Headquarters Army Of Potomac
September 22,
1863
We have had an Austrian officer, awfully arrayed, making a
visit to see the telegraphs and the signal corps. He looked so natural with his
sprig little bob-tail coat and his orange sash, and presented a funny contrast
to our officers, who with their great boots and weather-beaten slouched hats
looked as if they could swallow him and not know it. Captain Boleslaski (such
was his name) was selected probably for two reasons, in this military mission:
1st, because he could speak no word of English; and 2d, because he was very
deaf. Notwithstanding which little drawbacks, he ran about very briskly, from
morn to eve, and really saw a great deal. I roared French in his ear, till I
nearly had the bronchitis, but succeeded in imparting to him such information
as I had. He addressed me as “Mon Colonel” and looked upon me as the hero of a
hundred campaigns; though he did rather stick me, when he asked me
whether our pontoons were constructed on the system of Peterhoff or of
Smolenski! He was much pleased with the attention he got, and was extremely
surprised when he beheld the soldiers all running to buy newspapers.
Yesterday came General Buford, commander of the second
Cavalry Division, and held a pow-wow. He is one of the best of the officers of
that arm and is a singular-looking party. Figurez-vous a compactly built man of
middle height, with a tawny moustache and a little, triangular gray eye, whose
expression is determined, not to say sinister. His ancient corduroys are tucked
into a pair of ordinary cowhide boots, and his blue blouse is ornamented with
holes; from one pocket thereof peeps a huge pipe, while the other is fat with a
tobacco pouch. Notwithstanding this get-up he is a very soldierly looking man.
He is of a good-natured disposition, but not to be trifled with. Caught a
notorious spy last winter and hung him to the next tree, with this inscription:
“This man to hang three days: he who cuts him down before shall hang the
remaining time.”
SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s
Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness
to Appomattox, p. 20-1
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