The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-03-21

battle Of Prairie Grove during the last
year Of the Civil War. These "old
fellows will admit that there were
more important battles fought during
the four years of that war, bu, they
will not admit that any Of them was
more hotly contested.
The battlefield of Prairie Grove was
an open, level prairie. Surrounding it
were forests Of small trees. twas in
to these forests that each side retreat
ed dozen times during the day, only
to rally, reform, charge into the open
and put the other side to rout. The
battle ragged for nearly the whole
day. At nightfall neither side was
victorious. Each army retired, and
made its bivouac in the shots shattered
forests
During the day Confederate gun
had been the central point of attack.
This gun was placed at point near
the center Of the open early in the en-
gagemcnt, and had done deadly work
until the Federal forces had succeeded
in driving the Confederate gunners
from it. Then the Fcderals took
charge of the gun, turned it on the
Confederatcs, and scattered death
among the trees on the other side.
When the Confcdcratcs had rallied
from the 6rst repulse they again cap
tured the gun, and turned it agai nst
the Fedcrals, only to be driven away
again.
Thus did the battle rage all day, un-
til finally night came with the gun
abandoned by both sides, but closely
watched by each.
During the early evening dctach-
ment Of some forty men was sent out
from the Confederate side to bring the
gun into the Confederate lines Ono
Of the members Of this detachment
was Captain John W. Howard, of ST.
Louis. Captain Howard thus tells
of what happened as result:
"Wc had reached the gun, and had
finished the preparations for dragging
it off. You may rest assured that we
went about it in very cautious man
ner; for we did not know at what mo-
ment the other side would discover US
and open up. We did not want any
more Of that thing for awhile, as we
had had during the day just about all
we cared for.
Suddenly two blazes shot up from
the Federal side. We soon saw that
two huge haystacks had bpen fired,
whether by accident or design I never
learned. The light from tho blazing
hay illuminated the whole field; but
of course the illumination was not so
distinct toward the middle of it, where
we were. We dropped 20 :ho ground
and felt pretty safe; for VIC figured
that the hay would soon burn out, and
that then we could complete our
work.
In very few minutes, however,
we were surprised to see column of
Federals march out from point di-
rectly between the two burning hay
stacks. They came on at quickstep.
There were about $50 Of them. The
order went forth on our side to get
ready for fight. Each man was to
load every weapon he had-and they
were a variety, too; shotguns, rifles,
single shot pistols and rcvolvers. The
order was carefully and promptly
obeyed, you can rest assured. Each
man was pretty we'll satisfied that he
had his weapons loaded already, but
he made assurance doubly sure. We
were under orders to keep perfectly
still. aud we obeycd that order to the
letter, too.
''On came the Fedcrals. At their
head was magnificent specimen Of
manhood. He was Major, but
never learned his name, and he rode
great dark horse. They were bent on
taking that gun, and were ready to
fight for it if necessary.
cat first we thought that the Fed
erals knew We were there, and that
they were coming out for the purpose
of taking that gun from us. But as
the column advanced VIC became con-
vinccd that they did not know but
that every Confederate was asleep in
the camp on the other side of the open
battlefield. And wc tcck good care to
leave them in ignorance. 1t would
have been foolhardy for us to have
done anything else There were at
least $50 Of them, and only forty of
us. So we remained flat on the ground