The Newtown bee., 1901-10-04

colonel to place him in charge of the
detail, to which he complied. The
captain at once repaired to his COM
mand, which was Company A, and of
which I was orderly sergeant, and Sc
lected 20 of his own men.
TO say that we 20 men were delight
ed at what we well knew was most
risky and dangerous undertaking, will
not express it. We felt 1attered to
think we were the favored ones of the
entire regiment to be thus picked out
for such Il perilOus duty. Well, after
receiving all the orders, instructions
and cautions in regard to entire 81
lence, together with all needful am
munitiOn, etc, we quietly left camp
at the appointed hour and were soon
on the line of march toward the rebel
lines. 1t was almost as bright and
clear as midday for about d mile, and
until we entered dense forest we
could see everything with distinctnesS
about us. We were marching by the
flank-ten files Of men.
Just after we entered the forest, in a
clump of bushes, thought | saw three
men skulking under their cover. I did
not say word, for l was not sure, and
I thought if l did mention it and it
proved to be mistake, the laugh
| would all be on me. The trees of the
forest were so thickly grown that the
light could not penetrate enough SO
that we could see anything distinctly.
It was that kind of alightness, or dim
ness, call it what you may, that causes
you to imagine and conjure up in your
mind most anything. Talk about
building air castles, you can see pala-
tiaY mansions, beautiful landscapes,
phantom ships on the broad ocean, and
everything0 radiant land sublime on
earth, good or bad, hideous, horrible
and grim.
We were now about mile and a
half from camp. We began to fully
realize the danger we were in, we'll
knowing that the least indiscretion or
imprudence on our part might subject
us to capture or death, should the reb-
els become cogniZant of our presence.
We knew it would be life or death.
We came to halt, and after holding
short conversation. together, Capt
Bradley gave the orders to deploy as
skirmishers on each side of the road,
six or eight PAGES apart and advance
slowly and cautiously, and to be on the
alert for anything that might happen
In compliance with his orders, we push
ed ahead-each man feeling as if he
had much rather travel the other way.
However, we slowly passed on our way
over the damp, wet leaves, underbr dsh
the stiffness of death.
A short distance in front of us we
could distinguish a dark object lying
on both sides of the road. On our
nearer approach we could see that it
was very large tree, fully three feet
in diameter, which some heavy storm
years ago had hurled to the ground.
1t would have afforded us good breast
works, in case of an attack. AS we
stepped up to 60 over it, what was our
surprise to hear the snOrts and grunts
and the scrambling and pattering of
what appe ared to be a Thousand wild
animals in the leaves retreating from
us. In an instant every mans heart
was in his mouth, and at the same
time "click" was heard from every
musket as each man brought it to his
shoulder, while the clear, but low
voice of Capt Bradley rang out: ''stcady
boys, steady There we stood trans
fixed for the moment, in anxious sus-
pense. The scare was complete. We
did not care to inyeSti gate any fur
tAer-We wanted ''to go home" The
cluSe Of our discontinue was the fact
that a very large drove of hogs were
asleep in the leaves under the cover OF
the old tree, and it was our approach
that 50 suddenly awakened and startled
t lem. 1t will always remain with us
an open question as to which was the
most frightened, the hogs Or ourselves.
Under the circumstances, advancing
any further was thing not to be con-
Sidered for a moment, and we made
ready to retrace our steps for camp.
But short distance from us we could