Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-07-04
"reminiscences Of the Third Tennes
n see Cavalry.
BY ADJUrANT WILL. A. M'TEER
NO. XVIII.

STILL ON "THE MISSISSIPPI RAID.
On the l4th of February, 1854. the
brigade crossed Tsllahstchieg hiVe'
| and passed through New Albany
Here o party Of rebel soldiers ap-
peared in sight, and soldier of-one Of
the Illinois regiments fired and killed
a very aged man who was minister.
His head was white, while he was
toothless, aud his appearance "a he
Law there dead brought many remarks
Of a more solemn character than was
common among soldiers. His dead
body preached a powerful sermon In
behalf Of peace. How the Old man
came to be with them in ssuch time
and place was strange, and some rather
accused the Illinois man ot
acting hastily in firing. The
command stopped at the plan
tation OF q man named Mr.. Duncan,
aud remained ur til the 18th. Duncan
was off South or somewhere else and
had anticipated our army. Through
the .colored people. our boys found 9
large amount Of bseon stored in q cell
lar under u negro house, another lot
piled in q pen off the immediate prem.
ises and charcoal piled all around and
over it, and two or three barrels OF
brandy buried In cotton seed la =
house kept for storing cotton. This
last was unfortunate, as many OF the
command became unfortunate before
it was known to the officers. While
here, AID. Wilson, ever out into some
mischief, came near causing 4 serious
affair.". AS was his custom, he was out
'forAging'ifor himself, and being L.
norant OF the plan of the march. van
dered some distance from the road, 1t
being fOkgy, damp day. Col. War
ing's brigade was just across the coun-
try On road running parallel with
ours. Wilson cav some OF Warnings
men and commanded item to halt. at
the same time making ready TO fire.
They did0't obey to suit him, So with
out furihe investigation he Fl red at
them. There was u considerable num-
Der of them, and they SUPP Osing Ad.
to be rebel returned the fire making
considerable noise Fheitwo brfgaGes
each supposed The other Was sttscke ed
and immsdiately boots and saddtes''
was made TO ring through the camps,
and In y yer, few minutes each brig
ade was out In line of battle facing one
another. rrButTthe commanders know
ing the position Of each other, soon
discovered the mistake and all was
again restored to quiet, while many
were the curses given TO AID. Wilson's
On tue II b Of Febraary the brigades
came together marching in one body,
aud passed through Pontotoc. The
81 Illinois met The rebels an engaged
In warm skirmish to day. Col. War;
| ing's men Were the worst to destroy
property aud lay every hing in waste
| we had ever been with. The 81 New
regiment, piliagirg and burning eve
rything before them. The rOgues of
| the entire CON mand soon saw this and
would slip off from their cJmmand
aud pass themselves as belonging to
the ri New Jersey, doing their mis-
chief to a djsgrac. ful and shameful
degree in spite discipline or orders.
On the Is b, We passed Through
Pikevi l., and on to y little prairie in
Monroe county. Miss. This was .
beautiful place. The land was level,
and exlrsInrly fertile, yielding her ex-
uberant crops In great abundance.
The coaatry could be seen almost as
far as lie eye could behold. Here the
Confederacy had gathered their stores
riu great abundance. There wersgreat
piles of corn aud fodder dotted tbickly
all over the land. some piles ofcorn
must have been q hundred yards
long, near twenty-five wide and thirty
high. l never nave seen such crest
quantities., either before or since.
These were all burned except what
We used ourselves. Iu the night, it was
a brilliant pc ctacie. The Corn, when
once ON fire, made an exceedingly
bright light, with aD n;ense heat, and
just as far as the eye could see, these
brilliant burning lights were light
ming up the country in their wild,
flashing flames. Here was true pic.
ture Of lhs destroying hand Of
war. The food necessary to life was
fast being reduced to ashes. Destruc~
lion and fury were depie.ed over the
land The light OF the fire
gave a ghOst-liKe appearance to
The men, until II appeared az
u Ucauty DEIllIAntAy UhZLtiAkS 0eHtLuC.
ton, angry and furious Z terror,
threatening and raging: specifies,
CHASTITY snd hidsous, had combiBed
and were each drawing in their
strongest colers on the same canvse q
picture of war.
On the Goth we showed on to West
Point. Here the advanced command
again encountered the rebels In force,
and considerable engagement fol.
lowed. It has since been understood
that the object of this raid was to
meet Sherman at West Point, he
coming out from Vicksburg, and then
carry out the plan he afterwards DID,
and gained TO himself 80 much glory
In his famous March TO the Sea y
But when we arrived Sherman had
come and returned, not meeting us,
so we remained all night near West
Point and the next morning moved
back to within about three miles oi
OkalOna. where We stepped for the
night, but il was evident rebel force
wash US. aud that they were be.
coming more bold and DE- tisnt. faAv.
''LIBERTY means perfect free
dom To cast forty Thousand fraudu-