Those Times and These - Irvin Cobb страница 3.

But Billy Priest he throwed out scouts and located the gang, and jest before sunrise next mornin we dropped in on em, takin em by surprise in the camp theyd rigged up in a live-oak thicket in the midst of a stretch of cypress slashes.

And when the excitement died down agin, quite a number of them bushwhackers had quit whackin permanently and the rest of em were tearin off through the wet woods wonderin, between jumps, whut had hit em. Ez fur our command, we accumulated a considerable passel of plunder and supplies and a number of purty fair hosses, and went on our way rejoicin. We hadnt lost a man, and only one man wounded.

When we hit the Texas border, news was waitin fur us. They told us ef we aimed to ketch up with the last remainders of the army wed have to hurry, because Smith and Shelby, with whut was left of his Missoury outfit, and Sterlin Price and Hindman with some of his Arkansaw boys and a right smart sprinklin of Texans had already pulled up stakes and were headed fur old Mexico, where the natives were in the enjoyable midst of one of their regular revolutions.

With the French crowd and part of the Mexicans to help him, the Emperor Maximilian was tryin to hang onto his onsteady and topplin throne, whilst the Republikins or Liberals, as they called themselves, were tryin with might and main to shove him off of it. Ef a feller jest natchelly honed fur an opportunity to indulge a fancy fur active hostilities, Mexico seemed to offer a very promisin field of endeavour.

It didnt take us long to make up our minds whut course wed follow. Billy Priest put the motion. Gentlemen, he says, it would seem the Southern Confederacy is bent and determined on gittin clear out frum under the shad-der of the Yankee government. It has been moved and seconded that we foller after her no matter where she goes. All in favour of that motion will respond by sayin Aye contrary-wise, No. The Ayes seem to have it and the Ayes do have it and it is so ordered, unanimously. By fours! Forward, march!

That happened in the town of Corsicana in the early summer-time of the year. So we went along acrost the old Lone Star State, headin mighty nigh due West, passin through Waco and Austin and San Antonio, and bein treated mighty kindly by the people wheresoever we passed. And ez we went, one of the boys that had poetic leanins, he made up a new verse to our song. Lets see, son, ef I kin remember it now after all these years.

The Sergeant thought a bit and then lifting his voice in a quavery cadence favoured me with the following gem:

It was the middle of July and warm enough to satisfy the demands of the most exactin when we reached the Rio Grande, to find out Shelbys force had done crossed over after buryin their battle-flag in the middle of the river, wrapped up in a rock to hold it down. On one side was cactus and greasewood and a waste of sandy land, that was already back in the Union or mighty soon would be. On the other side was more cactus and more grease-wood and more sandy loam, but in a different country. So, after spendin a few pleasant hours at the town of Eagle Pass, we turnt our backs to one country and crost over to the other, alookin fur the Confederacy wherever she might be. I figgered it out I was tellin the United States of America good-by furever. I seem to remember that quite a number of us kept peerin back over our shoulders toward the Texas shore. They tell me the feller that wrote Home Sweet Home didnt have any home to go to but he writ the song jest the same. Nobody didnt say nothin, though, about weakenin or turnin back.

Very soon after we hit Mexican soil we run into one of the armies a Liberal army, this one was, of about twelve hundred men, and its name suited it to a T. The officers were liberal about givin orders and the men were equally liberal about makin up their minds whether or not theyd obey. Also, ez we very quickly discovered, the entire kit and caboodle of em were very liberal with reguards to other folks property and other folks lives. Wed acquired a few careless ideas of our own concernin the acquirin of contraband plunder durin the years immediately precedin, but some of the things we seen almost ez soon ez wed been welcomed into the hospitable but smelly midst of that there Liberal army, proved to us that alongside these fellers we were merely whut you might call amatoors in the confiscatin line.

I wisht I had the words to describe the outfit so ez you could see it the way I kin see it this minute. This purticular army was made up of about twelve hundred head, includin common soldiers. I never saw generals runnin so many to the acre before in my life. The Confederacy hadnt been exactly destitute in that respect but shuckins!  down here you bumped into a brigadier every ten feet. There was a considerable sprinklin of colonels and majors and sech, too; and here and there a lonesome private. Ef you seen a dark brown scarycrow wearin fur a uniform about enough rags to pad a crutch with, with a big sorry straw hat on his head and his feet tied up in bull hides with his bare toes peepin coyly out, and ef he was totin a flint lock rifle, the chances were hed be a common soldier. But ef in addition to the rest of his regalia he had a pair of epaulettes sewed onto his shoulders you mout safely assume you were in the presence of a general or something of that nature. I aint exaggeratin much. Im only tryin to make you git the picture of it in your mind.

Well, they received us very kindly and furnished us with rations, sech ez they were mostly peppers and beans and a kind of batter-cake thats much in favour in them parts, made out of corn pounded up fine and mixed with water and baked aginst a hot rock. Ef a man didnt keer fur the peppers, he could fall back on the beans, thus insurin him a change of diet, and the corn batter-cakes were certainly right good-tastin.

Some few of our dark-complected friends kin make a stagger at speakin English, so frum one of em Billy inquires where is the Confederacy? They explains that it has moved on further South but tells us that first General Shelby sold em the artillery hed fetched with him that fur to keep it frum failin into the Yankees hands. Sure enough therere the guns four brass field-pieces. Two of em are twelve-pounders and the other two are four-teen-pounders. The Mexicans are very proud of their artillery and appear to set much store by it.

Well, that evenin their commandin general comes over to where weve made camp, accompanied by his coffee-coloured staff, and through an interpreter he suggests the advisability of our jinin in with them, he promisin good pay and offerin to make us all high-up officers. He seems right anxious to have us enlist with his glorious forces right away. In a little while it leaks out why hes so generous with his promises and so wishful to see us enrolled beneath his noble banner. Hes expectin a call inside of the next forty-eight hours frum the Imperials thatre reported to be movin up frum the South, nearly two thousand strong, with the intention of givin him battle.

Billy Priest, speakin fur all of us, says hell give him an answer later. So the commandin general conceals his disappointment the best he kin and retires on back to his own headquarters, leavin us to discuss the proposition amongst ourselves. Some of the boys favour thro win in with the Liberals right away, bein hongry fur a fight, I reckin, or else sort of dazzled by the idea of becomin colonels and majors overnight. But Billy suggests that mebbe wed better jest sort of hang round and observe the conduct and deportment of these here possible feller warriors of ourn whilst theyre under hostile fire. Speakin pusson-ally, he says, I must admit I aint greatly attracted to them ez they present themselves to the purview of my gaze in their cammer hours. Before committin ourselves, sposen we stand by and take a few notes on how they behave themselves in the presence of an enemy. Then, therell be abundant time to decide whether we want to stay a while with these fellers or go long about our business of lookin fur the Southern Confederacy.