAGES apart. I
found one of my men fast asleep. I
woke him up and warned him of his
danger and that it was death some
times to be caught asleep on outpost,
but it did no good for in a few min
utes he was snoring almost loud
enough for the enemy to hear him.
l knew we were going to get back
before it was light enough to be seen,
so l woke him again and took him
back few steps, placed him behind
a small house and covered him up
with his blanket and told him to get
good sleep. About first appearance
of day we slipped back to our line of
battle and l was sure the Yankees
would get him and l would not be
bothered with him any more. But
after good daylight he walked off be-
hind the house with his blankets all
around him to the ground, and when
| saw him coming he reminded me of
woman at distance on a cold day,
all wrapped up. No doubt the Yam
KEGS thought so too, or he would not
come back so slow. But everything
turned out all right, anyway. He
thought | did it to favor him and said
to me when he walked up, "Lieuten-
ant, you gave me a good sleep last
night" l told him to say no more
about it or he might get us both
into trouble. l wont call his name
for he has some good kinfolks over
where l was raised and / did not
want to see him punished as he
was getting old. He turned up sick
the next morning and 1 don't remem-
Der what became of him. He would
not fight and was not fit for any 9TH
er service in the war, and such men
were more in the way than they
were worth.
Now everything was quiet along
the line and I sent up an applica-
ton for 30-day furlough to visit