The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1894-11-14

"
take too much time, don't wait. We
uns must be right smart way to the
north afore sun up.
In discussing the possibility Of just
this state of affairs with his family old
Hugh Beatty had declared that every
man and boy who could shoot rife
must either volunteer to fight on the
side of the Union or be forced to do SO
on the side of the rebellion. His sons
agreed with him in this, but they urged
that he should stay at home, not because
he was feeble, for they did not believe
that, but to watch over the women and
the children. To this the old man re-
piled:
''My grandfather and my father and
all his brothers fought in the Revolu-
tion, and at one time-that was when
they lived over on the Big Kanawha in
varginny-they didn't see their vim
min folks for nigh onter three year. Yet
things went on jest nigh bout ez good
ez eff they'd staid home. Then, ef I was
to stay back, I'd be took like Parson
Brownlow and toted off to Nashville or
Knoxville to rot in Jail. Why, boys,
if they was to put meme ez hez lived
my life in these mountains-in sich a
place it'd kill me plum dead in week.
But I tell you uns ef SO be hit amt
nowed to all that I can march with
the Youngest and tire him cut, and
while can't thread the needle fo' the
ole mother any more without usin them
doggone specs won't ak no odds f'om
any man in all aist Tennessee whin hit
comes to driyin nail with bullet.
Besides all that I've been sojer and
you uns amt, so I'n take the crowd up
to Camp Dick Robinson in Kaintuck,
whar the Union men is a-makin ready
to give Governor Harris hi"
There was no setting aside this argu-
ment. The old man was going. not as
| impedimenta, but as leader, and his
gray haired wife "'lowed hit would be
best fo' the boys. -
When it became known that all the
men of the settlement would leave that
night, the towheaded children and the
gray eyed women ceased their waillng,
and working with an awful earnestness
for the living they forgot to sorrow for
the dead. They made bread and cooked
meat for husband and father and broth
er. They tied up the bullets and patches
and rolled blankets to te slung at the
shoulder, for the nights in the hills at
4 that season were s9powahful cold. Be-
fore the death of Andy Beatty and his
nephew, young Sam Mullins, there
were 18 men in thesettlement includ-
ing the old man, able to bear arms,
though two of them, Dan Mullins and
Burt Martin, were under II. They had
horses, but as there was snow on the
ground and it would be difficult, if not
impossible, to get fodder in the noun
tains to the north, it was decided to
make the trip on foot.
By II o'clock that night 81 men came
in from the hills with their rifles at
their backs and said they were ready.
This made a force of 81 all told, and
they felt strong enough to annihilate
the regiment then in the mountains, but
bitter experience cured them Of this
confidence.
Although old Hugh knew little OF
nothing of military discipline-and In
deed these mountaineers never took
kindly to military restraint-he had a
natural leaders appreciation of the ne
cessity of obedience, and by way of hav-
ing reason for the authority he meant
to exercise he proposed that two officers.
captain and lieutenant be elected.
This was soon settled by the selection
of himself for the first position and
young Hugh for the second.
A great many Of the women in the
adjoining valleys had come with thei1
husbands, brothers and sweethearts, and
these, with the women and children
from the Beatty settlement, made a
crowd that filed the store. Old Mrs.
Beatty replenished the bottles of all the
women with snuff, and they manifested
their suppressed nervousness by dip
ping a great deal.
When midnight came and the men
were ready to move, old Hugh told
them to uncover and kneel, and when
they had done this each man, with q
group of shrieking women and children
about him, "the captain" as they
called him till the greater Captain sum.
moned him, raised his white bearded
face to the black rafters and prayed as
no revivalist had ever prayed before in
that building, and the women sobbed,
and with broken voices the men called
out, 'tPraise Godl' and "Amenp' Two
scouts we're sent ahead along the desig.
mated trail; then the men kissed their
wives and little ones-an unusual thing,
for these people are as undemonstrative
as the Indians whom they superseded
and the march for Camp Dick Robinson,
$50 miles across the tempest tossed
Cumberland range to the north, began.
Neither then nor at any time during
the terrible struggle on which they had
so suddenly and SO daringly entered did
these men or any Of the survivors be-