The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1863-10-15
Adventures os :,,, Hown Dov.

perpetra,el during the present. war, is that
related Of Charles II Smith, a private ct
the 4th Iowa Cavalry, which is as FL.
lows
lie asartai with MS r.gma,t on Colon /
WinslowS expedition to G-enada. and WI,
captured hv the rasels at that place Aug
18th. He remained their prisoner for f,u
DAYS, walking in that time a distance
eighty mi'cs. in a state Of semi starvation
On the evening of the 2lst they halted
about supdown. and put up Tor the night
in an old school hodse, situated ten miles
west of West Point, on the road leading
from. West Point to Grenada. The school
house had a door on each side, chimney
in one end and window without frame or
shutter in the other. They barricaded the
window with desk convenient, barred the
e'stern door and stationed guard in the
other. When it had come sleeping time the
Ynrkees-six in all-were allotted tina. nor.
ton next the chimney, while the buttsrnuts
twenty in number-occupicd the ,other
end; line was designated across which no
one must pass. Charlie Jay down without
removing any Of his clothes, intending to
lay awake and watch for an opportunity TO
escape, but WEAKNESS of the body overcame
the resolution, and he f,ll asleep. But he
awakened between one and two O'Clock and
saw the guard sitting in the door smoking
his pipe and conversins with the corporal
of the guard, who was sitting By the fire out.
side. Slipping of his boots and gathering
bis hat, haversack and canteen, he creps
over the sleeping .'chivalry" up on to the
desk and let himself quietly down and ont
at the window, reaching terra .6rna in safe
ty. A splendid horse was tied to tree at
the end of the house, six or seven feet from
where his doughty master and several com
panions were sleeping. A saddle and bri-
die were found on the window after con-
siderable feeling around, which few
moments sufficed to put them in their place.
. moment more to lead him thirty yards and
mount him TItliY
Six days suffced 10 place him inside the
Yankee lines at Lagrange, Tennessee nearly
two hundred miles boing travelled in that
time. In passing through the Confederacy
ne avoided all towns and stations at which
troops were CHARTERED, though with all his
precaution he several times came near run
ming into their cimps, only escaping by the
greatest good fortune He met several
small sqneis Of shot. gun gentlemen nearly
every day, To theseand to the citizens, he
passed himself off for paroled prisoner be-
longing to McCullock's command.r r(2d Mis-
souiD and going home to see hia Old Moth.
er for the first time since the war broke
out.
Charlie considers the capture ofthe horse
a CAP ital joke. It's proprietor belonged to
the 18th Mississippi regiment, and was home
on furlough, when Winslow coming in, to
save bis horse and himself.he followed Chal-
mers when he left Grenada. He was now
going to Meridian to join his regiment in-
tending to get some patriotic friend to keep
his horse sacred from the Yankee touch.-
On the road he would stop at houses aud
get peaches, pears, watermeleons, dinners,
&C., then crow over his less fortunate COM
rades who wers obliged to foot il. Charlie
thinks that on the morrow, while Ne cavsl.
ry man dismoonte1, is trudging through
the mud and the Infantry Inan ::noantsd, is
conteatedly winding through theinericscie.
of the swamp, he hears the tones Ct mock :.
ing sympathy comforting him for his uufor.
tunate fall. Although Charlie is not nat
ural born Yankee, he has been with them
8, long that he is quite able to take hand
a. their tricks, .'.a