The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1909-03-02
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
'AValiant Feat

But I have told you the story
dozen times"
And every time you tell it wish to
hear 1t again. You may tel! it we'll or
YOU may tell IL badly. You cannot add
To ii nor can you spoil it. Such stories
arc Independent OF the narrator. They
are great in themselves
"Well then. to begin at the begln-
ming ! was in the cavalry. on scout
in,, service In the Shcna ndcah valley.
with Il view to finding out something
about the movements OF that foxy
Stonewall Jackson We numbered
forty men have always thought that
either fewer or more. We had too
many for skulking and too few to
make fight We did make fight,
though. because We couldn't help our
selves
Eve met Il Union man who had seen
and he gave us II very good estimate
Of the number If the men he had with
him, He was marching up the valley.
What we had to do was I" 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
formal ton we possessed.
1.-THE captain sent three men to sneak
through Independent Of the rest of us
or each other hut there wasn't one
Of 'em got there. When the informa
ton was delivered we Of the main
body took It In. You can judge how
desperate was the situa ton when I
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 our
presence in the cnemy's country. They
sent two mounted companies after us,
and for about ten hours We were driv
en- east. west. north and south -any
where. everywhere. to keep away from
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 It do since we
couldn't keep northern course:
AT last by one Of these cuts we left
our pursuers go far behind that they
couldn't strike us for at least an hour.
or. rather. we thought we had left
them. but some thirty of them got on
to 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
to getting the horses over. that was
impossible. The captain looked about
for a way to cross Seeing a tall tree
leaning toward the chasm. he ordered
1t cut down. We had nothing to cut
with except our sabers, and 1t was
probable that our chasers would come
up before we got 1t hacked through.
We worked lively. you may be sure.
four men working at once-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 I spoke Oft had crossed low
er down-dash up on the other side to
head us Off 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 five more The Confeder-
ates drew up in 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 a 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 of
yOungster Of eighteen. reckless and
brave az boys Of that age are apt to
be, started to run over the log. There
was cracking Of carbines; the boy
pitched headlOng into the chasm. The
0cNVuU Anuu SVI I'LL cC-uuuVt"tD VI TIE
way over when he met the same fate
l was close behind No when he too
fell and came near dragging me down
with him."
The veteran paused. while a look Of
pain from a mental vision Of what had
happened more than forty years agoue
passed over his face Some one asked
him how he felt.
"How did ! feel? oh. a lot Of hor-
ror mingled with a lot Of excitement.
Somehow ] didn't feel sure that
would meet the fate Of the others.
though there seemed to be no chance
for me. Ny terror ut the chasm be-
low Cancelled that Of being shot. When
the man before me caused me to totter !
got down on my hands and knees and.
scuttling along. reached the branches
Of the tree. They screened me from
the enemy. The man behind me was
shot, but the next got across. and the
next. and the next. for so appalled,
were the men firing on us or so as
tOnished-J don't know which-at our