A True Experience

It was during the month of August and our company was camped at Ashland, Neb. on the Platte River. Late one night seven of us broke up our Black Jack game. We were young and adventurous so instead of retiring we decided to raid a farmers melon patch about a mile from camp. It was a beautiful moonlight night, as most water melon stealing nights are, and we soon descended upon the patch. We scattered over the field. I was off to one side and my buddies were in the middle.

As we sat enjoying the melons, a loud voice boomed from nowhere. Lookin’ up I saw two men racing toward my pals, each carrying a big shot gun. I casually walked up to them, saying, “What’s the trouble here?”. I told him I was Sergeant of the Guard and my detail and I was out hunting for these men who had escaped arrest from their quarters. He explained he had captured them in his melon patch. I thanked him for rounding them up for me and began marching them back to camp.

Just as soon as we were out of sight of the farmers, we all began a double quick time. Believe me, those two shotguns made fast traveling easy for us.