Dear Editor,

This should make inmates at the Richmond County Jail appreciate their lunch today:

Sip Hart, 92, accepted the Richmond County Court House on behalf of Civil War Veterans when it was dedicated September 1, 1924. The Court House is dedicated to veterans of all wars. Names of those who gave their lives are inscribed on bronze plaques in Memorial Hall, the foyer.

“I was down there at Charleston a prisoner by our enemy, the Yanks. I lived on three little hard tacks a day, not a drop of grease, not a grain of salt,” he said.

Desperate, he and a friend bought a cat from a Yank for $5. The cat weighed 11.5 pounds. He told his friend. Peter Coker, they would have a dinner that day.

The Yank looked at him and asked, “You are not going to eat that cat?”

Hart told him, “I bought it to eat.”

His Confederate Captain offered him the flour to make a stew.

“I made a kettle of three and one half gallons of cat stew, and I ate it,” Hart told over 2,000 people gathered for the dedication.

He must have gained some of the cat’s extra lives.

“I have lived a long time for a man that was shot up in the war like I was. I was shot 26 times. I toted one bullet a long, long time,” Hart said.

“I got it out myself. My son told me to let the doctor get it out, but I was not ready; and one day when I was feeling for the bullet it fell to the floor. It is in my trunk now. I meant to bring it here today. I wish you all well,” he said.

Cpl. Edwin Scipio “Sip” Hart, Co. D, N.C. 23rd Infantry Regiment, Pee Dee Guards, was captured the first day in an ambush at Gettysburg. Hart refused to surrender the colors. Federal troops were only able to seize the colors from him after knocking him unconscious with the butt of a musket.

The moral of the story is … well, I’m not certain except that eating a cat won’t kill you.

And, apparently neither will old bullets that didn’t kill you in the first place.

Hart died at age 96.

One more thing, don’t have a tempting fat cat around hungry people who plan to live a long life.

Tom MacCallum

Rockingham