Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1885 — The Picket’s Instructions. [ARTICLE]

The Picket’s Instructions.

In the early part of the war I was oq picket duty on the Maryland side of thq Fotomac, near the fridge at Hartper’s Ferry. At that time a kind of ah ’armisQceexisted. The trains on the Baltimore and Ohio were allowed to pass, provided they halted at the bridge and permitted a guard to go through them. My instructions were, when the train rounded the curve, to wave my gun three times at- the engineer, and if he did not slacken speed to shoot at him and throw an obstacle across the track. The orders struck me as being so absurd that once, upon being relieved by a raw youth, 1 explained to him that he was to wave his gun three times at the engineer, and, 1 if the train did not slow up, he was to shoot the engineer and throw himself across the track. He replied with emphasis that he would do no “such thing.” Uppn being reprimanded by the corporal the proper instructions were given. ( About the third day after the assignment of this duty, Stonewall arrived and took command of the troops at Harper’s Ferry. At midnight, while on post, some men on horseback from the V irginia side appeared, who proved to be Jackson and some members of his staff, going the grand rounds. The General halted and asked me a great many questions. After inquiring how I would challepge cavalry, going into the minutest particulars, he asked what my instructions were. Upon being told, to my surprise, he <fid not laugh; Mt asked me, in the gravest way, if I had settled upon the obstruction to be thrown across the track. Thinking he was still joking, I replied that it was my intention to sling upon it a railroad bar, lying near (which it took four men to carry). He asked me then on which side of the track it would be my aim to throw the train. As the mountain was on one side and the canal and river on the other, I quickly answered: “Into the river, of course.” He seemed to be highly satisfied, and went away leaving the impression that the new commander was a crank. Southern Bivouac. .