Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 9, Number 2, May 1999 Page: 89
[57] p. : ports. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Reminiscences of the Old Brigade
day break, but we knew they were coming, and
coming, too, as fast as they could, but human
power and human endurance has a limit be-
yond which it cannot go, but those men when
coming to our relief seemed to rise above the
human, scorn suffering and laugh at the very
idea of reaching the bottom of their enduring
powers.
Between 10 and 11 o'clock that night, while
wearily lying upon our arms, watching for an
attack, a faint sound reached our ears, placing
our ears to the ground we could hear it move
distinctly still, it was the tramp, tramp, tramp
of soldiers on the march, not the regular step
but the "rout step," not the clear ringing of
men well shod striking the cold frozen earth,
but some hard clear ringing, others soft, show-
ing sandals or barefeet, instantly [text corrupted]
The head of the column soon come up and what
a hand shaking. I tell you I was glad to see
them, I thought they were the finest looking
men 1 ever saw in my life, even Crosson and
Hoffman looked real handsome that night. Did
we still fear an attack? not a bit of it, it never
once occurred to us that the whole Yankee na-
tion had impudence enough to attack our bri-
gade when we had that much of it together; it
had never occurred to us until that evening that
they would even attack as much of it as nine
companies but they had done that, but we had
twenty now. They might whip around and give
Col. Green a riffle with his six companies, or
they might stir up Old Gotch with his two, or
Alf Thurmond, but they would never attack us.
We had a gooddeal to learn yet about what these
fellows would do.
Did we go to sleep? not a bit of it; we had
to talk with the 4th and the 7th and tell them
how we had "set to" the "Yanks," and how we
would have "whaled" them if the 4th and 7th
had only been with us; and then we had a good
many other things to talk to them about. We
had not seen them for two weeks, and, if one
girl does not see another in two days she willtalk to her all night; and don't you forget it! we
are kin to the girls, partake of their nature and
are glad of it. On the 27th we remained in camp,
buried our dead of the day before, attended to
our wounded and waited for Scurry's train to
get up. It came up late that evening. As Norman,
Crosson, Petticolas and Clough will write up
these transactions including the battle of
Glorietta that is to come off to-morrow. I will
myself be very brief in the details, as I know
but little of the battle, as the "Yanks" in the
language of Peck Bad Boy, "Made me very
tired on their first fire," and what I state will
be from being on the ground and hearing my
comrades detail it.
On the night of the 27th some meat was
issued to us, the officers said it was dried buf-
falo, the boys said it was mule steak, no matter
what it was, it was the best our officers could
do, and really tasted well to hungry men, and
we have occupied that position for the past two
months .. .
On the morning of the 28th leaving our
wagons in camp, and one cannon [in] charge
of Nettles, which we [could not] take with us,
and leaving a small guard with our sick and
wounded, we started along the Fort Union road
up the canyon, this was a ragged pass between
the mountains. Thermopolae was nothing com-
pared to it, steep cliffs of rocks lined thick with
cedar brush on each side of the road, cliffs so
steep that a man had absolutely to get down
and crawl up them. Thermopolae is today to be
reversed for there three hundred defended that
pass against overwhelming numbers, but the
pass of Glorietta will today be forced by eight
hundred Texans lead by Scurry, Pyron, Raguet
and Shropshire, against three thousand and fifty
Federal troops under Slough. The Federals
chose their position because they believed it
utterly impossible for us to scale those cliffs
and penetrate that cedar brush.
We began our march in column going up
the winding road, and proceeded about four
89
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Nesbitt Memorial Library. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 9, Number 2, May 1999, periodical, May 1999; Columbus, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151406/m1/41/?q=nesbitt%20memorial%20library%20journal: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nesbitt Memorial Library.