Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1893-07-08

big guns to help it along. 1 must tell
you the whole story. 1t makes me
laugh to think of it now, although the
affair happened thirty years ago.
SIN 1868 Hon. j. w. Henderson, of
Houston, ex-lieutenant governor of
Texas, and commonly called Smoky
Henderson, n prominent lawyer and
something of a sport himself, organized
the prize fighting company of the con-
federate army in the Trans-M Mississippi
department He was popular with the
sporting element. and aimed to get n
company of 'bloods, and he got them.
Every man paid for his own outfit,
horse and everything else, and as re-
suit they We're the best equipped sol
diers l ever saw. Nearly every member
had n gun record ranging from one to
three men, for they were almost with
ont exception desperate characters.
"Well, the company started out on
the warpath, and never stopped until
1t wound up down on Matagorda penin-
sula. The only Yankees down there
were out on the gunboats and block
aders. The company wanted to see
Yankees anyway, and so it went down
there and was rewarded for its pains,
for gunboat was seen out in the gulf
of Mexico about five miles from shore.
'There was long peninsula reach
ing 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 stationary and APP
pareltly paid no attention to the cav
alrymen.
After a little the men dismounted
and, stalking their horses, began stroll
ing over the peninsula, and finally, for
getting all about the Yankee gunboat,
began u game or two of poker and
monte. Nothing occurred for an hour
Or So when suddenly bang went n 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 cutter full of men
about three hundred 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 q
bushel of grapeshot from it at them.
That panic the captain there spoke of
awhile ago was nothing to what hap
pened then. l know, because / was
there and took Il hand in it. The min
ute before we thought we wanted the
horses out, but when the Grapcshot tore
up the sand and weeds around us we
found we did not need them. If any
man had had a horse he would have
been left behind, for we made quick
time, / tell you. OF course we headed
away from the Yankees, and fortu-
nntely that was the proper direction
for us to take, for it led toward the
mainland.
"We had gone about q mile-and
reckon we made it in about half a min
ute--whcn 'bangp right in front of us,
the Yankees opened up from another
cutter The was whcle boatload of
them, and they were pulling like
fiends 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 flew. The Yankees saw there
was no use competing with such fast
flyers as we were, SO they stopped row.
ing and settled down to shooting.
Fortunately for us the gulf was rough
and they could not shoot accurately.
q "Einally 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.
1.-THE crowd I was with went to an
old house about n 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 us we got the meat cooked, the
captain said he would go up on the
roof and see if he could find any of the
boys on the prairie. lie was big
man, and weighed about two hundred
pounds. When he got up on the roof,
he found he could not sec well for the
chimney, SO he stepped on the cistern
top 1t was flimsy affair, and just as
s"aoo~o fr>.~- thA shin f~Aa ~ s~.~A