It's true that the men he orders shot are
generally of no account, like our man Jeff Hackberry--but it's the
principle of the thing that shocks me. He just takes a dislike to the
way a man looks or acts, or the way he parts his hair, looks at him with
his steely-gray eyes, unt says coldly: 'Put him in the bull-pen.' In
the bullpen the poor devil goes, unt the next time General Bragg gets
an idea that the discipline of the army is running down, unt he must
stiffen it up with a few executions, he orders all the men that happen
to be in the bull-pen taken out unt shot."

"Without any trial, any court-martial, any evidence against them?"
gasped Si.

"Absolutely without anything but General Bragg's orders. It is like you
read of in the books about those Eastern countries where the Sultan or
other High-muk-a-muk says, 'Cut that man's head off,' unt the man's
head is cut off, unt no questions asked.{255} unt no funeral ceremonies
except washing up the blood."

"Lucky for you, Levi," said Shorty, "that he didn't have any of the
common prejudices against Jews, and slap you in the bull-pen."

"O, but he did," said Rosenbaum. "He hated a Jew worse than any man I
ever met. Unt it brought me so near death that I actually watched them
digging my grave.

"While I had my ups unt downs, unt some very narrow escapes," continued
Rosenbaum, "when I first went inside Bragg's lines, I got along very
well generally. I played the peddler unt smuggler for the Southern
Confederacy in great shape, unt run them through a lot of gun-caps,
quinine, medicines, unt so so on, unt brought in a great deal of
information which they found to be true. Some of dis General Rosecrans
gave me himself, for he is smart enough to know that if he wants his
Secret Service men to succeed he must give them straight goods to carry
to the enemy.

"I brought in exact statements of what divisions, brigades unt regiments
were at this place unt that place, how many men was in them, who their
commanders were, unt so on. General Rosecrans would have these given me.
It helped him in his plans to know just what information was reaching
the enemy, for he knew just how old Bragg would act when he had certain
knowledge. If he knew that Sheridan with 6,000 men was at this place,
with Tom Wood 10 miles away with 6,000 more, he would do a certain
thing, unt Rosecrans would provide for it. The news that I brought in
the rebels could test by{256 } the reports they got from othe