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Thanksgiving Day In The Army

Thanksgiving Day In The Army image
Parent Issue
Day
30
Month
November
Year
1888
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

"Fall m! Fall ïnl' This meant another hard day 's march ; harder perhaps than any we had bad in this more than usually hard campaign," said an army veteran. "It was Thanksgiving day of 1863, mercury was freezing, and to add to the misery of the occasion it,was sleeting pretty hard with the half frozen and sticky Virginia mud about aukle deep. A rather amusing incident oocurred just as we left our camping ground. We passed a lot of army wagons, most of them empty, and empty, on suoh a day, they were a load for six mules to draw through the mud. The wheel mules o2 one team were protesting vigorously with ears and heels i against the proposed march; so vigorously, indeed, that the teamster finally unhitched ! and unharnessed them, hitching the middle span- we used six mules for each wagon - to the evener and taking the obstinate wheel mules to the hind end of ths wagon, tied a halter loosely around their necks and started. One of the mules seemed to be satisñed with this arrangement, but the near mulé still kept a wide space c.ear at the rear with bis heels, and, by the way, a muie's heels have a tremendous long range sometimt's. As the rope tightened about his oeck he braced himself for a strong and a, long tug , of war. "The experiment resulteddisastrously for the mule. They pulled him over the center, and down he went on his side and waa dragged through the mud and ice for severa! rods ; then he struggled to his f eet and braced for another pulL This was repeated flve or six times, the boys cheering the mule lustily. In fact, we were heartily in sympatby with the mule. Finally, however, he gave it np, discipline and the rope overéame his scruples as it had that of a good many others who were not mules, and struggling to his feet he lopped down his ears, and his whole appearance said as plainly as words could have said it: 'All right, old man; I'll give it up this time.' They were then barnessed and put in their places, and the wagon moved off, amid the laughter of the half frozen, wet and hungry men. "About 3 o'clock in the afternoon we marched along the south side of a hill and bivouacked for the night. It was Tbanksgiving day, and as we stood around our camp üre, for whicb we had beeu obliged to cut and carry wood m our arms half a mile, we all wondered if the folies at home were having a good dinner. Well, we had a great one- dry, hard crackers and coffee - one of the boys had about a gül of vinegar. Boma of us begged a spoonful of this, and soaked up the hard bread, using that for dessert. Though ïny recollections of the time are tht the south side oL ■ hill, in a sleet storm, mud j six incbes deep, mercury at freezing, n. flre to speak of, and hard crackers, vinegar and coffee for a Thauksgiving dinner wasn't half as enjoyable as the one I had today."

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News