The Maryland Line in the Confederate States Army.Goldsborough, W. W. (William Worthington)
History
The Maryland Line in the Confederate States Army.
Goldsborough, W. W. (William Worthington)
Confederate States of America. Army; Maryland -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
The pull was taken, and we started, chatting merrily along the road. But
persimmon soon began to tell, and “Anne Arundel” became sentimental.
“Sweet Evelina, dear Evelina, sweet Evelina, dear Evelina. Say, Major,
that’s what Colonel Herbert sings when he’s thinking of his sweetheart
at home. That’s all he knows of it, and that’s all I know. Look here, if
you don’t tell anybody, I’ll confide a secret. I’m feeling desperate
to-day; havn’t you observed it? I’ll tell you why. I _had_ a sweetheart
at home, too, but don’t you think she’s gone back on me. Yes, done gone
and fell in love with another feller. Sweet Evelina, dear Evelina, D——
Evelina. Come, let’s have a horse race; I want to see what Emack can
do.”
The chickens and turkeys had long been forgotten, and off we started at
full speed, Baltimore city against Anne Arundel county, and after an
even race of two miles we brought up in front of Colonel Herbert’s tent.
The Colonel came out and wanted to know what in the devil we were riding
like fools for. “No poultry, I see.”
“Lots of it, lots of it,” said I “Just look behind our saddles, will
you!”
“Nothing there that I can see.”
Sure enough, chickens, ducks, turkeys and goose were all “done gone.”
A courier was immediately dispatched back over the road we had raced,
and he found them strewed along for a mile and a half.
But our misfortunes did not end here, for next day our camp was visited
by an unusual number of the officers of the Maryland Cavalry and
Baltimore Light Artillery, and before dinner, to our surprise, every
drop of whiskey had disappeared. Here was a dilemma, for Colonel Herbert
didn’t know a breath of it; and when the cloth was spread, and no black
bottle made its appearance, he looked blue, and Funston looked blue, and
Massey looked blue, and Ferd. and myself looked bluest. But it was “done
gone,” and couldn’t be helped, so we had a temperance dinner that day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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