The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-27
STORY Of THE BATTLE N s|
 OF MISSIONARY RIDGE
A Veteran Who Participated Gives a Description ol the Encounter With Its Humorous as We'll
 as Horrible Features.

, pine within foot of Braggs head. xl&
 one of their flags. informs the GenorXE
 that the enemy are marching q cclpQ1@, up cut road between two knobs W1ta,
 the intention of getting in our rear tlx1. cutting of all chance of retreat. Tol1)nxs
 us to go on about a mile and ma1ro As stand on another ridge, Brass puts sEuf1
 to his horse and Is soon out of sight at3t
 danger. Not so with one of his stan. 4or. General Breckinridge is captured. We
 again run, and this time the writer
 thinks that he is making tho uuickeee'
 run of his life. but somehow portion of
 our boys managed to keep ahead of hiu1-' It was "every man for himself,s and tlt<ss Tanks take the hindmest." if they could reached the ridge and lay flat upon it awaiting the approach of the enemy. It was then between sundown and dark, the tight having opened about o'clock in tho afternoon; Not long was the wait: for of us was black with FederaIA yelling and huzzaing at the top of their voice.. little dreaming that the Johnnies were. 70 Suddenly the little ridge was lit ur, by a sheet of flame. and the Tanks vera moved down by hundreds They seemed
 to have melted away, so close and deadly had been the aim. but fresh lines wore
 soon moved forward and the fight was renewed with little moro caution. The conflict was kept up until about o'clock at night. when General Bragg. hsy4nxI
 
 over Chickamauga Creek ordered us to fall back-apd thus ended tho battle or Missionary Ridge. s
 Now as to the humorous side of this battle. There were three incidents thnF would have made horse laugh if such
 a thing were possible. The first happened
 at the main ridge. or Missionary RidGe 'at the opening of the fight and while
 there was really very little danger Of be-
 ing shot. The writer. being on the leftsof
 his company. noticed tall young fellow
 of another company, who seemed to have
 buck" ague crouching near the ground
 and trying his best to cap his rifie. Upon
 asking him what was the matter. and
 why he did not get up and shoot, be-
 answered: T am naturally nervous. ]" On
 being remonstrated with by his lieutenant
 he finally succeeded in getting his gun capped. and springing to his feet like a
 'Jack-in-the-box fired almost straight
 up in the air. and then fell flat on thef ground SD quickly that it would haves on tho fly. Poor feliowi think that
 when he raised up the sight of so many,
 Yankees. so close by. nearly took hts ufc.
 The second incident happened while ev-s
 cry man was trying to forge ahead of the
 man in front of him in our wild flight from the ridge, and amid the bursting of shells and the blowing ID Of caissonS Our company had a big fat lieutenant who. while running. put ono in rnind Of a big turkey gobbier as he hopped ID and down. his fat face blood red from nfS exertlonS. lie was as brave a fellow as ever drew a sword, but oven the bray est had to flee. Somehow by crosscuf | he managed to get a little In front os me, and I noticed that every time hs. | made a jump biscuit would fly out of l rent in his haversack and go bouncing | away In the opposite direction I picked up two or three on the run and tlgn' called to him to stop and get his biscuise. His reply was Stop h--l! I wouIdttt stop for all the biscuits in the world.
 The third. and lasf. was one bf ths. gr eatestf surprises of my life. Having reached the last ridge, the writer en- sconced himself behind a small rotten
 stump: one of my messmates. M w..
 crawled up and placed himself right at
 my back. and In minute or two whe
 should emerge from tho brush in our rear and place himself behind my messmate
 but Naturally Nervous" as he was af-s forwards called. In few minutes the fight opened and the bullets began to fiy one glancing from the stump struck my partner upon the throat. causing him to turn purple in the face and gasp for | breath. for a minute or two The bah did not .enter-the stump had saved us both-and he was soon popping away again. This gave Naturally Nervous powerful shake-up and another ball strfk- ing the stump. glancing and breaking his arm caused him to jump about four feet high and make sudden dive for the bushes behind him as if Old Nick him. self was right upon his heels. If no one has headed him off. and informed him that the war is over. he is still making express time, for the way he thrashed l the bushes indicated top speed.
 W. B. Smith. ST.