. War as viewed from the ranks. Personal recollections of the War of the Rebellion, by a private soldier . small matter. Another evil should be mentioned here, and I am quite sure that everyold soldier who reads these lines has already wondered why no mentionof it has been made. I will say in all candor that the comrade who hasnot thought of this pest at this stage of the account is not much of asoldier. Whoever has been gored under the fifth rib, or been tickledunder the arm-pit, or been probed in the muscle of his weary body andhas had his night slumbers disturbed by the rasping scrape of th
. War as viewed from the ranks. Personal recollections of the War of the Rebellion, by a private soldier . small matter. Another evil should be mentioned here, and I am quite sure that everyold soldier who reads these lines has already wondered why no mentionof it has been made. I will say in all candor that the comrade who hasnot thought of this pest at this stage of the account is not much of asoldier. Whoever has been gored under the fifth rib, or been tickledunder the arm-pit, or been probed in the muscle of his weary body andhas had his night slumbers disturbed by the rasping scrape of the dulltusk of the immortal, illustrious, ever-memorable, ever-present, lion-backed Gray-back, will not forget him, I assure you. This creaturelives with the army. In short, he lives off of the army. You can seehim in the very sand upon which the army treads. You will find himin ycur bunk. The piety of a soldier was questioned if, on lying downto sleep, he did not pray— Now I lay me down to sleepThe gray-backs oer my body creep ; If they should bite before I wake,I pray the Lord their jaws to < M< wswa i-to An Incident. 49 It was a sight to see even as high officials as colonels in the army,skirmishing around among their underwear to, if possible, put this enemyto flight. Of course vigilance is the price of liberty. Anyone so de-termined could keep comparatively rid of the pest. A little incident occurred one night that promised to be a serious mat-ter for some one. The wagon train was moving along with all the speedpossible. The highway upon which it was moving was greatly neededfor the army. Important strategetical positions were anxiously soughtby both armies. It was necessary to get that great train out of the wayin short order. Just at this time a wagon in crossing a creek, stuck inthe mud. The driver applied the lash and the usual oaths, but theteam was stalled. John Mcl<aughlin, of the 55th, who was then wagon-master having charge of the train at this p
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectuniteds, bookyear1898
