From the Rapidan to Richmond and the Spottsylvania Campaign: A Sketch in Personal Narration of the Scenes a Soldier SawDame, William Meade
History
From the Rapidan to Richmond and the Spottsylvania Campaign: A Sketch in Personal Narration of the Scenes a Soldier Saw
Dame, William Meade
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives, Confederate
On proper occasions, promotions to higher rank were made for
distinguished merit in our line. An instance will illustrate. One night,
late, I was passing along when I saw this sight. The sentinel on guard
in camp was lying down on a pile of bags of corn at the forage
pile--sound asleep. He was lying on his left side. One of the long tails
of his coat was hanging loose from his body and dangling down alongside
the pile of bags. A half-grown cow had noiselessly sneaked up to the
forage pile, and been attracted by that piece of cloth hanging
loose--and, as calves will do, took the end of it into her mouth and
was chewing it with great satisfaction. I called several of the fellows,
and we watched the proceedings. The calf got more and more of the coat
tail into her mouth. At length, with her mouth full of the cloth, and
perhaps with the purpose of swallowing what she had been chewing she
gave a hard jerk. The cloth was old, the seams rotten--that jerk pulled
the whole of that tail loose from the body of the coat. The sleeping
guard never moved. We rescued the cloth from the calf, and hid it. When
the sleeper awoke, to his surprise, one whole tail of his coat was gone,
and he was left with only one of the long tails. Our watching group,
highly delighted at the show of a sentinel sleeping, while a calf was
browsing on him, told him what had happened and that the calf had
carried off the other coat tail. He was inconsolable. He was the only
private in the company who had a long-tailed coat and it was the pride
of his heart. There was no way of repairing the loss, and he had to go
around for days, sad and dejected, shorn of his glory--with only one
tail to his coat.
All this was represented to the "Battalion of Fusiliers." Charges were
preferred, and the Court Martial set. The witnesses testified to the
facts--also said that if we had not driven off the calf it would have
gone on, after getting the coat tail, and chewed up the sentinel, too.
The findings of the Court Martial were nicely adjusted to the merits of
the case. It was, that the witnesses were sentenced to punishment for
driving off the calf, and not letting her eat up the sentinel.
For the sentinel, who appeared before the Court with the one tail to his
coat, it was decreed that his conduct was the very limit. No one could
ever hope to find a more thorough Fusilier than the man who went to
sleep on guard and let a calf eat his clothes off. Such conduct deserved
most distinguished regard, as an encouragement to the Fusiliers. He was
promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General of the Battalion, the highest
rank in our corps. After a while the lost coat tail was produced, and
sewed on again.
=Confederate Soldier Rations=
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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