The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-01-26
A WAR STORY.
A Neglected Engagement of the Rebellion
.. Now First Told of.

- :" NNAA sAoo eAASS1
cemher Century, we take this incident:
For q time life was idly delicious; IL
was perfect; there was nothing to mar
it.. Then came some farmers with an
alarm one day. They said it was ru-
mored that the enemy were advancing
in our direction, from over Hyde's
prai1e. The result was q sharp stir
among us and general CONSERVATION. 1t
was a rude awakening from a pleasant
trance. The rumor was but Il rumor-
nothing definite about it; 80 in the con
fusion we did not know which way to
retreat. Lyman was for not rctreating
at all in these uncertain circumstances;
but he found that if he tried to main
tain that attitude. he would fare badly.
for the command were in no humor to
put up with characterization. So he
yielded the point and called a council
of war, to consist of himself and the
three other officers; but the privates
made such a fuss about being left out
that we had to allow them to be present.
l mean WI had to allow them to remain,
for they were already present, and do
ing most of the talking too. The qucs-
ton was, which way to retreat; but all
were SO Hurried that nobody seemed to
have even q guess to offer. Except
Lyman. He explained in q few calm
words that inasmuch Us the enemy were
approaching from over Hydc's prairie,
u course was simple: all we had to do
was not to retreat tonard him; any other
direction would anSwe our needs per-
fectly. Everybody saw in q moment
how true this was and how wise: so
Lyman got q great many compliments.
1t was now decided that we should fall
back on Mason's farm.
1t was after dark by this time, and as
we could not know how soon the enemy
might arrive, it did not seem best to try
to take the horses and things with us;
80 we only took the guns and ammuni-
ton and started at once. The route
was very rough and billy and rocky,
snd presently the night grew very black
and rain began to fall; so We had a
troublesome time of it struggling and
stumbling along in the dark, and soon
some person slipped and fell, and then
the next person behind stumbled over
him and fell, and so did the rest one
after the other; and her Bowers came
with a keg of powder in his arms whilst
the command were all mixed together,
arms II legs, on the muddy slope; and
so he fell of course with the kcg. and
this started the whole detachment down
the hill in a body, and they landed in
the brook ut the bottom in a pile, and
each that was undcrmost pulling the
hair n scratching and biting those
that were on top of him, and those that
were being scratched and bitten scratch
ing and biting the rest in their turn,
and all saying they would die before
they would ever go to war again if they
ever got out of this brook this time,
and the invader might rot for all they
cared, and the country along with him,
and all such talk as that, which was dis
NAL to hear and take part in, in such
smothered, low voices, and such a grisly
dark place and so wet, and the enemy
may 5e coming any moment.
The keg of powder was lost and the
guns too; so the growing and ..om-
planning continued straight along whilst
the brigade paved around the pasty
hillside and stopped around in the brook
hunting for these things; consequently
we lost considerable time at this; and
then We heard a sound and held our
breath and listened, and it seemed to be
the enemy coming, though it could have
been a cow, for it had O cough like q
cow; but we did not wait, but left a
couple of guns behind and struck out
for Mason's again as b1iskly as we could
scramble along in the dark. But we
got lost presently among the rugged
little ravines, und wasted a deal of time
finding the way again, so it was after
nine when we reached Mason's stile ut
last; and then before we could open u
mouths to give the countcrsign, several
dogs came bounding over the fence with
great riot and noise, and each of them
took a soldier by the slack of his trou-
sers and began to back away with him.
We could not shoot the dogs without
endangering the persons they were at.
tached to-. so We had to look on, help.
less, at what was perhaps the most NOR.
tifying spectacle of the civil war. There
was light enough, and to spare. for the
Masons had now run out on the porch
with candles in their hands. The old
man and his son came and undid thu
dogs without difficulty, all but Bowers
but they couldn't undo his dog-they
didn't know his combination. He was
of the bull kind, and seemed to be set
with a Yale time lock; but they got
him loose at last with some scaldine
water, of which Bowers got his share
and returned thanks.
Peterson Dunlap afterwards made up
q fine name for this engagement, and
also for the night march which preceded
it, but both have long ago faded out of
my memory.