The daily Alaskan., 1905-10-21
The Lost Company

l ment, stationed about four miles from Bulls Gap, In the Tennessee noun tains, to move by night and capture 9 Confederate signal station which had a post upon a mountain crest ten miles away. This station commanded the pass so far as observation went, and every move of the Federal force there was at once reported.
 | The Idea was to move slowly and quietly, and thls was carried out The regiment had four hours and half to make the ten miles, and the vicinity of the signal station was reached at 4 o'clock In the morning. Three com panies were sent to the left, three to the right, and Company F was to make a log detour to get in the rear of the station and hold a mountain road against retreat All movements were made so quietly that no alarm was | given.
 Day had just begun to dawn when up from the valley came a white mist, cold as a shrOud and thick enough to cut out all objects twenty feet away.
 The Confederates at the station could | be heard moving and talking, but there could be no attack until the mist dis appeared. It hung over the mountain for two long hours before the rising sun began to eat Into it, and it was near ' o'clock before the FeleralS dashed forward. The surprise was complete. There were only fifty Con federate soldiers there as guard, and seeing the force opposed to them they prudentlv surrendered. Not a man was killed on either side, although there was considerable firing. The regiments sent out on the Hanks were up in tiu.c. and Colonel Davis supposed that the firing would bring in Com pany E.
 When m hour had gone by and nothing had been heard of 1t scouts were sent forward with orders for It to ioin the main force at once. At the end of two hours the scouts returned and reported that no trace of the com. pany could he found beyond a certain point.
 The main column returned to camp. and from hour to hour looked for the missing company. When day haI gone by without news from 1t two scouts wore sent out. There was fear now that it had been gohblcd up by a Confederate force. The scouts stru the highway and followed it to the bend. but they brought back no news.
 A native had gone along with i- to act as guide, and after three or four days had passed 1t was conciudcl that he might have led the detachment far enough to bring about it's capture by a Confederate force. The matter rested there for a week. Then two COnfed- denied having heard the least news of the missing company. Had it been captured they must have known of the event
 An advance by the COnfedcrates in force just at this time prevented any further search by the Federals, and for six weeks the fate of the hundred men was almost forgotten. Then there was an investigation ordered from Wash lngton. and the result was the trial anu dismissal of Colonel Davis. The Fed erals had been driven out of that part of Tennessee, and as a matter of fact they did not regain the ground again uptll the close of the war. Flags of truce were frequently resorted to to gain news of the missing company, anu all prisoners were closely questioned, but tbe war came to an end at last and the mystery had not been solved.
 No move was made until a year later. and then Colonel Davis himself took up the case. He was a wealthy mau, and he smarted under the dis grace put upon him by the court mar tlal
 Accompanied by two picked men he went over the route from Bulls Gap From the Confederate signal station ne struck for the highway and reached It. There was but one house on the road between that point and the bend, and the widow occupying 1t said that no force had passed on that night. She must have heard the company had 1t marched that way. The scouts sent out had never questioned this woman.
 Returning over the highway Davis and his companions had covered half the distance when they noticed the mouth of a ravlne to the right. IL started at the highway and descended SO gradually that 1t might have been taken In the night for another road. It deepened as they followed it, and at the end of a quarter of a mile, when 1t had become a rough and rugged ravine. It came to a sudden ending
 This did not look at all natural, and an investigation lasting half a day brought to light the fact that there had | been q landslide there. Hundreds of | thousands of tons of earth and rock, accompanied by hundreds of trees, had gone crashing down into the ravine and filled 1t to a depth of twenty feet The fill was from bank to bank, and It's length was about 800 feet. Weeds and bushes and young trees were al- l ready growing on the made ground.