Just How Muddy Was It?

I came across this humorous quote in Mark L. Bradley's book "Last Stand in the Carolinas: The Battle of Bentonville."

The night before the Battle of Averasboro, March 16, 1865, a Confederate attempt to slow down Sherman's Army marching through North Carolina, it rained very heavily, turning roads and the land into a regular quagmire.

As Union Colonel William Hawley's brigade fell in for the march, Captain Daniel Oakey of the 2nd Massachusetts wrote that "The men furnished themselves with [burning] pine-knots and our weapons glistened in the torch-light, a cloud of black smoke from the torches floating back over our heads.

"The regimental wits were as ready as ever, and amid a flow of lively bandinage we toiled on through the mud. When we halted...to give us an opportunity of drawing breath, I found Sergeant Johnson with one arm in the mud up to the elbow.

"He explained that he was trying to find his shoe."

How Muddy Was It? --Old Secesh