The National tribune., 1902-11-13

Early in the Spring of 1868, Gen.
Humphrey Marshall, commanding brl.
gade of Confederate cavalry, marched
from southwestern Virginia into eastern
Kentucky, a mountainous section III the
"regions beyond'-beyOnd railroads ana
turnpikes, cultivated fields and broad
savannas, churches and school houses; be-
yond the countries where civil speech and
soft persuasion hung" 1t was, and is,
the land of the vendetta, and there III
sequestered cabin homes dwelt the BUSH
whacker and the "moonshiner,"
Who, somewhere up in the mountain high,
Mingled the juice with dew from the sky.
Unfortunately, at that time, was
member of what the native mountalneers
called MIR. Marshalfs critter-back COM
pany," an organization that had innumer-
able tribulations, ''ups and DOWNS, cam
paigning in the Appalachians, always,
the better land" beyond, the "land OF
Beulah," where the meadow grass was
blue; but In this campaign we failed to
get there. We were wanderers III the
wilderness. Our chieftain was mighty
man, mentally and physically, but on tins
occasion he was not a Joshua, able to lead
Us into the Promised Land, where,
"Sweet fields beyond the swelling food
Stood dressed in living green"
1 am not sure, however, that Jordan was
any harder road to travel than the mean
dering bridle-paths over the Cumberland
the "Big Black" Pine Mountain and the
Kentucky Ridge. The frowning noun
tains present an aspect of nature rarely
frightened by the sunshine. Into the mar
row and deep valleys the sun does not
penetrate in Summer until it has climbed
high, and, in the middle of the afternoon,
.,,,l, hah fba ofhar leaves q
low twilight pending the impenetrable
gloom of night
In our wanderings we crossed many
streams, the names of which were neither
classic nor euphonous-Cu Shin, Greasy,
SQuabble, Upper Devil, Lower Devil, He'll
for-Certain, Quicksand, Lost Creek and
Troublesome. The only roads along these
streams were devious pathways, probably
NO better than when Daniel Boone killed
bears and Indians there in ''the long ago:
Necessarily, we usually marched "single
6le." Sometimes we would travel num-
ber of miles without seeing habitation-
Q dilapidated log-cabin, where the library
and the parlor, the family room and the
bedchamber, the dining-room and the
kitchen were all in one room, and that
q little one. Few and far between were
cases in the desolate wilderness. We did,
eowever, one afternoon, enter a favored
little valley where we met band of bare
footed, bareheaded children coming from
school These jewels of the Octavias of
the hills were a pleasing exhibition, an
bouncing the approach Of civilization;
Near Hazard, synonym of violence and
bloodshed, I saw a woman riding an OK
without saddle or bridle- Going to mill
che rode astride, perched upon bag OF
0helled corn. I do not think shall ever
forget that woman. Her costume was pc
euliar-unlike any fashion plate / had
ever seen. Her skirt, fearfully and won
derfully made, was short enough for any
@Please, Mister, gimme a chaw o ter
backer." Being a temperate boy, and not
altogether ''unclean," I informed her, to
her sorrow, that had no tobacco. Men.
women and children generally ignored
Noah Webster and Lindley Murray. Their
dress was uncouth and their manners were
not altogether lovely. Sometimes, not OF,
0 graceful form, an immortelle blooming
among the wild flowers that here and
there redeemed the desolation Of the vii.
6erness, recalling to my mind stanza OF
Gray's Elegy:
sFull many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean
bear;
Full many flower is born to blush un-
seen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert
air."
Lost Creek, some 10 miles long, empties
into Troublesome. / found trouble enough
on Lost Greek. A tow-headed youth told
me that Troublesome was "a right smart
piece off," but that I would get there if
] continued to follow Lost Creek. Well,
] found Troublesome troublesome stream
indeed, about so miles long, tributary
Of the Upper Kentucky River. was then
an 1S-year old boy, about the age of my
friend, the enemy" John McElroy; but
while the years have been going by l have
found other troublesomes by travelling the
Lost Creek route; l do not know why,
possibly because there was much water
there" Gen. Marshall pitched his tent in
the Troublesome Valley.
Almost daily we were annoyed by bush
whackers who fired upon US from unseen
and inaccessible eyries far up on the noun
tain side. Instinctiyely, like the eagle,
they FROSTED high"
''The eagle and the stork
Or cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build"
NOT A BANDIT.
The "bad man of the mountains" would
readily engage in a bloody, relentless ven
detta, but he would never think of organiz-
ing a band of banditti whose cry would
of theft was the most disgraceful in the
list Of infamies. Neither the bushwhacker
nor the "moonshine man" would steal
When we were meandering along Trouble
some, the bushwhacker would shoot to kill,
but he did not covet his victims watch or
money. l have known cultured soldiers,
reared in civilized Christian homes, who
could not resist an inherent propensity to
ego through" a captive or dead enemy's
pockets-sometimes even taking his
clothes. Another writer has well said: "a
moonshine man may take his neighbor's S
life, burn his house, and even 'extirpate his
family land q feud not infrequently. In
wolves just such a fierce and terrible de-
sign, but he would not take the saddle
exposed on that neighbor's fence, nor pill
fer a measure of corn-mea1, even II he
were suffering the pangs of enforced hun
ger"
Always charitably inclined, give the
devil his due, which is not much, and
am not averse to writing In letters of liv-
ing light a Justification of the mountain
mans shining virtue-he will neither
secretly purloin the property Of another
"Eor with base and boisterous sword
enforce
A thievish living on the common road"
However, "Mr. Marshalps critterback
company" learned by experience that the
bushwhacker on the war-path was pestif.
erous fellow. Generally we had nothing
about our persons to temp the cupidity Of
q thief or robber, but we placed a higt
valuation on our lives, which were never
aaeure whom the '.yhacker WAS looking al