- Joined
- Dec 3, 2011
- Location
- Laurinburg NC
"Our next engagement was at a place called Turkey bend, or Turkey Hill. Wilcox's Division was fighting in front of us, and a heavy body of Federals were moving on his left flank. We were preparing to meet them, throwing up some temporary breastworks under a sharp skirmish fire. Lieutenant W.C. Howard, of Company F, Forty-eighth, was killed. Some four or five men wounded, were, I think all of those lost by the Forty-eighth in this engagement. The enemy was moving in line of battle to our right. We were ordered to move in quick time and make no noise. While on this rapid march an amusing incident occurred, which I will relate:
We were passing through a ravine where some Yankee prisoners were under guard. A very large, gruff looking Yankee was standing up slurring the rebels. He asked: 'Why do you rebels wear such dirty, ragged clothes?' An Irishman by the name of Forrest, belonging to Company D, Forty-eighth Regiment, and as good a soldier as was in the regiment, answered: we Southerners always put on our sorriest clothes when we kill hogs, and it is hog killing day with us now,' pointing to a dead Yankee near by.
This wit of the Irishman caused a laugh, and forgetting the order to be quiet, some two or three men raised a yell, which was taken up along the line - a regular rebel yell. The enemy's lines halted, broke and fell back, so we did not get into any further engagement. Whether it was this yell that caused them to fall back, I cannot say, but I don't suppose they knew we were near them until the yell betrayed our whereabouts."
Captain W.H.H. Lawhon - 48th North Carolina
We were passing through a ravine where some Yankee prisoners were under guard. A very large, gruff looking Yankee was standing up slurring the rebels. He asked: 'Why do you rebels wear such dirty, ragged clothes?' An Irishman by the name of Forrest, belonging to Company D, Forty-eighth Regiment, and as good a soldier as was in the regiment, answered: we Southerners always put on our sorriest clothes when we kill hogs, and it is hog killing day with us now,' pointing to a dead Yankee near by.
This wit of the Irishman caused a laugh, and forgetting the order to be quiet, some two or three men raised a yell, which was taken up along the line - a regular rebel yell. The enemy's lines halted, broke and fell back, so we did not get into any further engagement. Whether it was this yell that caused them to fall back, I cannot say, but I don't suppose they knew we were near them until the yell betrayed our whereabouts."
Captain W.H.H. Lawhon - 48th North Carolina
Bringing the