The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-06-15

he stepped out and surrendered we were | surprised and amused to hear this young soldier exciaim, Hello, dad, what in | thunder arc you doing with them thar f clothes on?" He had captured his own | father.
 Another amusing scene occurred at a | barn filled with hay in which some Fed | erals attempted to hide. On our sur | rounding fl. several of the enemy called | out that they would surrender, and com ing out gave themselves up. One of our company however, not being satisfied with the looks of things, grabbed up a hay fork and went to probing In the hay. and convulsed with laughter by hearing Dutchman yell out, "Hould up! hould up! Mine Gott! will give up!' and the hay being tossed right and eft, out rolled
 the most badly frightened Dutchman
 The enemy now threw forward a small
 body of cavalry to try to check us. but the open field affording an unobstructed view for a long distance, they were seen in time to give us chance to rally on our colors. We then made a rush at their cavalry who put spurs to their horses and went racing after their infantry. w. kept ,ip the pursuit for about two miles. | forcing their right wing back in such a | manner as almost to double 1t on their | left. Reaching heavy piece of fenced l woodland, backed by a dense cedar thicS- | ct, and being nearly out of ammunition. we threw forward line of skirmishers, as q precauton against ambush. It was | fortunate that we did SO, for soon rapid firing in froAt told us that the enemy had rushed up endorsements to try to | stem the tide of defeat. and that our | skirmishers were hotly engaged. NOW the command "Forward!' ran along the line. and the boys almost at a double quick moved toward the firing in front. | Soon our skirmshers were seen falling | back, and then every man seemed 10 l xf,xry and f
 himself for it. Boom. boom! boom! 1 Sh-h-h' Sh-h-h! Sh-h-h. Bang! bang! bang!-the enemy had opened on us with
 several heavy batteries. But steadily we | moved forward until we reached the I brow of a small ravine 'or large gully, l backed by dense cedar thicket where. crouched or kneeling not fifty steps be-
 low us. with their guns at a ready was l a heavy line of blue-coats. Such crash l of musketry greeted us almost point
 blank that it seemed as If no one could 1 escape. But our nearness and being above them was what saved us--thelr
 shots passed above us. The enemy, doubt 1 less thought they had wiped us off the face of the earth, but imagine their sur
 prise when, with q mighty Rebel yell, l we dashed right into their very ranks, | with cur guns loaded and began dealing death muzzle to muzzlc. The little gully l was soon strewn with dead and dying.
 It was here that our brave, iamentea | through the heart; while the enemys Colonel commanding their brigade. Col
 onel Foreman of Kentucky, also fell, | pierced by three balls. The death or
 our beloved General seemed to rouse, the demon of battle in every man. and so l fercely did we fight that the enemy again | broke in wild disorder for the cedar thck, | ct in their rear-our brigade in fnil chase. 1t was here that I saw one Of our boys stick his gun right against a ] big Dutchman who was in the act or jumping over a pile of dead brush, ana,
 nearly tumbled a complete somersauit,
 falling into a small lime pit, perfectly dead, his clothes smoking from the fire
 from the rife. The ball must nave cut his heart in twain.
 | Again the enemy threw forward a
 heavy column, and the fighting that fol- lowed was something on the Indian order Our ammunition having given complete ly out, Colonel Stovall, then commanding the brigade ordered us to rally on the
 colors. We then marched out of the ce- dar thicket and took up position on the
 brow of the very gully from which we
 had been fired upon short time be- fore. The enemy discovering, or guess ing the cause of our falling back With
 out replying to their shots, pin formed ndn 1n | us. Colonel Stovall, seeing the necessity l of holding our ground. rode up to the colors and rising in his stirrups, gave "Fix bayonets!' remarlxing in his next l breath "Boys, we will try cold steel on
 them" It was then, the writer must ac-
 knowledge. he felt the need of help, ana l n great deal of help. The enemy must 1 have heard the command, for they halt | ed and we were not sorry that they did. | It was now that we heard a beavy | tramping in our rear. and looking oacK | beheld a long line of Confederates, nead- l cd by fighting Frank Cheatham, as i he was known in the army. On opening
 our ranks to let them pass, some or them
 remarked: Let us at them, we'll give l them h--l" and the writer believes that | al our boys were perfectly willing to | "let them at them" In two or three
 minutes they reached the enemy. who | had again fallen back to the thlcket, ana | from the roar of the rifles we knew that | they were trying to keep their promise: | The noise was like that of thousand at the same time. Soon our ears were greeted by the old familiar Rebel yell. and we knew that the enemy were in | full flight. They were driven across the | to fall back, as Rosecrans had crowned | A high hill with several batteries and had massed heavy force in its rear in order to save his army and check our
 The fighting now ceased for the day | on the part of our division. but we soon | found that we had far different enemy
 to contend with-a drove or wiia nogs naa a | wounded They seemed perfectly crazed
 hy the taste of human flesh. The writer | saw several fighting over the arms ana ! entrails of the dead. The wounded and
 dead were soon gathered up. and it was was
 necessary to put guards around them
 with fixed bayonets in order to keep off | the hogs. ,,, General Bragg. the next day, believed
 we had gained a great victory and that
 the enemy were rStresting sah ,,DSs DSt he was
 pai psa.ay,, tty ana one to be proud of, but the
 had only qen 0G anS nas to in be ofaer n bet to
 se, sar Sensition On the 2nd of January a
 of his army yo0s0sS cossed the 5eaTy Fysr and end
 a1a,5i5e cannonade against General Folks
 General srsnEnTdsf pssE oyer wth hs hs
 river hut encountering heavy odds was
 In turn driven back with considerable | loss. . ....o..,x
 the other On the night nt of the 3d. sa, after sSs
 dave in the rain and cold. the enemy re-
 ceving heavy re-9forsements s Gensra, nndsd
 the first battle of Murfreesboro.
 'ie Walter E. Smith, Sr.