This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
Confederate Wags.--The Cairo (Ill.) correspondence abounds in such incidents as the following:
Many amusing illustrations of rural simplicity were witnessed among the prisoners.
A newsboy rushed on board the T. L. Magill, just arrived from Donelson, vociferously shouting: “Here's yer mornin'papers.”
A stalwart Tennesseean shouted: “Give me the Appeal.”
He really believed he could buy the Memphis and New-Orleans papers at Cairo, and when told they were not for sale, earnestly remarked: “Why, the last time I was here, I bought all our papers here.
Are ye afeard to sell ‘m?”
Another individual bought a ten-cent pie from a poor woman, and tendered her in payment ten dollars in confederate scrip, at the same time stretching forth his hand for nine dollars and ninety cents in change.
The pastry-merchant declined the proffered “bill;” when the Southerner assured her: “I took fur good as gold.
It passes down our way right enough.”
A third prisoner having written a letter to his wife, got a Federal officer to “direct it” for him, and putting a Jeff.
Davis postage-stamp on it, requested a sentinel to mail it for him.
Van Nostrand. New York, New York. 1862.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.