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

complimentary to them. But the
Smelling ceased by dark and John re-
turned looking very sad and humble.
as II he had just heard some bad
news from home. 1 had by this time
gotten over my bad humor and life
was too precious then (and should be
SO now to while it away in madness.
wanted a laugh, so l began brag-
,ging on John about how we'll he had
stood the shelling up to the time
Iof the bursting of the shell on the
roof, and had escaped all danger,
and then run. l told him everybody
had laughed at him. He said. 81
seed nothing to laugh about when dem
Yankees dun shot the whole top off
de house, and l hear dat man holler.
and maybe next shot knock down de
house. Dey needn't be laughin at me,
dey would run too, if dey was a mig
ger like me. And more dan dat,
Marse Pick, l heard you say good
run was better dan bad stand, and
just let me cook your rations up and
let me go back to the commissary
wagon and stay with it, l will keep
you supplied with plenty to eat" |
agreed to that, and he kept his prom
lse throughout the Tennessee cam
paign faithfully. l remember weigh
ing myself at the end of that cam
paign and l was astonished to think
| had grown and f1eshened to be
man weighing nearly ITO pounds.
have never weighed so much since.
There was a bend in the creek,
somewhat in the shape of a horse
shoe. Our line extended all around
this bend and the enemy along the
short points, and we wenated the
short way so as to shorten our line
and at the same time strengthen our
line with more men. Our regiment
and one more were ordered to cross
over in this bend one night after dark
and take that part of their line. We.
or myself, thought it would be an
easy job, as they would not be ex-
pectlng such move by us in the
night. But not so, as we soon found
out. We crossed over the creek with
as little noise as possible and formed
our line and began advancing and
got very close up to them before
they opened fire, and all at once
such long line of bright fire light
from their guns and we had a terri
BILE rattling and flashing for a few
minutes, and the whizing of bullets
seemed more terrible in the night
than in the day time, and they were
inside of good breastworks and we
knew it, and from all indications the>
we're going to stay there, and we
were not long in getting away and
made a good deal of noise in getting
away, too. Our loss was pretty
heavy for so short time, but if it
had been in the day time it would
have been terrible on us, for they
were very strong at that point and
mo doubt expecting just such a move
by us. This was the only fighting
we did near Chattanooga that 1 can
remember. We soon after this left
Bragg's army and went in the direc-
tion of Knoxville, and in a day or
two got in sight of a considerable
body of Yankees and began skirmish-
ing with them and they began falling
back to some good position and when
we got up with them they would
fight us little and retreat, and kept
this up all the way back to Knox
vile, where they strongly fortified
themselves. But we cut them off so
that they would have to surrender
or fight in few days. But Bragg's
army was defeated at Missionary
Ridge about that time and the Yam
KEGS were coming on after us, and we
could not contend against the two
armies at the same time, so we
moved on toward the east, where we
could have better chance for food
and to go into winter quarters, for
it was getting cold
Continued next week)