Drum Taps in Dixie: Memories of a Drummer Boy, 1861-1865 — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Drum Taps in Dixie: Memories of a Drummer Boy, 1861-1865
John Stuart Mill · en
“John Satterly, wounded at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864,” and I see long John
with his peculiar hook-shaped nose which caused one of the boys who was
waggishly inclined to suggest that he could make big money picking
cherries as he could hang to a limb with his nose and gather the fruit in
with both hands. Ever after that John was called “Cherry Picker.”
I pause at the name of “Edwin Smith, mortally wounded at Petersburg, June
16, 1864,” and I recall what he said when being carried to the rear. “Hold
on, boys, don’t carry me off without my grub.” Our regiment was lying
behind a stone wall supporting a battery that was firing over our heads.
Rations had been brought up to us that morning and “Ed” was eating when
wounded, and the stretcher bearers were carrying him off without his
haversack. He never made a murmur about his wound but did not want to
lose his rations. He was a son of a Watertown tailor and was one of the
youngest and smallest boys of our company that carried a musket. There
were a number under 18 years of age in the company and they were called
the “ponies,” but they could outmarch most of the large heavy men. The
“ponies” made up in grit and enthusiasm what they lacked in size.
“Patrick Devereaux, veteran” and I hear the rollicking laugh of as gallant
an Irish soldier as ever carried a gun, whose ready wit and cheery
disposition made him to Co. H what Dickens’ “Mark Tapley” was to “Martin
Chuzzlewit.”
It was Patsy who made Major “Quicker nor that” mark time for him, and Pat
who, when our regiment, with fixed bayonets was lying behind the stone
wall at Spottsylvania waiting for Ewell’s charge, broke the awful
stillness of those few minutes, that seemed like hours, by remarking:
“Boys, wouldn’t a little ‘commissary’ taste good about now?”
He was the “Mulvany” of our company and a prime favorite with everybody.
“Halt who goes there!” was never spoken by a better soldier than Patrick
Devereaux of the 2nd Heavy.
The following letter from my old comrade is characteristic of the man:
PAT’S LETTER.
Troy, N. Y., April 6, 1904.
“Me Little Boy in Blue:”
I see by the papers which somebody has been sendin’ me that our little
‘Sheepskin beater’ of company H has trun down his drum sticks an tuk up a
pen an’ is riting’ war stories. I’ve hearn tell that the ‘pen is mightier
than the sword’ which was probably true of the ‘toad-stabbers’ carried by
the drummer boys durin’ the war. But say, youse lads were great wid the
drum sticks, and would make a divil of a racket in the mornin’ whin a
fellah wanted to slape.