The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1907-01-11
TUPELo, MISSISSIPPI FRIDAY JANUARY II, 1907

John Wise, Joe Stockton, GOm
Westmoreland, Geo. Brown, dis,
John Lilies, VIM. Loncaster, J M
Bachum.
| The above is o muster roll of
the Town Creek Rifles, which
wos organized March 18, 1861 at
Old Richmond, Itawamba county
Miss, and rendezvoused at Cor
inth, Miss. May 1st, 1861 and
became Co. C. of End Miss, and
left for Lynchburg, Va. about
May 10 and enlisted in the SER
vibe Of the Confederate States
about June 1st and was ordered
to Harper's Ferry, Va. about
June 10, 1861.
w. C. Bromley was elected as
delegate to the convention from
Itawamba. He was opposed to
secession, but when the ordi-
nance of secession was passed,
he, like all other patriots, joined
and gave himself to his State
and offered his services to Gov.
Pettus rnd obtained a commits
sion as captain and came home
and raised a company and he,
having had some military expe-
rience, (by reason of having been
with Jeff Davis in Mexico) was
elected captain and / remember
we'll his reply to the. boys who
were all greeners and said they
would fay the Yanks before
breakfast and be back home be-
fore the dinner horn blew, he
told them it might be late bed
time before we got back, and he
was surely right.
Well, the boys would halt and
absolutely refuse to go until we
could get passenger coaches to
ride in at first and the captain
would say, BOYS, you will be
glad to get flats after awhile. +"
But our real military lire never
begun until about the time we
left Harper's Ferry, and we
were getting very anxious to
have chance to whip the Yanks
and go back home and we really
thought that we were going to
have it right now. We were
drawn mp in full battle array,
and the cyuriers were dashing
back and farth with orders and
conducting regiments to posi-
ton until nightfall and we were
ordered to sleep on arms. We
of course thought that we would
have the chance for our before
breakfast-spell the next morn.
ing. So the matter was easily
explained by Col. Faulkner and
Capt. Bromley, who said both
armies were so large that they
could not get in position in time
to fight to a finish before night
and so we were to sleep every
man with gun in hand, expect
ing ty meet the Yanks next
morning and about two hours be-
fore day we were ordered up
and took a beeline to the turn
pike road to Winchester, and the
Yanks were going on the other
end of the same road for Will
liamsport. Johnson giving Nc
Dowd the slip and vice versa and
| never saw madder set of
boys in my life: but the captain
said, Boys, you will all be glad
for a chance like this before this
if done with" So military life
went on drilling and making be-
lieve that we were going to fight
until the evening of the 18 of Ju-
ly we were ordered on force
march to Manassas and after
marching all night and all day
the 10, we camped at a little
station on the Manassas Gap K.
R., sleepy, hungry, footsore from
marching on pike roads, and sure
enough. as the captain said, we
were all glad to ride on flat cars
down to Manassas on the goth.
We went out on the front line
and camped and as we passed on
we saw many Of the boys who
had had some experience on the
18th at Bull Run. We guyed
and taunted the boys and they
would reply, Here, you fellows
may have our place." We struck
camp on the fighing line about
sundown. With loaded guns in
hand we slept that night and
were woke up next morning by
Winfield Scott's signal gun and
after eating some hard tack, salt
meat and coffee we put in the
day at manouvering and double
quicking from one point to an
other, every fellow holding out
as long as he could stand it until
about 3 p. m. we found a place
where the Yanks were driving
some Georgia Crackers off and
we had a chance to show what
kind of stuff we were made Of,
and in speaking Of it afterward
Capt. Beck of Co D. said that
he tooki80 men up to the muzzle
of long Tom and left 80 OF them
ly;nr tbnrn and when he had no.