Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-04-23

posed bOdy-guard for the new Colonel. Though not on his staff, they were always near at hand in hours of danger.
 The Colonel came to love these four vet srans like brothers, and even though Max did grumble he knew he could be relied on when hard fighting was required.
 "Wal, Kernel, don't yer think we're gwine ter hev fight purity soonW asked Arkansaw Tom one morning, strolling into his Coloners tent.
 "I don't know, Tom; sit down on that cracker box. Well, about the fght-I shouldn't wonder. General Johnston is / massing his forces at Corinth, and be- heve General Grant intends to move on that place. There will be powder burned when those two meet"
 Shouldn't be s'prised, Kernel rve been tellin' uv th' boys ter git ready fur the gol darnest knock down they ever heerd on."
 "We will have heavy fighting soon, but whenit will take place, and where, don't know-" =
 "But, say, Kernel, come in t tell ye somethin'."
 "What, Tom"
 "Don't yer remember that air dod blast ed nlgger wot yer call Black Jack UT suth- in' O the kind, who went on ther boat t' Belmont, an' we thort war killed n tn swamp clus t Donelson!''
 "Yes, you mean Blackhawk"
 "Wau, he's turned up agin."
 "Where is he?"
 "In camp. It's Gods fact. Saw i'm this mornin'," said old Tom, smoking his short pipe.
 "Where"
 . "In camp: .t Came s past our quarters
 "Did you speak with hima" the Colonel asked.
 "Yes; axed him whar he'd been, an' he said he'd been layin' n tn brush ter shoot 8 cuss as he hates. He's been clar out ter Corinth, but hain't got his man yit. Golly, ye orter see his gun; it's a great, big, long -barreied ole-fashioned rife. Very thing ter kill buck" "He ought to know something about what the rebels are doing. I wish you | would find him, Tom, and send him to me-" "rll do it, Kernel I'll go right now n hunt i'm up," and old Tom rose to his feet. and started from the tent to find the mys- terious negro; but Blackhawk, as usual, could not be found when sought, and Tom had fruitless search. That evening General Prentiss ordered Colonel Mason to take two hundred men next morning and go out several miles in their advance to reconnoiter, as it was re- ported that tho enemy had been seen in considerable force along the Corinth road.
 Almost ever since his arrival at Pitts burg Landing Colonel Mason had heard of sArmishing in their front, and his own pickets had been fired on several times. "It Is probably some guerrillas," said the Colonel to himself. 'They are prowling through the country, and the woods are full of them. A few companies of cavalry can easily put them to flight" Of course the four men who had been his | self-constituted body-guard formed part of the two hundred picked men, and with three days rations and forty rounds, they | set out at daylight next morning. As they were passing one of the outlying picket posts a sergeant hailed them and said! "Ye'd better look little out" "Have you seen any thing of the enemy this morningp the Colonel asked. "No; but they've been 8 shootin' at us 1 boys all night and wounded Jack Gates" "How many times were you fired on?" 'Three. The last time they gave us 8 dozen shots all at once" ''They are only few bushwhackers; we will drive them from the woods," said the Colonel.
 1 tire two hundred were veterans who had | been trained in the hottest fights at Bel l mont and Donelson.
 | The country was undulating and covered with dense growth of trees and under brush, except where clearings had been made and fields cultivated. l The Colonel and his staff were the only mounted men in the expedition. The re- l cent rains had made the roads muddy, and marching was difficult and wearisome.
 They had gone about five or six miles when the advance guard informed the | Colonel that they were in sight of farm house, near which number of horses were hitched.
 l ''They are bushwhackerS. Now to capt l ure them," said the Colonel.
 He divided his command into two di- visions, and approaching the house from the south and east prepared to flank it so as to prevent any one from escaping.
 Luke glanced at the sky to see what the hour was, but it was too cloudy for him4 to determine by the sun, and, consulting his watch, he discovered it was after twelve.
 "They are at dinner," he thought, "we'u bag our game and learn something from l them."
 The Colonel was not yet in sight of the house, which was concealed by the thick l woods and underbEush, when 8 single shot rang on the air.
 A moments silence ensued and then . dozen more raports followed in quick sue cessiou. The yells of combatants, snortinR of terror-stricken horses and sharp crack ot musketry filled the air.
 Luke spurred his horse forward, and had just come in sight of garden fence, when there came . crash, and over and through the rotten pickets plunged three horsemeu in gray uniforms. Colonel Mason was only few rods from them, and fired @ revolver as they disappeared into thicket. "Fifel don't let them escape" he shouted spurring his horse in the thicket after the fleeing men. Twenty muskets belched forth their deadly contents into the wood. The bullets shattered the trees, cut oil the leaves in showers, but the three Confed crates still thundeyed ahead, evidently un harmed.
 In his eagerness to capture them, Colone
 Mason never stopped to cAasider that hs was only one man on horseback, the remain
 der of his staff being in another place.
 An occasional glimpse of the fleeing gray
 coats spurred him on, and he drove hi,
 horse ct the top of his speed through tn,
 woods. Two or three times he fired his TO vo&xes, but owing to intervening trees ani