The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-08-27
MY LAST SHOTS AT THE
 CLOSE OF THE CIVIL WAR

pened. I saw the bunch of fodder lying in the road, but no "Yank." Casting my eye down the road l could see little clouds of dust rising all along. Finally l spied the image of a man and horse as they disappeared over the top of a hill about a mile away.
 There I stood with my barred head, and with my eye lashes and brows singed off, listening to the fast receding echoes as they reverberated over hill and vale, caused by the explosion or the rifle.
 Believing that when the cavalryman reached his camp and made his report to his command of what had happened to him a detachment of soldiers would be sent back to capture me and burn my houses. l hastily made my way to the top of a hill near by, from which I could observe the approach of an enemy from all directions. I remained there all day on guard.
 In the middle of the afternoon I had not seen a living being during the day was beginning to get desperately hun gry, so l ventured to crawl to a gar den which happened to be near by But I could find nothing to eat. Noticing some punches of catnip I gathered an armful and crept back to my post of observa- tion and sat down on log. Without any prefacing prearranging I began my repast in silence.
 If you will allow me to use the home spun phraseology, I was in a d--l of a fix, at home with nothing to eat except catnip, and looking for the Tanks" to come after me- l could see the curling smoke rising from the chimney tops of the home of the girl had left behind me, whom I had not been able to see since I got home.
 Night soon coming on, a trusty negro living on the farm happened to come along. hailed him and explained to him my troubles. He volunteered to go to his house and bring me his shot gun, which he said was loaded with buckshot Knowing 1t might be dangerous to go to my house to sleep, I shouldered the shot gun and went down into a field and found a pen filled with cotton which I crawled into. After placing the gun where I could reach it in case of emergency, buried myself in the cotton and was soon asleep.
 'Mirabule dictu" In the after part of the night I was suddenly awakened from my happy dreams by a moving, screech- ing and screaming. I thought that the whole of the federal cavalry that was in the south was making a charge upon me, and I hurriedly reached for the old shot gun, poked the barrel through crack in the pen and pulled the trigger. Then heard moans and stamping of retreat HE lHbTScS lttts dS Sdppo1cu LHem to be. Soon all was quiet again.
 But there was no more sleep for me. I pried through the darkness, until the peep of day began to dawn upon the scene. Then to my disgust, what I had mistaken for cavalrymen had been cat tie feeding around the pen, and the squalling had been caused by cats that had been attracted to the pen from the surrounding neighborhood homes by the fumes of the catnip. The groans were from an old muly COW that I had shot. As she was the only COW on the farm that was giving milk, my milk supply was cut off by my own hands.
 That left me furious, and I swore right there and then that would join the Ku Klux, which I did. and soon had the glorious satisfaction of seeing my native county and state going democratic "Sic transit gloria mundi.
 P. M. VANCE, First Lieutenant Company r, Bibb Grays.
 Eleventh Alabama Regiment, Wilcoxs
 old Brigade, Army of Northern Vir-
 ginia.