Under the Stars and Bars

For the gratification of my old comrades and in grateful memory of their constant kindness during all our years of comradeship these records have been written. The writer claims no special qualification for the task save as it may lie in the fact that no other survivor of the Company has so large a fund of material from which to draw for such a purpose. In addition to a war journal, whose entries cover all my four years service, nearly every letter written by me from camp in those eventful years has been preserved. Whatever lack, therefore, these pages may possess on other lines, they furnish at least a truthful portrait of what I saw and felt as a soldier. It has been my purpose to picture the lights rather than the shadows of our soldier life. War is a terribly serious business and yet camp life has its humor as well as its pathos, its comedy as well as its tragedy, its sunshine as well as its shadows.

As Co. B, of the Oglethorpes was an outgrowth of the original organization, its muster roll before and after reorganization, with a condensed sketch of its war service has been given. For this information I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Frank H. Miller and Mr. Brad Merry, as I am to the former also for data pertaining to the early history of the Oglethorpes.

Aside from the motive already named, there is another which has had some influence in inducing me to publish these memories. In the generation that has grown up since the '60's, there is a disposition to undervalue the merits of the "Old South" and to discount the patriotism and the courage, the sacrifice and the suffering of those, who wore the grey. If these pages shall recall to my old comrades with any degree of pleasure, the lights and shadows of our soldier life, or shall bring to the younger generation, to whom the Old South is not even a memory, a truer conception of "the tender grace of a day that is dead" I shall be more than repaid for the labor involved in their preparation.

INDEX.

Page INTRODUCTORY.

Early History of the Oglethorpes 7 Off to the War 9 The Laurel Hill Retreat 15

CHAPTER I.

Donning the Grey 17 My First March 21 My First Skirmish 23 My First Picket Duty 29 My First Battle 30 A Night Stampede 33 Three Little Confederates 36

CHAPTER II.

A Change of Base 38 A Tramp With Stonewall Jackson 43 Aunt Hannah 48 A Ride With Belle Boyd, the Confederate Spy 50 Home Again 55 Roster of Oglethorpe Infantry 56

CHAPTER III. Service with 12th Ga. Battalion.

A "Little Long" 62 12th Ga. Flag 63 Col. Hogeland's War Diary 65 The Parson and the Gravy 71 Rations 75

CHAPTER IV. Coast Service.

A Study in Insect Life 80 Fire and Fall Back 86 Skirmishing for Pie 87 Steed and the Sugar 88 Our Camp Poet 91

CHAPTER V.

Dalton and Atlanta Campaign 97 Stripes on the Wrong Side 107 A Twilight Prayer Meeting 109 Tom Howard's Squirrel Bead 112 "Jim, Touch Off No. 1" 114 A Summer Day on the Firing Line 117 Saved from Death by a Bible 123 Battle of Kennesaw 130 Under Two Flags 137 Saved from a Northern Prison by a Novel 142 A Slave's Loyalty 148

CHAPTER VI. Nashville Campaign.

A Christmas Day With Forrest 155 Gen. Bate as a Poet and Wit 166 Pat Cleburne as an Orator 168 "Who Ate the Dog?" 171 Courage Sublime 178

CHAPTER VII. The Closing Campaign.

An Arctic Ride 182 A Sad Home Coming 187 Our Last Battle 190 Conclusion 200 Roster Co. A, 63rd Ga. 204

ADDENDA.

Oglethorpe Infantry Co. B 214 Roster Co. A, 9th Ga., Co. C, 2d Ga. S. S. 219

SUPPLEMENT.

One of My Heroes 225 Ben Hill and the Dog 229 The Rebel Chaplain and the Dying Boy in Blue 236

INTRODUCTORY.

EARLY HISTORY OF THE OGLETHORPES.