People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1896-07-30

guard. Early in thewinter Of 1865 Gen
eral Stoneman set out from Tennessee
to raid southwest Virginia. That region
had never been touched by the large ar
mics, but the Confederates maintained
a show Of force there which varied with
the fortunes of their side in territory
adjoining. TWAS in southwest Virginia
that MoIgG2's escaping raiders reform
ed ranks after their wild ride through
Ohio. The Kentucky troopers, to the
number Of 300, chung together in a so
called brigade. General Basil W. Duke,
the noted Kentuckian, Morgan's right
hand man when the division was in its
glory, commanded this remnant.
Three other brigades belonged to the
forces occupying the region. Itwas call
ed the military department Of southwest
Virginia. Breckenridge, also a Kentuck-
ian, commanded the department The
troops under him numbered $500. The
men were all Tennesseeans or Kentuck-
ians, Injured to war in its hardest phases
by their campaigns in the mountains.
The brigadiers besides Duke were Gilt
ner, Vaughn and Cosby. Stoneman led
5000 men, and his first stroke was to
cut off Vaughn's brigade of l 400 men,
thus rObbing Breckenridge of more than
one-half his soldiers. But the prize at
stake called for a fOrlorn hope defense,
and the handful remaining included
fighters, from generals to privates, who
would stand and die with Spartan cour-
age in the last pass. The prize was the
famous Kings salt works and the lead
mines, which furnished the Confederacy
with two of its indispensable supplies.
Breckenridge held his troopers in
hand at Saltville, awaiting Stoneman's
first blow. On the 10th Of December his
scouts brought word that the raiders
were striking out for Wytheville, where
the lead works were located. Duke inl-
mediately started with 100 picked men
to harass the enemy's column. With
farmer for a guide he rode off in the
night and speedily came upon a Union
picket At the first shot the guide
bounded from his horse and disappear
ed. In the enemy's camps there was a
martial stir and sound of bugles call
ing boots and saddles" 1t was plain
that the $50 rash raiders had fallen up
on Stoneman's main camp, twas very
dark, and after posting line of pickets
Duke bivouacked in a cornfeld with his
men. With cornstalks for touches, the
weary troopers slept soundly until
aroused, just before daybreak, by the
sentineR Looking across the field, they
beheld in the dim light a long line of
gigantic figures, enveloped in cavalry
overcoats, sitting on their horses like
grim warders before the palace of a me-
di@val king. There we're ], 900 or more
in the column, and they might have cir
cied about the sleeping Confederates,
bagging the whole command, but evil
IDENTIFY had overlooked them because
they were SO close. Duke couldn't haz-
ard a fight, and his foes evidently be-
heyed that his force was too strong for
| them to deal with. The troopers ban
died words ACROSS the "'bloody chasm"
for an hour. Then the Kentuckians rode
back 70 their comrades at Saltville.
Breckenridge was loath to grant
! Stoneman an open road to the lead
works and threw his entire force across
his path at point called Marion
heights. While waiting for the raiders
to appear a courier dashed into camp
with dispatches from the front. A self
constituted defender of the sacred soil,
Colonel Wycber-colonel, of course, al
though be commanded bnt go men
had let loose his battalion Of independ-
ents" upon the tanks of Stoneman's
raiders. WychT's first message read,
I'VE are pushing them hard and giving
1t to them at every jump" Soon fol-