An amusing incident at Turkey Bend

[CSA Today]

"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 [James] 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 nearby.

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 William H. H. Lawhon - 48th North Carolina

Photo: Captain William H. H. Lawhon is in the center of the photo standing. The man with the bowie knife is Sgt. Cornelius Lawhon and the other man is Maj. William Hogan Jones. All served in the 48th North Carolina. Capt. Lawhon and Sgt. Lawhon in Company D , Maj. Jones F&S.

 

[brass napoleon]

...'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 nearby...

Hilarious.

 

[Stony]

I wonder how many on this board have actually participated in a hog killing.

 

[KeyserSoze]

Hilarious.

It has its funny parts. Like this:

A squadron of cavalry got in our rear, cut us off and we were scattered on both sides of the road. Several of our men were captured. Every man was left to take care of himself. Company D, which had only thirty-seven men at Petersburg 2 April, had been reduced to eleven and in this affair lost ten, leaving only one man and the Captain to witness the surrender. On Sunday morning, and in the race through the woods on Thursday evening, the Captain lost his hat, running from a Yankee horseman, and would have been captured had it not been for a deep gully near by into which he went and got out of the horse's way.
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The mental image of the captain running for his life and losing his hat is most amusing. I'm sure it made a fine souvenir for some brave Union cavalryman.