The Iuka vidette. (Iuka, Miss.) 1894-1912, 1912-06-13
War Recollections

mile west of Tuscuinbia, where
we dismounted and formed line of
battle. The enemy were already
Iii motion and in sight, formed in
single line with cavalry flankers.
We had not more than got into
line before sharp skirmish began
and the bullets were soon whist
ling around our heads. We held
our ground about half an hour
when the Yankees commenced
coming around our left flank,
which their large force easily en-
abled them to do. We had sever
al men wounded here. Then we
fell back, mounted our horses and
marched back through town and
took the road toward Leighton.
We marched about 3 miles, unmo-
Tested by the enemy, till we reach
ed point near the Shines place.
The brigade halted here and form
ed line across the road. Our
right wing was in a woodlot and
our left in an open field. Lieut.
Sam Dean took squad of five
men which he carried north of our
right wing to look for a thanking
movement. According to my
recollection the men in this scout
consisted OF myself, Cal Billiard,
Jack Morris, G w Hutton and
Mack Ross. Three of us are still
living, and the other three, in
Guiding Lieut. Dean, have passed
over the river. We had not gone
over a quarter of mile through
the dense timber Until we ran into
a Yankee scouting party of about
the same number as our own
force. Lieut. Dean was the first
to discover them and, drawing his
pistol, fired at them and we fol-
lowed suit They fled at once,
but we did not go any further as
we could see the line of battle by
this time. Besides their battery
began throwing shells into the
woods and we returned to the
command. Here our command
stood its ground and skirlnished
for perhaps two hours. We had
several, Archie Thompson and,
think, Jack Gurley, wounded in
this skirmish. From here we fell
back to farm near Leighton, the
enemy pressing us fiercely as we
fell back. Here we met Edmon-
| son IS Tennessee cavalry regiment
of Forests command, which was
formed dismounted behind a fence
on the right The Yankees were
right behind us in charge. Ed
monson men waited until they
got within musket shot, when
they let loose volley which stop
ped the enemy's advance and sent
the survivors flying to the rear
! We continued on until we crossed
Town Creek, rapid mountain
stream, where we stoppee to rest.
| All of Forests command were
congregated here or soon reached
here. Skirmishing soon began
with the enemy and continued
that evening. The Yankees made
no serious attempt to cross the
creek but contented themselves
with skirmishing at long range.
In their rear the smoke of burning
| houses was seen ascending as they
literally applied the torch to nearly
every building in their course.
| Gen Forrest soon became convinc-
ed that the Yankees were only
trying to hold him engaged while
Streight' S raid got away in the di-
rection of Moulton. In fact his
scouts brought in news to the ct
feet that Streight's men were al
ready several miles sn their way
toward Moulton and he began
making preparations to follow.
The first thing was to select such
men only as were well mounted.
All who had crippled, disabled or
worn out horses were left with the
wagon train. Double rounds of
ammunition were issued to each
man who could go. We had to
leave several of our command be-
hind. Soon after dark we began
our march after Streight. It was
raining steadily when we started
and the rain continued until about
IL O'clock We travelled over a
rough, rocky, mountain road and
! it was dark as pitch. Before day
4 light next morning we reached the
suburbs of Moulton when we were
halted to feed horses. We could
hear the braying of mules, the
neighing of horses, the rumble Of
artillery wagons and many other
noises indicating the Yankees
were near at hand. In fact they
had spent several hours il Moul-
! ton and were leaving when we
: got in hearing. We remained
here with our horses sadlled fol-