The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1890-03-19
A MULE MOUNT BY MOONLIGHT.
A Brigade's First Experience Mounted
nnrinfr the Late War.

A MULE MOUNT BY MOONLIGHT.
A BrIgade's First Experience Mounted
During the Late War.
In December, 1862, just before Rose
Grams planned to start for Murfrees-
boro from Nashville, John Morgan
broke into Kentucky again on one OF
his numerous raids.
Some one had to be sent after him.
Our division-the Fourth in the Four
teenth Army Corps-was assigned to
the duty. Our brigade had been sta
toned at Mumfordsville, on the Green
River. from about the goth of October
until the latter part of November, and
we had not been away from there
thirty days. This trip sent us back to
within three miles of the same place,
| to turn around again, after three or
four DAYS, and march back to Nash
vile and then on to Murfreesboro, thus
passing substantially over the same
route three times in less than forty
days; but in consequence we missed the
heavy battle of Stone River.
When the order to pursue Morgan
was received we were in camp at or
near Bledsoe's Greek. We moved
rapidly, and came so close to Morgan
that he was beginning to shy off, and
was heading evidently for return in
to Tennessee. When near Cave City,
in Kentucky, one evening soon after
we bivouacked, we received orders to
send a certain number of mules from
| each regiment train to a certain point
on the pike within our lines by 9
| o'clock. The strangeness of the order
caused good deal of curiosity; but
upon inquiry we soon found Col.
| Wilder of an Indiana regiment and
commanding the First Brigade of. our
division had become possessed of the
idea that if he could get his command
to certain point that night he could
hurt Morgan seriously, and perhaps
capture him. He was SO full of en-
thusiasm over the'projeet, and had so
much faith in it., that he finally pre-
vailed upon our division commander
| to issue the order for the mules to be
| furnished from the teams.
We had no cavalry of any amount
with us, and there was no way to get
Wilder's men to the point he wanted
to go to except to use the mules.
When it was known what was to be
done the teamsters notified some of
their friends that if they wanted to see
| a good deal of fun in a short time they
had better be at the place where the
mules were to be taken.
Accordingly quite little party of US
went. 1t was bright moonlight night.
| 1t should, perhaps, be said that of the
| teams used in the army one mule was
ridden by the driver, and the other
five may have been thoroughly broken
| to harness, tractable and serviceable,
but quite probably had never been rid
| den, and to attempt to mount them
was much like attempting to mount SO
many untamed mules.
The men had no saddles, and all they
could do was to jump right on to the
| bare backs of the animals, or simply
| put their blankets on, with nothing to
keep them in place.
When we arrived there were several
hundred mules on hand, and the men
! to mount soon arrived. The pike was
| so full that there was soon an overflow
into plowed field along its side, and
| in a short time all took to the field for
| obvious reasons.
AS soon as the command to mount
came things became active. In less
than five minutes good many men
had been thrown on to the stony pike
with such force and violence that they
were disabled from duty that night,
| and quite a number were seriously in
| jured. 1t soon became apparent that
the soft plowed field was much the
safer place, and all withdrew to that
There the mounting was going on on
| a large scale. If man was thrown off
he was not generally hurt much, as the
| ground was soft. 1t is not wide of the
mark to say that for some time the
air was full of mules heels, blankets,
and men. Considerably more than
half of the men were thrown off. Some
went off on the end, over the mules
| head, some on the rear end. Some
never firmly gained seat, but were
pitched about, and finally thrown off
before getting entirely on.
The most common thing was for a
man to jump on, think he was all
right, but before he was fully satisfied
he would find his mule pricking up it's
ears, getting under pretty lively mo-
ton, and the next thing he would
know lie would find himself suddenly
going over the mules head. The mule
would run short distance, and balk
or jump stif-legged suddenly, and
come to dead halt. The man always
went off over the mules head. Some
of the mules would rear, some kick.
Most of them would give kind of
squeal as they started. They ran in
any and every direction, ran into each
other, and such general mix-up no
man ever saw before or since. It was
so light that we could see distinctly.
Talk about sport at circus, at seeing
one or even two trick mules perform!
Here were several hundred, all per-
forming at once. 1t was a. circus COM
plete.
The men were plucky though, and if
thrown once and not injured, tried it
again. They labored under still greater
disadvantages, because they were
loaded down with their guns and ac-
coutrements. All the mules that had
been ridden before were quiet and
orderly, and after time the men were
victorious. Their officers were hurry
ing them up, and they finally started
off, but it was motley cavalcade. Had
John Morgan known of it and dis
patched company or two of cavalry
after them, and they got near enough
to have caused a stampede, it would
have been dangerous command to
hanole. 1hey would nave been just as
apt to charge into the enemy's lines as
anywhere.
The affair lasted half or three-quar-
ters of an hour, and we went back to
our quarters rather expecting that we
might not see our mules again. They
returned some time the next day,
though. but John Morgan was not
brought in as prisoner, nor any of
his command. He probably never
knew the danger he was in. For all
that, it was an attempt to do some
thing, and some things were learned,
even if no great result followed.
Our brigade was afterwards mount
ed, armed with the Spencer repeating
rifle, and did effective work, but this
was their first experience mounted.
Their commander has been, engaged,
since the close of the war, developing
the mineral resources of the country in
the vicinity of Chattanooga, Tenn. but