Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1885 — A Quartet of Patriots. [ARTICLE]

A Quartet of Patriots.

A group of lawyers were discussing the late war at the corner of Whitehall and Wall streets. “I was at Shiloh,” said one, “and while standing under a smoky sky in a storm of leaden hail, beheld the noble Albert Sidney J ohnston tight and fall upon the blood-red altar of his country. ” “And I,” said another, “was at the Wilderness when the very air was red with thp fire of battle, and the myriad minies jjsang their death song in the ears of the brave. I, too, fought, bled, and died for my country* ” “And I,” said a third, “stood in the fire’s front at Gettysburg, when the wild rebel yell mingled strangely with the shriek of the deadly shell that plowed the patriot ranks. I, too, fought, bled, and died for my country. ” “And I, gentlemen,” said a lank, seedy, solemn man, with a faded umbrella under his arm, “I was at Jonesboro when shot and shell sped swiftly by in the wagon train, and all seemed lost. But I, too, was a patriot, and while 1 neither fought nor died, I bled for my country —I bled the army mules. Gentlemen, I am a horse-doctor; are there any jackasses in thi» crowd?"— Atlanta Journal. l^—'