Page:Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade (1906).djvu/383

THEIR GAME OF POKER WAS SPOILED. L. T^ Dickinson, Commander N. B. Forrest Camp, Chattanooga, Tenn: "This sketch represents a true incident. Jones' brigade of cavalry was raiding in West Virginia; we were halted near Moore - field while our advance was reconnoitering. There were gamblers in the army who never missed a chance of plyins their trade. While halting as above stated, several card fiends climbed the fence of a cornfield, where they could procure 'chips' in grains of com. Spread- ing an oil cloth on the ground, the game of poker proceeded, when, suddenly, there came a b-o-o-m from a neighboring hill, followed with a *Where-is-ye-where-is-ye — ^bang!' A shell which struck the ground and burst, scattering a cart load of dirt over them. The players fell over one another in a heap, save Charlie Hutton of the Maryland battalion. He held three aces and a pair of tens,, 'chips' enough to feed his horse, and wouldn't throw up his hand. As he lay back on his elbow with one foot in the air, he yelled out in the direction of the Yankees, *Say, you fellows over there ! Don't be care- less with them things! But the only 'call' he got was from the bu^itr, who quickly sounded 'Mount.' Gen. Jones had a little game if bluff of his own, and our battalion was sent off to drag brush on a lusty road to make the Yankees believe another brigade was coming up."