The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1916-02-05

lie down to sleep, stretched in long lines of any
number of men. all curled up spoon fashion. as
close together possible
lay down the end of the line cold night
when soon poor fellow came and Struggled up to
me. Along in the early morning when he should
have turned to warm my back, he did not move
| got up my elbow and pulled his nose He was
dead 1t was the most frightful experience ever
had.
Our dead were usually relieved of any good
clothing they may have had on to be used by those
who were almost naked l had still what
left of a shirt and pair of drawers that had
worn for almost year. Can you realize i'm
agine how little of either left? went down
to the dead line one morning and saw a body on
which a fine shirt of blue cashmere cloth.
went to the gate and asked the officer of the Con-
federate guard, old man, if might remove the
shirt from that body to myself
MY poor boy he said, and gave permission,
with tears running down his wrinked cheeks, to
take the shirt
A administered. spindleshanked. low-down
fellow from Wisconsin that cumming with
and whom had kept alive by stealing grub for
him to eat, stole that shirt from lost silver
mine in Colorado years ago that sold afterwards
for three hundred thousand dollars. but it did not
hurt so badly as the loss of that shirt
Shortly after this there parole OF sick and
disabled men agreed by the governments. l got
out and walked aboard transport at Sa-
vannah, the Notwithstanding kid that left
that city. What few troops there were in that
transport just stood and cried when they
boys. This was the nineteenth OF November, 1864
At Annapolis I got my back pay, ration money
and clothing money for the time had been pris-
oner, amounting to $500, with furIough for
thirty days started for Detroit. I can't tell
you all that happened the trip, but 1 got home
broke after week or ten days the road.
Father killed the fatted calf. mother had 1t
cooked, and I was made much of by everybody,
for had been reported dead long ago. and they
had preached a memorial sermon for me. telling
what good little boy had been. came home
and spoiled it all After few days at home
went to dismounted camp at Harpers Ferry and
from the camp returned to my regiment
then in Washington waiting to take part in the
grand review, after which were sent to Fort
Leavenworth. Here I was discharged and the
regiment sent out the plains after Indians.
went to Denver in the fall of 1865 with a mule
train, before there a railroad in the noun
tains. 1 returned to Topeka, Kan, with bull
trains, enlsting in the regular army, went to Cali
fornia by way of the isthmus, guarded surveyors
in Arizona from the Indians. and fought Indians
in Arizona with the First United States cavalry.
1 made trip into Mexico with load Of phoney
jewelry. Later arrested a flibuster spy
in Guaymas and shipwrecked my trip
from Guaymas to Mazatlan- Two out of seven
were saved after floating around for thirty-six
hours. l was shanghaied in San Francisco and
taken around Cape Horn to Dublin, which the
most adventurous five months of my life. came
back TO my home in 1873. married in 1874 and
settled down to be decent.
I am member Of the Michigan Soldiers
home Uncle Sam is trying his best to make me
comfortable in my declining years. But neither
he all the powers that be can make up
the ten years than lost from my twelfth
to twenty-second year. for what 1 did not learn
that rough in that time 1 have not learned
since and it is not IN the books.