Corn-Dodgers & Stragglers

From The Land We Love I (May-October 1866)​: In his very first Haversack column, General D.H. Hill related several comical incidents. The first came from the waning days of the war, when Joseph E. Johnston’s army, in camp near Smithfield, N.C., struggled to find enough to eat. “One day a nice dapper young man, elegantly mounted and handsomely dressed, with a bell-crowned hat, rode by the fun-loving regiment, and was immediately greeted with the old cry, ‘Get out of that hat; we know you are thar; see your toes working under it,’ etc. etc. Colonel R---- immediately dashed up, crying ‘Stop that hallooing; it is coarse and ill-mannered; no well-bred gentleman would be guilty of it!’ ‘I don’t know, Colonel,’ replied a Mississippi boy, with a merry twinkle in his eye. ‘How do you expect men to be well-bred on two corn-dodgers a day.’ The Colonel had no further remarks to make on that interesting occasion.”
 
Another incident Hill related occurred when “Stonewall” Jackson’s command passed Virginia's Massanutten Mountains. The area was “full of old peach and honey, and the men thought it would be a pity, almost a sin, to leave so much spoil to the enemy. Besides, they needed, or thought they needed, something to support their strength on the forced march. General Jackson happened to ride in rear of this division that day, and he found the men scattered for miles along the road in every possible attitude, from dancing the polka to sprawling on the ground; in every possible mood, from ‘grave to gay, lively to severe;’ some fighting over their battles again, others of a more sentimental turn, weeping about the wives and children far away. General Jubal had expended his his eloquence and his emphatic Saxon in vain. He had even spread the report that the mountain huts were full of small-pox, but this had only stimulated the curiosity of his prying followers. Conquered at last, he had gone to camp and was toasting his shins that frosty night by a bright fire, when an orderly rode up with a note. ‘Dispatch from General Jackson, General.’ He rose from his seat and fumbled for his spectacles. But let the correspondence tell its own tale:
 
‘Headquarters Left Wing.
General: General Jackson desires to know why he saw so many of your stragglers in rear of your division to-day? (Signed) A.S. Pendleton, A.A.G.
To Major-General Early.’
 
‘Headquarters Early’s Division
Captain: In answer to your note I would state that I think it probable that the reason why General Jackson saw so many of my stragglers on the march to-day is that he rode in rear of my division. Respectfully, J.A. Early, Major-General.
To Capt. A.S. Pendleton.’
 
The word saw was duly underscored with the General’s boldest dash. Contrary to general expectation, General Jackson only smiled and made no further inquiries …..”