Note 22 — Chapter LXXVII · THE BURNING OF COLUMBIA.
Reading edition
An officer taking his punch (they drink punch in the army when the coffee ration is exhausted) from an elegantly-chased silver cup, was saluted thus:—
“Halloa, captain, that’s a gem of a cup. No mark on it; why, where did you get it?”
“Ye-e-s! that cup? Oh, that was given me by a lady in Columbia for saving her households gods from destruction.”
An enterprising officer in charge of a foraging party would return to camp with a substantial family coach, well filled with hams, meal, etc.
How are you, captain? Where did you pick up that carriage?”
“Elegant vehicle, isn’t it?” was the reply; “that was a gift from a lady out here whose mansion was in flames. Arrived at the nick of time—good thing—she said she didn’t need the carriage any longer—answer for an ambulance one of these days.”
After a while this joke came to be repeated so often that it was dangerous for any one to exhibit a gold watch, a tobacco-box, any uncommon utensil of kitchen ware, a new pipe, a guard-chain, or a ring, without being asked if “a lady at Columbia had presented that article to him for saving her house from burning.”—Story of the Great March.