The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-01-16
'AValiant Feat

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
copyright, 1909. by American Press Asso-
ciatlon,l
"But 1 have told you the story
dozen times"
"And every time you tell It wish to
hear 1t again. You may tell 1t well or
you may tell It badly. You cannot add
to 1t nor can you spoil It. 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 numDered
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 fight,
though, because we couldn't help our
selves
1--WE met Union man who had seen
General jackson few hours before,
and he gave us very good estimate
of the number OF the men he had with
him. He was marching up the valley.
What we had to do was to march mp
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 informa-
tlon was delivered we of the main
body took It 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 our
presence In the enemy'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
n 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 1t do, since we
couldn't keep q 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,
or, rather, we thought we had left
them, but some thirty of them got on
to q shorter cut than we. Suddenly
we came upon ravlne q 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 tall tree
4 leaning toward the chasm, he ordered
It cut down. We had nothing to cut
with except our sabers, and 1t was
probable that our chasers would come
up before we got It hacked through.
We worked lively, you may be sure,
! four men working at once-there
|
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.
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 numbet of the enemy.
There were thirty of them. We num-
bered about five more. Tie Confeder-
ates drew up In line about a hundred
| yards from the ravine to dlsy pte our
passage.
"rhe captain ordered us on to the
log one man at a time. Our bridge
was round tree, the gap twenty feet
wide and the chasm below about POO
feet deep. On the other side were
thirty men ready to pick us of. A
! youngster of eighteen, reckless and
brave as 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
second man got three-quarters Of the
way over when he met the same fate
was close behind No. when he toe
fell and came near dragging me down
with him"
The veteran paused, while look OF
pain from mental vision Of what had
happened more than forty years agone
passed over his face. Some one asked
him how he felt.
"How did feel? Oh, lot Of hor.
ror mingled with 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. My terror at the chasm be.
low Cancelled that Of being shot When
the man before me caused me to totter j
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 80 as
tonished-I don't know whlch-at ouI
exploit that some OF them ceased firing