Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1902-02-26

then nearly thirty-fiye, enlisted at the
old battalion muster gronnd on tho Oak
way road in the COMPANY being recruited
by Col. Ledbetter, which was mustered
into tie Confederate service as Com
.pany i, Orr's Regiment, with X. a. Haw-
thorn, captain, commanding, Col. Led
better. who raised the company having
been elected major upon the rcf,imentai
organization. Mr.. Milford was With his
company through the whole period of
the war, taking part in the battles of
Gaines's Mill, Cold Harbor, Chansellors-
vile. Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spott-
sylvaDia, the Second Cold Harbor, Peters
burg, Reams' Station, Jones's Farm,
Southerlapd Station and many minor en-
gagements, and wound up at Appomattox
with McGowan aud the remnant of the
brigade. He WAS never captured and
but once wounded, losing a finger in the
bloody angle at Spottsylvania. For a
time he belonged to the color guard of
the regiment, and ON one occasion when
the color-bearer Kyle was shot down in
the heat of battle, Mr.. Milford seized the
colors and bore them aloft till the battle
ended. It is easy e. say IL and the temp
tatlon is hard to resist, that Confederate
soldiers did their duty, but that there
were few, III any, better soldiers than
Sergeant Milford, is a statement which
every survivor of Company + will verify.
Aho ihouo ehp JOuIuoy nOnG from ApDO-
mattox In company with ten survivors OF
Company f, but there were three other
soldiers in the party-Chappell and
Mitchell, of q. Georgia regiment, and
Coon or Kuhn, of Abbeville. The sur
yivors of Company Il were Capt. Bill
Terrell whom Col. Miller had promoted
from sergeant to the captaincy for dis
tinguished, .gallantry and for high sol
dierly qualities, M. A, Terrell, James
Dickson, t. A. McElroy, Dan Hull, John
Hull, two Honea boys and @. s..
Milford. The party walked all the
way from Appomattox except n ride
from Greenville to Anderson and
from there to Pendleton. They in
tended to go home with Tom McElroy,
who lived on the railroad two miles
above where Seneca now is, but when
they got to Pendleton on May 1st the
town was in an uproar of excitement
from threatened Yankee raid, and the
captain of the home guards tried to in
duce Capt. Terrell to stop and help him
fight, But Capt. Terrell replied that he
and his men were paroled prisoners and
were. done fighting. The party then
struck out foot, the train having backed
TO anderson with McElroy aboard, and
crossed the Seneca on the railroad bridge
Uhe big freshet In January having
swept the Cheery's bridge away where
they got Mrs. Patterson, who had kept
the bridge to cook the rations of flour,
seconds" they had drawn at Anderson.
They quit the railroad at Adams cross
ing and took the road leading past
Friendship church and on to the high
bridge on Conneross. A Mr.. Moore lived
on the hill just north of the creek at that
time. He know some-of the party and
had them stop and spend the balance of
the night with him, for tho journey from
the railroad had been made in the night.
This was to be the last night the boys
were to spend together after four years
of campaigning that had linked them as
with hooks of steel, and the contempla-
tion of it makes one sad. They were up
early on the morning of the I'd, for on
that day the entire party wonid reach
home. At the old muster grounG, where
most of them had volunteered four years
before, the first break occurred, the
Honea boys switching off toward South
Union and the Terrell brothers, with
Chappel and Mitchell, towards Retreat.
Dr. Miller stopped them and gave them
royal dinner, spiked with pure corn
whiskey. Milford and Dickson and the
Hulls kept on towards Westminster, but
at the cross roads Dickson dropped
out, cutting across the country to his
fathers.
When Mr.. Milford reached the old
Ward home, within sight of his own, he
found his four little boys, the eldest but
ten, hoeing corn on the opposite side of
the road. 81 couldn't pass the little fell
lows before going to the house, and so
went out to EN-, When asked if no
took the little laborers into his arms,
knowing him to be an undemonstrative
man, he said, "oh, yes; but don't think
Albert Gust five) knew me' and /
could not keep tho mist from My oyes
as he told it. w. x. ID.