omen, and tottering
old men, whose gray hairs should have protected them from the savage acts
of Yankee hate and Puritan barbarity; and I wondered how on earth our
generals, including those who had resigned--that is where the shoe
pinches--could quietly look on at this dark, black, and damning insult
to our people, and not use at least one effort to rescue them from such
terrible and unmitigated cruelty, barbarity, and outrage. General
Hood remonstrated with Sherman against the insult, stating that it
"transcended in studied and ingenious cruelty, all acts ever before
brought to my attention in the dark history of war."

In the great crisis of the war, Hardee, Kirby Smith, Breckinridge,
and many brigadiers, resigned, thus throwing all the responsibility upon
poor Hood.

[Author's note: In the Southern army the question was, who ranked?
Not who was the best general, or colonel, or captain--but "who ranked?"
The article of rank finally got down to corporals; and rank finally
bursted the government.]

I desire to state that they left the army on account of rank. O, this
thing of rank!

Many other generals resigned, and left us privates in the lurch. But the
gallant Cheatham, Cleburne, Granberry, Gist, Strahl, Adams, John C. Brown,
William B. Bate, Stewart, Lowery, and others, stuck to us to the last.

The sinews of war were strained to their utmost tension.

A SCOUT

At this place I was detailed as a regular scout, which position I
continued to hold during our stay at Palmetto. It was a good thing.
It beat camp guard all hollow. I had answered "hear" at roll-call ten
thousand times in these nearly four years. But I had sorter got used
to the darn thing.

Now, reader, I will give you a few chapters on the kind of fun I had for
awhile. Our instructions were simply to try and find out all we could
about the Yankees, and report all movements.

One dark, rainy evening, while out as a scout, and, after traveling
all day, I was returning from the Yankee outposts at Atlanta, and had
captured a Yankee prisoner, who I then had under my charge, and whom I
afterwards carried and delivered to General Hood. He was a considerable
muggins, and a great coward, in fact, a Yankee deserter. I soon found
out that there was no harm in him, as he was tired of war anyhow, and was
anxious to go to prison. We went into an old log cabin near the road
until the rain would be over. I was standing in the cabin door looking
at t