OCR Text |
Show THE SAND FLIES OF SOUTHERN GEORGIA Editor Standard: At one time during dur-ing the war Rome, Georgia, with Its arsenals and machine shops, was, in point of locality . the most important I place In inland Georgia, and in point I of manufacturing facilities for supplying sup-plying the . rebels with arms and ' ordnance stores, seemed only in the west to Atlanta itself Kingston, the I key to Rome, if seized at all must be by a rapid advance of the night, while the center and left of the army held Johnson In check at Adair. Whllo making this move, the Fourth Michigan Michi-gan was ordered to attack Kingston. After heay fighting. Mirity succeed- ed in getting possession of the road and destroyed It from a point about j two miles out to the Kingston Junction Junc-tion It being reported that the rebels reb-els were still using the branch railroad rail-road to Rome, Minty was directed to cut it by a movement from Woodland to the west. Now, all down through Tennessee. Alabama, and thus far in our march through Georgia, we had been told that after we got a little further south we would meet the enemy en-emy In a new form, that thefr were v. hole tracts of country where neither neith-er man nor animal could live or pass through on account of the host of Sand Flies. Hearing so much about them, and that they were a ' little further to the south, and that we would meet them "down tha'h, su'ah," wo had come to regard them like the western man's moequl .oes. who when asked if the skceters" were bad in his locality, always answered, "No stranger, but y on jlst bet they be In the next county Why. sir, ocer in that county coun-ty they eat the hogs up alive ' So we thought the "sand flies'" were always al-ways in the next county, and would always remain a little further souf, sah. ' Moreover, after our experience experi-ence with the pediculus. the flea, the woodtlck and pigger, in Tennessee, we thought oursehes proof against the assaults of any and all the vermin ver-min of the southern rebel country combined, and did not believe the much-vaunted and widely advertised sand fly was much of a "bug" after all We knew what sand wus, and had seen flies, before, and laughed at the Idea of a fly of any kind being even a transient annoyance Tha movement to the railroad was to be a surprise, hence we left Woodland about 11 p.m , and marched by un- I frequented ways, across the fields, winding along water courses and deep hollows, and quietly passing in solemn silence t'irougli ihe gloom and ohi the Sward of the shadowy forest. No j talking or even sneaklne In lowest '. I tones, or clanking of bits or saber scabbards, being permitted. And. so, 1 like srecters of the night, we were passing through a strip of rather open woods, each man Intent only on keep- 1 ! Ing his horse in place and close nKainst e rump of his file leader, when suddenly, without a promonitorv buzz or sign of any kind. ,i horse In one of the center flls gave a loud snort, sounding moro I like the dying cry of a mortally stricken human being than any sound we had ever beforo heard a horse make and dashed off to the ! right at the top of his speed, rearing 1 plunging, and kicking while soon ! leaving hlB luckless rider sprawling on the ground. Another and another followed, rushing madlv right left, tronf and rear, with snorts and kicks and almost human like groans of pain In every direction, unhorsoing ridere trampling the fallen, dashing head- long through the woods, rubbing agalnat the trees, rolling over and I over on the ground and In an instant Converting the quiet, orderlv column Into a pandemonium like a mass of 1 struggling, graning. kicklnc. plunging ' rolling horses and swearing, yelling men in which confusion worse con (?BHHailMHMBMMVMBaHiMaBaaMBBaaaaaBBBBM founded reigned supreme. Wo had struck the sand flies and the sand Sg files struck us 'jj W. II, the expedition ended here! The railroad was not cut that night In fact, in less than three minutes from the time the first fly struck thu column, abnu' twelve hundred caalry were scattered over a radius of two A miles of rebel territory, and deem- j ing one surprise enough in one night gtii and we being the party surprised, and it wo having made noise enough to arouse the whole rebel army, if In St hearing distance, the general conclu- :? ded to sound the "rally," and get Into ;-t a camp as soon as possible It was -j, I a bad repulse and though the damage consisted mainly in the swollen nos- iMs i trlls ot the poor horses yet many of Htttl j the men were bruised, kicked, tramned , on. and otherwise disabled. This j 0 our first and only experience with this j cv adjunct of rebeldom, and we had no rte desire to renew, much less to pro- nm ! long, the acquaintance The combined I power of a swarm of angry bees, of a fully developed colony of unnested f hornets, and of a completely fledged nest of after-harvest oats, stubble yel-low yel-low jackets with their business quail ties intensified one hundred fold, would not be a circumstance to the terrific onslaught of the average Georgia Geor-gia sand fly. -(Signed). COL B F. B.MR. j . Ogden. Utah nn |