The Tupelo journal., 1906-06-15
-rupELo. MISSISSIPPI. FRIDAY JUNE I5 1906.
PEN.pICTURES OF THE OLDEN TIME
BY COL w l.. CLAYTON.

4 ~
into the army for in 1861 was to
fight the enemy. They did not
know what was in store for
them, but the thing they went
for and longed for was battles,
and the long wait at Pensacola,
Fla, was a great disappointment
to our men. They would have
preferred a half dozen engage
ments with the enemy to the
long waiting and nothing doing
in the line of fighting. But they
found out later what it meant to
be in close touch with the ene-
my for days and weeks together.
No man knows just how he
will feel and act in a battle till
he has tried it. | only knew one
thing in relation to it, and that
is | would not RUN. My sense of
honor, and the love and honor |
bore to my father and mother,
enabled me to say, will not run,
but as to how | would feel and
act had but little conception.
The horse learns as soon as the
man. too, in what the danger
consists. Yousmay ride a horse
into a fight where the cannon
are booming and the small arms
cracking, and he will move on
undismayed until the whistle of
the shells or the singing of the
bullets can be heard, and then he
knows the danger even before he
| is hit, as we'll as man does, and
will shy from the sound of the
bullet, when he would pay no at
tention to the sound Of the report.
remember having been in a
fight at Collierville, Tenn, in
about August, 1868, in which we
attacked the fertilization; and
we were ordered at one stage of
the fight to lie down, and | was
myself lying by the. side of Ma
than Riley, the Orderly Sergeant
of Col. James Lyle's Company,
and while we were loading and
shootingI heard a whip-crack
noise by my side, and he said,
! "Tm shotv' The wound was
only a flesh .-anrd in the thigh
though, and It seemed to me. and
| always believed, if he had been
carried to a good hospital, or to
some private house where prop
er attention could have been CIV
en- to him, he might have recoV-
cred. But he was carried through
the country something like fifty
miles to his country home, and
the neglect and the wound to-
gether was too much for him,
and it proved fatal. If Nathan
Riley had been a general or even
a colonel, pages would long since
have been written about his val
or and constancy to duty, and
his virtues would haze been COM
mended to the skies. Bat feel
as keenly in the matter and as
kindly toward him as if he had
worn a wreath on lis collar and
remained In the rear on some
eminence and commanded the
battle. Nathan Riley was big
I souled and warm hearted man,
a dear lover of his country, and
ready to peril his life in her
cause. He lived out on Bogue-
falah just east Of the DR.. Hus-
sey farm, and | venture the as
sertion that no man ever had
more or warmer friends than he
in the community in which he
lived. Some men were wider
and more generally known than
he, and may have had more
friends, but he counted his
friends by the men who knew
him. All, Nathan, when last we
were together, it was in the
midst of danger and death; but
we shall meet again where nc
smoke or fire shall intervene.
There's but a span of earth which
now separates between us and
that shall soon be removed and
we shall then see even as we are
also seen.
My old friend, Tom Brooks,
used to rig me considerably about
a little incident that occurred at
Wyatt, Miss, where we were in
a fight with the enemy. We
were on the retreat and had to
fight at the river long enough to
enable us to cross over. 1t was
| in the fall of the year, and the
rain was coming down with 8
constant patter, and we were on
the side Of red hill, lying down
loading and shooting as fast as
| we could, obeying orders. Finally
! we were ordered to cease firing,
| but still to lie down. Tom Brooks
saws | looked at him, and he
! was living kinder on his knees,
and hands, with his body eleva-
ted considerably, a good mark
| for an enemy's bullet, and that
II said to him, Tom, you don't
j know how to lie down. You're
trying to protect your body from
1.-THE mnd. Here's the way to lie
down. and suiting the action to
I, 4ho urn,.d he saws strptchnd