The National tribune., 1904-09-22
A MISSOURI BULL RUN.
An Ex-Confederate Tells Funny story OF
His Experiences.

In the Summer of 1861 Col. Martin
Green was appointed a Brigadier- General
of the Secession forces in the 1st Congress
sional District of Missouri, and he gath.
cred up 1900 men to stamp out Unionism
in that section, and particularly to wipe
off the earth Col. David Moore, and his
"1st Northeastern Missouri Infantry
which were stationed at Athens, Mo. DR.
j. L. 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 &C.
count 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 possibly from 70 to 15C
yards. Then we had two cannon, a six
and nine-pOunder.
THE Federals lined up in the form of
an l.. Our cannon were numbered and
the gunners went to work. To me it looked
homicidal to point those grim monsters
at human beings. Remember, none of us
knew any more of war beyond what we
had read in the books.
The cannoneers applied their matches
| shuddered and turned my head. Two
awful detonations followed-and the balls
lit in Iowa. They graciously Travelled
about 300 feet above the enemy, who
jeered us.
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 rich carmine
hue We cheered and started forward
Then We made a disagreed BILE discovery
the enemy's muskets would shoot more
than twice as far as our hunting guns We
asfyIk ,rck
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
us. Every blessed Confederate turned him
self into a lightning calculator to work
out this result, and then made a break
for his horse.
did l run, too? You bet I did. II
seems funny enough now, but l thought ]
had fine reason for it then. In spite OF
the Des Moines River being damned by
dead bluecoats, we felt certain there were
enough left to reach us with those terrible
long-range muskets.
you never saw such mix-up as when
the fugitives tried to unhitch their horses
Few waited to unite them. Some sla shed
the brides with 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 Confed.
| crates got back to their homes in Marion.
Lewis. Shelby, Scotland, Knox and Schuy-
Ter Counties. You never saw men so home
sick in all your life. During all this panic
and confusion there was no attempt by
the enemy to pursue. While Col. Moore's
soldiers could Outshoot us, they couldn't
outrun us-not that day.
After the excitement had worn off q
bit, and the boys had rested. they met and
reorganized. Every man said he wasn't
scared up there at Athens; he lust wanted
to get away They laughed over their
display of panic, but were grimly deter
mined it should never occur again.
'Those men who ran the hardest de-
veloped into the finest soldiers. you ever
saw. They joined the regular Confeder-
ate army, and many Of them atoned with
their lifeblood for their scare at Athens.
Inconsequential as the battle was, it gave
them in after days the equipOise Of vet
Grams and taught them how to stand and
be shot at without finching"