The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-07-15
AFTER THIRTY YEARS.
A Veterans Story of a Daring Yankee
Spy.

We sat watching the sun sink like
a great bali of fire behind the western
horizon. Nothing broke the silence
save the cry of a katydid in one of the
great oaks that spread its branches
out until they almost touched the roof
of the broad southern piazza, and the
far away song of the negroes as they
came in from the fields. The air was
laden with the perfume of honeysuckle
and j~assamine. The scene was one OF
quiet beauty. In front of a field OF
growing corn, black in the shadow Of
the evening, spread from the foot of
the lawn along the creek at the bottom
Of the hill until a mile awaV it blend
ed, blue and black, with the denser
shadows of the forest. To the right
and to the left, through the openings,
great cathedral arches, between the
giant Spanish oaks, we caught glimpses
Of cool, gray fields of cotton, fresh
from the p!ow, standing in row that
in the distance looked like dark green
ribbons, gridironed across the level
ground.
lay back in my deep willow chair,
plantation-name, and studied my host.
lie was a man of so. Tall, broad
shouldered. erect. His face was clean
ly shaven, save for a heavy gray nous
tache and imperial. Tanned and
weather-beaten as it was, there vas
about it a charm, an elegance that be-
spoke the Bourbon of the old regime.
Delicate and finely chiseled were the
features. Stern and cold the deep set
blue eyes, Swallowed by heavy shaggy
brows. One hand lay idly on the arm
of his chair, while the other, as shape
ly as a woman's s, poised his Habana,
whose smoke he watched drea. lily as
it curled in lazy, blue wreaths up to
the ceiling. His feet, cased in the
daintiest Of low quartered kids, rested,
true to instinct, on the rail of the pi-
azza before him. His hat, a broad
brimmed Stctson, lay on the floor
with his gloves and riding whip beside
it.
A far-away look was in his eye. He
was dreaming of the past, the tragic
past in which he had been a figure,
and when woke him from his reverie
with a request for a story he came to
himself with a start.
II was just thinking" he said, with
a reminiscent drawl, ''of a plucky
thing I saw r fellow do one day on the
lines down in front of Petersburg. We
had been in the trenches only a week
or 30 when we were ordered out a
quarter of a mile in front to throw up
a new line of works to straighten out
the defenseS or something Of that kind.
I really don 't'%recollect what we were
wanted to do, but I do ~recollect that it
was early on a foggy morning and we
were hugging a pile Of rails for shelter
from the wind, with a man here and
there keeping lookout oyer towards
the Yankees, when an officer in the
uniform of q Confederate lieutenanto of
cavalry rode out of the fog in front Of
US and straight across the line. He
passed in q dozen feet of me, and
noticed that hia mount was a thor.
%oughbred gray, a beautiful animal.
and as proud a stopper as l ever laid
eyes on. He was a striking looking
fellow, IS I should say, with a seat in
the saddle chat did my heart good.
"Whose command is this?" he
asked.
"Gracy'a Alabama brigade"
"Where is --'s brigade?"
"Next on the left"
Cool as a militiaman at muster, be
touched his horse with the spur and
cantered slowly along behind the line,
glancing carelsasly to the right and
left as he went. | turned back upon
my side and crept nearer to my raj
pile for shelter, and was just about tc
fall into a doze when a sergeant, a few
feet away, whispered to a comrade: 81
don't like the looks of that fellow,
Notice how slick he was with that new
saddle. I'll bet he'sa spy"
Away up the lines I could see him
cautering along with the same careless
swing. Did you ever have an idea tc
strike you with a flash? I had seen
that man before-away back in Ten
~nessee. I recollected it all in an in
slant. 1t was after C~hickamauga
We were out going over the field with
lanterns gathering up the wounded.
was looking for a little schoolmate
who had dropped at the foot Of Snod'
grass hill. We met a party of Yam
KEGS with a flag of truce on the same
errand, and this fellow was in com
mand. I knew what would go faster
than a man on a horse. A word passed