erself, to take her goods
to their destination, and she delivered them in person to whomsoever
they had been sent, officers or privates. She served one equally as
heartily as the other. Of course she had to rough it, and see much
hardship and exposure, but she gloried in so serving her country. She
had several sons in the army doing their duty also, as became men from
such stock. Jim Bobbett, my body servant, Rube, Alex Dearing's man and
some of the other company darkies had also been south on the railroad
looking out for supplies. Our messenger got a big fat gobbler, we
cooked him in a big three legged cast iron wash pot. Mr. Menander
Rosser reminds me that Dr. James T. Searcy, (now Superintendent of the
Alabama Bryce Hospital for the Insane) was boss of that job, he put in
good time for some days previous to the feast in stuffing corn meal
dough down that turkey's throat, to make sure of his being good and fat
at the proper time. Can you see the picture, Searcy on a log, gobbler
between his knees, left forefinger and thumb prying open the gobbler's
mouth, while the balance of his left hand kept the neck straight up;
right hand rolling up enormous bread pills and forcing them into the
gobbler's mouth, and manipulating them down to the craw. Henry Donoho
holding the bread pan assisting in rolling the pills. Several others of
the mess, much interested in the operation, scattered around. We first
parboiled him till nearly tender, with an oven lid covering the pot.
Then we filled him with biscuit and hard-tack crumbs and pieces of fat
bacon, and cut onions and sage and the chopped gizzard and liver, all
mixed; boiling down the water meanwhile to a rich gravy. Then we put
the stuffed turkey in again, put on the cast oven lid heaping red hot
oak and hickory coals on top and under the pot. If the reader knows
something about cooking, it is plain that this gobbler was cooked to a
delightful brown, brown all over, with the juice oozing out of his
skin. And that turkey was not all of that dinner. Out of the boxes from
home came material for mashed potatoes, boiled rice, cowpeas, bread and
biscuit and butter, and dried peaches for a big "biled cat" for dessert
with butter and brown sugar for sauce. "Biled Cat"! Eat "Biled Cat!"
Yes, indeed! Soldiers thought "biled cat" good enough for any body. Its
composition was biscuit dough, rolled out into a sheet one-fourth of an
inch thick, spread with stewed dried apples or peaches, seasone