The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-04-20
A WARLIKE BELLE.
How She Defended Her Cabin
Against a Dozen Soldiers.

As our brigade advanced, crossing pasture
land, sweeping through thicketS and ford
| ing a creek which seemed to be all turns and
elbows, man about ten feet from me on
the left dropped dead. My company was
on the extreme left of the line, you see, and
! the man was Tanker. He had been shot
| from the window of humble-looking cabin
| which stood in open ground about rihe-shot
away.
Sergeant, take ten men and clean those
| bushwhackers out and burn the house."
was the order l got from my Captain, and a
minute later had squad Of men march
ing away.
There had been more or less fighting over
this same ground all the forenoon and the
artillery and mCsketry fire had been pretty
hot. We were now driving the line. and as
we advanced we found many of the dead
still lying where they fell, says writer in
tile Detroit Free Press. 1t was not lawful
warfare for a bushwhacker to hide away in
farmhouse and shoot a soldier in the
| back. Even if battle was raging such a
| deed smacked of murder. If he could shoot
| il was his business to be in the lines opposed
| to US. Then if his bullets found a human
! target it was the chances Of war, and if he
happened to be captured by US he would be
treated as prisoner of war.
We marched straight for the house, eX-
pecting that the buShwhacEer had fled as
| soon as he fred his shot, but he had not
covered over half the distance when a rifle
| cracked and one OF my men dropped with a
| bullet in his heart. The nearest cover to
| the house was a stone fence hundred feet
| in front Of it and shed barn about the
| same distance from the back door. Diyid-
| ing my squad and now adopting all the pre-
| cantiOns we could. all OF US finally gained
| the shelters mentioned. Ii was a long cabin,
| 4 story and a half high, with two windows
| in front, one on each side and window in
| the rear. The two doors were front and
! back.
How many men were in the house we
| could not say, but as soon as in position we
| opened fire on the doors aud windows. Not
| a shot was fired in return for three or four
minutes. Then one Of my men at the wall
| WHO had exposed himself got bullet in the
shoulder and crawlsd away to hide under
| bank of earth. Our bullets soon riddled
doors and windows, and must have searched
every part of the house. We expected to see
three or four men dash out and make a run
for it, or white flag to be displayed in
token of surrender, but all was grilnly silent.
About ten minutes after my man had been
shot one of the men at The shed got his head
out too far while shooting and received q
bullet in return 1t didn't kill him, but car
Tied away the right half of his upper lip and
mustache, passed through his cheek, carried
| away four teeth and split his ear, and after
sent home.
That was two killed and two wounded,
| and all apparently by the same weapon.
We knew it to be an ordinary rife by the
| whip-like crack OF its report, but there
| might be three or four men in the house for
| all we could determine We kept blazing
away at doors and windows on the chance
| OF hitting some one, and from the
| silence OF the next ten minutes /
felt very confident that we had dis
abled them. Then 1 gave the signal for a
rush at the house. All Of us were up and
| half way there when a rihe-barrel was
| poked through a broken pane and fash
followed. The ball graZed my cheek and
| struck the man behind me in the forehead
| and dropped him dead. Next moment we
| were at the doors, front and back, and they
| were banged open with crash.
This is what | saw: a boy soldier lying
| dead on the floor, with an arm torn off by
| fragment Of shell. On the bed was gray
haired woman, with bullet wound in her
face. Standing in the corner of the room,
| proud and defiant, with the unloaded rife
IN her hands, was a girl of ia regular
country belle in grace aud beauty.
81 can do no more. Shoot US IL you will!'
she said as she confronted u.s.
AYE, shOOtp added the mother. There
lies my only boy, killed by your guns this
morning. 1 lie here wounded, and my gal
jim has dropped four or five of you to get
even. One gal to a dozen soldiers! Come
and finish your work"
But we simply took the rife away, and
left them with their dead; and we pitied
them, even as we smarted under the sense
of our own loss.