Whenever
fresh meat was scarce, and none could be found
for him by foraging parties, he would take things
into his own claws, as it were, and go out on a
foraging expedition himself. On some such
occasions he would be gone two or three days at a
time, during which nothing whatever was seen of
him; but he would invariably return, and seldom
would come back without a young lamb or a
chicken in his talons. His long absences occasioned
his regiment not the slightest concern, for the men
knew that, though he might fly many miles away
in quest of food, he would be quite sure to find
them again.
In what way he distinguished the two hostile
armies so accurately that he was never once
known to mistake the gray for the blue, no one
can tell. But so it was, that he was never known
to alight save in his own camp, and amongst his
own men.
At Jackson, Mississippi, during the hottest part
of the battle before that city, ``Old Abe'' soared
up into the air, and remained there from early
morning until the fight closed at night, no doubt
greatly enjoying his bird's-eye view of the battle.
He did the same at Mission Ridge. He was, I
believe, struck by Confederate bullets two or
three times, but his feathers were so thick that
his body was not much hurt. The shield on which
he was carried, however, showed so many marks
of Confederate balls that it looked on top as if a
groove plane had been run over it.
Pages:
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358