The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1904-12-08
BULL RUN IN MINIATURE.
An Ex-Confederate Tells Funny
Story Of His Advmturas In
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0DoxY 0x &410 100VVRS0x0S
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n 0s summer Of 1ssl Col. Martha
Grssa was appointed . brigadisr ssn-
eral Of the secession forces In the First
congregational district Of Missouri. and
he gathered up 1900 men to stamp out
unionism in that section, and partieu-
larly to wipe OF 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 hand. Tho
flower Of the land" as the secession
papers described them, and gives this
account of the battle:
Our men got OF their horses and
tied them to trees and fence posts.
squirrel rifles that would shoot possi-
bly, from Is to $50 yards. Then We had
two cannon. six and . nine-pounder.
The federals lined up in the form Of
IN L. Our cannon were un1imbered
and the Sunners went to work. To me
1t 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 tho
books.
@'The cannoneers applied their
matches. I shuddered and turned my
head. Two awful detonations followed
and the balls lit in Iowa They gra-
ciously travelled about 800 feet above
the enemy, who jsered 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 q
rich carmine hue We cheered and
started forward. Then we made dis
agreeable disc0very-the onemy's mus
kets would shoot more than twice as
tar rs our hunting guns. We might
iust as we'll have been shooting in the
air for all the good we we're doing.
''0 course, the thing to have done
on learning Of the superior range Of
their guns was to charge IN. 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 l run, too? You bet I did It
seems funny enough now. but thought
had a fine reason for 1t 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 lons-rangs muskets.
you never saw such Z mix-up as
when the fugftives tried to unhitch
their horses. Few waited to unto them.
Some slashed the brides with q 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 tho excited
soldiers struck out across the country
without taking time to get their horses.
Tho cannon-those terrible engines do
signed to terrify the enemy-were
dragged OF 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
was no attempt by the enemy to pur-