sides of the little old church where there were windows, but
not to fire a gun unless attacked, and not to speak disrespectfully
to any person. If there was any argument with anybody, I was to do the
talking. We decided to take about fifteen horses, if there were that
number there, because we would be sure to find some of our scattered
boys dismounted before we got far toward Montgomery, and it was a good
idea to take horses when we had a chance. Well, it was a job I did
not like, but what was a fellow to do. We were sixty miles from
headquarters, on foot and out of meat. I had never been in a church row
before. It seemed as though religious worshippers ought to be exempt
from war, with its wide desolation. But business was business. We
surrounded the church, walking up quietly from different directions,
and as we closed up on the sacred edifice half a dozen men, white and
colored, were standing in front, and two men were talking over a horse
trade. The minister was expounding the gospel, talking loud, and all
else was still. We invited the outsiders to go in, which they did with
some reluctance, the door was fastened on the outside, guards were
placed, and the preaching stopped. The minister had been informed that
the yankees had captured the place. There were only two sides of the
church with windows, so two guards were sufficient, and the rest of us
went to work skinning the harnesses off the horses. A window was raised
and an old man stuck his head out and said, as one of the boys was
mounting an old mare belonging to him, "I forbid you touching that
mare." A carbine was pointed at the window, and the old man drew in his
head, and the window was slammed down.

[Illustration: I forbid you touching that mare 287]

We had got sixteen pretty good horses, when a window on the other side
opened, and the minister's head was put out, and he said, "In the name
of the church I command you to desist." He looked so fierce that Jim,
who was on guard on that side, and who had objected to the scheme on
account of its being a church, cocked his carbine and pointed it at
the minister and said, "gol darn you, dry up!" He dried up, the window
closed and except for the heads at the windows, and faces looking very
mad, all was quit. When we had got the horses strung out, and the men
were mounted, I looked in a carriage, accidentally, and saw a basket,
covered over with a paper. The paper was a religious one, published at
Savannah, and