Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/307

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curious .UK! antique spi-chm-ii. It \v;is shaped something like a n ap-hook or Turkish sriim-tcr. Brown had been a colonel of militia, and I suppose had sported this sword on many a "general muster" day, when walking-sticks and umbrellas constituted the arms of tin- rank and file. A brave old fellow, though, was Brown, and he fought through the war, though "muster free" when he entered the army. By the way, amongst the curious things of that day and time, nothing was more curious than some of the weapons with which we armed ourselves, unless it was the idea of war which led us to adopt such weapons. I believe our en- tire army was armed with Bowie knives. I, myself, purchased in Richmond, at an exorbitant price, a formidable-looking knife, all unconscious of the fact that the modern soldier has a de- cided reluctance to submitting his person to the carving process, whatever may have been the fashion in Oesar's day. Most of my company, though, were armed with knives of wonderful make and fashion. Truly they were "fearfully and wonderfully made." They were manufactured at Howardsville, Albemarle county, in DriscolFs foundry. They weighed as much as five or six pounds, and proved very serviceable shortly after in hacking the ' ' blue- beef," of wild-onion flavor, with which our commissariat abounded One officer got Driscoll to make him a two-edged sword, weighing, I suppose, twenty-five pounds, and a "Bowie" weighing half as much. The sword, which was ground to a sharp edge, was fully four inches broad, and Peter Francisco would have found difficulty in wielding it. When we fell back from Centreville to Bull Run, one of the hottest days I ever felt, it was pathetic to see this officer, with these two formidable weapons and a pistol to-boot buckled around his waist, staggering along under the rays of that July sun. He fell a martyr to his efforts to keep up with the column, for he had a sun- stroke, and was not in the battle of Manassas. He learned better afterwards, and fought bravely through the war, distinguishing him- self by his courage and zeal. After the war he became well known to the people of Richmond, and occupied high official positions.

There is no exaggeration about these things. How they make us smile when we think of them ! When the firing began that morning, a negro cook left his fire, seized a musket, and started down to the breastworks with the evident intention of fighting it out by the side of his master. Some officer, much to my regret, ordered the faith- ful fellow back, and in the discussion that followed it was urged that to allow him to fight with us and for us would be to put a negro on