A page from a diary discovered by Union Forces after the battle of New Bern
January, 1st 1862
Another War, this time I am trying to avoid it. Those fancy folks were having themselves a party, trying to forget troubles, I even thought they were doin fire works til I realized it werent. Trying to get myself somewheres else when I found a man, more like a boy an more like a corpse, out on the sand banks, had a half a dozen balls in him and all he kept mutterin were names. He's better now, my hands might need some whiskey to stay still but I can still patch a man better than a seamstress fixin a set o longjohns.
I know whats next. I was young and angry once. My da called me a dog cause I didnt think. I just bit at the thing that made me mad. And look where it got me. The boy keeps eyeing my old Dragoon. Christ. 15 years since Churubusco, 12 since I picked up that Damned Gun. over a decade of blood I can feel still on my hands.
I told him I would help, told him he could have my Dragoon if he would listen and learn. If he just went out there now he'd be dead inside of a week for one reason or another. But I can teach him, to ambush and run, to go after the leader and send the rest scattered. Hes gone to have to do some right un-gentlemanly things, but thats how you win. I hear my daddy's voice in my own when I say that old saying. A dog just bites, its the wolf that plans when and where.
Then I hear that other saying in my head, a hundred angry and defiant voices telling the world and all in it to go hang.
ERIN GO BRAGH
Finn Claghey
Another War, this time I am trying to avoid it. Those fancy folks were having themselves a party, trying to forget troubles, I even thought they were doin fire works til I realized it werent. Trying to get myself somewheres else when I found a man, more like a boy an more like a corpse, out on the sand banks, had a half a dozen balls in him and all he kept mutterin were names. He's better now, my hands might need some whiskey to stay still but I can still patch a man better than a seamstress fixin a set o longjohns.
I know whats next. I was young and angry once. My da called me a dog cause I didnt think. I just bit at the thing that made me mad. And look where it got me. The boy keeps eyeing my old Dragoon. Christ. 15 years since Churubusco, 12 since I picked up that Damned Gun. over a decade of blood I can feel still on my hands.
I told him I would help, told him he could have my Dragoon if he would listen and learn. If he just went out there now he'd be dead inside of a week for one reason or another. But I can teach him, to ambush and run, to go after the leader and send the rest scattered. Hes gone to have to do some right un-gentlemanly things, but thats how you win. I hear my daddy's voice in my own when I say that old saying. A dog just bites, its the wolf that plans when and where.
Then I hear that other saying in my head, a hundred angry and defiant voices telling the world and all in it to go hang.
ERIN GO BRAGH
Finn Claghey