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

were ragged, shoeless and starving.
The laountaineers who joined the oil
captain were as poor as his own men
and the mountains had been stripped o
supplies by the army under Zollicoffer
who was then pushing north to the fielt
where he was to meet death and hi
oyerconfdent troops to suffer the frs
and most complete defeat Of the war.
It was mldwinter. The mountain
were covered with snow. and the trails
rough or indistinct at the best times
were no guide o.. aid i to the brave mal
pushing north. For 72 hours they hat
marched night and day, and during tha'
time they had been without food, while
nearly every man left bloody track IL
the frozen snow. On the afternoon d
Jan. they were brought to q halt on
the banks Of the swollen Cumberland.
There was neither bridge nor boat il
sight, and behind them the enemy, who
had followed them night and day from
Tennessee, were in sight
At any time in these 81 days and
nights of marching, shivering and starv.
ing, if Captain Beatty had halted and
agreed to surrender he and his men
would have been treated as prisoners OF
war OF given the choice Of entering the
Confederate army. A professional sol
der, realizing the terrible odds against
him and the certainty of destruction if
he kept on, would have asked fer honor
able terms and given up, but from first
to last the thought Of surrender never
entered the old mans mind, though the
thought of death was never absent from
it
These mountaineers are not good
swimmers, but Dan Beatty, the old
mans son, who had spent some years
over OH the Holston, where his wife's
folks liye-they were McCoy-was an
exception While the captain and the
others were throwing up a defense Of
logs and rocks in the direction Of the
enemy, Dan took survey Of the black,
swollen river. That morning they had
learned from mountaineer that ''Wool-
ford's First Kentucky cavalry, a-fghtin
fo' the gov'ment, by c." had been
seen ON the south bank Of the Cumber-
land and ea-madn fo' Raccoon springs !"
H these men could be communicated
with. escape might be possible II not,
death by hunger or bullets was ineyita-
Bile.
Dan Beatty came back from the river
and told his father that he was going to
swim across. SCI can't take no weapons,
dad, he said, .sbut they wouldn't be
much use nohow, but if so be I make
the other side can find the Union crit
ter regiment and bring 'em to our help"
The old man called his friends about
him and had Dan repeat his proposition.
The general opinion was that mo NOR.
tai man could swim that thar river
without havin his blood friz to the
heart afoce he got half over" But Dan
thought differently. After all, there
was hope in the effort, while to re-
main where they were meant death, and
what mattered it whether a man was
drowned in an attempt to save his
friends or shot in an effort to kill the
enemy2
D.i, EE.s;:tt;;y kicked off the old boots,
soaked with the blood from his wounded
feet, and said something to his father
and his brothers to be repeated to Jen-
ME, s'back at the crick, % in the event of
his net being seen again; then he looked
up quickly at the black clouds, as If in
yoking aid from that direction, and
plunged into the black river.
The old captain and all his men not
watching for the enemy from the south
gathered along the Cumberland and
shouted encouragement to the brave fel-
low battling with the swollen and icy
current. Now and then the men on the
southern bank gave way to despair as
the food bore the daring swimmer down.
IF he sank, then three Of Hugh Beatty's
sons would be gone, sacrificed for the
Union, soldiers Of cause towh1ch they
had as yet taken no oath Of allegiance,
but all the more patriotic for the duty
done without any pledge.
The old man was the coolest Of the
crowd as he watched Dan. 'sI'd have
taken the boys place if I could" he
said to me a day or two after, ssfor I
could feel my heart a-gittin colder ez
watched Dan a-pushin his way
through that black water, and could
hear at the same time the hollerin Of
the ID rebs away behind rs, and our
boys a-poppin away SOS to show 'em
'twasn't healthy to come higher to we
uns even if we uns was a-burnin up
with hunger and all our ammunition
was nigh near done Civ out. "
Dan Beatty made the other side, and
weak and dripping and nearer to death
than his friends imagined he sat on
drift log and waved his ragged hat to
them, while they answered with a
cheer, which the enemy to the south
heard and wondered at.
My troop, under Captain Owen, had