The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1910-03-10

down the side of the church and
into the corridor and stopped in
the doorway leading into the choir
and covered me with his pistol. ]
had met this officer on the street a
few days before and had a heated
argument with him, and when he
pointed his cooked pistol at me |
thought his intention was to kill
me. I threw up both of my hands
as quickly as possible and said,
"For Gods sake don't shoot me-"
He replied, "Then take those men
away from here" | answered,
"That is not in my power; | have
no control over them" He then
left me and / went farther in the
church. One of the Confederates
ran in the left entrance and leveled
his revolver in the direction of the
choir, but instead of covering the
Federal with it as he expected, it
covered me. l thought in his ex-
citement he would surely shoot
me. Instantly up went both of
my hands and again | cried out,
"For Gods sake done shoot me"
He said, "Where did that Yankee
go?" l answered, "I don't know"
In my excitement l did not think
to tell him that the Federal had
gone further in the church. The
Confederate went outside without
searching the church for the Fed
eral. We learned afterwards that
when the Federal left me he hid
under pew and remained there
until the Confederates left and
then made his way to the river
bank and gave signal to the gum
boat which was anchored in front
OF the town, and yawl was sent
ashore and he and sailor who
had escaped capture wers taken
aboard of the gunboat.
After my experience with the
Confederate officer l realized that
instead of getting, as / supposed,
in the safest place in the church,
l had got into the most dangerous
one, and followed the Confeder-
ate officer out of the church and
found most OF the people who had
been in the church congregated In
front of it. Just at that time the
squad of Confederates, mounted on
their horses, passed in front of the
church with the Federal captain
and eighteen sailors with them as
their prisoners. One of the Con-
federates, a mere boy as he ap-
peared to me to be, waved his hat
and said, "Three cheers for the
Southern Contederacy," and ad-
dressing the crowd of citizens,
said, "You must excuse US for
disturbing your church services,
but it was too good an opportunity
to pick these men up"
The Confederates left town and
we Rodneyites fastened to oui
homes and hurriedIy tied in sheets
some provisions and clothing,
ready to throw the bundles over
shoulders and run from the town
in case the Federals burnt it,
which they usually did when they
were fred on from towns. When
the Federal officer and sailor who
had escaped capture reached the
gunboat and informed those on the
boat what had occurred, the gun.
boat raised her anchor and steamed
: up and down in front of the town,
firing broadside after broadside o.
: shells into the town. Several
houses were struck by the cannon
balls, one entering the church; fl.
naIIy the cannonading ceased.
After the Confederates left town
they sent a written communication
to the gunboat, stating that tht
citizens should not be held respon
sible for what had occurred, to-
the citizens did not know of thei
being in that vicinity or their in
tentions, and if the Federals burn
the town they would hang the pris
oners they had captured Tn
communication was given to on
of the old men of the town VIII
Immediately consulted other citi
zens and they decided it would b
poor policy to send the communi
cation to the Federals for the
might capture nineteen citizen:
! hnrn the town and saw to the Cor