Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1880 — A Demand for Men Eighteen Feet Long [ARTICLE]

A Demand for Men Eighteen Feet Long

A soldier who served in the swamps of South Carolina during the war tells the following story: Among the officers whom I remember - well nt Morris Island was Colonel Sewell, of New York, A most excellent officer and an accomplished engineer. Colonel Sewell wa* engaged on the Swamp Angel, and being very energetic himself he was not afraid to enter the swamps. His surprise can be imagined when one day of his Lieutenants whom he ■ had ordered to take twenty men and enter the swamp said he could not do it. “And why, sir, can’t you do itF’ cried the energetic SeweU. “The mad & too deep, Colonel,” replied the Lieutenant “You can at least try, sir,” said SeweU. The Lieutenant did so, and in an hour returned, his men covered with mud from head to foot. “Here, now,” cried Sewell on seeing them, “what you back?” ’* Colonel, the mud is over my men's heads. I can’t do it” “ Oh! but you can make a requisition for anything that is necessary for the safe passage of the swamp, and I will give it to yon. but yon must go through »•” • ’ / The Lieutenant did make a requisition in writing, which was as follows: “I want twenty men eighteen feet long to cross a swamp fifteen feet deep.” Tne joke was a good one, but SeweU. who was terribly in earnest, could not just then appreciate it, and he prompty arrested the Lieutenant for disrespect to his superior officer. Another Lieutenant was detailed, and he went the swamp, felled the timber and accomplished what his unfortunate predecessor had failed to do. Colonel Sewell built his battery with the aid of wheelbarrows and sand, and the remains of it still stand a* a monument to his energy and skill as an engineer.