Albert Leistico Civil War Stories

LEISTICO OF "B" COMPANY AS A FORAGER.

While on the winter campaign in Missouri, Albert Leistico got a pass to go outside the lines foraging. After passing the pickets he left the main traveled road and soon came to a plantation house that had been deserted by its inhabitants. They had failed however to take with them the poultry and good things eatable to be found in pantry and cellar. Leistico caught a goose and a chicken and secured them ; then turned his attention to the house, having satisfied the hunger that was always with him. He did likewise with his ever present thirst from a keg of apple-jack that he found in the cellar. There was nothing stingy about Leistico. If he had a good thing he was always ready to share it. This apple-jack was good, and he determined to take a pail of it to camp for the boys. Then also that thirst of his, like an ever consuming but never ending fire, might return before he reached camp ; the apple-jack would be available to extinguish it. With the goose, chicken and apple-jack, inside and out, he started for camp. He was well loaded ; the whole road was none too wide for him. The General in command was of no more importance in his way of thinking than Leistico, the cook for mess number three.

When he arrived at the picket post the guards, failing to recognize his importance, or thinking that his forage would be useful to themselves, halted him and placed him under arrest for having such things in his possession. This insult to his dignity made him quite angry. He produced his pass and said: "Vot for me you stop sometimes already? See dot now? By shimeny, some dings I show you pretty quick!" The Sergeant after reading his pass said: "This does not say anything about passing a goose, a chicken or a pail of apple-jack. Our orders are to arrest every soldier attempting to pass the lines with such stuff as you have got. We will have to take you to headquarters." "Ish dot so? Val. val, I know not dot. Mein Got in Himmel ! vot vil I do? If I go mit the guard house out the mess

vil no supper haben. Mein Got! Mein Got !" Leistico at this time had set his things down and wa.s walking back and forth across the road swinging his hands and bemoaning his condition. He stopped in front of the Sergeant and said : " Yust let me go und I the pass for the shicken und the goose und the apple-jack quick bring from the Gaptain. I know not the pass vas no gude. Mein Got! Mein Got !"

After a little while the Sergeant said to him: "You't seem to be an innocent man ; now you leave these things here and say nothing about this to anyone, and we will let you go this time." At this Leistico glanced at the cause of his troubles and slowly said, "Val, val, you bese a gude man; I vil do dot." He could part with the chicken and the goose, but with the other it was different. He looked at the apple-jack and saw the vanishing visions of a pleasant time contained in its ruby depths about to depart forever, and he said, "Yust give me a drink mit the pail out, und I runs myseluf to the camp over." The request was granted and he succeeded in carrying away so much of the contents of the pail that he could not get that supper for the mess that seemed to bear so heavy on his mind when at the picket post.


CAMPFIRE THOUGHTS.

The last evening on the march from Batesville to Helena, Ark., a squad of B Company were gathered around the campflre, having had nothing to eat that day and no prospect of anything the next day. Their talk of what they would like to have to eat is correctly told by one of the relators, B. J. Wakeman :

1st Comrade

"We gather around our campflre tonight, All tired out, hungry and sore. Boys, just think of the good things at home. There is roast beef, chicken, turkey and pie. If we only had them here tonight O, my! This lank stomach would live mighty high."

2nd Comrade

"I would like the turkey all piping hot, stuffed full of oysters, crackers and jumbles. These things for me would surely be The quickest cure for all my troubles."

3rd Comrade

"Give me the juicy roast beef, sissling hot, basted with nice brown gravy, right from the pot, with plenty mashed 'taters', hot biscuit and pickle. Leave me alone and I'd be tickled."

4th Comrade

"You bet that's good stuff, but give me the chicken, nicely parboiled, roasted and stuffed plumb full of crackers, with sage, salt and pepper, and I'd get along very well till my stomach gets better."

5th Comrade

"Boys, I wish we could eat tonight at our homes, where the table with plenty is loaded till it groans ; plump chickens, eggs and sugar-cured ham, muffins and rolls, with fruit like rubies, celery and jam."

Here Comrade Leistico, the wild Dutchman of Company B, who had been standing with his back to the fire during this campfire talk, turned around, knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and began to put in another load, when one of the boys said, "Well, Leistico, what would you like for supper tonight?" After lighting his pipe he tossed the blazing stick back into the fire, put one hand on his empty stomach, held his pipe in the other and said " Val." After taking another good long whiff he said, "Val, led me see." One more good whiff, puffing the smoke over his left shoulder, turning his face to the front, taking his pipe in his left hand, and coming to the position of "attention", and he said: "Val, I vant dot whole ding midt swy glass lager, und ve go over midt de tent under und have vone bulley gude time."


LEISTICO AND TIM.

Part of the regiment had been down below Prentiss, Miss., on a raid after cotton. The boats were well loaded and we were on the return trip. The river was low and the water as a means of quenching thirst had unpleasant results. Leistico had by some means secured a bottle of "Hostetter's Stomach Bitters". This unpalatable stuff was sometimes used by the boys as a beverage. Its intoxicating qualities were almost as pronounced as its bitter taste, but being a patent medicine, its sale was allowable. It was recommended for cramps, actual and prospective. The prospective cramp to the soldier was a woeful contemplation and was to be fortified against when possible.

This cotton raiding was disagreeable business; the weighing up of life on the one side against private gain on the other (and often the scale on the life side overbalanced the gain side) disgusted and discouraged the boys. It was carried on under the semblance of Government authority. It was nothing but legalized freebooting, the soldier and helpless planter the victims, the speculator and those in command the beneficiaries.

It was not war, it was murder and pillage, and under the circumstances the soldier should not be blamed if he partook of something to temporarily relieve his sufferings through oblivion. Soon after the boat started on the return trip, Leistico, Wesley Smart, Block and Holtzkampf sat down to play eucher. After a few games had been played, Leistico took the bottle of bitters from his haversack, took a drink and passed it to his companions in the game, saying, "Dot ish good stuff." When the bottle was returned to him he took another drink, saying "Yaw, yaw, dot ish gude. " He put the bottle in the haversack and the game went on. Tim, an Irishman of D Company, was looking at the players. His mouth was all fixed up to sample the bottle. When Leistico put it in the haversack Tim gave him a gentle tap on the shoulder and said, "Ould boy, can't ye pass it around?" Without looking up, Leistico said, "Yaw, yaw," but kept on playing his cards. As Leistico was dealing the cards for another hand, Tim said, "Ould pard, ye are in great luck, sure, to make such a foine hand as that. If I were the likes of ye, I'd stand the treats." "Yaw, yaw," said Leistico, as he placed the cards in his hands, preparatory to playing his hand. Tim kept teasing him for some of the bitters, Leistico all the time saying, "Yaw, yaw." Finally he took the bottle from the haversack, took a drink and passed it to his companions. As it came back to him Tim again reminded him of the promised drink. Leistico, looking Tim in the eyes, said, "Yaw, yaw," and after the last drop had gone down his throat he threw the bottle overboard, turned to Wesley Smart and said, " Ves, Ves, vot he said?" Tim was too disgusted to say anything. He got up and went to his company.