The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-07-16
Killed Yankee, Carried
Body to Kirkpatrick.
A NIGHTMARE DRIVE
Carried Dead Soldier Through Lines
of Thousands of FederaIs... Threat
ened by Mob...kirkpatrick's
Admiration. The Brush
of Time.
Bv II. l.. GRAY.

through the years, fresh as or yeSter-
day, redolent of old-world honor and
sparkling with the daring of men like
morning dew. 1t is a brave tale, told
with a tragic simplicity. adorned with
the white plumes of chivalry. In its
paragrap hs men live again in strange
times, old passions come to the sur
face. old lessons shine through for
their eternal telling. 1t happened just
after the war, when Raleigh was full
of Federal troops. when every hill of
the suburbs and the country round
held the glimmer of hostile camp
fire. When General kirkpatrick was
here and the camp-followerS roaming
among unprotected homes added with
the realism of their brutality TO the
stories of worse than death that sped
ahead of the men in blue who had
come ct last.
Through these hundreds of thous-
ands, the hero OF the tale. soldier of
the South. alone and unprotected,
threads way and plays a part that
should live in song and story. What
he did-to this day. TO the caution of
these tines OF Deace-is as a voice
speaking in an unknown tongue. And
yet the tale is nothing If not human;
it breathes after forty years new life
in the telling. stirs the listless blood
TO think on.
Enter Yankee 'Bummers."
AT the close of the war. old man
Wesley Bum lived near the present
site Of Wakefield in Wake county. He
was resting after the tumult, gather
ing his sons about him, waiting for
that to happen which tate held in
leash. Two sons had come home from
he IA
mer sick with fever in the house, the
latter worn with battles and the ex-
posure of the final campaigns of the
struggle. ON the morning when the
story opens in august, 1865. the father
sat at ease in front of his country
home, smoking his pipe, thinking OF
the past and, doubtless. dreading the
future. Like SO many in that day, the
elder Bum had been a great maker
of brandy and there was still q guam
tty of the liquor on his premises. He
was not surprised. therefore, when
three Yankee soldiers came in his gate
and asked for drink. He gave ii to
them and filled up a canteen with the
brandy and the soldiers thanked him
and went away.
In "a short time they returned.
swinging the empty canteen. stagger-
ing q trifle, noisy and importunate.
They demanded more brandy. The
old man refused. He had not expect
ed them IO get drunk, he said. Or he
would not have given them what he
had. The blue coats insisted. The
old farmer was obdurate. The SOL
diers commenced to curse. The old
man, unafraid, rose from his chair and
ordered them from the yard.
Instantly the tone of the intruders
changed cminously. Their leader
swore again. reached in his pocket and
advanced with pistol in hand. saying
that he would have the liquor or kill
the man. Old man Bum stood firm,
his gray eye, that those who knew
him likened to that of a hawks, fixed
upon his foes. Slowly he backed
towards his house. but the leader OF
the bummers was excited beyond con-
troll. His face famed. Taking a step
forward, he levelled the pistol at the
breast of the old man and cooked it.
his finger on the trigger. 1t was
moment that burnt itself into the
memory of those who saw it.
The killing of the Soldier.
Among those who did see it were the
sons William and Cade within the
house. William was stretched upon
a bed Of fever: Cade was sitting ut
his side tanning his brow. When the
Yankee drew his pistol he knew that
l
ing from his seat he reached above
his head, snatched a musket from its
rack and fired before he had realized
his thought.
His finger still on the trigger of his
pistol, the advancing Yankee pitched
forward, drew uD his knees and was
dead His comrades, seeing him fall.
ran from the yard and down the road.
The little Southern family, hemmed
i'm by thousands of Union troops, We're
left with their body of death in blue
uniform,
The excitement of the killing does
not seem to have much affected these
people of time when blood was a
common portion of experience. They
were eienentarily just about it and
their feelings stopped at that point
The boy who had fired the shot hao
been on weary battle fields. had lain
out IN the fchting i'm the Wilderness.
had known the horror Of the Peters
burg trenches. A man dead more or
less. if he was killed with fair excuse,
was nothing to him.
But, at this time, a dead body in
blue was everything!
What to Do With the Body
AS they looked at the fallen soldier,
the family feared as far as they were
capable of being afraid. AT any mo-
ment other soldiers might come seek
ing brandy. If not by accident, they
would come by design. melted by the
tales told by the two others who had
escaped. The men in blue uniforms
were everywhere. And there was no
assurance of what they would do, OF
how Scrupulous they would be in the
taking OF vengeance. They could not
bury the man and hide his death.
They could not sit and wait for de-
struction at the hands of his friends.
In this dilemma, the boy who had
fired the shot spoke up:
There is one thing to do said he
land that is 10 carry that man to Gen.
erdi kirkpatrick. / shot him and l had
right to do 1t. They can do what
they want TO with me. but nobody else
is going TO suffer for what l did if ]
can help it,"
That was the ultimatum of Cadt