The Tupelo journal., 1905-06-30

but thinking it will break the
monotony of the recitation, /
ask you to insert it now. And al
hough it makes M the hero of
my own tale, | only make the ex-
cuse of Col. Russell O. Been, Of
old time memory, He that blow
eth not his his own horn, his
own horn. it shall not be blown.)
Look on this Picture, then
on that"
In December, 1864, the Caval-
ry Command to which, belonged
being the 18th Miss. Cavalry,
Ferguson's Brigade, was follow
ing Sherman through Georgia to
the sea. Our orders were to look
after straglers, and keep the Fed
erals closed up as much as pos
sible, so as to prevent the burn
ing of property. such as gins,
mills, and cotton, not in the i'm
mediate path of the army. Many
soldiers began to read final de-
feat between the lines, and
sqnad after squad had dropped
out and gone home, so that the
disposition between privates and
officers was so great that when
we got within something like a
hundred miles of Savannah follow
ing Sherman, by solicitation Of a
number of our regiment, we
were detailed as scouts. At the
fortyfive mile station this side
of Savannah, the Federals made
a considerable halt, remaining in
camp about a week, In the squad
to which l was att ached were
Capt. r. H. Allen, and Lieuts.
H. w. Buoy aud Duke Martin
and a private from Texas by the
name of Junior who had gotten
lost from his command and fell
in with US. We thought we dis
covered late one evening. that the
enemy was on the move. We
made a dash up close to their
camp and captured a prisoner
from whom we learned that the
army would break camp the next
morning. Early next morning
having sent off the prisoner by
Lieut.. Buoy, Capt. Allen, Lieut..
Martin and | cautiously examin-
the situation, and discovered
that the Union army was moving
on toward the sea. We followed
for something like a couple of
weeks, found the rear gaurd too
strong and too compact to enable
us to do them any damage in
the way Of capturing straglers.
Hoping to follow on later in the
day, and have better success, we
returned to the camp which had
that morning been vacated by
the enemy. Capt. Allen,
who always had weakness for
anything fine or beautiful, hav-
ing discovered a fine and lovely
looking white horse in the de-
serted camp, which had been a.
bandoned on account of some
deficiency in one of his hoofs
was bridling aud preparing to
Eplace the horse in the care Of
some residents near the old camp.
Lieut.. Martin and I were some.
thing like a hundred yards from
Capt. Allen sitting on our horsas
lin general conversation, and es-
pecially making some structures
on Capt. Aliens craze for the
fine white lame horse. 1t had
been raining that morning, and
h / had placed my navy in my boot
ID leg under my leggins in order to
keep it dry. | had in my lap a re-
le peating breech loading gun which
$ had been captured from the enc
!. my by some of our boys. / my
le] self had become careless, as sol
diers will sometime do and being
n wearied with long sitting inmy
saddle, had kinder stopped over
on the horn of my saddle. Lieut..
Martin had only a pistol, and be-
ing erect on his saddle, and fac
ing toward the center Of the old
camp, saw just in front Of him
and about fifty yards from us
two Federal soldiers sitting their
! horses and looking at US. Martin
said to me Lieut.. Clayton,
what arc those men doing vnn-