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Chapters 13-18

CHAPTER XIII.

JUDGE LEONARD, of Cooper county, had a fine legal reputation, and also many attributes which contributed to place him at the head of his profession. To his splendid farm the brigade marched after its affair on the prairie near Tipton, and encamped in its delightful groves in the center of rich pasture lands. The proprietor was, luckily for himself, in St. Louis, unless he had desired a trip to Dixie with an escort, but his absence had deranged nothing upon the estate. The Judge was not only a good judge of law and equity, but showed excellent judgment in his selection of mules, blooded horses, and English cattle. Major Lawrence thought so when he appropriated his gigantic mules for the ammunition wagons, and his great strong horses for the artillery. Major Dale, the incomparable commissary, thought so when he drove up to the shambles huge Durham heifers, fat and sleek as entries in the St. Louis Cattle Fair, and brought from their smoky hiding-places hams sweet enough for a gourmand. Such a feast as was held here the hungry brigade rarely ever enjoyed, and compunctions of conscience were easily mollified by savory ribs and tender and juicy steaks. Besides, Shelby ever acted upon the motto that war meant war, and war must support war. No truer philosophy has ever been uttered than that" there is nothing perfect in life." About nine o'clock a cold, heavy rain storm Came roaring from the northwest, and lasted without intermission throughout all the long watches of the night. Fires that had roasted dainty tit-bits were quenched at a breath; blankets that had sheltered many dry forms before, were perforated like

sieves, and a hopeless, helpless darkness settled down upon everything. clinging to the men like blisters, and streaking the air with great gusts of shivering, sobbing, freezing rain. Not a single soldier was permitted to enter Judge Leonard's large house, although it shone through the wet hair of the wild nigl,t with its warm, rosy lights and great comfortable fires that sputtered out in the darkness lurid temptations almost irresistible. A devoted Southern family living near Judge Leonard's sent pressing invitations to Colonel Shelby and staff asking them to supper. When he had perfected his minute and cautious preparations for the night, and hedged his tired soldiers around with numerous and sleepless sentinels, he floundered through the rain and the darkness to an elegant supper, voluptuous lights from chandeliers, and liquors good enough to " stir II. fever in the blood of age." Music added its graceful charms to the pleasures of the entertainment; Southern songs floated out on the hostile air, and his merry officers, although they had ridden fifty miles and fought two battles that d:Ly, danced until long past midnight. Such scenes were unusual in the hardy lives of his followers, and served, like strong old wine, to bring out the genial sides of their natures. Captain Newton Hart, schooled in the polite society of St. Louis, and gay as a Frenchman, enjoyed himself to his heart's content, and expressed his thoughts forcibly the next morning to the effect, that" twenty nails had been taken from his coffin, and that he was well able to endure another year of beef and cornbread."

The rain ceased at daylight, and nature awoke from its unquiet slumbers with a look of sullen gloom. The clouds shook their gray mantles over the sky, wrung out a few last drops of moisture, and trailed them dirty and confused behind the western horizon, while a few blue patches of sky, smooth and simpering as a school-girl's face, showed now and then, but wide asunder. A slippery, miry road stretched away blank, wide and yellow to Booneville, which Boon became crowded with compact squadrons and stalwart soldiers. The march had a triumphal aspect. All along the route ladies waved miniature flags, offered loads of refreshments, and shouted in their sweet, feminine voices: "Hurrah for Jeff Davis and the Southern Confederacy." Ah! ladies, it was well meant, but rather too late in the season. When the first regiments crowded to the war it was all very good to decorate them with ribbons, and trinkets, and amulets, and talismans, but a dozen or two rough, red battles washed away all the love-knots, and shattered the shrines that contained images of Isabels and Genevieves. "

