midday
Two or three companies of my regiment had gone off on a scout , to be gone a couple of days , leaving the command at Montgomery , and one day we were encamped on an old abandoned field , taking dinner . The horses and mules were grazing near us , and there was no indication that any epidemic was about to break out . We were about sixty miles from Montgomery , and were cooking our last meal , expecting to make a forced march and be back before morning . I had got the midday meal for Jim and myself cooked , the bacon , sweet potatoes , coffee and so forth , and spread upon a horse blanket on the ground , and we were just about to sit down to eat , when a mule that had been browsing near us , and snooping into our affairs , attracted our attention . All of a sudden the animal became rigid , and stood up as stiff as possible , then its muscles relaxed , and it became limber , and whirled around and brayed , backed up towards us , and as we rushed away to keep from being kicked , the mule fell over in a fit directly on our beautifully cooked dinner , rolled over on the bacon and potatoes and coffee , and trembled and brayed , and died right there . I looked at Jim and Jim looked at me . `` Well , condam a mule , anyway , '' said Jim .