The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-06-08

0liC1 IL u0 W LID VIII SOll1lI1tluu
Bragg would shoot or hang him. TWAS
the case of the devil and the deep sea,
with third course open that led straight
to the camp of the guerrillas in the
mountains, and thither he went.
Meanwhile detachments from the Sew
enth and Ninth Pennsylvania, the First
Kentucky, Fourth Ohio and Second East
Tennessee cavalry regiments were sent
into the Cumberland range to kill or
hang all of Tinker Dave Beatty's men
that could be found, but under no cir
cumstances to take a prisoner, for the
guerrillas were not regularly enlisted,
nor their leader regularly commissioned,
and these facts, added to their barba-
rous conduct, led them to be regarded
as outlaws beyond the pale of civilized
warfare. And with this expedition, in
the capacity of guide and chief of scouts,
went Captain Jack Hurd.
At first the Union cavalry were great
ly inferior to that of the Confederates.
but two years of active campaigning had
reversed this. Our mounted men had
become fearless riders, and they had
perfected themselves in the use of the
saber, the horsemans most formidable
weapon, but one to which the southern
troopers never took kindly. The Union
cavalry had become ubiquitous and dar-
ingly, fiercely aggressive. For the enc
my who fought and resisted them in the
open they had a soldiers respect; for the
guerrillas, who shot the wounded and
stragglers from an ambuscade, they had
the bitterest hate, and when caught they
showed them no more mercy than if
they were rattlesnakes.
Thirty Of Tinker Dave Beatty's gang
were corralled in the mountains, and
knowing what to expect they fought to
the death. Among the men still living
when the barricade was charged and
taken was Pike Hurd. There was a
saber cut on his face from the temple to
the chin, and from his shattered right
hand the blood poured in torrent.
"Fetch rope and string him upr'
shouted some one, and man appeared
with a halter. He threw moose over
Pixies neck and was about to drag him
to the nearest tree when man in blue
appeared on the scene, and shouting
On you, that's my brother!'' he fell
ed to the earth the man who held the
rope.
1t is doubtful if brothers, after long
parting, ever met under jusS the same
circumstances, but in the border states
it was not unusual for soldiers to recog-
nize old friends, relatives and even
brothers among the dead and dying of
the enemy.
Captain Hurd's escape from Knoxville,
through the assistance of his Confederate
brother, was pretty well known to his
cavalry friends, and when it became
known that this was the brother, and
Pike had told his own story, the hands
that had been clutched to hang were
opened to help. Pixies right hand was
amputated then and there, and the cash
in his face was sewed up. At Jacks
urging and to avoid his being sent north
as a prisoner, Pike took the oath of al
legiance.
A week after this, and when it was
believed that all Tinker Dave Beatty's
gang were killed or driven south of the
Tennessee, Colonel Wynkoop permitted
Jack to take his brother to his mothers
house, forty miles away, and he fur
nlshed him an ambulance for this pur-
pose and a doctor to see to the wounded
man.
"We uns didn't never expect to see
Jack and Pike together agin, but thar
they was, praise the Lor', and when I
seed 'em / fell right down and didn't
know nawthin till wuk up in Jacks
arms and the doctor a-holdin a canteen
to my mouth. But as fo' Pike, when I
seed him thar with his right hand gone
and plastahs all down his face a'mose
got on my knees to thank God, fo' now
| knowed he wouldn't leave me no
NOAH"
After week spent in the neighbor-
hood, blue clad courier appeared on a
foam fecked horse with a. message for
Jack. He was ordered south of the
Tennessee to scout in the advance of
the army of the Cumberland, then push
ing through the mountain defiles of
northwestern Georgia.
''Whin Jack he come to kiss me good
by" said Mrs. Hurd, with a sob, 81
couldn't a-bear to let him go, but locked
my hands about his neck with him
a-bendin down his tall head and a-whis-
perrin to keep up the same brave heart,
coz he'd be back soon. But a shadder
came ovah my eyes, and a sharp pain,
ez if made with an ice dagger, pierced
my heart, and knowed ! wouldn't see
him no noah; and Minny, she felt jest
the same way.
mot sence they was little boys did
see them brothers kiss till that time.
And Jack he said, 'Nevah mind. Pike,
ole Teller, with three hands between us,
| reckon we uns kin git along right
smart whin the wah is ovah.' But Pike
he couldn't speak, coz there was lump
in his throat and his eyes was a-leakin.
And Jack rode off, and up thar whar the
road winds ovah the hill he pulled in his
critter and waved his hat to us; then he
was gone. My God! My Jack-my fust
Dawn; he was gone-gone fo'evahr'
And the poor mother broke down in her
her voice sank to whisper
and she swayed her gaunt form as if to