The Orpheus C. Kerr Papers, Series 1Newell, R. H. (Robert Henry)
History
The Orpheus C. Kerr Papers, Series 1
Newell, R. H. (Robert Henry)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction
I. It is ordered, that all advice from editors to the War
Department, to the general commanding, or the generals commanding
the armies in the field, be absolutely forbidden; as such advice is
calculated to make the United States of America a idiot.
II. Any newspaper publishing any news whatever, however obtained,
shall be excluded from all railroads and steamboats, in order that
country journals, which receive the same news during the following
year, may not be injured in cirkylation.
III. This control of special correspondents does not include the
correspondent of the London Times, who wouldn't be believed if he
published all the news of the next Christian era. By order of
VILLIAM BROWN, Eskevire,
Captain Conic Section, Mackerel Brigade.
I had remounted Pegasus while reading this able State paper, my boy,
and had just finished it, when a nervous member of the advance-guard
accidentally touched off a cannon, whose report was almost immediately
answered by one from the dense fog before us.
"Ha!" says Captain Villiam Brown, suddenly leaping from his steed, and
creeping under it--to examine if the saddle-girth was all right--"the
fort is right before us in the fog, and the rebels are awake. Let the
Orange County Company advance with their howitzers, and fire to the
north-east."
The Orange County Company, my boy, instantly wheeled their howitzers
into position, and sent some pounds of grape toward the meridian, the
roar of their weapons of death being instantaneously answered by a
thundering crash in the fog.
Company 3, Regiment 5, Mackerel Brigade, now went forward six yards at
double-quick, and poured in a rattling volley of musketry, dodging
fearlessly when exactly the same kind of a volley was heard in the fog,
and wishing that they might have a few rebels for supper.
"Ha!" says Captain Villiam Brown, when he noticed that nobody seemed to
be killed yet; "Providence is on our side, and this here unnatural
rebellion is squelched. Let the Anatomical Cavalry charge into the fog,
and demand the surrender of Fort Muggins," continued Villiam,
compressing his lips with mad valor, "while I repair to that tree back
there, and see if there is not a fiendish secessionist lurking behind
it."
The Anatomical Cavalry immediately dismounted from their horses, which
were too old to be used in a charge, and gallantly entered the fog,
with their sabres between their teeth, and their hands in their
pockets--it being a part of their tactics to catch a rebel before
cutting his head off.
In the meantime, my boy, the Orange County howitzers and the Mackerel
muskets were hurling a continuous fire into the clouds, stirring up the
angels, and loosening the smaller planets. Sturdily answered the rebels
from the fog-begirt fort; but not one of our men had yet fallen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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