Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1915-07-30
Civil War "reminiscences
by DAN McLEop ]

'"SnHou, hiSo,, " I buFee udNo duu
nights and not down strictly to mil
itarv rules. We were allowed to
take ia the town in "a decent and or
derby way and not interfere with
private property. The capital city
looked deserted town; quite differ
ent now. People seemed to be in
different to their own interest, il
really looked desolate Our ten or
or twelve irish soldiers, all NOBLE
fellows, but four, they were stubborn
and contrary, but they were fine
foragers, anything good to eat, If to
be had Or to drink they found il out
aud managed 60 get some of it, Ore
evening they went out and in some
way got onto some blind tiger and
IT OF Mississippi sugar and hard
tack and it wasn't long till they b.
came very boisterous in the quarters
after night, SO much so that the Col
one. sent word to Capt. Tatum, that
fuss must be stopped. was acting
orderly and had to wait on them
lrishmen and have the fun stopped
but | couldn't do any thing with
them. These fellows had q great
feeling of kindness toward me but |
couldn t q MET them and | couldn
get away from them they held me
by force and made me drink some
coffee and eat some hard tack and
some nasty musty molasses sugar.
When | undertook to get away from
them they would catch and hold me
fast. ] managed to get them some
what quiet but they would break
loose once IN while and was afraid
| would be punished for not calling
for help and arrest the whole bust
ness which did not want to do
After time two of them fell over
and went to sleep and one or two at
a time did the same way and soon
every thing was quiet. | went to
my bunk and went to sleep aud slept
till sun up next morning. The col
onel was out early stigating;
wanted TO know why his orders were
not carried out. | gave him a full
statement which didn't satisfy him
fully but said that he wouldn't pun
ish me but the whole crew that was
in it must mark time two hours and
ordered me TO get them out to place
where all the soldiers could see them
This was intended as a warning to
all the regiment. | put them to
marking time. 1t may be that some
of the readers may not understand
what marking time means. | will
try 10 explain. The men were lined
up just as though they were going
to drill, but they stood in one place,
and moved their feet forward ard
backward on regular military time.
You might think this is fun, but try
it sixty minutes and YOU will find it
tiresome. 1t looks simple but it
learns soldiers how to keep time IN
regular drill.
These fellows took it all ia good
earnest and laughed ana ioked all
the tine they were at it. The colo
mel only kept them on for an hour
and the captain came along told me
to dismiss them when one hour was
out and they quit laughing and hav-
ing their fun just as though they
had not been punished, but one of
them told me that he had fired his
last gun in the interest of the south
| told him to keep his mouth shut, if
the officers heard that they would
likely court-marsha b m and put
him to death.
La few days we were ordered to
Vicksburg to reinforce the army
there. Its as hot then as it is now
and water scarce 1t was what we
called force march and some of the
men went down on account of heat
and thirst. When we had arrived
within ten or twelve miles of Vicks-
burg we we're ordered back to Jack
son, the army at Vicksburg having
surrendered
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ownership of the land as park and
why should not independent hotels