Those Times and These - Irvin Cobb страница 2.

He withdrew his squinted gaze from the hot vista of shores and water and swung his body about to face me, thereafter punctuating his narrative with a blunted forefinger.

My command was Kings Hell Hounds. There ought to be a book written some of these days about whut all Kings Hell Hounds done en-durin of the unpleasantness itd make mighty excitin readin. But Billy and a right smart chance of the other boys frum this place, they served throughout with Company B of the Old Regiment of mounted infantry. Most of the time frum sixty-one to sixty-five I wasnt throwed with em, but jest before the end came we were all consolidated whut there was remainin of us under General Nathan Bedford Forrest down in Mississippi. Fur weeks and months before that, we knowed it was a hopeless fight we were wagin, but somehow we jest kept on. I reckin wed sort of got into the fightin habit. Fellers do, you know, sometimes, when the circumstances are favourable, ez in this case.

Well, here one mornin in April, came the word frum Virginia that Richmond had fallen, and right on top of that, that Marse Robert had had to surrender. They said, too, that Sherman had Johnston penned off somewheres down in the Carolinas, we didnt know exactly where, and that Johnston would have to give up before many days passed. In fact, he had already give up a week before we finally heared about it. So then accordin to our best information and belief, that made us the last body of organised Confederates on the east bank of the Mississippi River. Thats a thing I was always mighty proud of. Im proud of it yit.

All through them last few weeks the army was dwindlin away and dwindlin away. Every momin at roll-call thered be a few more absentees. Dont git me wrong I wouldnt call them boys deserters. Theyd stuck that long, doin their duty like men, but they knowed good and well in fact we all knowed twas only a question of time till even Forrest would have to quit before overpowerin odds and wed be called on to lay down the arms wed toted fur so long. Their families needed em, so they jest quit without sayin anything about it to anybody and went on back to their homes. This was specially true of some that lived in that district.

But with the boys frum up this way it was different. In a way of speakin, we didnt have no homes to go back to. Our State had been in Northern hands almost frum the beginnin and some of us had prices on our heads right that very minute on account of bein branded ez guerrillas. Which was a lie. But folks didnt always stop to sift out the truth then. They were prone to shoot you first and go into the merits of the case afterward. Anyway, betwixt us and home there was a tolerble thick hedge of Yankee soldiers in fact several thick hedges. You know they called one of our brigades the Orphan Brigade. And there were good reasons fur callin it so more ways than one.

I aint never goin to furgit the night of the fifth of May. Somehow the tidins got round amongst the boys that the next mornin the order to surrender was goin to be issued. The Yankee cavalry general, Wilson and he was a good peart fighter, too had us completely blocked off to the North and the East, but the road to the Southwest was still open ef anybody cared to foller it. So that night some of us held a little kind of a meetin about sixty of us mainly Kintuckians, but with a sprinklin frum other States, too.

Ez I remember, there wasnt a contrary voice raised when twas suggested we should try to make it acrost the big river and jine in under Kirby Smith, who still had whut was left of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi.

Billy Priest made the principal speech. Boys, he says, South Carolina may a-started this here war, but Kintucky has undertook the contract to close it out. Somewheres out yonder in Texas they tell me theres yit a considble stretch of unconquered Confederate territory. Speakin fur myself I dont believe Im ever goin to be able to live comfortable an reconciled under any other flag than the flag weve fit to uphold. Lets us-all go see ef we cant find the place where our flag still floats.

So we all said wed go. Then the question ariz of namin a leader. There was one man that had been a captain and a couple more that had been lieutenants, but, practically unanimously, we elected little Billy Priest. Even ef he was only jest a private in the ranks we all knowed it wasnt fur lack of chances to go higher. After Shiloh, hed refused a commission and agin after Hartsville. So, in lessen no time a-tall, that was settled, too.

Bright and early next day we started, takin our guns and our hosses with us. They were our hosses anyway; mainly wed borrowed em off Yankees, or anyways, off Yankee sympathisers on our last raid Northward and so that made em our pussonal property, the way we figgered it out. Tennyrate we didnt stop to argue the matter with nobody whutsoever. We jest packed up and we put out and we had almighty little to pack up, lemme tell you.

Ez we rid off we sung a song that was be-ginnin to be right fashionable that spring purty near every place below Mason and Dixons line; and all over the camp the rest of the boys took it up and made them old woodlands jest ring with it. It was a kind of a farewell to us. The fust verse was likewise the chorus and it run something like this:

And so on and so forth. There were several more verses all expressin much the same trend of thought, and all entirely in accordance with our own feelins fur the time bein.

Well, boy, I reckin there aint no use wastin time describin the early stages of that there pilgrimage. We went ridin along livin on the land and doin the best we could. We were young fellers, all of us, and it was springtime in Dixie you know whut that means and in spite of everything, some of the springtime got into our hearts, too, and drove part of the bitterness out. The country was all scarified with the tracks of war, but nature was doin her level best to cover up the traces of whut man had done. People along our route had mighty slim pickins fur themselves, but the sight of an old grey jacket was still mighty dear to most of em and they divided whut little they had with us and wisht they had more to give us. We didnt need much at that a few meals of vittles fur the men and a little fodder fur our hosses and wed be satisfied. Wed reduced slow starvation to an exact science long before that. Every man in the outfit was hard ez nails and slim ez a blue racer.

Whut Northern forces there was East of the river we dodged. In fact we didnt have occasion to pull our shootin-irons but oncet, and that was after wed crost over into Louisiana. There wasnt any organised military force to regulate things and in the back districts civil government had mighty near vanished altogether. People had went back to fust principles wild, reckless fust principles they were, too. One day an old woman warned us there was a gang of bushwhackers operatin down the road a piece in the direction we were headin a mixed crowd of deserters frum both sides, she said, whod jined in with some of the local bad characters and were preyin on the country, hariyin the defenceless, and terrorism women and children and raisin hob ginerally. She advised us that wed better give em a wide berth.