The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1909-01-18
AValiant Feat

0sosososososo ososososososc
Copyright. 1909. by American Press Assc.
cintion.l
"But have told you the story 0
dozen tines
"And every time you tell II wish to
hear 1t again. You may tell 1t well or
you may tell It badly. You cannot add
to II nor can you spoilit Such stories
are independent Of the narrator. They
are great in themselves"
"well, then, to begin at the begin
ming, was In the cavalry, on scout
ing service In the Shenandoah valley,
with a view to finding out something
about the movements Of that foxy
Stonewall Jackson. We numbered
forty men. have always thought that
we would have done better with fewer
either fewer or more. We had too
many for skulking and too few to
make a fight. We did make a fight,
though, because we couldn't help our
selves.
1--WE met Union man who had seen
General Jackson a few hours before,
and he gave us very good estimate
OF the number Of the men be had with
him. He was marching up the valley.
What we had to do was to march up
the valley ourselves, but by another
route. The Union man agreed to pilot
Us, and we started TO do some quick
work in transmitting the valuable In
formation we possessed.
"The captain sent three men to sneak
through independent Of the rest Of us
or each other. But there wasn't one
Of 'em got there. When the inforna-
ton was delivered we of the main
body took II in. You can Judge how
desperate was the situation when l
tell you that every skulker was taken
or killed.
"A Confederate Sympathizer who met
Us mounted a swift horse and carried
the Confederates information Of Jour
presence in the enemy's country. They
sent two mounted companies after rs,
and for about ten hours we we're driv-
en- east, west, north and south-any
where, everywhere, to keep away from
q force the number Of which we didn't
know. Our Union friend stuck TO US
and, since he knew the country better
than our chasers, put Us on short cuts
and passes in the mountains that often
enabled us to distance our pursuers.
But what good did II do, since we
couldn't keep a northern course?
"At last by one Of these cuts we left
our pursuers so far behind that they
couldn't strike us for at least an hour,
OF, rather. we thought we had left
them, but some thirty Of them got on
to a shorter cut than we. Suddenly
we came upon ravine couple of
hundred feet deep and no way to
cross. We must reach the other side
by hook or BY crook or be taken. As
10 getting the horses over, that was
impossible. The captain looked about
for a way to cross Seeing d tall tree
leaning toward the chasm, he ordered
1t cut down We had nothing to cut
with except our ssbsrs. and 1t was
probable that cur chasers would come
up before we got 1t hacked through.
We worked lively, you may be sure,
four men working at onee--there
wasn't room for more--and did the
job In about three-quarters of an hour.
The tree fell in the right direction, the
branches lying on the other side Of the
chasm.
"But what was our horror when we
were ready to cross to see the detach-
ed force spoke Oft had crossed low
or down-dash up on the other side to
head Us or. Every man of US slump
ed except the captain. He coolly
counted the number OF the enemy.
There were thirty Of them. We NUM-
bered about Ave more. The Confeder-
ates drew UP I'm line about hundred
yards from the ravine to dispute our
passage.
"The captain ordered us on to the
log one man at time. Our bridge
was round tree, the gap twenty feet
wide and the chasm below about 200 |
feet deep. On the other side were
thirty men ready to pick us on. A
Of eighteen, reckless and
brave as boys OF that age are apt to
be, started to run over the log. There
was a cracking OF carbines: the boy
pitched headlong into the chasm. The |
second man got three-quarters Of the
way over when he met the sane fate.
| was close behind No. when he too |
fell and came near dragging me down |
with him.
The veteran paused, while look of /
pain from a mental vision Of what had I
happened more than forty years agone
passed over his face. Some one asked /
him how he felt.
"How did / feel? Oh. d LOT Of hcr-
-or mingled with lot of excitement.
somehow l didn't feel sure that I
would meet the fate of the others,
.hough there seemed to be no chance
FOR me. Ny terror at the chasm be-
cw cancelled that Of being shot When
he man before me caused me to totter I
rot down on my hands and knees and.
scuttling along. reached the branches
II the tree. They screened me from
he enemy. The man behind me was
lhot, but the next get across. and the
lext, and the next. for so appalled, I
we're the men firing on ussor SO as
don't know which~-at our
exploit that some OF them ceased firing,
while others aimed badly.
'eThe captain came over about the
middle Of the line and, forming us en-
he farther side. we charged and scat
nroa ayr anayv.ias III. nk.ee