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Bantam In The Army.

Only Rooster in Georgia That Has a Tombstone Over His Grave.

Enlisting at Culperer, Va., He Served Under Major Williams In Many Battles.

A sentinel In a Tree-How He Betrayed Jim Nessmith.

     “While we were camped near Culpeper Court House in the fall of 1862,” said Major Tom Williams, “I became acquainted with a family named Dowdy. Just before the battle of Culpeper I paid a visit to the farm and found the ladies in a panic, preparing to flee. They set before me such scant fare as they had left, and after I had eaten a hasty luncheon Miss Dowdy called to me and led the way to the back yard.

     There is the last  of our stock of poultry, said she, pointing to a little bantam cock that was strutting about the yard. ‘I haven’t the heart to kill him because he is a pet. If you want him, you can take him and do as you like with him.

     “During the campaign of 1863 he often sat on my shoulder through the long, weary marches and hurried retreats, and I shared my rations with him. One night we had reached the flank of the enemy’s camp by a forced march and lay down to sleep on our arms, expecting to be roused at the break of day for a sudden charge. I had started off with General perched upon my musket barrel, and a sudden change in the order of march had separated us from the wagons, so I placed the rooster on the limb of a sapling above my head, while I lay down to snatch a few minutes sleep.

     “General did not utter a single cluck in protest, although he must have been very hungry from long fasting, but quietly squatted on the branch while I flung myself on the grass and leaves and was soon fast asleep. I was so weary that I slept profoundly until I was suddenly aroused by an unearthly screech in my ear. Raising my head, I took in the whole situation at a glance.

     “General had dropped down from his perch and uttered a shrill crow right in my ear which had awakened me, and as I opened my eyes I saw the flash of guns as our pickets fired and in an instant fell back upon us where we lay. The Yankees had turned the tables on us, and, discovering our presence, the surprising force became surprised, and in ten minutes there was an unearthly racket going on in that pine thicket.

     “Right and left of my position the boys came out of cover and advanced with yells and cheers, moving cautiously and firing as they moved. It had become sufficiently light for me to find my few belongings, and I soon recovered my hat and haversack, which I had forgotten to pick up in the hurry of the first surprise, and just at that time I was saluted with a loud crow just above my head, and looking up I saw General perched upon his limb, he having flown back there when the firing began, and with his head on one side he was sidling along the swaying branch, crowing and clucking.

     “In spite of the banging of the guns and whistling of bullets General struck bravely to his perch and never fluttered during the entire engagement. When I told the story in camp that night, General was the toast of the evening, and he was treated to all sorts of tidbits in recognition of his gallantry on the field of action.

     “One morning, however, General played the camp detective in a most alarming manner, which came near proving disastrous to a fellow soldier of another mess. All foraging had been strickly forbidden, and no man was allowed to leave the ranks under the heaviest penalty of military discipline. There was a fellow by the name of Jim Nessmith, who occupied a tent not far from that of the captain of our company. About 4 o’clock the order was passed along the lines for us to prepare to march.

     “General was perched on the limb of a bush near me while I sat munching my hard tack, and all of a sudden he raised himself on his perch and crowed lustily. Of course no cock in hearing could resist replying to such a challenge, and from within the tent occupied by Jim Nessmith came the muffled crow of an old rooster. Jim made a grab at the bag and succeeded in choking him off, but the noise had reached the ears of some of the others, and the captain became apprised of the fact that Jim had been foraging. A hasty examination of his tent disclosed the body of the big rooster, choked to death by Jim in his anxiety to put a stop to his untimely crowing.

     ‘Jim was ordered under arrest pending an investigation, but just about that time the order came to advance, and we moved forward, and by sunrise we were fighting, and the unfortunate officer who had ordered Jim to be placed under arrest was borne from the field a corpse after the fight was over. The affair was forgotten amid the stirring scenes that followed.

     “Seeing that the end was near, I found an opportunity to send General to the rear, and placing him in a cage started him on the long journey to the home of a nephew in Georgia. He had not been long on the farm before he began to pine and droop, and the family thought that he was disconsolate on account of being separated from his comrades. This might have been all fancy, but he lived only a short time, and when he died my nephew and the boys of the neighborhood gave him a regular military funeral.

     “I suppose that his is the only grave of a rooster in Georgia. The tiny stones that mark his last resting place can be seen on the old homestead near Dalton today. On the headstone is rudely carved the name “General,” with the date of his death and the names of some of the most important engagements through which he passed during our comradeship among the battlefields of Virginia.”-Atlanta Cor. New York Sun.

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