In our daily lives we are always looking to save time. In Charley’s case time saved him.
George was understandably traumatized by his bloody work at the surgeon’s tent. Afterwards he shirked all official duties focusing instead on scavenging whenever, wherever and whatever he could. Soon the pickings at Petersburg became slim and as his unit was being called to move out, he went to say good-bye to his brother Charley who had been assigned to a new unit. Charley was downtrodden, not at all enthusiastic about yet another march and inevitably another battle. George decided he would go on one last foraging mission in search of a special good-bye treat for his big brother.
Wherever there were soldiers there were laypeople selling their wares from knitted socks to home-made cakes and pies. These brave (or crazy) men would fill up their wagons and drive right up to the front on the days they knew that the men got paid. On this day a ragged old man with a wagon fixed out with a stove was selling fresh hot mince pies. The smell alone was making the men drool. For each man lucky enough to get one there were ten or more standing around wistfully watching him eat it. After analyzing the situation up and down and realizing that theft was not an option with such a crowd, George ran as fast as he could back to his brother to beg for $1. Charley had no money at all and his sorrow was written all over his war worn face. George sat down next to him and thought through all his scavenging tricks. He had to get his brother one of those pies.
He recounts:
Charley, my brother, owned an old-fashioned silver watch, one of those old “English levers.” He thought a great deal of it as a keep-sake and always gave it to me to keep when he was going into action. I had this watch now, and made up my mind I would trade it and get a lot of pies for us all. Oh! such bright anticipations of hot mince pies. I could almost see them floating in the air as big as cart wheels, and fearing they would all be sold before I could reach the wagon, I ran as hard as I could. The crowd had thinned out and so had the pies. “How many have you got left?” I eagerly asked.
“Oh, plenty,” he replied; “how many, do you want?” “Well,” I said, nearly out of breath, “I haven’t any money, but I want all you have, and I’ll trade you a nice watch for them.”
“Say, cully! what yer givin’ me? I don’t want no watch. Let’s see it.”
I quickly passed it up to him, and stood working my fingers and feet impatiently and revolving in my mind how many pies he would give me and how I would manage to carry them back, when he broke out into a loud, contemptuous laugh, and passed the watch back.
“Say, young fellow, that aint no good. I’d rather have a blacking box than that thing.”
“It’s silver,” I replied.
“That don’t make no difference. I’ll give you one pie for the thing if you want it, see!”
I turned the watch over and over in my hand, my feelings hurt and my stomach disappointed. Then I thought of my brother, forgot that it was his high-priced time-piece, and quickly said:
“Give me the pie and take the watch.”
Of course once the pie was greedily devoured down to the last crumb Charley started to ask questions as to how George had managed to get the pie with no money. Eventually he guiltily confessed that he had traded Charley’s prized silver watch. The disappointment in Charley’s eyes broke his heart. Determined to get it back he ran back to the pie man and convinced him that he could show him how the complicated watch worked in exchange for a ride. George slowly set the time and wound the watch stalling so that he could come up with some way to get it back. He knew he couldn’t just bolt with it with so many soldiers around. Suddenly a shell exploded very close scaring the already skittish horse and overturning the wagon. Lucky George slipped away in the confusion returning the watch to his grateful brother.
Some of George’s luck must have rubbed off on that watch. That evening a fierce battle erupted. Charley was slightly wounded by shells and shrapnel but the one bullet that would have killed him was deflected by his silver watch. His watch was shattered but Charley was fine. Charley kept the fragments of that watch with him for the rest of the war. It really was a time saver.
me and lizzie may 