The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-22

and tore down tents Huu every thing else
iu their frantic endeavors % get away,
although there was not Federal soldier
within fifty miles OF them az the time.
] 'The men Just scared and broke. That
| was all there was 90 IT, said the veteran.
Z Nobody knew what started IL. and no
| body stopped 20 ask what started IL. IL
/ beat anything ever saw
" The worst panic ] saw during the
/ war was right here IN Texas" eXclaim-
/ Ell DIR. :. G. Young lit was panic
/ about three miles long and about two
miles wide. and il spread all over the
| prairie for the best part of five hours 10
/ was none of YOUR phantom or ghost panics,
/ either, for there was go0d-siZed Yankee
/ blockader that had big guns to help it
| along ] must tell You the whole story.
/ IL makes me laugh to thing of it now,
/ although the affair happened thirty years
/ ago.
In 1863 the Hon. j. w. Henderson of
! Houston. ex-lieutenant governor of Texas,
and commonly called Smoky Henderson,
n prominent lawyer and something of
sport himself organized the priZe-fight-
ing company of the confederate army in
the trans Mississippi department. He
was popular with the sporting element,
and aimed 10 get company Of blOOdS,
and he got them. Every man paid for
his own outfit, horse and everything else,
and as result they were the best equip
ped soldiers l ever saw. Nearly every
member had a gum record ranging from
| one to three men, for they were almost
without exception desperate characters.
We'll, the company started out on the
| Warpath, and never stopped until it wound
| up down on Matagorda peninsula. The
only yankees down there were out on the
gunboats and blockaders The company
wanted to see yankees any way, so it went
down there and was rewarded for its pains
for DOuf in the Gulf of
Mexico, about five miles from shore.
There was long peninsula reaching
out into the gulf and bay. 1t was very
narrow near the shore end but brOadened
out into sort of island. The famous
cavalry company marched out on this
peninsula, so as to get a better look at the
yankee gunboat. The boat remained sta
tionary, and apparently paid no attention
to the cavalrymen.
After little the men dismOunted, and
stalking their horses, began strolling over
the peninsula, and finally, forgetting all
about the Yankee gunboat, began a game
or two of poker and monte Nothing Oc-
ured for an hour or so, when suddenly
bang went big bOmbshell that had ex-
ploded between them and their horses.
They jumped to their feet, and their hair
talrlyStOOd on end when they saw q cutter
full of men about 300 yards from the beach
between them and their horses. The cutter
had small gun mounted on the bow, and
about the time the cavalrymen jumped up
the Yankees turned loose about bushel
of grapeshot from it at them.
That panic the captain there spoke of a
while ago was nothing to what happened
then, know, because | was there and
took hand in it. The minute before we
thought we wanted the horses out, but
when the grapeshot tore up the sand and
weeds around us we found we did not
L j L. /
he would have been left behind, for we
made quick time, l tell you. Of course
we headed away from the yankees, and
fortunately that was the proper direction
for us to take, for it led toward the main
land.
I'VE had gone about mile-and I
reckon we made it in about half a minute
when "bangP right in front of US, the
Yankees opened up from another cutter
There was a whole boatload of them, and
they were pulling like fends to reach the
narrow neck of land and head us off and
if you ever saw good running it was done
there, for we fairly few. The Yankees
saw there was no use competing with
such fast flyers as we were, so they stop
ped rowing and settled down to shooting
Fortunately for US the Gulf was rough
and they could not shoot accurately
FINALLY we reached the main land, and
then we scattered. You know it is all
bald prairie down there, so there was no
shelter for us. We scattered, and we
kept. on scattering for ten or fifteen
minutes.
six of us, including the captain,
| headed for the panhandle as near as we
could make out, thinking that it was the
frthest point in Texas from yankees,
and after we had gone beyond the range
| of the COMPOUNDED gun we stopped to
breathe and size up the situation We
had rested about half an hour when
'bangl' whiz and great shell passed
over our heads and struck a few hundred
| yards behind us. We got up out of the
! grass and saw that the big gunboat had
steamed in near the shore and had opened
| fire with her guns. 1t was really ride
ulOus, but we did not laugh any at the
! time The yankees were having lots of
! fun. You'd see stray gambler away out
on the prairie, and the next minute big
| shell as long as piano would land near
| him, and then you would see some of the
fastest running on record. Those yam
KEGS amused themselves for an hour or
two Smelling every big bunch of grass
they could see. Finally there was not a
gambler in sight and they ceased firing.
THE crowd | was with went to and old
house about a quarter of a mile out of
range of the guns and sat down to rest
| The family was away, but we broke open
the door, and finding some fresh beef, we
prepared to cook dinner. just as
we got the meat cooked, the capatin said
he would go up on the roof and see if he
could find any of the boys on the prairie
He was a big man and weighed about
200 pounds. When he got up on the roof
| he found he could not see well for the
! chimney, so he stepped on the cistern top.
1t was fiimsy affair, and just as cannon
| from the ship was fred it gave way under
him with a crash that shook the house.
and precipitated him into the depths
! below.
Hearing the cannon and then the crash,
we naturally concluded that the house
had been struck by shell, and it would
explode the next minute, so we fled to a
man, and were 200 yards away before we
realized what had happened. Hearing no
shell explosion we returned, and it was
some time before we found our captain
nearly drowned in the cistern We fished
him out, and, without stopping to eat or
do anything else, we struck out for the
next town.
What became of our horses? 7 never
knew, nor did l see any of the members
of the company again until the war was
over"
ALLCOCK's POROUs PLASrERs have at