The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-07-09

cannot honorably disappoint them
will have a gallant lot of boys at my
back"
Here broke away so full of impor.
lance that ran at top speed. was go
ing to tell Grandma Waterson. l would
not have those two handsome fellows
stopping bullets. But l met Lydia, as
pretty a maiden as ever donned drat
dress or dropped modest pair of eyes
and called all her friends by their first
names.
LYDIA shouted between breaths,
Henry and Charlie are going to enlist.
It must be stopped" but by that time
the girl was pale as ghost and leaning
against the nearest tree.
Don't thee say another word" she
commanded, in a determined voice.
Not another word. This must come
from brother Henry or brother Charles.
But it will break mothers heart" and
l joined Lydia in a hearty cry just out
of sympathy.
Only in after years did learn what
followed. Henry, in his manly, straight
forward way, told his father all. Plead
ing, argument and persuasion on the
part of the afflicted old man were in
vain. 1t was contrary to the doctrine
Of non-resistance, tenet of the church;
it was raising the hand of the son
against the relatives who were left in
the south; but the brothers firmly chung
to their determination, gently persisting
and doing all possible to settle the poign-
ant grief they inflicted. Grandpa Water
sons lips quivered as he babe Henry
good-by, and the broken-hearted moth
err chung to the neck of her eldest born
until Inconsistencies released her from
the pangs Of actual parting.
A few days later Charles rode forth
on his own horse, gallant black, of
Kentucky lineage, and everybody
agreed that no finer, drawer boy would
do battle for the union. He joined the
Ringgold cavalry. Early in the war he
was left wounded on the field and was
kindly cared for by southern family.
His chief nurse was pretty little rebel
with soft, wavy hair, great brown eyes,
inviting lips and a disposition as CHEEKY
as the clear sunshine after an April
shower. No woman had right to re-
sist that big, brave. handsome fellow,
and there the union soldier was be-
trothed to the bewitching champion of
secession. Then Annie, for that was
her name, began to correspond with
Ruth, and through this intangible link
of connection the whole family fell in
love with the little confederate.
Charles rejoined his troops as soon as
able. After desperate engagement
his company was scattered and he was
hemmed in on every side except where
the rugged mountains of Virginia
lowered up behind him. Boldly he
turned the black, went flying over foot
paths. leaping chasms and forcing his
way where few could follow. But
there were bold mountaineers in the
chase and when they brought Charles
to bay, the gallant stand he made,
drawing his saber when his revolvers
were emptied, saved his life for the
time. His desperate courage won the
heart of the southerners and they per-
sisted until he was taken alive.
He was sent to Libby, made his es-
cape, went for days without food. and
when at length he found it, ate so
much that death followed quickly upon
the pangs of starvation.
Henry's record was as brief as glori-
GUS. His regiment worshiped him. No
man of them, westerners though they
were, could outride or outshoot him. He
led wherever he asked his men to 90.
A giant in strength, he was a hero in
courage.
At Pleasant Hill, La. he was shot
from his horse but still fought on, and,
after being fatally wounded, three of
the enemy bit the dust before his hand
dropped senseless to the ground. His
remains came home, and never was
brother, son and neighbor more sincere
~ mourned. Charley's story was never
learned until after the war.
But now comes a SEQUEL stranoer than