The National tribune., 1891-04-23
GEN. RHETTs CAPTURE,
As Told BY the Man Who Took Him to sherman.

EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: In your issue
! OF Jan. p yOu have an article entitled capt
ure Of Gen. Rhett" aud il occurred TO me that
perhaps it would be interesting 10 have the
| particulars as TO his capture which were a
| little irregular, inasmuch as he was captured
| inside OF his own lines. and this was neither
his fault nor the fault Of the men who did il.
| A little previous 10 this time one OF our Gen.
| erals had been captured in his own lines, /
think somewhere about the Shenandoah VAL
| ley and Gen. Fitzpatrick used frequently 10
say TO me, in joking way "Northup, you
must capture some rebel General in his own
camp"
Now, ] never had much Of a fancy for any
! thing Of that sort, and never expected 20 DO il,
but this unexpectedly fell to me, aud i could
not help 10.
/ About noon Of the day before the battle OF
ANerySOoro, with the scouts aud 30 hummCrs,
more OF less, we pulled mp at an old church in
! The plne woods where the road forkcd, and j
/ decided TO take two or three men and 20 down
/ TINS lett-hand road 10 see where il went TO and
| what j could learn, being then several hours
ahead o. the command
80 LETT the scouts, perhaps about 30 men,
ana the bummers, a good many of them, at the
old church, and taking three men we started
out the road. We were gone perhaps two
hours met with nothing exciting and when
we came back 10 the old church found no one
There. We made mp our minds that the bum
mers had got uneasy and gone on mp the road.
But IL proved that they had been compelled TO
retreat TaiatcwOs Division Of heavy artillery,
from the dcicnscs Of Charleston, had moved up
and formed a line Of battle thrown out a Skin
mish-lne aud driven back scouts and bummers
some distance TO the rear and beyond my left
hand road
But we did not know this, aud IL was a dark
ana ioggy sort Of day in the thick pine woods
so, thinking they had gone up the road, we
started that way. IL only took a moment TO
Ind out that we were facing the enemy drawn
up IN line of battle; SO it was our turn 10 make
q sneak.
We had not more than turned around when
TWO men met us in the road, and one Of them,
who answered the description given by Capt
Jones' saluted me and said, Where is Gen.
Hampton aud Gen. TaliafcrroY"
Quickly ] decided that we must take him
and his Aid-de-Camp TO get away ourselves.
We knew who he was aud he thought we were
his men.
So my invitation toquietly surrender did not
SUIT him. lie pulled out Navy revolver but
quick as fash my men had covered him with
Spencer car3lnes, and as he took in the situa-
ton he said, Well, this is COOL" and eur
rendered. j did not blame him.
With some little trouble we made our way
out OF the enemy's lines into our own, and by
this time our division Of cavalry had come up.
When we reached Fitzpatrick, after some con-
versation with Gen. Rhctt, he ordered me %
take him down 10 Sherman's headquarters,
which ] did.
The next day tho battle Of Avcrysboro was
fought on this spot, and ! would like to fnd
OUT Through your paper, IL j could, what bril-
gade OF Socum's army / took around 10 the
rebel right. ] would like 10 know the man in
command.-THFo. +. NoRTHUP. Chief Of
Scouts to Gen Fitzpatrick, New York, n. Y.