The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-07-28
An Adventure with Bushwhackers.

"Gris." of the Cincinnati Times, is travelling
in Missouri, and recently met with queer Gus
toner, who related his experience with BUSH
whackers during the war, in the following sat-
isfactory manner:
Taking ride in the country with frlend
yesterday, we stopped at a little tavern to rest
in the shade, as the weather was warm. a
oueer-looking old chap entered the bar-room,
who soon made himself free with US in conver-
sation, and he was very profane old man, too,
"full of big oaths," though not "bearded like
the pard." His shoes were cut in strips, and
through the long gashes in the leather his
coarse woolen stocking obtruded. | asked him
why he wore open-work shoes: "WeH, stran-
GER" said he, "Pll tell you. The darned bush
whackers was the cause of my wearln' on .em.
You see I live down on the Gravois, in
mighty lonesome place, and in region where
the tarnel bushwhackers was alters rangln'
round They knowed l wor Union man,
which as wor always Jackson man, / could
never be secesher
"They had great spite agin me, and had
to keep up peart dodgin' to keep outen their
way. NV house hit war out on the perrary,
and about mile from hit war grove of trees
and thick underbrush, on rocky ridge about
mile long and mebbe 200 yards wide, whar
used to 90 and hide when knowed thar war
danger at home. WALL one day war lyin'
around home, when bout ten o'clock in the
morning heard the dogs begin to bark, which
I've got the best pack Of hounds in Ameriky
and lookin' out of the back window l saw
about thirty of the darndest, biggest, fercest
lookin' fellers with long boards and covered all
over with knives and pistols, all mounted on
fine horses, comm on a gallop towards the
house. Wall, as soon as I seed 'em knowed
| ! md tbnt NV
they got me, and knowed my only chance
was to get to the timber. I wasn't skeared,
stranger. l amt afeered of nobody-but you
see thot I'd better make good retreat rather
than a bad stand, and though they were in
hundred yards of me / started on long run
for the ridge Wall, stranger, that war ter
rible race.
"You see had to run mile through the
open perrary, and them devils war all mounted
on fast horses, and every cussed one of 'em
took after me and fired at me at every jump
from the house to the grove. They didn't hit
me, however, tho they shot nine holes through
my hat and tore my clothes all to pieces with
their bullets, and all the time they were
chasin' me they kept up the all-firedist yellin'
YOU ever heer'd You might have heer'd 'em
nine miles. 1 got to the brush safe, though,
and thought had done we'll, considering L
had mile to go and was running agin fast
horses, with about only a hundred yards the
statt of 'en.
"Well when took the brush them fellows
rode up to the ridge, and stranger, reckon,
onless YOU have heer'ed old Greeley swar, you
never heer'd such cussin' as they done. Thar's
whar learnt to cuss-
"You see they couldn't ride into the brush,
and those bushwhackers like to do their devil
ment on horseback But the ground war open
all round the ridge, so they concluded to keep
'They sent some of their fellers around on
the other side and there they kept me running
from one end of the ridge to the other, back
ard and forrard to keep away from their shots.
They could hear the brush crack, and they
kept nearly even with me. I had pair of
new shoes on when 1 first started to run, but
the gravel soon cut them out, so l went on
re-footed and as run, my toenails struck
fire outen the cussed rocks You'd a thought,
to "a seed me, that | had lightnin' bugs tied
to my toes. Wall, l kept running back'ards
and forrards till the bushwhackers run all their
horses down and left, and, stranger, had to
run for fourteen days and fourteen nights, with
out sleepin' wink or eatin' bite Hits a
fact, stranger and I'll swar to it on twenty BIZ
bles. Wall, arter 1 found my inimies war gone,
1 sot down by a tree to rest spell, and fell
asleep; and thar slept for three days. and
when woke up, I found my feet had been
frozen hard, and my toenails had been worn OF
by the stones till they were jes' hangin' like.
1 took my knife and picked them all out by
the roots, and ever since then I've had to wear
my shoes jes' this way"