Aside from an occasional party or reception, there wasn't a heck of a lot to do in Tullahoma, TN, where the 2d Massachussetts was stationed with its brigade after being sent to the Western theater of operations. Playing cards was one way to pass the time. One night, Captains Francis Crowninshield and Theodore Parker were lounging about playing besique when their game was interrupted by desperate shouts coming from the street. Rushing out, they learned that the local hotel was on fire. After altering the Officer of the Day, the two ran to the scene and arrived just as startled people were escaping from the building.Crowninshield saw that some Commissary stores were threatened by the blaze and was about to order some volunteers to remove the property when a woman began to scream that her child was still in the building. Crowninshield and Parker, who was an experienced fireman, rushed inside to attempt a rescue, even though the structure was already heavily involved. Throwing open the door to the room where the child was suposed to be, Crowninshield found it engulfed in flames. Blinded by smoke and heat, he could see nothing of the child. At any rate, no one could still be alive in the room. Staggering out into the hallway, Crowninshield somehow spotted the little figure crouched in a narrow passageway. Scooping the child into this arms, he ran down the stairs and out into the street.
That should have been the end of the episode, but the enterprising Parker had other ideas. He still thought there was time to save some of the building's valuables. Crowninshield was game, and in they went a second time.
Entering the burning building once was brave. Going in again was suicidal. Still the two captains tossed items out of the windows until someone shouted a warning that the place was falling down. The shaky stairs were on fire as they descended and twice Crowninshield's foot went right through the glowing timbers. No sooner had they gotten clear of the place when the roof fell in with a crash. Crowninshield escape with some slight burns to his hands and Parker had half of his mustache scorched off, but they were otherwise unscathed.
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