Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-07-17

neck until you are dead, dead, dead,
deprives one of the satisfaction of even
dying the glorious death of a soldier.
My last experience in that capacity
fully extinguished all ambition left in
me 10 win laurels in that line.
It was some time after we, of Gen
eral Banks ill-fated Red River expe-
dition, had been hurried, in rather in
glorious haste, back to the banks Of
the Mississippi, that there were
plain evidences of a movement by
the enemy upon such of our forces
as were left in the Northern
District of Louisiana. It was my spe-
cial duty to be posted on all such, and
every other matter, being Provost
Marshal of the troops and the district,
and / entertained a lively and rather
positive idea that the hired (not en-
listed scouts and spies I sent out did
not go very far from our lines-that
the information they brought me was
either CLEANED from very unreliable
sources or manufactured to enable
them to make some report and hold
their positions. Consequently, I de-
termined to do little spy business for
myself, and with only the command
ing General and my Deputy Provost
Marshal-announcing that I had leave
of absence, to account for quitting the
post-I dressed myself in an old but
ternut suit, loaded my pockets with
Confederate money. and, in hastily
constructed, fiat-bottomed skiff, with
underbrush and green boughs nailed
all about and over her, padded up
the bayou one moonlight night, reached
the spot where 1 was to hide and leave
my boat, and then made my way into
the lines of the enemy.
I had my story well concocted. From
deserters ! had CLEANED enough of the
Confederate troops, names of COM
manders, ETC., to tell very plausible
tale. and if I had been little less
pushing and noisy might have at
tracted little or no attention;
but after q few days, oyerconf-
dent that I could hold my own
with the yarn I told, I began to
mix in crowds, to talk with every one
that would talk to me, and to provoke
arguments, so that hasty information
or conjecture might give me clues.
Though, of course, hurrahed for the
South, its generals, its soldiers, and
3the cause" louder than any one else,
yet. behind my back, men began to
compare notes, and no one could be
found who knew anything more of me
than that they had learned from my
own statement. My newly formed
friends and companions began to grow
cautious, then suspicious, and finally
they conducted all conversation with
met took the form of close cate
chism, and, though I lied in way to
make old Ananias turn in his grave
with envy, there was that in the air that
seemed to point to the termination of
my trip, and my life. at the noosed end
Of an unpleasantly tight rope.
I had been among them nine days,
had gathered about all the information
WANTED, and it was, I concluded, time
for me to get back to our post, if I
wished to save our men and myself.
1t was dark night when I ran their
outer guards. not star was on the
glimmer. I was approaching the
banks of the wide bayou down which
I was to push, paddle, and pull my
way toward our picket line. A feeling
Of uneasiness crept over me in the
still. damp gloom; was sure that men
had been closely Watching me for the
last two or three days, and doubted
not that already my absence was noted.
I was on the outskirts of O forest
ringing the dark waters at my feet.
whose presence could scarcely be de-
tected, save for their sullen murmurs
IS they rushed, swollen by the late
heavy rains, though the dismal chan
mel. The wind sighed mournfully, the
low-hanging limbs Of trees struck my
head with stinging force, and I stun
bled over INTERVENING roots and vines
that covered the ground. I walked
forty or fifty yards along the bank,
and then dropped and crept on all-
fours along the ground, cropping with
my hands, The cold sweat poured
from and over me, my breath seemed
TO fail ] realized as o truth what I
had for some minutes and they were
as hours Of agony--what I had been
unwilling to admit to myself that / had
lost my landmarks and knew not where
my boat lay. Below or above, hidden
under that bank, was my skiff- but