CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY: B. THOMAS

***************************************************************** 
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
10 September 2001
*****************************************************************
TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson

B. THOMAS.

Col. A. W. Sparks in his "Recollections of the Great War," tells of an 
amusing incident at the battle of Oak Hills: "In Co. A, 3rd Texas 
Cavalry, was an unadulterated specimen from Erin, of the name of B. 
Thomas.  Mr. Thomas rode an incorrible horse, who would eat the tether 
that bound him to a tree, and, being loose, he would devour whatever 
was eatable in camp.  This equine marauder had pursued his evil bent 
to such an extent, that many of the victims had become exasperated, 
and dedared if Mr. Thomas did riot devise means for securing the 
horse, they would kill him - the horse.  As Mr. Thomas would have 
rather suffered crucifixion, head down, than to have been left afoot 
in Missouri, he procured a chain and padlock, with which he managed to 
secure the marauder.  When Siegel's battery opened just before dawn on 
that memorable morning, and the bugle rang out "to horse!" Mr. Thomas 
discovered that the mech­anism of his lock was not perfect, for the 
"bloody thing wouldn't worruck." Siegel advanced, and the camp-ground 
became a battle-field.  No one thought of Mr. Thomas until the command 
returned to camp in the evening, when lo! there stood the horse 
unscathed, and locked securely to a tree that had been literally peeled 
by the bullets.  "Be the vargin!" exclaimed a husky voice from the 
dense bushes upon the creek, ''boys, is the' shurln over till last?" 
It was Mr. Thomas, who had sought refuge in the bushes from the 
"inimy;" and, strange indeed, he had been as miraculously preserved as 
had the horse."