The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1905-08-24
THE FIELD OF BATTLE
INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES OF
THE WAR.
The Veterans of the Rebellion Tell of
Whistling Bullets, Bright Bayonets,
Bursting Bombs, Bloody Battles,

Near Centralia, Boone County, Mo,
Is spot where nearly 200 Federal SOL
diers shed their blood, Sept 81, 1864.
With Major A. V. E. Johnson Of the
Thrirty-ninth Missouri Infantry in
command, the little detachment of sol
diers met Captains Bill Anderson and
George Todd and their band of guer-
rillas. Scarcely a dozen Federal sol
diers escaped alive, while only two Of
the guerrillas were killed. Every
Union soldie~ on the line of battle Per
ished, and the ten men who got away
were those detailed to hold the horses.
Frank James, who was in the men,
orable fight, rode over the battlefield
few years ago for the second time in
his life.
There is the spot" he said to a cor
respondent of the st. Louis Republic,
there is the place where the Union
line went down. Yonder on the rise
near the hayrick the Federal troops
were drawn up. Just this side, to-
ward Centralia, stood the detachment
which held their horses. On the edge
OF the wood beyond our men formed"
His memory served him well. He
had not been to the field before nor
since the day of the fight. II can 60"
he said, Ito any battlefield where l was
engaged and pick out almost instantly
the locations. 1 guess it's the close
ness Of death which photographs the
scene on ones memory"
A few moments later he came into
the field itself. Corn was growing rank
and herd Of cattle calmly feeding on
the pasture land Where the Federals
stood was the golden yellow Of hay
field. Here James wandered around
for a few moments.
1.-The day before we had many a
small skirmish down In Goslins Iane
between Columbia and Rocheport.
don't know what day ii was. We could
scarcely keep account of months at
that time, much less days. We killed a
dozen Federal soldiers in Goslin's lane
and captured wagon train of pro-
visions and stuff. Out in the Perche
hills that night we joined forces with
Bill Anderson. l was with Captain
George Todd, one of the hardest fight
ers that ever lived, but less desperate
than Anderson"
James paused a moment-his CONVEX
sation was in scraps all day and only
here put in connected form-he
paused a moment and continued: Bill
Anderson had much to make him mer-
CHESS. You remember the treatment
his father and sisters received at the
hands of the Kansas Jayhawkers That
night we camped on one of the
branches leading into Youngs creek
not far from the home of Colonel NJ.
g. Singleton. There were about 225
men. all told, in our combined COM
mand. Funny, isn't it? I've met or
heard of at least 10000 men who
claimed to be with Quantrell or his
lieutenants during the war, when the
truth is there were. never more than
$50 or 400 from one end of the war to
the other.
I'm the morning Anderson took
about thirty of his company and went
into Centralia. 1 was not with him,
nor was any Of Todd's company. In
Centralia Anderson captured a train,
carried off a lot Of stuff, shot down
some soldiers who were on the train.
and did other things about which 1
know nothing except from hearsay,
and which Todd condemned when tie
boys returned. In the afternoon Cap
tain Todd detailed a detachment Of ten
men under Dave Pool to go out and
reconnoiter. We had heard there were
some Yankee troops In the neighbor-
hood. This squad was composed Of
Dave Pool, Wood and Tuck Hill, Jeff
Emery, Bill Stuart. John Pool, Payton
Long, Zach Sutherland and two others
whose names 1 don't remember. They
were to find out If there were any Fed
erals around, how many, and, If posi-
BILE, toll them down toward our camp
pool did his duty we'll He found
out the location of the Federals, rode
close to them, and then galloped rap
idly away, as If surprised to see them
The Federalists followed. have never
found anybody who could tell how
many there were Of them. Pool report
ed to us there were $50 and he was
usually very accurate. On they came
out from Centralia. Pool and his men
came up and reported. Todd called
out, Mount up, mount upr
1.-The Yankees stopped near the rise
Of the hill Both sides were in full
view Of each other, though nearly a
half-mile distant The Yankees dis
mounted, gave their horses into charge
of a detail Of men, and prepared to
fight.
John Roger. funny fellow in our
ranks, watched the Yankees get down
from their horses, and said: why, tie
fools are going to fight us on footv
And then added in seriousness: God
help EN-
1--WE dismounted to tighten the belts
on the horses, and then, at the word
OF command. started on our charge.
The ground, you will notice, rises
sharply, and we had to charge up hill.
For moment we moved slowly. Our
lire was nearly quarter Of mile
long; theirs much closer together. We
were still some 600 yards away, our
speed increasing, and our ranks closing
up, when they fired their first and only
time. They nearly all fired over our