The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-02-05

big room upstairs, and what a time we did have!
Mr.. Tibbits and his wife came home and found
the lot of us all asleep; some on the floor, some on
the bed, but all of US tipsy and sick from the wine.
Was there anything doing then? l should say yes!
This whole lark was laid at my door. l was locked
in a room to be kept until Monday, when l was to
be sent back home to my parents. / did not dare
go home, as father would certainly have tried, at
least, to whip some of the meanness out of me, for
| had about used up his patience. So after the
house had got quiet at night, l dropped out the
window and hiked for Lansing. They were then
recruiting for the Sixth Michigan cavalry.
l told the recruiting officer l had no mother or
father, that l sold papers and did odd jobs for a
living, and swore | was eighteen years old. Sure,
he knew better, but they enlisted me regularly as a
bugler, and assigned me- to Company G, Sixth
Michigan cavalry. l was twelve years, three
months and twenty-three days old, and was in my
third enlistment, but this was the first time | was
mustered in. ALT Madden enlisted with me.
was sent to Grand Rapids where the regiment
was camped while being recruited to its full
strength. We were mustered into the service
there. The life that we led the officers Of Company
G was anything but pleasant.
In Washington, we camped for a time on Meri-
den hill from which place we made our first hike.
And we tasted war, when we went to Falmouth
and skirmished with Moseby's guerrillas. We had
the opportunity of trading coffee for tobacco with
the Confederate pickets. A white handkerchief
on the end of a saber was the signal to stop
NhAlC lhC III wac Dtlh6 LIuuC
the "Rebs" on the Fredericksburg side of the Rap
pahannock river and us "Yanks" on the Falmouth
side. | must say l never knew of any advantage
being taken to shoot a fellow while the trade was
being made. In the early spring of 1868, no regi-
ment was kept more busy than the Sixth Michigan
looking out for Moseby and his men. We always
had them, but never got them to any great ex-
tent. Moseby was a wonder.
From then to the time l was taken prisoner
we were in eighteen battles and minor engage
ments between June 80 to October IL, 1868. The
Little Bugler never lost a day, but did lose lots Of
meals in that time.
On October IL, 1863, at Brandy station, my horse
was shot from under me, and l was taken pris-
oner. Our regiment was charging through a regi-
ment of enemy cavalry that had got in between
the main column and the rear guard, when my
horse was struck by a piece of shell between the
knee and hoof, throwing me heels over appetite
some feet over his head. l was cut and bruised
by the feet of the charging troopers, who were be-
hind. When l finally got up it was to look into
but in fact was only a AS Colt, and a fellow in a
gray suit was telling me to strip! He took my
shoes and pants, and darn him, he could not wear
either of them; he was so much larger than l.
l was taken with a trainload of other prisoners
to Richmond, Va, but on the way had traded OF
my blouse for something to eat. We were divided
up in lunches after arriving at Richmond. Destiny
sent me to old Libby prison, and later to Belle
Isle,
had no pants, shoes or hat. One of the older
men had given me an old coat. The guard would
issue us a few sticks of wood in the evening. We
burned our fires as long as possible, and when
the fires had burned out to Goals we scattered the
Goals over the ground to warm it, and then would