Joel Chandler Harris

A Little Union Scout Joel Chandler Harris

Excerpt from A Little Union Scout The story, such as it was, took shape in my mind, and I am afraid that the young girl had small difficulty in persuading me to tell it. Memory brought before me the smiling features of Harry Herndon, my life-long friend and com rade, the handsome face of Jack Bledsoe, one of our college mates from Missouri, and the beauti ful countenance of his sister, Katherine Bledsoe. These and a hundred other faces came crowding from the past, and the story was told almost be fore I knew it. When Harry Herndon and I went to the wars, we were somewhat belated. The excitement of '61 found us at college, where we had orders to remain until we had finished the course, orders came from one whom we had never dared to disobey - Harry's grandmother. And then, when we were ready to go, she cut in ahead of our plans and sent us to the West with letters to General Dabney Maury, whom she had known when he was a boy and later when he was a young officer in the regular army.