Mexico weekly ledger., 1897-09-30

Then two hundred and twentv-fi /
revolvers spoke and every report car
ried death on its wings. One hundred
and thirty men fell dead In the line
and those that sought safety in flight
were pursued and Hhot down from the
battlefield to the town limits of Stur.
geon.
"a fellow by the name of Arct
Clemens got off in front some way OF
other and killed the first man. He
also killed the last man, just this side
of Sturgeon, Peyton Long and myself
being with him at che time.
"BiIl Anderson was upon the right
and George Todd on the left, and as
we rushed upon them with the yells OF
devils, they uttered not a word. They
seemed to be paralyzed with fear OF
utterly incapable of moving from
their tracks. Before the charge was
made, johnson run up the black flag,
an old apron tied to a stick. This die,
not brighten us any, as were not IN the
habit of asking for quarters. We could
have whipped five Hundred as well as
Two nuhoreo aander the same circum-
STANCES, -i6 being a question of how
many we could shoot down before the
Federals could reload again. The
men who sought to escape either
made a line for the brush, for Stur-
geon or Centralia. followed those
headed for Sturgeon, leaving Contra
liza to my right about half a mile.
"The CentraIia fight has been called
a massacre and everybody dubbed us
sbushwhackers.' Now let us see: We
were out here in the woods. johnson
came after us; we did not 60 after
him. If we had chosen to have played
the part of 'bushvhackers' we could
have remained in the brush and let
the Federals come down to us and
have shot them from ambush. Instead,
we formed in line on the
open prairie as soon as they came in
sight. We went to meet them on
their own chosen ridge in the open
1t was a battle and people 60
into a battle to kill. If they had
reserved their fire and shot every one
us to death, they could not have
been blamed. That is what they were
here for. And / fail to see how any
one could censure us for doing to
hem as we would have been done by.
"After the fight was over Dave
Poole counted ono hundred and thirty
lead on the field of the sanguinary
would Judge that one-third
10 many more we're killed In the pur- |
'uit and about fifteen or twenty got
way.
81 have heard q good deal Of talk
Iince the raj about Johnson's men
,eing boys and olir men being old,
veterans. The truth is that
hree-fourths of the Federals were
niddle-aged men with boards on their
aces, while our fellows were all young
men. 1 was was only q years of age,
George Todd 25 or 20, Jesse James II,
Bill Anderson 81, Arch Clemens 20
md SO on. Not enc in ten OF the en-
ire command was anything but q
'eardless boy. However, they were
IS desperate a gang as were ever got
together, and IL I were to pick q
company of men for desperate work
low I would choose boys from II TO
2 years. They are Indifferent to
fearless and daring. Older
men are more cautious and less fool
son this raid vre were gone from
LAY county about two weeks, fought
welve fights anel in them Killed one
thousand Federals. The only repulss
We met was at F'ayette. We had one
'ther fight in this county, at Goslta
ane, the day before, on the 26th.
the rounds, we burned no
property nor sbused any women.
Nothing devastating - Sherman's
march to the Q or the famous Order
No. II In Western Missouri wa done.
After returning TO Clay county wei
vent to Kentucky with Quantrill,
Capt. Todd's men belonging TO his
Here in tho Bins Grassl