A Soldier's Story of His Regiment (61st Georgia): And Incidentally of the Lawton-Gordon-Evans Brigade Army of Northern Virginia

Chapter 10

132 very reluctantly, and said it was a piece of lamb. The lieutenant took it and gave it to his negro cook and told him to cook it for his supper. The boys went on to their camps well pleased. The negro cooked some and the lieutenant sat down to eat it. He cursed the negro and told him that he had poisoned it, for he had never eated as strong mutton as that was. The lieutenant then cooked 'some himself, but it was no better. The next day he asked the man whom he had taken it from what it was. He said in a low, drawling way, "Why, Lieutenant, it was a piece of a dog." Such a laugh as that raised! It was such a good joke it was all over the camps in a few h011rs. Men would hollow out, "Who eat the dog?" and you would hear answered from all over the camps, "Lieutenant D." My friend told me they run that so far till "D." ran away and quit the army. CHAPTER x. FROM JANUARY 1ST, 1864 TO MAY 1ST, 1864.-SKIRMISH BA'I"l'L~ AT MORTON'S FORD. January, 1864, came in fair and warm for Virginia. On the morning of January 4th we heard firing at the picket post at Morton' Ford about five miles from our camps. We hurriedly fell in line and double-quicked (ran) most of the way. Gordon's Brigade was the first troops to get there, but Gordon himself was not present. He was said to have been at Orange C. H., and General Lee was in Richmond. Colonel Evans, of the Thirty-first Georgia Regiment, was in command of Gordon's brigade and formed the 133 line of battle. We found that the Yankees had crossed the river in some force and had driven off our pickets. The Yankees fired at us as we came up, at long range (about 600 yards). There were some works about half a mile from the ford and we were ordered into them. Colonel Evans ordered out a heavy skirmish line and companies D and F, of our regiment, were put on skirmish , with about the same number of men from each regiment of the brigade. Captain Kennedy was in command of the skirmish line from the Sixty-first Georgia. We were ordered to advance, which we did, with the Yankee sharp-shooters shooting at us all the while. There was a deep ravine about 100 yarda from the Yankee skirmish line, and we went into it and remained nearly all day. The Yankees were well posted in and around Dr. Morton's house and negro houses. There were about six of the negro houses and they were built of brick, and were about twelve feet wide and twenty feet long, with spaces of about four feet between each house. When the sun was about half an hour high, our batteries threw about a dozen well-directed shells at the Yankee line, and we were ordered to charge them away from the houses, which was directly in companies D and F's front. We advanced with a yell, and they fired one volley at us but did not hurt anyone; they then left the houses in a run. Dr. Morton's house was on a high elevation from which we could see all over the enemy's lines and ours. We had our "sights" up, so we went right on past the houses. An order came down the line to halt and occupy the houses, but Captain Kennedy wanted to go right on. He said, "We could run the whole d-d fixings into the river." (This was the only profane word I ever heard 134 him speak in the whole war). We reluctantly returned to the houses and the fun began. The Yankees wanted this posiHon back, for it over100ked their line and ours and was not over 250 yards from the river. We went to shooting at them with a vim. Everybody seemed cool, yet determined to do them all the harm they could. They tried to charge us twice with their skirmish line and did get near us, but their officers could not get them any lle,trer than about fifteen or twenty yards, for they could 110t sta~d the firing and would fall back, leaving the ground strewn with their killed al1d...