The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1901-05-02
terlv routed and vanquished 50, 600 un.

Drainsville, in which he figured, and
smile comes over my memory. The
fun of that battle lasted our boys a
long time, and Major Aver at Rome is
not done laughing at it yet. The val
ley of Drainsville was neutral ground
and the harvest of hay was great. The
two armies were in winter quarters
and wanted it. Jeb Stuart assured
! General Johnston that if he would
| furnish the wagons and teams and q
regiment of infantry he would go for
the hay He said that the owners
were mostly southern men and wanted
us to have 1t. Old Joe was suspicious,
but consented. The federals were
nearer to it and had large force Of
cavalry in their camp. Tom Taylor
was sent along with his regiment and
Major Aver put in charge of 400 wag-
ons, with four-horse teams to each.
1t was about fifteen miles to the val
ley over pike road that was gener-
ally wide enough for teams to pass
each other, but was very narrow where
cut through the little hills. Many of
these cuts, hundred yards long, were
not more than ten feet wide. The day
and the scheme was kept profoundly
secret. One morning about the break
of day our boys were aroused by the
unearthly rum bling sound of 400 wag-
ons rolling over the pike, but that
sound was nothing to the roaring Of
those wagons on their return. That
train of wagons was nearly four miles
long ard by the time the head of the
column got fairly into the valley and
the major began bossing the loading
of the foremost teams Tom Taylor,
with his men, were resting in the su-
burbs and Jeb Stuart, with 1000 cav
airy, were paraded on a hill overlook
ing the valley. Just then 5000 fed
eral cavalry came charging down from
some hiding place behind the woods
and for an hour or more Stuart and
Taylor had their hands full.
The federals had an artillery com
pany to help create panic and they
were after the wagon train in despe-
rate determination. In the confusion
that followed the surprise Stuart or
dered the wagons that were loading
hay to countermarch in double quick
they performed that maneuver
18th great alacrity until the head Of
the procession reached the pike and
could get no farther, for the body and
tail of the train blockaded the highway
for two miles back. Then came the
great stampede. "Then rushed the
steeds from battle driven" All along
the line the alarm was given, whips
were popping, teamsters bawling.
'Turn, men; turn and save your
teams" exclaimed the major. ''The
yankees are coming" And they did
turn, but to this day nobody knows
how. Some of the wagoners swore af-
forwards they few over and some
crawled under and some turned four
horse team in an eight-foot cut. Col
onel Taylor ordered his men to guard
the wagons, but they couldn't keep up
with them. Stuart's men were in a
hand to hand fight with the enemies
cavalry and slashed them with swords
and shot them with small arms; but
they were outnumbered and had to
fight and fall back at every charge.
1t was about the middle of the after
noon when the roaring of the stamped
ing train reached our campground.
Old Joe Johnston heard it, for the
sound thereof was like the sound Of
many waters. He understood it at
once and ordered a whole brigade and
battery to double quick up the Drains
Vile pike. 81 told Stuart" he ex-
Gained, "they would trick if he didn't
look out. Those rescals in that val
got word to the enemy. Pm afraid
we have lost some of our wagons, and
it will be hard joke on Stuart. "
Later on we perceived great clouds of
dust gathering over the pike and the
roaring came louder and louder and
nearer and nearer, and by and by,
with the aid of field glass, we could
see Major Aver rise over the top of a
distant hill and halt. He is a fine
rider and was astride fine horse
whose name was Selim.
He saw the brigade coming to the
rescue and slowed up, the long process
sion behind him. Man and beast were
dripping with streams of sweat that
would have turned saw mill. In the
grand melee Colonel Taylor got cut off
from his command, for the boys were
trying to keep up with the wagons.
But they all came up in course of time
and received the plaudits of their com
rades. Stuart worried the enemy so
bad that they left the valley with nary
wagon and Major Aver left it with
nary hay. But they got it later, for
old Joe got his back up and swore he
would have it.
Those 400 wagoners were for long
time the heroes of the campfires. One
of them, Jim Wilkerson, our former
marshal, lives here now and still de.
clares that he turned his team in an
eight-foot cut and passed two more in
a ten foot cut and had liked to have
beat the whole train to camp. His
driving was like the driving Of Jehu,
| for he drove furiously