Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1919-01-23


to go to the well and get water for
the men to drink. sat right down
against the yard palings and stuck
my old ak through the yard palings
When we We're called to move | just
left the ak lay there. When one
man began to say: There you are
leaving your ak, then said "hush,
hush, what account is that thing in
war and that was the only inquiry
or only word ever heard about my
war Ak. If no one ever picked it up
and it hasn't rusted away it lays
there yet. We marched to a little
town in Glade District, Barbour
County called Meadowville. There
we halted for the night and were
assigned homes for the night a.
mongst the town people, two and
four to the home as the people were
| prepared TO take care of US with
4 d few others was assigned to the
home Of old Sammie Elliott He was
quite a wealthy merchant of Meadow
vile and had several farms also. |
was glad Of my home as / was we'll
acquainted with the Elliott family as
my father had had lots Of dealing at
the Elliott store in selling him cattle
and sheep. | was often sent there
to get goods and deliver stock But
before dismissing us for the night
| Colonel Anvil fold US all to go to the
store at once and get goods sufficient
to make a knapsack sufficient to car
ry four days rations and the wo-
men where we stopped for the night
would make up and fill them for us.
went to the store and got one yard
of home made towe linen and took it
to Mrs, Elliott. She said +" you need
not tell me as | alredy know what to
do" So next morning when ate
breakfast and rose up from the table,
Mrs. Elliott handed me my sack fill
ed with grub.
Our captain disappeared that
night and / never saw him any more
or heard of his fate; only heard that
he was sent out as a spy After all
had rendevouzed in front of Elliott,s
store our Lieutenant called out at
tention, scouts, fall in line" After
we had thus filled the order was for
ward move" We hiked out right to
the mountain taking bride path
directly after leaving Meadowville.
On we hiked till next day at noon
when we stopped on little grassy
spot on top of the mountain and ate
lunch. After eating and resting a.
bout one hour we fell in line and
then formed in what was called a
hollow square Col. Anvil stepped in
the square and told US our mission.
He said we were going to Rowles-
burg to cut the trestles and tear up
the railroad and keep the Yankees
from running behind our army, and
to one telling our mission, the PEN
atty was death. Now ! am the only
one living that know of SO feel
safe to tell it. Colonel Anvil was
the only man that was riding. He
had an old dun horse and from this
point he put Major James Tnomp-
son on his old yellow horse and dis
patched him to Rowlesburg to spy
out the situation and he never re-
turned to us, but Thompson being a
close neighbor to me | afterwards
learned his fate. He had ridden in
to Rowlesburg and found Yankee sol
diers there sure enough. He spied
around a while and then straddled
his old yellow horse and started back
to report. The Yankees suspecting
him took him and his yellow horse
in. A month or two later Major
Thompson returned home from
prison.
We went on toward Rowlesburg
| travelling byways, hog paths, etc.
Finally we came down into a farm
from the woods, a steep hill farm
/ with four or five acres of level land
! on which stood the house and barn.
They had lot of wood in the yard
| and Col. Anvil got permit to use this
wood for camp fires. We built up
three or four fires, ate our supper,
+ put out four or five pickets ad re-
tired for the night, but don't think
Col. Anvil slept wink that night.
He just paced up and down it SEEM
ed the whole night There was an
old sled standing off piece from
one of the fires and | just crawled
under the sled and went to sleep.
The guards reported off and on all
night of hearing some whistleing or
breaking brush. One time one fell
low jumped up in his sleep and hol-
lowed, here comes the Yankees, here
comes the Yankees" and made quite
stir. just laid still. My uncle