The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-07-17
WAR STORIES.
The Capture Of IIarper's Ferry September
10th, 1869


ONO S'atc scrip or money. lie was
a boy. about eighteen years Of age,
and had lob Ohio on his cap.
thought to myaclf, wncn noted the
number OF his regiment: GLOW nany
soldiers have they got anyway?'
vhlS fellow had no doubt been told
the yarn Of the one eye and the horn,
and thought it the truth. We kept
telling him to bc quiet, We would not
hurt him: but fear had dethroncd his
reason, and the only way that he could
DC assured of our good intentions was
Tor us to play the good act and
accept some Of bis offerings He
pulled out Of an inside pocket in his
coat an opera glass and offered this.
This was the last ditch, he thought,
doubtless, as we had not taken any
thing yet. Colonel j. ID. Kennedy,
seeing him going on SO rdiculously,
came up just as he had pulled out the
glasses, and told him he would take or
accept them, and the Yank handed
him the glasses. This satisfied him
and he quit his girations and antics,
no doubt feeling thankful that for
once in his life at least, he had found
something which would appcasc the
anger of "thc gods"
About this time the fire from tho
Federal cannon made it advisable for
the gods to get on the other side
OF the logs and take scat, which VIC
all did. Sitting there with our backs
against the logs and toward the guns
at the same time, saw the shells
from the cannon as they passed over
our heads and over the clearing. They
did not seem to be going very fast
and looked like black walnuts flying
through the air. They crashed through
the timber aud exploded near our field
hospital. 1t was not long, however,
until we drove the Yanks, with their
guns and all, off tho mountain and
looked down on tho town of Harpcr's
Ferry. The Yankee army was all in
plain view. We then got battery of
three-inch rifed parrots up the noun
tain and posted them 80 as to have
plunging FIRE on the town.
In this assault Kershaws brigade
had about l, 100 men, and lost in kill
ed and wounded about 300. saw
but seven Yanks. The Yankee force
was about $500, and then ran away
from us. I found that tho lines told
on US and which made the enemy
Glass us with "the gods" was rather
lucky, after all. It is simply charm
ing to be classed as god, when the
other fellow is the only one who
knows it.
Maryland, however, was the only
place | ever visited where tho people
classed us with the gods. For this
reason shall always love Maryland.
The capture Of Maryland Heights
was a bloody engagement as far as
kershaw's brigade was concerned, but
then it succeeded. Cobb's brigade
was badly cut up at Champion Gap
by portion Of Mcclellan army, and
the Fedcrals thus got in tho valley in
our rear. This necessitated our i'm
mediate march down the mountain.
This we did, and formed line of battle
to oppose the Yankees. There saw
numbers of Cebbs men hatless and
coatless. They were scattered like
flock of partridges. Not their fault.
They had fought as best they could,
and single handed, 10000 Yanks.
About the time began to look out
for some more sightseeing by an ad-
vance and a charge on the enemy
General Kershaw rode up to quite
near where 1 was standing, lifted his
hat from his head and called out:
"Men, Harpers Ferry has surrender
cd!' With that we began to cheer
and the Yanks took it as aignal Of
attack. We then got the orders to
fall back towards the river, which VIC
did while the Yanks were anticipat-
ing an attack. That afternoon all Of
the Johnnies crossed the Potomac on
o Yankee pontoon bridge, which was
the first one l had ever walked on.
Marching through the town We wont
into camp just outside the fortifca-
ton. It was then nearly sundown.
Along with lot of other men I was
detailed to 60 back into the town and
get such articles Of food from the cap
tured stores as we could secure and
bring to camp. We went to where the
Yanks had their supplies stored away
in tents, and saw cherry tree there
} with wall tent fastened almost from
. the ton to the bottom OF che tree