The weekly standard. (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1865-1867, 1866-02-10

had gathered in his rear, and b large
army In his 'front.' His own force con-
sisted of perhaps ten thousand fight
ing men, At independence it became
evident to all that we were getting ina
fr.. Still Gen. Price, against the re-
mdnstrance of nearly al, If not all his
subordinate officers, persisted in the
original plan of going West to Fort
Lavenworth before he turned his face
South. Before leaving Independence,
however, the old hero opened his eyes.
The Federals overlook his rear guard
and handled them SO roughly that it
soon became a question how he was to
escape from the Tartar" he had
caught. Gen. Shelby was In front and
had for days with bis veteran division
been driving Blunt and the Kansas
troops before him. We could hear his
cannon twelve miles In front, thunder
ing away day and night We felt Sc
cure IN that quarter for We knew Joe
Shelby was there. But what was to
be done with the twenty thousand men
In our rear, with our vast train to be
guarded, consisting of five hundred
wagons and FIVE thousand head of cat
tie, and three thousand anarmed men.
sick and wounded? Gen. Price with
the GOODNESS and intrepidity which
characterizes him beyond all other
men, calmly surveyed the situation.
He determined to move in a southwest
direction, and ordered Shelby to move
in southeast direction, thus forming
with the two divisions of his army the
letter V.ltgIgsa 1ca mss rs
Just at the angle of the v formed by
the two retreating columns Of Prices
army there is a magnificent amphithe-
atresormedb by semi-eircular mountain,
through a narrow defle, In which it
was GIN. Prices intention and only
chance tC escape. It required long
timet to pas this defile with a large
train, for JUS at the base ofthe moun-
tain beautiful, but rocky and deep
creek wound itsslow length along, like
a lovely fairy q,een sleeping in the
arms of monster genie. In the front
of this natural amphitheatre there
were beautiful farms enclosed by stone
fences. Here Gen. Price halted to hold
the Federals in check. It was pleas
ant moonlit night when we were or
dered to bivouac, and Gen. Price could
easily have pushed his train through
the defle that night, and held the
pass with one brigade against the
whole Federal army But that was
not his style. All the hosts of the North
could not disturb his composure or
break his purpose of npose. So we
slept en- the praries, with the cool, bra
cling atmosphere of Kansas playing
upon US and the deep glue of heaven
bending lovingly over Is. The morn
ing sun dawned quietly and radiantfy
on lovely autumn day, and it was
several hours before veres lied that
great fight was impending Aafght not
for victory on our part, but for life it.
self, for escape, for the pleasure Of see
ing once more the homes and the loved
ones awaiting our return In the far-off
Dixie. s.2
We first heard the thunder of Shell
by's cannon at Westport, and then the
roar of small arms. Gen. Pagan with
his division was sent to Shelby's sup
port. The battle became terrific, but
the enemy advancing from Indepen-
cence on the front OK our right wing
soon engaged Marmsduke's division.
For hours the fight continued. After
prodigies of yalor Shelby's heroes were
gradually borne back. But in the
meantime the train had. crossed the
mountain, and Cabelps brigade, about
1000 strong, was guarding it while
crossing. A large party of Federals
seemingly larger than Prices entire
command, had been sent around to the /
right, fianking the mountain, and in
tended to seize the pass by which alone
we could retreat. Just as CabeI's
brigade eascended the brow of TIE noun
tain, a long line of Blue-coats could
be seen across the prarie, marching up
to forestall us. Seeing the defle guard
ed they paused, and strange to say
made no attack on the train, which was
stretched out for two miles, and only
guarded by handful of men. Had
they moved up boldly all would have
been lost. They fell back and disap-
peared over the hill, and soon Marina
duke and then Pagan and Shelby came
sweeping blythe deflewas passed and
the train saved We all breathed cas-
Ter. We had fought hard eight, and