Mike Serpa
Major
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2013
Practical jokes of the milder sort were indulged in, sparingly. The rougher kind were likely to be resented, with force of arms. The following example of a trick perpetrated on Comrade Benjamin Beck is a fair illustration of the coarser quality, which, though funny, might have ended with serious results. Comrade Beck, one of the stoutest men in the company, was in the habit of heating an old bayonet while sitting in front of the fireplace during his idle moments, and thrusting it into a hole in a log above the hearth, the smoke from which operation would fill the cabin to the great annoyance of the other boys. Returning from guard duty, at the time of this occurrence, he entered his quarters and assumed his accustomed seat at the fireplace; the other boys were reading, some sleeping, apparently. And when Mr. Beck noticed his bayonet in the fire, the point heated to a cherry red, he seized the tempting steel, pushed it with all his force into the hole, intending that time to penetrate the log. But there was a terrible explosion. Mr. Beck lay sprawling upon his back on the floor and the bayonet rattled against the farther wall of the tent. The boys had inserted the powder of several cartridges into the hole.
"The Story of our Regiment; a History of the 148th Pennsylvania Vols., Written by the Comrades," 1904
"The Story of our Regiment; a History of the 148th Pennsylvania Vols., Written by the Comrades," 1904