Si Klegg, Book 6 / Si and Shorty, with Their Boy Recruits, Enter on the Atlanta Campaign

Si Klegg, of the 200th Ind., and Shorty, his Partner, were born years ago in the brain of John McElroy, Editor of The National Tribune.
These sketches are the original ones published in The National Tribune, revised and enlarged somewhat by the author. How true they are to nature every veteran can abundantly testify from his own service. Really, only the name of the regiment was invented. There is no doubt that there were several men of the name of Josiah Klegg in the Union Army, and who did valiant service for the Government. They had experiences akin to, if not identical with, those narrated here, and substantially every man who faithfully and bravely carried a musket in defense of the best Government on earth had sometimes, if not often, experiences of which those of Si Klegg are a strong reminder.
The Publishers.
Come, my boy, Si said kindly. Don't cry. You're a soldier now, and soldiers don't cry. Stop it.
Dod durn it, blubbered Pete, I ain't cryin' bekase Pm skeered. I'm cryin' bekase I'm afeared you'll lose me. I know durned well you'll lose me yit, with all this foolin' around.
No, we won't, Si assured him. You just keep with us and you'll be all right.
Here, you blim-blammed, moon-eyed suckers, git offen that 'ere crossin', yelled at them a fireman whose engine came tearing down toward the middle of the squad. Hain't you got no more sense than to stand on a crossin'?
He hurled a chunk of coal at the squad, which hastily followed Si to the other side of the track.
Hello, there; where are you goin', you chuckle-headed clodhoppers? yelled the men on another train rushing down from a different direction. This ain't no hayfield. Go back home and drive cows, and git out o' the way o' men who're at work.
There was more scurrying, and when at last Si reached a clear space, he had only a portion of his squad with him, while Shorty was vowing he would not go a step farther until he had licked a railroad man. But the engines continued to whirl back and forth in apparently purposeless confusion, and the moment that he fixed upon any particular victim of his wrath, he was sure to be compelled to jump out of the way of a locomotive clanging up from an unexpected direction and interposing a train of freight cars between him and the man he was after.