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A MILITARY DOG

A pretty story of a bright little dog' is told by Captain Carruth in his reminiscences of the Oivil War : ' Styx was a fox-terrier in the days when fox-ter-

riers were not so common as now, and he made his appearance in the battery one morning just as we were "hitching up" at daylight to resume the anarch interrupted by a night's rest in the vicinity of a small town in Louisiana. He attracted my attention by running up and placing at my feet a small stick and then backing off a little way with every muscle of his body on the stretch, asking me "as pleadingly as if he spbke to thrdw it' that he might have the exquisite pleasure of catching it to be brought back again and thrown,. 1 The captain of a battery has at such a time something else to do than throw sticks for dogs to fetch, and when Styx saw me mount my horse he abandoned me and started off to a sergeant, who treated him with even greialer contempt. Nothing abashed, lie picked up the ' stick and started with the column, which was now moving along the road and into which the battery hauled from the roadside, -with the accompaniments of clanking trace-chains and rumbling wheels. 1 Styx maintained his position somewhere between our gun carriages all day, refusing to be allured by'the dashing cavalry or the sober infantry, as now and then changes occurred in the column, andfclate in the afternoon, when we halted for the night, he. reported himself at my particular fire as -if he were on duty as an orderly. He asked not for food or caresses, but, putting down a stick at my feet, declared in his fox-terrier lan-

guage that if I would please throw that for him. just once be would consider all obligations discharged in full, and I threw it. He brought it back before it had fairly touched ground, and worried me for more of it. ' The next day we were in action. The enemy had made a gallant stand in their retreat at a narrow pass, where it was most difficult for us to advance ; and here the genius of Styx came into great play' The " No. 5 " man, as he is called, runs between^the Umber and the gun when tire battery is "in action carrying the missile or cartridge from the ammunition chest to the " No. 2 " man, who places if in the -gun, when the "No. 1 " sends it home with the rammer. Styx had joined one of the gun detachments, and was acting as a "No. 5" man. Receiving the cartridge from "No. 6, ".wh0 took it from the chest he rushed like, lightning to the gun and delivered, his burden to the Expectant artilleryman. He was in his element now. The thunder of the guns could hardly drown, his shrieks of joy as he rushad back from having- delivered one charge to get another— this was something like ! Why hadn't we played that game be,,?m Now he saw what a battery was for. whni J ?,L day & Vfi ' Styx a . V r «P ut ation through ~ our whole corps. The commanding general heard of Wlm and requested me to bring *him up to headquarter? tl JSP"?" 8 Cir , clft of officers sat aD ° v * him one even! ' Three days .after came the catastrophe. We were ~?n?Ti« UJ) i" line of atfcle *« await developments, and for a long time nothing developed. Finally a distLt'

battery began to give us its attention. Now and then a shell exploded in our front or over our heads. Styx was sitting with eager" eyes in the midst of his* favorite detachment. Suddenly an-" T almost spent sixpound solid shot from the enemy struck in : frohVbf us, and rolled, as it seemed, slowly into the battery. "More fun! ". said Styx to himself, and jumped for it.' For the first time he • had miscalculated. But then' his i experience, with, artillery, had -been of the "briefest; .. .The moving mass of iron, which seemed as harmless as . a rubber ball, crushed the lire "out of the active little volunteer. *We all mourned him, and the general said, when I told him about it, " Well, you > know, war can't be carried on without some loss." ' " -

This article text was automatically generated and may include errors. View the full page to see article in its original form.I whakaputaina aunoatia ēnei kuputuhi tuhinga, e kitea ai pea ētahi hapa i roto. Tirohia te whārangi katoa kia kitea te āhuatanga taketake o te tuhinga.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZT19070214.2.75.2

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 7, 14 February 1907, Page 37

Word count
Tapeke kupu
721

A MILITARY DOG New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 7, 14 February 1907, Page 37

A MILITARY DOG New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 7, 14 February 1907, Page 37

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