True love is at home in the parlor and wonderfully likes his ease," and those old cuirassiers of Shelby's would rather have seen unromantic shirts and a pair or so of yarn socks, than all the heliotropes in Missouri or the tiny silk flags of Cooper county. Romance is good enough, and sweet enough, with a low moon hanging over the dark hillsides, and the tinkle, of waterfalls breathing in the twilight, but drench it by a three days' rain, starve it by a three days' fast, shock it with a night attack and the hoarse voice of command shouting, "Every

man to his gun, and it dies like a consumptive youth, pale and hollow-eyed. Thus, Shelby's men, while they were true as steel and keenly sensitive to the outgushing of Southern sentiment among their friends, had eyes better adapted to counting the number of guns in an ugly battery going into action than the flounces of a dress, and more thanks for substantial food and clothing than the coquetry of scarf and flag, even though they bore their chosen colors of red, white and red.

Booneville was almost in sight; Jefferson City had been the objective point, but General Brown covered it by eight thousand men-the same General Brown met nearly a year ago at Springfield and wounded 80 badly-and it were madness to attempt the capture, so Colonel Shelby modified his original plan from the force of circumstances and turned square upon Booneville. Before reaching this city a deputation came out bearing a flag of truce and made a formal surrender, asking in the name of the mayor protection for life and property. Brother Holeman, an Episcopal divine of some ability, and who was afterward banished for his extreme loyalty to the South, was holding forth to his attentive congregation, when the gray caps of Thorp's advance galloped into the square. No more spiritual consolation. The preacher left his text, the good sister her quiet nap by the comfortable stove, the devout elders the sanctuary of the amen corner, and crowded into the streets to witness the Hovel sight of one thousand daring Confederates debouching from the hill above the town and pouring a compact tide through the city, of bronzed faces and soldierly forms. Beyond the river a Federal regiment was drawn up in plain view, and Colonel Shelby quietly gained the southern bank, opened on it at short range with grape and cannister. There was scampering in hot haste for shelter and a sudden evaporation of blue coats ludicrous to behold. Vast bevies

of school-girls came down to see the sport, and clapped their hands in joyous glee upon every discharge of the cannon, laughing and cheering immoderately at the undignified efforts of the Federals to get beyond reach. A really true and heartfelt welcome greeted Colonel Shelby on his arrival. The pent-up Southern feeling, so long restrained and violated, burst all bounds, and exhibiton itself in every species of demonstration-demonstrations unfortunately that cost some of the helpless dear penance and inquisition afterward. Wine poured in rivulets; provisions blocked the streets; stores were offered with their crowded contents; livery stables gave out elegant horses; and the German vied with the cavalier in unbounded

expressions of sympathy. Short time for wine or sighing, though! General Brown, leading four thousand veterans, finding Shelby would not blunder into the pretty little trap set for him in Jefferson City, marched angrily up to Booneville to grapple the audacious rebel playing such havoc with his loyal tenants. His advance had reached the city limits almost, when right across his path there arose the grim forms of Hooper's regiment and bade him bear back. The fight lasted furiously until dark-long enough for Shelby to send his undistributed supplies to camp, two miles from the town, at the magnificent residence of Mr. Brown, an old friend of Colonel Shelby. Hooper was slowly withdrawn, leaving relays of pickets all the way from Booneville to the camp. General Brown also went into bivouac, and waited for daylight before pursuing his wily antagonist.

Colonel Shelby became ill at ease and slept but little during the night. To the incessant agony of his wounded and suppurating arm, carried constantly in a sling during all the extraordinary fatigue and cold of the rapid march, was added the peril of his position. Booneville is directly in a small and contracted pocket formed by the Missouri river on the right, and the Lamine river emptying into the Missouri and encircling it on the left. A force in his front, and there was every danger of one-holding the bridge upon the Marshall road, with General Brown closing up the only outlet southward, made his existence, even, one of precarious possibility. This event could not be anticipated by a night ,march, for the rain of the previous evening prevented sleep, and his exhausted command required some hours' rest. So, relying upon thc star of that destiny which never deserted him amid his greatest perils, and which always shone out brightest when clouds gathered thickest around his pathway, he gave the orders for a night of quietness, he alone of all the stern soldiers inside the pickets passing the sleepless hours uneasy and watchful.

