The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1903-10-21


morning our whole force crossed the
river and expected to engage the
enemy, but they had moved away dur
ing the night. OF course. we follow
F, ed after them, as our route to Win
chester lay almost directly in the way
they had taken. They were literally
"out Of sight, but they haG left
trail OF fire in their wake which show
cd plainly the way they had gone, for,
IN looking along the pike road ahead
OF US, from little hill top, | counted
twenty .onc dwelling houses burning,
which they had set on fire as they
passed. No such vandalism had ever
been practiccd before, and it proved
the truth Of General Sheridan 5 threat
to so devastate the beautiful valley of
Virginia that crow flying over it
would have TO carry it's rations with
1T. = That afternoon, as the general
and the staff we're riding along at the
head Ct the column, we came to l. little
stream, and stopped to let our horses
drink, when suddenly the report of
three or four rifles rang out ahead Of
US and zip, zip sang the familiar
'mlnnlcs' as they flew among US, but
fortunately they did not stop with us.
We quickly rcned our horses out to
the side OF the road, as it was all open
/ on either side. AS we did so VIC saw
body Of cavalry in a strip Of woods
some three hundred yards ahead Of us,
and they appeared to be in great com
motion. Soon We saw that they were
moving away through the woods. At
this moment some one in our party Ct
think it was Mr.. Tucker, one of the
couricrs) cried out at the top of his
voice: 1T is nothing but body of
cavalry; let us charge them!" With
one accord, each man in our party,
acting under the impulse of the mo-
ment, and the inspiration of the dar-
ing command, quickly applied his
spurs to his horses side, and was off
in sweeping, "helter skcI.er" gallop,
after 'he now fleeing enemy, General
Anderson himself being among the
foremost. There was neither pis-
tol, sword, nor any other kind of wea-
pom in the party, and we could have
made but poor resistance to the
cnem, if they had known who We were
and h turned upon us. But they
did not know our weakness, and so
they led the race with all the speed
they could make, for we found their
horses to be very tired.
We chased them at full speed for
several miles, when we had got so far
ahead of the column it was deemed
unsafe to continue the pursuit any
further. In the rould up we found
we had captured three prisoners and
twenty eight horses, with their full
equipment of saddles, brides, blan.
kcts and sabrcs. We actually ran
down several horses in the road and I
remember we'll that my horse actually
leaped over one of the fallen horses
as he lay struggling on the ground.
The horses we captured were aban-
doned by their riders, who dashed
into the woods as we pressed close
upon them; but as We had, no arms.
we could not prevent their escape. '
From the three men we captured
We learned that the party numbered
eiL Lty men and that they we're escort
ing the mail from Sheridan's S army to
Washington, but had missed their
way. They were greatly surprised and
alarmed when they met US, as they be-
lieved US to be strong force of Con-
federate cavalry, but of course did not
know our strength Or weakness, for
that matter That night we had quite
lot of horses, as the result of our
capture. Next morning General An
derson Informed us all that we might
each select one of the horses as our
own II we wished and some time we
could turn over to the quartermaster
"any old horse we could get in the
place of it. This offer was gladly 40.
cepted and rush was made for the
lot. I selected small chestnut sor-
rel Canadian pony and was guyed for
my selection Of so small horse, when
could have taken larger one; but
found it to be all that I expected it
to be, and that it could stand more
hard service than larger horse, for I |
was often in the saddle from thir,y-six
to forty-eight hours, with no time to.
rest except few minutes when stop
ped to feed it. It stood the service
all right and never had cause to re-
pret nv choice in select;no Il Aftor