The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1906-07-13
pEN-plCTURES OF THE OLDEN Time.
BY COL w L. CLAYTON.

=AA-1 A-\AAAA 4 &E
was a wreck. When we rode uI
everything looked like the moles
and bats had taken possession O
the, place, except that one lone
white man was standing there
He looked very lonesome, but was
of military age, and if we hao
been in some other place and al
some other time, we might have
made some inquiries of him along
that line, but as it was, we hao
no time for that. He looked very
much like he was all the man in
the world and that no women
were ever expected to make their
appearance in all the COMING
years. We rode up in a hurry
and l said in my short and blunt
way, Have you seen any Yam
KEGS here lately?" eyes" was
his answer. How long since.
and which way did they go?''
was my rejoinder. "Only ashort
while and they took that road, -
pointing to a settlement road
leading to the left from the rail-
road and the main road. No one
gave any order, / said nothing to
either Capt. Allen or private
Junior, nor did either of them
speak to me. very we'll knew
that Capt. Allen wanted to see
his foe, and as for Junior, neith-
er Capt. Allen nor | had the ut
most respect for him since we
heard him speak SO lightly of the
old farmer mans distresses, and
besides that, in a charge we had
made only a few days before in
which we captured some feder-
ais, Junior made the Yankee he
first got to deliver up his pocket
book and contents. So by COM
mon consent we struck out at a
sweeping gallop down the by
road the lone man pointed out as
the one the enemy had gone. If
you have your enemy with his
back to you and can thus take him
in the rear and unaware, the
course we then took, is all right;
but to rush on your foe thus
when he is fronting you and
aware of your approach IS not
good generalship unless you have
taken the precaution to ascertain
his position and strength. In this
instance my idea was to overtake
the soldiers who had just left the
old burnt depot before they got
back to their command. We had
found from experience if we
could make a rush on stragglers
we rarely failed to make a cap
ture. The enemy were moving
on several different roads all
converging onSavannah, and they
kept up constant communication
between the different high ways
by means of the country or pri-
vate ways. These men who had
just been down to the main road
at the depot; and who had been
pointed out to us by the lone way
farer have mentioned, were evil
dently a part of larger detail
whose business it was to keep up
this communication between two
of the routes on which Sherman
was moving. The country was
a beautiful level wooded plain,
and we made no halt for any,
thing, but kept up our gallop for
about one-quarter of a mile, when
we saw just in front of us and
about one hundred and. fifty
yards away a company Of about
twenty-five men. Seeing the
number and knowing we could
not effect anything by charging
them, but being of the opinion
they would think we were surely
supported by a larger command
or we would not have ventured
so near, we dismounted and each
man held his own horse while we
poured hot shot into them for
some little time with our repeat
ing rifles. We either killed or
badly wounded one man, whom
his comrades carried to the rear
| in full view. Having stayed as
long and probably a little longer
than was prudent, Capt. Allen
suggested we had better retire.
| fully agreed with him, and we
moved back in the direction from
which we came and to the main
road where we left the lone
stranger. When we returned to
the depot place, where ruin and
desolation reigned, and saw the
ascending smoke Of the recent
fires of the enemy, the lone
stranger still stood like a wan
dering Arab looking on the
wreck of his home land.