The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 22, July 1918 - April, 1919 Page: 76
521 p. : ill. (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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76 The Southwestern Historical Quarterly
off. Suddenly he exclaimed, "Now boys, we will have some fun.
There is a regiment out there preparing to charge us, armed with
sabres. Let them come up nearly close enough to strike and then
feed them on buckshot." So they came up with great noise and
pretense, hoping to demoralize and scatter their opponents and
then have a race in which they could use their sabres effectively.
But as the Texans stood their ground the Yankees ran up to, within
a few steps and halted suddenly, giving our boys the chance
they were wishing for. One volley from the shotguns into their
ranks scattered these sabre men into, useless fragments of a force.
Many of them surrendered and our boys quizzed them with merci-
less questions. "Why did you stop?" "Are your sabres long
ranged weapons ?" "How far can you kill a man with those
things?" After a conflict lasting two days with varying success
and defeat for both armies, the Southern army withdrew to the
south, leaving the other army with fresh reinforcements encamped
not far from the last lines of battle the evening before.
The weather had turned fearfully cold and the earth would
freeze very hard at night. About the first night after we left
Murfreesboro Jim Stevenson, coming off of duty late, came to
the log heap. fire of my mess, and asked permission to sleep near
our fire. Jim was a shiftless boy whose dress was weather worn
and untidy, his body generally dirty and infected with what the
boys called "graybacks." So no one would sleep with him and
he didn't expect any one to divide bedding with him. We granted
his request and he made his pallet down a little space from the
rest of us and went to sleep. Next morning he slept on after
daylight. I went to see how he was faring and to awake him if
still living. I caught his top blanket at his head and raised it
up and as it was set and frozen it stood up on the other end
like a. dried raw hide would do with like handling. I said, "Get
up my boy, don't try to sleep all day. How did you sleep ?" He
replied, "Bully," that be had two blankets last night. He had
an old thread bare blanket under him and a heavy army blanket
he had captured from the enemy during the battle just fought.
He had slept all night without moving, as evidenced by an un-
frozen streak, just the shape of his body on that blanket where
he had lain on his side; the rest of that blanket being frozen stiff
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 22, July 1918 - April, 1919, periodical, 1919; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117156/m1/84/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.