Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1904-10-26
BULL RUN IN MINIATURE.
An Ex-Confederate Tells a Funny
Story of His Adventures in
Northern Missouri.

In the summer of 1861 Col. Martin
Green was appointed a brigadier gen.
eral of the secession forces in the First
congressional district of Missouri, and
he gathered up 1900 men to stamp out
unionism in that section, and particu-
larly to wipe off the earth Col. David
Moore, and his First Northeastern
Missouri infantry" which were sta
toned at Athens, Mo. Dr. j. T. Norris,
now prominent physician Of Kahoka,
Mo-, was one of Green's band, 1.-The
flower of the land" as the secession
papers described them, and gives this
account of the battle:
"Our men got off their horses and
tied them to trees and fence posts.
They were armed with shotguns and
squirrel rifles that would shoot posi-
bly, from Is to $50 yards. Then we had
two cannon, six and a nine FOUNDER
''The federals lined up in the form of
an L. Our cannon were unlimbered
and the gunners went to work. To me
it looked homicidal to point those
grim monsters at human beings. Re-
member, none of us knew any more of
war beyond what we had read il. the
books
"The cannoneers applied their
matches. l shuddered and turned my
head. Two awful detonations followed
and the balls lit in Iowa. They gra-
ciously Travelled about 300 feet above
the enemy, who jeered us.
For two hours the battle ragged on
! TANKS and center. Word came to us
that the Des Moines river was almost
choked with the corpses of the federals
1t was said the river was becoming a
rich carmine hue. We cheered and
started forward. Then we made dis
agreeable discovery-the enemys mus
kets would shoot more than twice as
far as our hunting guns We might
! just as we'll have been shooting in the
air for all the good we were doing
"Of course, the thing to have done
on learning of the superior range of
their guns was to charge 'em. There
were enough of us to have gathered
in the whole crowd, brass buttons and
all. But their guns could outshoot
ours, and it was as easy as adding two
and two to figure out that they must
necessarily be able to lick us. Every
blessed confederate turned himself into
a lightning calculator to work out this
result and then made a break for his
horse
Did run, too? You bet l did. It
seems funny enough now, but thought
l had fine reason for it then. In spite
OF the Des Moines river being damned
by dead bluecoats, we felt certain that
there were enough left to reach US with
those terrible long-range muskets.
"You never saw such a mix-up as
when the fugitives tried to unhitch
their horses. Few waited to unite them.
Some slashed the brides with a knife;
others tried to jerk them loose by main
force. The horses imbibed the terror
Of their masters and jumped around
frantically. Many broke loose and
rushed wildly across the field, adding
to the uprOar. Some of the excited
soldiers struck out across the country
without taking time to get their horses
The cannon-those terrible engines de.
signed to terrify the enemy-were
dragged off the field and hidden in
some hazel brush
THE rout didn't stop until the con.
federates got back to their homes in
Marion, Lewis, Shelby, Scotland, Knox
and Schuyler counties. You never saw
men so homesick in all your life. Dur.
ing all this panic and confusion there
! 1%% ~