The sun had been up nearly an hour; the golden haze in the east had slowly melted away; and a faint, universal stir of awakening life could be felt rather than heard in the pleasant morning air, and Booneville, with its dim towers and steeples, had long emerged, like a gigantic ship, from the mystery of the twilight, when rapid firing in front and rear announced that the day's work had commenced. Shelby, fresh and alert, calmly formed his brigade and waited until the attack became more fully developed. The pickets soon galloped in from toward Booneville reporting that Brown could be seen advancing in force, which determined Colonel Shelby to clear his front at once for the greater emergency behind; but only two hundred

Federals visited him in that direction and these were charged so suddenly and so furiously by Colonel Hunter, that they lost eighty-nine killed and wounded in ten minutes' fighting. Brown's column could be heard yelling when it reached the deserted camp, and soon two fine cavalry regiments were dealing heavy blows upon the rear. But that was child's play, and practiced, too, upon men schooled to perfection in every species of warfare developed by the contest. Without moving faster than at common time, Colonel Shelby organized his companies of defense, and held them ambushed for the blows. So unskilled were the pursuers that they advanced upon the nearest line laughing, singing, and wholly unconscious of their fate. Captain Lea struck first., and the foremost squadron went down almost to a man. Another pushed on and shared the same disaster from the cool riflemen under Toney. Another and another received a dreadful fire in their very faces, until the leading regiment gave way to the next. For ten miles this kind of fighting continued,. and soon the dark, sluggish waters of the Lamine were in sight. Here Colonel Shelby prepared his grand coup de main. The banks of this stream were ten feet high at least on both shores, perpendicular and extremely slippery from the water carried upon them by the horses' feet in fording the river. After safely crossing everything and getting well closed up beyond, he ambushed Hunter's

battalion, Captain Jones' and Langhorne's companies, and fifty men, under Captain Will Ferrell, upon the western bank. The horses were led beyond the range of bullets and securely tied, when the men, in skirmishing order, completely hid themselves behind trees, stumps, logs, and inequalities in the ground. Upon the side of the stream nearest Brown were stationed the cool and intrepid Lea and his company, with orders to fire one volley and retreat in disorder, as if demoralized and panic-stricken. His instructions were implicitly obeyed, and the Federals followed up their supposed advantage with shouts and a. great rush. All the bed of the creek was filled by horsemen twenty and thirty deep, while more were pouring up

from behind eager to become engaged. Into this solid, compact mass of human flesh tore the bullets from two hundred rifles not ten rods distant, while revolvers were used with incessant and deadly effect. It was a ghastly and horrible sight. Dying men, wounded horses, mutilated riders were struggling, screaming, writhing and drowning in the water and mud of the river, while those yet untouched rode down their unfortunate comrades in furious efforts to escape. Secure and still invisible the Confederates used their revolvers with cool precision until the enemy fled beyond range, when they mounted and rode leisurely off to overtake the main body. The leader of this attack-a brave young Federal major dashed

up the bank at the first onset and shot one of Langhorne's men who had leaped out from cover to capture his splendid horse. That triumph was his last. Langhorne shot him from his saddle with his Sharpe's rifle against his breast, and the terrified and riderless steed galloped with a wild neigh into Shelby's ranks. This taught Brown a terrible lesson. One hundred and eleven of his best men lay dead or wounded in a space that might almost have been covered by half a dozen blankets, and the dash and elan of his pursuit completely crushed. Only one Confederate was wounded, and he through an excess of bravado.

