Welcome to our newest writer
2009 October 13
I would like to welcome fellow graduate student, Army veteran, and Civil War reenactor Stuart Lawrence to the writing staff. I am sure that he will add many interesting posts to the blog and will be a wealth of experience on reenacting and other topics.
During recent searches of family records and geneology for my wifes ancestry we discovered a short letter written by SGT.Samuel Evans CSA, to his mother, in which he explains his only injury during service with an elite squad who were assigned the duties of execution of union spies, by hanging or firing squad. Because bullets were valuable it was the choice of the squad to hang proven spies.
Shortly after hanging a spy, the squad was preparing to have their supper of “goober pea” soup,when one of the group suggested that the spy might enjoy a taste of their bland supper,so in the spirit of fun Sam volunteered to climb up the tree to give him a taste.
As Sam was reaching out to pour a bit of soup into the dead spies mouth, one of the others hollered “damn it that stuff is hott!” and scared Sam, who promptly fell from the tree and broke his arm, his only injury in 4 years of war. For years afterward Sam was known as blessed Sam, but it was because he took up the calling of being a preacher and healer.