We had five horses wounded, but lost no men either in killed or wounded. Five or six months after, when I was taken prisoner at Plymouth, I saw the Lieutenant, who was in command of the ambushing party, and in talking about that skirmish he said, that when that volley was fired at me at such close quarters (not over fifteen rods) and I being such a splendid mark sitting on my horse, he thought I was gone sure.
Mrs. Modlin, the next day having recovered her mules, and picked up her household goods, came into Plymouth alone.
We had an Irish Lieutenant in the 12th Cavalry, whose quaint expressions gave us much merriment. When we first went to Camp Palmer, we had daily drills; he being 1st Lieutenant, drilled the first platoon of the company, and I the second. We used to take them out separately, and I used to be greatly amused at the orders he would give. We commenced by drilling the men in the sabre exercise, and I was watching him the first day. When he got his men into line, and after having them take the proper distance, he gave the command something like this: “Attention, min! Now I am going to larn yees how to draw sabre. Whin I say ‘draw!’ don’t you draw; but whin I say ‘sabre!’ out wid it.” Now those who do not understand the sabre drill may want a little explanation as to how this was to be done. At the command “draw” the sabre is loosened from the scabbard and drawn about six inches; and at the command “sabre” it is drawn out and describing a half circle to the front, carried to the shoulder.
Another favorite order of his when he wished to give the order, “fours right” and then form the squad on right into line, was this: “On ladin set of fours, form line of battle, faced to the rare, march!” Turning to the Major, who was watching him drill one day, after executing this manœuvre he said, “Major this is a bully movement on a retrate.” While we were near Camp Palmer, our advance picket post was about five miles from camp, at a place called Deep Gully; and it was usual for the officer of the day after guard mount, to march his guard under command of the Sergeant, to Deep Gully, in columns of fours. This Irish Lieutenant, being officer of the day one time, after the inspection of the guard was completed and the Adjutant had turned them over to him with the usual instructions, rode out in front and gave his orders thus: “Attention guard, draw sabre! carry, sabre! be twos or be fours, whichever yees like. Deep Gully, to the front! Away wid yees.”
While at Plymouth, the two Captains and four Lieutenants, of our two Cavalry companies, formed a mess, each officer contributing his share towards the expenses. After a while, however, one of the Captains offered to run the mess, for so much a head per week, agreeing to give us good board. Well, for a week or two, every thing went smoothly and all seemed satisfied with the fare. One day we had chicken for dinner, made up into a sort of soup, or more properly speaking, gruel. This, by breaking some hardtack into it, though rather thin, was rendered quite palatable by judicious seasoning, and there being plenty left it was warmed up for dinner again. The third day as we sat down to dinner, we found another dish of this gruel on our plates, somewhat diluted, and looking rather feeble.
When this Irish Lieutenant sat down to dinner he took a look at the soup, and recognizing in it some infinitesimal portions of the old friend of the two previous days, shoved back his plate and with flushed face ejaculated: “Be jabers I like soup; I’m fond of soup, I like soup for forty or fifty meals, but by jabers as a gineral diet I don’t think much of it.”
We had good quarters in Plymouth. Our quarters were in a two-story white house, built as most of the houses in the South are, with a wide hall running through the centre and instead of a cellar, the house was set upon posts, so as to give free access to the air underneath. Our Irish Lieutenant occupied one large room up stairs, and I occupied one just across the hall from him. One Sunday morning I heard a noise in his room, and stepping across the hall, opened his door, and at first thought by his language that he was engaged in his Sunday morning devotions, as he was a strict Catholic. When I opened the door and took a look at him, I was startled at the sight which met my gaze. He was standing in the middle of the room, with a new white flannel shirt about half on, his head protruding, and his face of apoplectic hue, his arms extending upward, and he seemed incapable of either getting out of or into the shirt. It was one of those heavy white flannel shirts such as we all took with us at the commencement of the service, which would shrink in washing to about one-half their original size.
As I entered the room there was a look of discouragement upon his face, which from a liberal use of commissary and natural swarthiness, was always somewhat flushed, and now looked like a boiled lobster, which gave it a frightful appearance. The first sentence I heard sounded like a prayer; he said, “Oh! may the Lord take particular pains to damn the nagur that washed this shurret.” Taking in the situation at a glance, I discreetly withdrew and allowed him to conclude his devotions.
Making Yankees out of the Contrabands, was a pleasing pastime for our boys after the war had ended; and hundreds of these dusky “innocent causes” flocked into Tarboro, N. C., after we occupied that Secesh town, to be transformed into “Lincum Yankees.” Instead of going to headquarters, they would generally go directly to the company quarters, where the boys would heartily welcome them. To the question, “well boy, do you want to be made a Yankee?” They would say “yes massa, I spects I does.” A good strong blanket would be brought out and six stalwart fellows would hold it on either side and the candidate would be gently placed upon it.
The question would then be asked, “Do you promise to support the Constitution of the United States?” to which they would usually respond, “I ’spects I does, massa.” The order would then be given, attention! one, two, three, go; and he would go. At first they would toss him gently, but at every successive toss he would go higher and higher, until he could almost, as one expressed it, see the “gates ajar;” some would almost turn white when they were tossed up to such a fearful height, but as soon as one was pronounced reconstructed and entitled as such to all the rights and privileges of an American citizen, another would step forward and signify his desire to become a Yankee. There was very seldom any accident in these initiating exercises, but I remember of one, in which some of the boys became too weak, from excessive laughter, to hold onto the blanket, and a strapping young negro came near being killed; as I think he surely would have been, had he not fortunately struck the ground head first.