No further trouble from General Brown occurred until the crossing of Blackwater just at sundown, when he ran a heavy battery to the front and opened fire at long range. Willing to humor him and give him an opportunity for a little revenge, Colonel Shelby answered its fire from his Parrotts, which almost immediat.ely silenced the four guns opposed to them, and the ·march continued on unmolested until midnight, when the darkness becoming so intense and a heavy storm drawing rapidly nearer, the command was forced to go into camp at Mr. George Nave's, a worthy farmer living on the Marshall road.

A wet, clinging morning, cold and disagreeable-came at last, and Shelby began the march early for Marshall. There might be danger ahead and he expected it, but not so ,sudden and appalling. When within two miles of Marshall, Thorp sent a swift courier, Weed Marshall, back with information that a heavy body of Federals were forming in his front

"Charge them," was the laconic order. "But, Colonel, they are four thousand strong," replied the heroic Thorp, as he formed for the desperate attempt.

"Ah, what," said Shelby, " four thousand devils-then we are in for it deeper than I expected."

True enough, just emerging from the little prairie town of Marshall, and forming their lines so as to cover it, could be seen four thousand Federals, of all arms, under General Ewing. This same Ewing was the author of that celebrated General Order No. 11, so well and so infamously known throughout Missouri. It required the depopulation of some of the finest portions of the State, and the requirements were literally fulfilled. Hundreds of fleeing families were met all along the route from Huntsville, Arkansas, to Warsaw, Missouri, toiling slowly and painfully southward. Tender and gentle women, barefooted and shivering in the cold, were driving oxen and riding upon miserable broken-down horses, without saddles. Their only crime was sympathy, holy yet subdued, for their kindred and their cause.

Previous to Shelby's advance into the State, Quantrell had destroyed Lawrence, and annihilated Blunt's escort at Fort Webster, which concentrated a large force immediately to pursue him, and this force, after his escape south, had returned to meet Shelby and crush him wherever encountered. In conjunction also with Ewing came General Brown from Jefferson City with four thousand additional troops in the rear, and when at last Shelby was brought to bay, eight thousand soldier's girt him round with walls of steel. Two miles cast from Marshall ran Salt Fork, a stream sometimes deep and rapid, but now offering small impediments against its crossing. A large bridge spanned it where the main road crossed, which he immediately destroyed. after everything had safely passed, and Colonel Shelby then called up Major Shanks, commanding the rear battalion, and said to him very calmly but with the deliberate utterance of a man terribly in earnest: "Major, General Brown will be here in half an hour. How long can you hold this crossing with two hundred against four thousand ?"

"As long as you wish it, Colonel-an hour, a day, or a week."

"Very well, I shall attack Ewing in front and endeavor to drive him from my path, but it is an up hill business, I fear. However, if it takes just two hundred of your two hundred men and yourself besides, never let go your .hold on yonder stream until I order it; and, when you do come to me, -come like the wind, for I shall be pressed to the wall before I cry for help." "Mounted or dismounted, Colonel had I better form ?" asked Shanks, as if the most ordinary commission in life had been given him.

"Dismounted for your horses' sake. They will all be needed."

Shanks threw forward two companies on either flank for a mile up and down the river and waited coolly for the avalanche. Shelby galloped to the front, after grasping this peerless officer's hand as one he never expected to see again. The Confederate war for independence furnished no grander example of heroic courage and defiance than was exhibited this day by Marshall town. The battlefield, rent and broken by huge gullies, and covered with a thick growth of hazel-bushes was peculiarly unfitted for the desperate charge Colonel Shelby intended to make squarely upon Ewing's center, and he was forced to dismount his brigade and fight at a disadvantage. Hunter and Coffee were on the extreme right operating directly

