The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1908-05-02
WAR STORY
OF HARDSHIP
CONFEDERATE VETERAN
RELATES SOME UN-
WRITTEN HISTORY

Special to Daily Leader.
Nluskogee. okla. Nay f-Charlos
Gibson, a full-blood Creek. who lives
at Hanna and Is one of the most in
lelligcnt men of his race. was con.
tederate soldier and fought until the
end of the war. The following vivid
description he gives of the return 10
ms home tells story OF SUFFERING
among the Indians on account of tho
war that the histories do not SUI
gest MIR Gibson says:
I was then a mere boy and was
one of the first TO return to an ash
bank that had left comfortable
nome. My brother traded ION. ans;
saddle that he had acquired In tho
march home In some way. for team
Of oxen to carry the family back 10
the Old home in the native land. Our
property then consisted of few OH
quits, mostly holes, ten razorback
DOGS, the OK team and wagon and
shot gun with only one barrel loaded
Wlth the last that ~as left OF the con
tederacy Our entire stock of gro
ceries consisted of half a bushel of
golden corn meal Thus the "trip was
undertaken. ! acted as teamster for
the oxen over the tortaous Nay. and
i was many a day before we rsach,,d
The hills from which we could view
cur old home.
we Travelled six days without see
Ing Z thing to kin with out last load
81 shot. On the morning of the sew
enth day we divided our last corr
pone ana we were facing starvation
1t was the last mouthful and tl,ere
of ttr q q
tried the souls of women as well as
men. Had all our razorbacks been
killed they would not have made
enough grease to oil the lock of orr
shot gun. As the day wore on our
hunger increased. and so did that of
our hogs. Finally an old SOW broke
away from us and chasing her
we jumped up a large red squirrel
which hoped up in a small tree. NV
| brother refused TO allow the last load
in the gun to be fired at a squirrel
so we resorted to rocks. We were
good at throwing rocks, and goaded
on by hunger we threw at that sqirrel
as we had never thrown before and
finally killed him II meant meat to
lstaving men, and how we pounced
upon him when he fell
While we were trying to get the
squirrel the hogs had strayed away
| up small ravinc In search Of water.
in rounding them up accluentally dis.
covered a wild turkey sitting on her
| nest. ] hurried back to the wagon
and told my brother to give me thai
last load TO shoot the turkey or else
give II TO me In my heart. He gave
me the gun and with II crawled and
wormed my way back To the place
where | had seen the turkey and with
careful aim, fired the last load of The
lconfederacy, so far as we were con
cerned. and Il cut the turkeys head
OFF as cleanly as with a knife. Ufdor
this hen there We're nine fresh eggs
We could now begin TO smile for here
was meat, plenty of il for one day, at
least. Just as we We're rounding up
our hogs a bunch of quail wore seen
running down trail With rocks we
crippled one Of the quail and il new
into thicket and fell We slipped
mp cat-like and with spring fastened
The bird down under the brush with
our hands I'm doing this the rush nf
wind blow aside the dead leaves that
covered the nest of another wild tur-
key In which there were fourteen eggs
The eggs we carefully placed in M
old confederate hat and bore back tn
the wagon. All that day we had been
facing starvation. Now We had squir-
rel, turkey quail and eggs, but not q
particle of bread.
We drove down a little brook and
unyeked Mike and Mig and were pro
pairing Tor a feast when from tho op-
posite hill there came a whiie man
who asked MS 10 tell him for heavens
sake If we had bite to eat He said
he had not had bite of meat for four
DAYS and we asked him what he had
lived on and he said bread straight
bread. We asked him how he was
fixed on breadsuff and he replied. Il
am loaded down with bread. but ] !
can get nothing elsef we itIen in-