October 16, 1862
Page 2
“Personne,” the army correspondent of the Charleston Courier, mentions the fact that our soldiers were in the habit of supplying their own urgent want of shoes, etc., by stripping them from the feet of the dead yankees, who certainly had no further use for them. Personne says, “If you could see our bare-footed and ragged men, you might think there was even a virtue in stealing from a defunct army.” And he adds, “Among the amusing occurrences of this kind, it is related of a soldier belonging to the Eighth Alabama Regiment, that he found a yankee in the woods, but being separated from his regiment, did not know what to do with him. While soliloquizing, the officer who gave me the incident rode by, and his advice being asked, he told the soldier he had better let the prisoner go. “Well,” said the Alabamian, “I reckon I will, but look here, yankee, you can’t leave till you’ve given me some of those good clothes. Strip! I want your boots and breeches.” The yankee protested against such indignity, and appealed to the officer to protect him. The Alabamian also pleaded his cause. “Here’s this fellow,” said he, “come down here a robbing of our people, and he’s stayed so long it’s no more’n right he should pay for his board. I don’t want him to go around in his bare legs any more’n he wants to; and I mean to give him my old clothes.” “A fair exchange is no robbery,” replied the officer, “and as you have no shoes and a mighty poor pair of pants, I reckon you had better help yourself.” “Now, yankee, you hear what the “boss” says, do yer; off with your traps and let’s trade.” The last thing my friend saw, as he rode away, was the two worthies, in their “bare legs, stripping for an eschange.”
[Transcribed by Sharon Strout]