Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1893-11-23

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NAN wi1u $ HoRfE WORLD HAVE
BE;.i LEFT BEHIND.
Dir guns - help ii along. mgst ten
you The whole stely. Il ma fuo
l.ael IL tllinl, Of Il now, altsoaga the
tsiIa.r ea9penei thirty years a.
ia lSJj Hon. J. ". Henderson, Of
Houston. cz-lieatenaat governor OF
Texas, aaI commonly allied smoky
Henderson, a prominent lawyer and
scmetai..g 6 I !. i.5or. ala a.l, organized
Che prize fighting company of the con-
federate 4, ny in the Trans-M Mississippi
department. He was popular with the
sporting element. and aimed u get q
company Of 'bloods, and ne pot them.
Every man paid for his own outfit.
horse and everything else. and as a re-
silt .hey were The best equipped sol
diers / ever saw. Nearly every member
had gnn' record ranging from ono to
three men. Tor they were almost with
out exception desperate characters.
well. the company started out on
the warpata, ana never stopped until
il wound up down on Matagoraa ponia-
sula. The only Yankees down there
were out on the gunboats aal block
aders. The company wanted 70 see
Nansees anyway, and 50 it we2t down
there and was rewarded for its pains.
for D gunboat was seen out in the gull
of Mexico, about fise miles from shore.
There was lolg peninsula reach
ing out into the gull ard bay. # 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 u
better look at the Yankee gunboat.
The boat remained stationary and APP
parently paid no attention To the eav-
alrymen.
After little the men dismountcd,
and, stalking their horses, began stroll
ing over the peninsula. and finally, for
getting all about the Yankee gunboat.
began a game or two of poker and
monte. Nothing occurred for an hour
or SO, when suddenly bang went big
bombshell that had exploded between
them and their horses. They jumped to
their feet. and their hair fairly stood on
end when they saw a cutter full of men
about three hundred yards from the
beach between them and their
horses. The cutter had a small gun
mounted on the bow, and about
the time the cavalrymen jumped up
the Yankees turned loose about
hushel of grapeshot from it at them.
That panic the captain there spoke of
awhile ago was nothing to what hap
pened then. / know, because ! was
there and took a hand in it. The min.
ute 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 necsi them. If any
man had had a horss he would have
been left behind. for we made quick
time, tell you. OF course we headed
away from the Yankees, and fortu-
nately that was the proper direction
for us to take, for it led toward the
mainland.
I'VE had gone about a mile-and /
reckon we made it in about half min
ute-when 'bang!' right in front of us,
the Yankees opened up from another
cutter. The was a whole boatload of
them. and they were pulling like
hends 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, 50 they stopped row
ing and settled down to shooting.
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.
The crowd ! was with went to an /
old house about quarter of mile ont !
Of range of the guns and sat down to /
rest. The family was away, but we /
broke open the door. and. finding some I
fresh beef. we prepared to cook dinner
lust as we got the meat cooked. the
saptain said he would go I'D on the
roof and see if he could find any of the
boys on the prairie. lie was a big
man. and weighed about two hundred
pounds. When he got up on the roof,
le found he could not see well for the
chimney. so he stepped on the cistern
op. Il was firnsy affair. and just as
! cannon from the ship was fred it gave :