The Tupelo journal., 1905-07-07

OA AAAR NJ
have discharged all my loads,
as | had loaded fresh only thai
morning, | brought my pistol
down with all my power to knock
him from his horse, when he
sprung a countermine by bring
ing his gun with all his power
upon me, and thus breaking the
force of my stroke. Immediately
as our weapons clashed, his horse
fell dead, shot through in two
places, landing the soldier, how
ever, on his feet. Although 60
ing very rapidly, / reined my
horse at once, threw him well on
his hounches, broke one stirrup
leather, came near being thrown
to the ground, but faced the
soldier with my empty pistol pre-
scented at his breast, and said
"now surrender or / will shoot
a hole through you the blackbirds
can fly through" | was playing a
bluff game, as my pistol was emp
ty. AS the collision took place be-
tween US, both our guns fell to
the ground and were lying at
his feet. Seeing the stripes indi-
eating my rank, he said ::Lient,
do not kill me-. 4 told him by no
means if he surrendered all right,
and this he did, the tears stream
ing from his eyes. He remark
ed to me, "you have two very
good guns here" pointing to my
gun and his, but which he thought
were his and his partners. Point
ing to my gun, | said, "give me
up that gum. Thinking he
might use the gun on me, ! had
decided if he showed any fight
to endeavor to run over him and
crush him with my horse. But
he took the gun by the musel and
handed me the breach, and as |
received it | said, this is my
gun and it is well loaded and l
am all right" at the same time
slipping a couple of loads also
into my pistol. In the meantime
Allen and Martin passed on after
the other man, but, in the classic
language of Capt. Allen, The
gathered up his horse with his
spurs, shook him well, and was
gone like a streak of light.
Now let us turn to another
picture. The devotion and con-
stancy ofour women to the cause
of the South during the war is
proverbial, and on the night af-
ter the capture of the soldierre-
lated above, we had a striking
instance of it. Capt. Allen went
back to and brought up his beauti-
full white lame horse, and depos
tied him with a resident near the
the old camp, and we fingered
around there through the day
hoping to see some soldiers to
whom we could deliver our pris-
oner, so as not to reduce our little
force. During the day we made
the acquaintenanc Of tive families
of lonely women residing in the
neighborhood, and in about one
half mile of each other. All the
men of both families were from
home serving in the Southern
army. We.had arranged to remain
with our prisoner at one of the
houses, and this fact was known
to the women at the other house.
It was a gloomy December day,
the leaden clouds hanging low
and bringing darkness early.
Soon after dark, and it was a
very dark night, the rain began
to fall in a slow steady down
pour. We had seen no Federals
since the morning, and all our
observations led us to believe
we were safe for the night and
m ght take the shelter of the
good ladies home, and so we did
and had retired, save Capt. Allen,
who was to be the first to take
his turn guarding the prisoner.
About ten o'clock, quick steps
and a nervous, hurried knock
at the rear of the house,
indicated danger of some kind.
On attending to the call, we had
presented to us the familiar faces
of two Of the young ladies from
the othera house whose friend
ship we misunderstanding the day,
and who modestly, but exciteoly,
informed us there were about
twenty five Federal soldiers at
their home looking for us, and
that they had slipped out the
back way, ran through the wood
path to warn us of our danger.
Not knowing but that the enemy
would be coming on the trail OF
our fair friends, assure you we
lost no time in getting a mile in
to the woods beneath the great
pines, and there on the pine
straw without any covering ex'
cept the over hanging and drip.
ping clouds, we spent the night
sleeping soundly, trusting to hin
who watched to give notice Of
approaching danger. Next day
we turned in our prisoner al
right, and pursued our way OF