The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-07-22

| mental to the above the following is
furnished by lady who has known
the Countess since their girlhood)
Antoinette Wayne Van Leer Polk
is the full name of this brave girl,
given in honor of her maternal grand
father, who was nephew Of Major
General Anthony Wayne, Of Revolu-
tionary fame, and who was command
erin chief at the time of his death,
and whose father was son of a brave
officer in the French and Indian war,
while his direct ancestor was dis
tinguished soldier in the Battle of the
Boyne, so that on both sides she was
of heroic blood.
She was not fully grown when she
took this famous ride. After the war
she went abroad with her father and
mother and finished her education in
Europe. The health of her father,
Andrew Jackson Polk, having failed
when in the Confederate army, he
grew worse and died in Switzerland.
Miss Polk had most brilliant young
ladyhood abroad, principally in Rome,
where she was beloved by the Prin-
cess Margarite, and universally ad-
mired. She married a distinguished
French soldier of the old regime, the
Marquis de Charettee de la CONTRIB,
like herself, of heroic stock, and has
her home in France She has one son
youth of great promise.
I recollect another heroine, Lieut..
Buford, of an Arkansas regiment. She
stepped and walked the personifcation
of soldier boy; and won her spurs
| on the battlefield at Bull Run, Fort
Donelson and Shiloh, and was promo
ted for gallantry One evening she
came to General Stewards headquar-
ters at Tyner's Station, with an order
from Major Kinloch Falconer to re-
port for duty as Scout, but upon his
| finding that che was a woman, she
was sent back and the order revoked.
She has written book.
I have another heroine-bless her
sweet soul. I have forgotten her
name. One day General Morgan sent
squad of US on a scout and we were
pursued by Col. Funkhauser's regi-
ment in Denny's Bend of Cumberland
river, near Rome, Tenn. My heroine,
little girl of fourteen, directed us to
Bradley Island for safety-a place of
some sixty acres in cultivation, but
on the river side it was encircled by
sandbar, with drift wood lodged on
an occasional stubby sycamore. This
sweet, animated little girl brought us
"squarc' meal, and watched for our
safety like hawk during the day.
Thinking it was foraging expedition,
and that they were gone, we ventured
to leave late in the afternoon, but ran
into them and aruuning fire ensued:
After eluding pursuit, we concluded
to 90 back. In short time company
of Federals appeared on the island,
evidently having tracked our horses.
We left the horses behind the drift
wood, without hitching, and took
shelter under big fallen tree. The
troopers were in ten steps of US at
times. We could hear them distinctly,
and one fellow said: eff we catch
em, boys, this is a good place to hang
'em." Another said, 'cLet's 60 down
in the driftwood on the sandbar, and
bag EN-" Hearts thumped and legs
trembled! We thought we were gone.
One of our squad said, "Let's give
up" but the rest Of us were too badly
scared to reply. A frightened rabbit
stopped near us, painting, watching
and trembling with fear, producing a
mir1etic effect on our feelings. All,
if painter could have pictured that
scene, and if pen could describe that
occasion. We lay there until night
fall. They did not happen to see our
horses and, through kind Provi-
dence, we escaped. Our heroine came
to us after nightfall, signalled and we
answered. She was so happy over our
escape; told us that she saw them
leave and that they had no prisoners.
General B. B. Coleman, of Indian
Territory, writes of another daring
heroiue-N1iss Puss Witty, the
daughter of Capt. Bill Witty, of
johnson County, Missouri. Her
father, Capt. Bill Witty, with many
others, came from North Carolina, in
the fifties, and at the first bugle call
raised company, composed of kin
folks, for the Southern cause. His
nice residence, six miles from Knob
noster, Federal post, which was
raided time after time, was finally
destroyed. His daughter, a plucky
and fearless girl of nineteen, did many
acts of daring to decoy the Federals
into the hands of her fathers COM
pany; she went many nights in rain
and snow to pilot the little bands of
Southern patriots around the Federal
post at Knobnoster, besides carrying
many baskets of provisions to the
brush to feed the Confederates while
recruiting in Missouri.
At one time, in the summer of 1863,
she rode from home sixty miles, in the
night, and carried news to theintrepid
Quantrell. At another time, when a
company of Federals were at her faith
er's house in the summer of 1864,
tearing off the weatherboarding in
their search for contraband goods,
she drew pistol from her bosom, and
shot lieutenant in the face, and
wounded private in the arm, then
made her escape to the woods. Finally
the authorities outlawcd her. Sheriff
Wilk Williams laid in wait for her
uncle, Sam Witty, who was guard to
Colonel Perkins recruiting office, and
shot him from ambush, breaking his
under jaw and cutting off his tongue.
Puss went twenty miles at night and
hunted for her uncle in the woods,
carried him home and hid him in an
old we'll, where she nursed him until
he recovered sufficiently to ride away.
The authorities finally captured her
and then banishcd her from the State.
l have not heard from her since the
great conflict.
-" "Yns hovsn said the teacher