ARKANSAS-L Archives

Archiver > ARKANSAS > 2002-09 > 1031238632


From: "Fran Warren" <>
Subject: [ARKANSAS] Civil War on the Western Frontier- May 28, 1864
Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2002 10:07:22 -0700


Here's an interesting article I found in the New Era

Fort Smith, Sebastian County, Arkansas

May 28, 1864

HOW THE REBELS KEEP WARM

During the investment of Chattanooga and the occupation of Lookout Mountain by the enemy, it was a matter of some surprise and speculation, how, when we in the valley were shivering from the cold, the rebel troops on the mountain side, almost naked and without blankets, managed to keep alive. The mystery was solved after the storming of the heights.

We found at several points on the slope, where boulders and flat stones had been so laid as to form a bed, hollowed slightly in the middle. Sometimes the stones were laid in an excavation deep enough to shelter from the winds. The width of the bed was the length of a man. They were enough to receive fifteen or twenty persons. In these paved or boulders couches huge fires were built. The wood consumed, the coals and ashes were raked out, and on the warm stony bed the shivering soldiers disposed themselves for sleep.

Fran Alverson Warren
e-mail:
479-369-2703
http://www.crawfordcountyarkansas.net/

This thread: