Omaha daily bee., 1888-02-08

prisoner was nice fellow, perfect
gentleman, and when he came and
asked me II l couldn't fix it so that he
could go back north told him he should
go. and he did. have heard from and
written him twice since the war, but
not in recent years, and do not know
what has become OF him. He is the man
who first gave to the people of the north
their ideas Of what wonderful nerve the
Texas rangers were. He was duly inn
pressed with the desperate work we did
that day, principally due to the fact,as I
have said, that we honestly thought all
we had to do was to lasso the Yankees
and drag 'em into camp. There were
innumerable ludicrous as well as seri-
Gus incidents after that engagement.
We waited until detachment of our
men came in from the crossroad, and
they reported having had to fight
to reach us. We had scarcely
time to form in irregular line when the
California rangers charged us. We
stood our ground until they were within
twenty to thirty steps Of us. when they
fired, and then we charged them. and
went right through their two solid lines
in the rear. They were ten to our one,
and l never want to see such bloody
work again. The name of the ''Texas
rangers" was a power to us, and we
killed as many as our command num-
bered and captured twice as many more.
After the bloody fight we were badly
scattered, but l found my chum and
side companiOn-we who always fought
side by side when we could-with me.
He has since served on the district
bench in my state, is a moral, upright
man and u devout church member.
will call him John. We rode on to-
unf hnr ~, n lin <Nf tod
infantry in an open field, when John
said we'd better halt or those fellows
would take us in. We had with us
four prisoners, whom we had disarmed
and kept ahead of us. Just as we
halted l caeght a glimpse of two
federal cavalrymen about one hun
dred yards distant, and telling John
to keep an eye on the four men
we had, | started out to overhaul these
two. | met them at the point OF clump
of timber, as ] had figured to do, but
imagine my amazement when nine in
stead OF two men confronted me. l
knew | couldn't run and get away alive,
so | determined to make a grand bluff.
With the most ferocious yell / could
muster, let fly with both hands at once
and emptied the saddles. l then
shouted, Come on. boys, here they are"
as though there were Il dozen or so of
my friends within calling. l then
called to the dumbfounded federals to
surrender. drop your arms quick"
shouted. IF the boys catch you armed
you're dead men, They threw down
their arms as ordered. and l told them
to fall in twos, which they did. They
looked in vain for my companions, and
finally the truth began to dawn upon
them.
Have we surrendered to one man?'
said a surlv-looking fellow.
That's what you have done.' |
answered, "but it wasn't your fault.
Now you must obey orders, or you GO two
at a time" They were in front of me,
unalarmcd. What could they do but
obev? When we came to fence they
said their horses couldn't jump it. l let
fly with my gun over their heads, and
those horses cleared the fence easily.
| presume not over 100 Of us will meet
in Austin next Tuesday. We will have
a glorious time, but we will fight no
more. In those days excitement, earn
age and conquest fired the heart.
To-day sheep, cattle. cotton. corn, wheat
the development of our glorious coun-
try-has taken its place. and may the
prosperity of peace forever preclude the
possibility of war;"