The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-06-17

| Ton. w men Jney saw me, lney ureW -InolL
revolvers and cooked them. I walked up to
them and enquired why they drew their re-
volvers. One of them replied, with an OATH
: to take down Feds with I replied that /
was Fed, and they might experiment on
me if they liked They seemed frightened
at my boldness, and inquired 'if there were
any more Feds at the house, replied that
they were plenty around there when they
asked me again if was Fed,' and upon
assuring them that was, they said all right
put up their PISTOLS and produced certificate
that they had taken the oath of allegiance!
"When asked what they meant by say
ing what they did when I came up to them
they tried to pass it off as joke. I told
them that would not serve. Just at this time
two little boys came out of the house, and
one of the chaps, (named James DUFFY who
was their leader, asked them if there were
any more Feds at the house. They said no,
whereupon Duff took his revolver again, as
bold as could be, and said, ] want your pis-
tol.' "That's your game, is it?' said I, you
can't have it, They both cooked their pis-
tolls, standing about six feet from me. was
standing with my arms folded, my revolver
on my left side. I thought it was time to
act Two men standing in front of you, with
cooked revolvers pointed at your breast, is a
fix that every man don't get out of as slick
as did. One of them came towards me, and
reached out his hand as if he would take my
pistol out of its holster, saying let me see
your revolver, I would like to trade.' Don't
care about trading said 1, stepping back, and
drawing my pistol slowly with my left hand
till the barrel was clear; cooking it with my
thumb, then suddenly changing it to my
right hand, 1 quickly fired at Duff. I heard
their revolvers snap at the same Instant
Stepping back and STOPPING nearly to the
ground, fired at the other and heard his
bullet whistle over my head at the same mo-
ment- They both turned and ran, which as
tonshed me so that 1 stood still about two
seconds, then took after them, saying, Tll
give you all you want of my revolver Duff
had on a white coat, and when he turned [
saw the blood tricklipg down his back, and
thinking that he was severely wounded I paid
no more attention to him, but took after the
other fellow, fired at him once while running,
and saw the bullet hole in the shoulder
Getting tired drumming stopped, and watch
ing when he came in sight between two rows
of corn, fred again. Whilst I was chasing
him, the girls were screaming and telling them
to run, for Gods sake to rum When they
were both out of sight in the corn, looked
out on the prairie-in the opposite direction
from our brigade-and saw few troops COM
ing along with two or three dilapidated old
wagons. As did not know of any force of
| ours that were coming in that direction,
thought they were Secesh, and not wishing to
| fight whole regiment alone, and on foot,
looked around for the horses, but they had
run into the corn when the firing first COM
menced so I footed it over to the road, where
our train was passing, and there found that the
troops I saw were the advance of Col. VIM.
Weir's brigade.
''I got some of the battery boys and an am
bulance, went back and found the men evi-
IDENTIFY in a dying condition. Duff was shot
through just above the left nipple. Grim
staff was shot through the right wrist, through
the left shoulder, the ball breaking the collar
bone and lodging in the bony part of the arm
and through the right shoulder, glancing on
the breast bone and going down. Fixed
them up as we'll as we could and took them
to Sarcoxie, where our troops were stopping
Gen. Soloman called me up in front of the brig
ade, and after hearing my story, complimented
me on the bravery had shown, and presen-
ted me with pair of silver mounted revol-
vers, which I shall be proud to compare with
your silver pitcher presented by.
have not been thus minute in telling you this
because l wished to boast of killing two men
for taking life is a serious thing under any cir
cumstances, but you said you would be inter
ested in any little incidnet in our daily life
and | wished to show you how clear a man;
perceptions sometimes are in times of danger
as my noticing the blood and the bullet holt
in the coat. 1 also thought their revolvers
had been loaded long time, and might miss
and the result proved that was right.
In regard to the battles we had, suppos,
you in the papers an account of the fgh
at Newtonia, Mo. The brunt of it was born
by our battery and the Ninth Wisconsin
which suffered severely. Only one of ou
men was wounded. His arm was shot of
just above the elbow. 1t seems myster.
that nc more were hurt, for the rebels rainet
shot and shell-a perfect hailstorm-upol
our battery, which seemed to draw all thei
fire. We fatter ourselves on our accurat
shooting. We fred one hundred and TWEEN
ty rounds of shot, shell and canister Gu
support failing to come up we were oblige
to fall back, leaving the enemy in possessio
of the field. Three days after we went bac
with larger force and opened fire on then
and after about dozen rounds they brok
and fled in the widest confusion. We car
= tured three guns, and quite lot of sma
: arms, ammunition, camp equipage, etc. w
? have been following them up till we al
camped one mile from Siegel's famous battle
r. field, which we can visit every day if we -lik
IS There are many interesting things thel
II - IL.