Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1914-01-02
Early Recollections
Of Old Noxubee.

AiVIE dUout 1oOo Wncu CNSfJ oNoho
BILE man was needed at the front ant
when flfloughs to soldiers were few
and far between, and when newspaper
were rarity, there only being few
published. 1t was the habit of people II
Shuqualak and for miles around to gather
at the post Office each day to get letters
from their sons. husbands, brothers ane
sweet hearts. and opening of them ant
reading TO the assembled gathering the
--latest from the front, +" each one doing
this and in this way pretty good idea
could be obtained of how the Confeder.
ate side was progressing, and as sad as
was the mission of these people, fol-
there was hardly day but what let.
ter would come telling of some Hear one
who had been slain IN battle, there was
an occasional letter received, recount
ing camp life that would provoke the
laughter of the crowd.
In these gatherings there were gen.
orally a lot of old, sun-bonnet, spec
tacled women, some of them from the
rural districts as far as seven miles
away, and one morning at the post Of
fee remember a certain cne of them
having received a letter from her son.
and breaking it open, proceeded to
read as follows:
"My dear Mother. Ishave some sad
NJ ~ toll Vnotordaxy nbiln /
was cleaning nv army pistol. just be-
fore roll-call and inspection. l shot my
through yesterday"
And when she got to the last five
words she broke out into hysterical
cry, as though her heart was broken,
and exclaimed, now half-crying, "Boo,
hoo, poor Jim shot his through, boo, hoo,
hoo. Now it might be his head or his
body that he means, and if so what am
/ to do?
Col. Thomas Haynes was the post
master, and hearing her lamentations,
stepped out from behied the ratings to
console her if possible. he offering the
suggestion that che couldn't possibly
be dangerously shot; if so he could not
have written, and evidently that is his
handwriting, for l have often seen it
" ifey',. ho fll..s,.. x y ssit5 ing ssFs I Z
telling her to write back and ascertain
what he meant by having said, II shot
my through yesterday" and this she
did, and at length there came letter
back to her expressing sorrow for the
distress he had given her and saying
that II should have said 4 shot my |
hand through yesterday. I" ''You see
mother, said the letter, 81 left out the
hand"
The son, (Jlm was.hiA name, and be-
longed to Pinson's cavalry. and his
mother Mrs. Mem. J, he always did haye a
blunt way of expressing himself and af-
ter he returned from the war and people
would guy him about the incident. he
would explain thus: II intended to say
shot my hand through yesterday" end
this created more laughter, for as will
be seen, it was most clumsy way of
it..
For months during the war, after this
post Office incident happened, the com
mon salutation on the streets when CO.
pc met was, Dear mother, shot my
through yesterday"
Another laughable incident happened
when the 9th Mississippi Cavalry, in
1862, spent the winter at West Point,
Miss, having their winter quarters
there
Stealing horses from the soldiers at
night was common thing, and one
when hayseed member of
she company arose and found his horse
gone. the fun started, for he rallied out
1T the top of his voice, thousand men
leaIing it, 'I'll be gorl suoshed eff some
yalooser haint stole old stockin, laig; [
md I'm jes' the persimmin whut kin n
ick him, eff he wears hair, fer fightin'
lir my name" {
Now there was fellow In the COM (
nand who went by the nickname of {
Boss" and as the name rhymed with {
'hoss" some witty fellow suggested that t
Boss" had stolen the ''hoss," and this t
vas the signal for starting yelling t
rom one end of the camp to the other. I
me fellow hollering out "Who stole the |
loss?" and simultaneously dozen
'oices at the end of the line came sing
ng back, BOSS, and this was kept up G
ntil finally the poor fellow. whose pa i
ience had become exhausted with hav- t
ng his name mixed up in horse-steal-
ng scrape, got transfer to another
ommand, rather than remain under
uch cross-lire. K
Half Of soldiers living then was a
he fun he could have, and when they 5
nee started after a fellow it was ''all J,
light" with him. d
History repeats itself Three months
ack it will be remembered that re-
erred in one of my articles to Miss T."
,yle. of Macon, who was school-mate T
( mine at Shuqualak, and my first ir
49,