against the town, Hooper in the center and Gordon on the left. Ewing formed his lines in the shape of a V, the point resting upon Marshall, and the two prongs extending to the right and left of Shelby's position, thus enfilading his lines with artillery and musketry. Lieutenants Ferrell and Plattenburg, leading the skirmishers on the left, sprang away from Gordon's lines and engaged fiercely. Hunter and Coffee advanced upon the right through the dense bushes and under a dreadful fire, while Hooper and Gordon, moving up to support their skirmishers, the action became bloody almost immediately. Eighteen pieces of artillery concentrated upon Shelby's two guns a withering fire, and not a portion of his lines was exempt from the bullets of the enemy. A charge along the whole front drove Ewing back upon the town, forced him to change his position, and retire two of his batteries which were admirably served. He in turn concentrated upon Hunter and Coffee, and drove them a short distance with severe loss, but Hooper swinging round by & well-executed flank movement, swept Ewing's left wing bloodily back, and followed the survivors into the streets of the town. Fresh masses poured from the rear and made good the losses, and the battle raged evenly for two hours, eight hundred men fighting four thousand and driving them at all points. The Confederates fell fast, and Colonel Shelby saw go by him to the rear his best and bravest, now all pale and bloody, and the dark hour was on Saul. Ewing extended his cavalry to Salt Fork above and below and thus surrounded completely the little band of determined men fighting for dear life. Look where one would, the prairie was dark with uniforms and bristling with glittering steel.

In the rear the conflict was darker still. Brown hurled his forces upon Shanks in wave after wave, that bursted in spray of skirmishers and recoiled before the grim shore beyond, held by two hundred desperate men. As the artillery fire deepened and rolled over the field, great cheers arose from the friendly ranks now closing and shouting around their prey. Shanks, enveloped and almost overpowered, fought on with a desperation rarely equaled. Brown brought up his artillery and swept the position with a hurricane of balls, but could no' dislodge his enemies. Shanks asked for one piece of artillery to stem the hot tide, but it could not be given. Shelby only shouted back from his own gloom: "For half an hour, Shanks, for half an hour, until I mount my men."

The wood-work of one of his Parrott guns had been shot into shreds, both wheels gone, and the trail clear broken. Even then he tried to save his darling cannon, and attempted to lift it into an ammunition wagon. The wagon, too, was shot away and eight men fell around it. From all sides now death came leaping and insatiate. Brown extended his lines beyond the utmost of Shanks' skirmishers and crossed Salt Fork three miles below the bridge, pouring up and joining Ewing by regiments. Fraternizing and shouting like devils, they came down upon the left as a vast torrent. But 'Shelby was prepared, hill men mounted and closed up, solid and defiant, while the ammunition wagons had six drivers detailed to each team to whip

them through with the charge. On the extreme left of Ewing's line could be seen drawn up across the only road at all practicable, a splendid Federal Missouri regiment, with infantry skirmishers in front in groups behind corn-shocks. Shelby determined to hurl hi!! whole force full upon this regiment and crush it or double it back upon the center. The question was to break through the lines now strengthening every moment, even if it required the sacrifice of half the brigade. With this view he recollected Shanks and ordered him to fall back immediately, but the devoted officer was so hard pressed and crippled that he mounted his men with difficulty, and had to form and fight three times before he traveled the half

mile between his position and Colonel Shelby's. Meantime the danger thickened each moment, and Shanks had not arrived. Knowing he could well take care of himself, and believing that he would come up by the time the encircling lines of the enemy were broken, Colonel Shelby ordered the final charge in column, leading himself, though entreated not to take so much exposure. It was a fearful moment. The thin gray wedge dashed down full upon the enemy's line, receiving the fire of three full batteries, but killing the skirmishers behind the corn-shocks in dozens. The Federal regiment swayed slightly as Shelby neared it, and from both wings the infantry double-quicked for its relief. Too late! That column, fierce as a full-fed river, and canopied in powder clouds, as the men fired right and left, swung into line with the rush of a whirlwind and grappled with the foe, standing bravely to see the issue through. Short work and very bloody. A few first fell away from the flanks panic-stricken; the regiment then quivered and shook from end to end, until heaving and collapsing to an impulse as swift

