Si Klegg, Book 6: Si and Shorty, with Their Boy Recruits, Enter on the Atlanta CampaignMcElroy, John
History
Si Klegg, Book 6: Si and Shorty, with Their Boy Recruits, Enter on the Atlanta Campaign
McElroy, John
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction; War stories
"No," answered Shorty; "that's that Ohio rijimint, made up o' rollin'
mill men and molders. They all wear red flannel shirts. There's the
200th Injianny just down there to the left, with all them men on extra
duty on the parade ground. I know just the gang. Same old crowd; I kin
almost tell their faces. They've bin runnin' guard, as usual, and comin'
back full o' apple-jack and bad language and desire to give the camp a
heavy coat o' red paint. Old McBiddle has tried to convince 'em that he
was still runnin' the rijimint, and his idees wuz better 'n theirs, and
there they are. There's Jim Monaghan handlin' that pick as if he was
in the last stages o' consumption. There's Barney' Maguire, pickin' up
three twigs 'bout as big as lead pencils, and solemnly carryin' 'em off
the parade ground as if they wuz fence-rails. I'll just bet a month's
pay that's Denny Murphy marchin' up and down there with his knapsack
filled with Tennessee dornicks. Denny's done that feather-weight
knapsack trick so often that his shoulders have corns and windgalls on
'em, and they always keep a knapsack packed for him at the guard-house
ready for one of his Donnybrook fair songs and dances. Mighty good boy,
Denny, but he kin git up a red-hotter riot on his share of a canteen
of apple-jack than any three men in the rijimint. That feller tied to a
tree is Tony Wilson. He's refused to dig trenches agin. O, I tell you,
they're a daisy lot."
"Shorty," admonished Si. "You mustn't talk that way before the boys.
What'll they think o' the rijimint?"
"Think of it?" said Shorty, recovering himself. "They've got to think
of it as the very best rijimint that ever stood in line-of-battle. I'll
punch the head of any man that says anything to the contrary. Every man
in it is a high-toned, Christian gentleman. Mind that, now, every one of
you brats, and don't you allow nobody to say otherwise."
"No," said Si, after further study of the camps, "neither o' them 's the
200th Injianny. They've both got brass bands. Must be new rijimints."
"Say," said Shorty, "there's a royal lookin' rooster standin' up in
front of that little house there. Looks as if the house was headquarters
for some highroller, and him doin' Orderly duty. If he knows as much as
he's got style, he knows more'n old Sherman himself. Go up and ask him."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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