Blood is definitely thicker than water.  Darn good thing for a pair of young boys who almost got themselves into a pickle they might not have survived.

    Many years before Johnny Cash sang of the woes of A Boy Named Sue, one of us Sneds got saddled with a name he obviously didn't care for above half.  He was none other than Victoria Gayle Snedeker.  While no clear-cut record exists proving that he had trouble with the name his father Isaac laid on him, it is significant that as soon as Victoria Gayle had a son, he named him... BOLIVAR GEORGE!  Which is about as male a name as you can get, when you think of it.

    Bolivar was affectionately called "Bolly" by his family.  He liked to hang out with his cousin, Tarver, and the pair of them were sent North to Tennessee from Savannah to attend a sort of prep school.

    Unfortunately, the Civil War broke out while they were up there.  The Yankees came in and made a headquarters right in the area.  This incensed our young firebrands, and they went right to the Confederate Recruiting Sergeant sitting at his table and demanded that they be allowed to join.

    In one of the very few instances where such a thing can happen, as luck would have it, we have the actual quote of the Confederate Recruiting Sergeant:

    "Boys, yer rarin' to git in, but if'n you was in, you'd be rarin' to get out!"  And with that, he told the pair to go home to their folks.

    This rebuff only made the forbidden all the more desirable.  They hung around and pestered and pestered until finally one of the Confederates in charge allowed as how since the boys knew the area, they could go along on a raid and help guide the troops.

    Well, there were the damYankees down there in the valley.  The Confederates went a-whoopin' and a-hollerin' down, and conducted a mighty fine raid.  Of course, when the Yankees woke up with all the noise, they just went ahead and arrested everybody (the raid was not comparable to Shiloh, one might infer).

    And now, here stand our forlorn and frightened boys:  One is holding the sword, the other the boots of the Yankee Captain... sort of prima facie evidence that they have been misbehaving.

    The next thing they know, they are in a column of POW's, headed for prison camp.  The adventure is no longer any fun at all.

    But all was not lost.  In an incredible stroke of good fortune, the prisoners column was commanded by none other than Lieutenant Snedeker, their Yankee UNCLE!!

    Again, we have an actual quote from those long-ago days.  Uncle Lieutenant Snedeker looks at the two boys and says:

    "Bolly, Tarver... you see that Sergeant over there?  Well I have just given him an order to look the other way for five minutes.  When he looks back, you two had better be GONE!"

    Tarver went all the way to Texas... and grew up to become a really colorful lawmaker.

    But that's another story.