“That house is haunt-ed,
“That house is haunt-ed,
“That house is haunt-ed, ted, ted, ted.”
The effect was said to have been beautiful, tho’ it must be confessed we did not wait to investigate; we had pressing business elsewhere.
We knew, when the brigade was placed under the command of Colonel Graham at the railroad yards, that our longed-for chance for active service had come. Colonel Graham was too well known for us to imagine for a moment that our idle days would continue. And he proved us right; for on this first day at the new camp he called for a detail from the First to relieve that of the regulars at the American river bridge, about four miles northeast of our camp. Later on, on account of the large number of men from the regiment on duty each day as track and train and bridge guards, our colonel found it best to send to each place details composed entirely of men from one company. On this occasion, however, the guard was made up of details from the different companies. B’s detail was composed of Corporal McCulloch, Privates Heeth, Heizman, McKaig, O’Brien, and Keane, and detailed from the hospital corps, as medical assistant, Dr. Tom McCulloch. A great deal of interest centered round this guard, as, in heavy marching order, it formed in front of headquarters under charge of First Lieutenant Eggert of F. Amongst the enlisted men it was not known what duty was to be assigned to it. The men on the guard joshed the unlucky ones, who gathered round watching the preparations and trying to catch an idea of its destination. Supper had not yet been served, so, standing in line, while Quartermaster Cluff and Commissary Sergeant Fitzgerald filled their canteens with black coffee and their haversacks with crackers, the men munched greedily on canned corned beef sandwiches, by calling the which “ham,” they succeeded in swallowing.
While this hasty meal was going on, much advice, good and bad, though generous, was offered by the facetious private, who stood with his hands deep in his pockets, his head cocked on the side, and his campaign hat hanging on by a few stiff hairs in back, as he viewed his comrades with the critical eye he intended to use when he became colonel. He kept a close watch on Adjutant Williams, however, as he shouted out his advice to “Shoot first, and then challenge.” “Keep ’im covered ’till you can find out what the papers will say, Bill.” “Gimme a lock of yer hair, Tommy”? or “If you get a chance, give ’em one for us, boys.” The men on the guard simply grinned in answer as they ate their scanty supper, feeling the superiority of their position. The guard, having finished the meal, was marched to the tracks on the levee above the camp, where they were placed on a train composed of a flat-car in front and a day-coach in rear of an engine, and were whirled off down the track toward the American River.
This guard having been dispatched, another detail was called for from each company, and a guard formed and placed on duty at the lower end of the yards.
The detail from B for this guard consisted of Corporal Wilson and Privates Overstreet, Perry, Powleson, Radke R., Radke G., Sindler, Shula, and Sieberst.
The work demanded of this guard was decidedly onerous. They had several hundred yards of track to guard, all closely crowded with fruit-cars. The beats of the sentries, too, were none of the safest. These, with but one or two exceptions, lay between the crowded lines of cars, dark as a pocket at night, and very little better during the day.
The practice firing of the Eighth Regiment, which so aroused the American river bridge guard, startled these men as well, Privates Perry and Shula, ever ready in an emergency, mounting to the top of a box-car, and threatening to shoot the first man who showed his head above the bushes in the marsh which stretched away for a mile north to the river. Luckily, however, they were not called upon for an exhibition of their prowess.