Post by Cliff Krainik on Aug 2, 2009 5:02:52 GMT -5
“P.S.–Apropos to war, and anecdotes of camp and field, let me relate one which I know has never been in print before. The anecdote that I refer to, occurred during the glorious (?) Black Hawk war in Illinois.
Among the volunteers ‘old St. Clair’ county boasted one of the largest, ugliest, and slowest motioned men in the crowd. (No relation of ‘the Major’). One morning in attempting to remove the stop of his powderhorn, (he belonged to a rifle company), it broke short off. The stop was made of hickory, and resisted every attempt he made to remove it. In vain did he dig and screw–the hickory was there. At last a happy thought struck him, which he resolved to put in immediate execution; and that was to burn the wood out. He procured a piece of sharp iron, which, after heating to a glow, he applied to the wood. A moment’s hard pressure on the wood caused it to give way with a ca-chug, and no sooner did it give way, than the horn departed for parts unknown.
The last its owner saw of it was, as it made some fanciful gyrations over a hill in the distance, and vanished. He looked meekly down for a moment at the straps dangling at his side, that once held his horn, and exclaimed ‘h---------, and d--------! I didn’t think the d--------d thing would go off! O.”
SPIRIT OF THE TIMES; A Chronicle of the Turf, Agriculture, Field Sports, Literature and the Stage. Oct. 31, 1846; 16, 36 - p. 421, col. 2 (New York)
Cliff Krainik
Warrenton, Virginia
