The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-08-08

with the confederate army. said that
when the Johnnies found their squir-
rel rifles and corn knives wouldn't
reach as far as the federal guns they
took sudden notion to go back to
the farm and look after their corn
crop.
There were some experienced war
riors among the panic-stricken army,
and they strove hard to stop the fee
ing men, but without avail.
For two hours the battle ragged on
tanks and CENTER said DR.. Norris,
in describing the affair. Then the
word came to us that the Des Moines
river was almost choked with the
dead bodies of the federals. 1t was
stated that the river was becoming a
rich carmine hue; that our squirrel
rifles had slaughtered over 500 of the
enemy. At this pleasing intelligence
we cheered and started forward. Then
the confederates made discourag-
ing discoverythe enemy's muskets
would shoot nearly twice as far az
our hunting guns The story of the
dead federals was all piece OF fic-
ton.
We might just as well have been
shooting into the air for all the good
we were doing. OF course, in the
circumstances the thing for us to have
done would have been to charge the
enemy; there were plenty of us to
have oyerwhelmed him, brass buttons
and all. But somehow we didn't
think OF that. Our boys just took a
notion that they wanted to go some
where, and they lit out Every fell
low made a break for his horse. Did
4 run, too? Sure did. It seems
funny enough now, but then thought
i had splendid reason for it. In a
moment OF two the stampede was on
and Bull Run was reenacted out here
in old Missouri You never saw such
a mixup as there was when the fugi-
tives tried to unhitch their horses
Some slashed the brides with knife;
others tried to Jerk them loose by
main force. The horses contracted
the terror Of their masters and jumped
around frantically. aiding in the con-
fusion. Many broke loose and rushed
wildly about the field. Some of the
excited soldiers struck out across the
country without taking time to get
their horses. The cannon those fear
full engines Of destruction-were drag
ged off the field and hidden in some
4 ha1 a
ing of their career
Some of the soldiers kept on go
ing until they reached their homer
in Macon, Lewis, Shelby, Scotland
and other counties. One man went
as far as Lancaster in Schuyler coun-
lty. There were no prisoners taken
and but very few lives lost. While
Col Moore's men could outshoot us
they couldn't outrun us-not that
day, and it was a warm day, too.
After the excitement had worn OF
la BIT and the boys had rested, they
assembled and .reorganized Every
one OF them said he wasn't scared up
there at Athens he just felt like he
wanted to get away. They laughed
| and treated the matter as a joke,
but were grimly determined never to
indulge in that sort of a joke again
| Those men who ran the hardest de
| veloped into seasoned soldiers later
on and won names for themselves
while fighting courageously under
! Pap Price
man who was with the federals
said that one of his comrades de.
!, veloped stage fright when the John
| MES began charging and cried out to
the commander:
Colonel, can't stand it. I've go tc
go!"
( Cd It, sir.' exclaimed the com
mander, you've got to stand it!'
Thus did Col. Moore instill the nee
essary iron in his little body of fight
ers. 1t was grand victory, won un
I der what seemed to be terrific odds
4 For many years the people of north
eastern Missouri have been meeting
!: at Athens, place which is now only
1 a memory, and holding picnic
i Speeches would be made by eminent
! citizens and the veterans would laugh
over that fearful day when john,
and Yank met In battle array.