Page:The Immortal Six Hundred.djvu/225

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THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED


are all worth the keeping, and help to tell the story of those brave and true men. One incident comes to me just now.

One very cold day while standing by the cooking stove awaiting the building of the fire, I noticed a Georgia captain, of our party, picking from his ration of meal the lumps, bugs, and worms. I said, "Captain, why do you throw your corn meal away?" "I am not throwing it away." he replied, "I am picking out the bugs, worms, and filth." "Why, man," I said, "the bugs and worms are the meat intended for you, and will help to give taste to the meal." "That's so," he said, and quit the work. We had one or two opium eaters in our party, made so by the medicine furnished by order of General Foster. It was heartrending to see these poor, dear fellows begging for opium pills from the doctor, when sick call was made. It may have been wrong in me to do so, yet, when I saw their suffering for the drug, I would go to the doctor and get him to give me pills, which I would


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