and vivid as the lightning's flush, it broke away toward Marshall, hopelessly rent and scattered. With this charge came the wagons clattering along as fast as the fastest horsemen, and went through the gap white and huge as the new sails of a staunch, fleet frigate. Daylight ahead now, for in that thundering charge the entire left wing of Ewing's four thousand men gave way in wild disorder, and but for the arriving masses of Brown's division the day would have been lost to Ewing. Colonel Shelby knew salvation to be near at hand and halted even there to wait for the devoted Shanks, giving time for new columns of attack to be formed against him, and fresh forces to join in the battle; but Shanks could not reach ilim. Surrounded,

hemmed in, fighting hand to hand, and bleeding at every step, he turned directly east at the point where Colonel Shelby turned west, and cut through everything before him to the timber,

bringing off the remaining piece of artillery in safety. Seeing Shanks cut off and Brown throwing his whole force between them-Shelby determined to retreat toward Waverly, believing that Shanks' indomitable pluck and sagacity would carry him through, and whether they did or not,' Shelby was powerless to assist him, and even his own safety could not entirely be counted upon as certain, for great masses of cavalry came thundering after him, evidently bent on mischief. Captain Reck. Johnson held the rear, and repulsed two severe charges Qj the enemy-but he too sent for help and received two more companies under Edwards and Crispin. With these he held the pursuers in check until darkness settled down good and black, and the brigade had gained the river road leading to Waverly. A short halt for three hours gave time for a little rest and feeding, when sixty rounds of ammunition were issued to the men, and the wagons, now perfectly useless, since all the cartridges had been used or distributed, sunk many fathoms in the Missouri river. Sleeping cosily in one of them there nestled Lieutenant Crittenden, a staff officer of Shelby. The cold waves woke his dreamy sleep, and he came swimming lustily to the shore, dripping from every angle and shivering from head to foot.

Just at daylight the column passed slowly through the streets of Waverly, and many looked upon their fire-blackened and destroyed homes with feelings of bitter revenge, fully gratified in after days. Turning here directly southward, Colonel Shelby made a rapid march toward Arkansas, leaving Warrensburg on the right and Clinton on the left, stopping two hours to forage between the two points, garrisoned by large bodies of Federals. Further stay in the State now became criminal and useless. The ammunition had been nearly expended, the· country swarmed with enemies, the cold was intense, and many of his best men had been killed or left wounded in hospitals from Caddo Gap to Waverly. Therefore, when Shelby once made up his mind to retreat, he did it with his usual skill and rapidity. At this camp near Warrensburg, Captain James Wood and Captain Henry Stangel rejoined the brigade lifter

a perilous and successful attempt to destroy the great bridge of the Lamine near Georgetown. These two daring young officers, with one company each..and having excellent guides, quietly approached the structure and found it held by two hundred regular Federal infantry. Only five were on guard, however, and the rest quietly sleeping in a strong block-house covering the railroad at this point. Dismounting and dashing up to the entrance, Captain Wood, pistol in hand, demanded immediate surrender. Not a shot was fired, except enough to drive off the guard on duty, and soon the magnificent structure became one solid mass of fire, glaring red against the midnight sky, and illuminating the deep, dark stream for miles.

Before the prisoners were paroled, the entire bridge was consumed, and nothing remained but a few blackened and rugged timbers floating and sputtering down the river to extinction.

The third day'!! march· from Waverly brought Ewing's advance in force, and Captain Edwards was sent to the rear to engage it.

Handled roughly, he received more help, and a running fight continued for ten miles to timber, when Colonel Shelby ambushed a regiment and killed five Captains and thirty-two men at a single discharge. This quieted pursuit for the day, and by a heavy march he gained Carthage and established camp at Mr. Kendrick's, where corn was furnished in ample quantities.

Major Pickler, commanding a portion of Coffee's detachment, requested of Colonel Shelby permission to occupy Carthage that night, as most of his battalion lived in and near the town, promising extreme vigilance and to rejoin the column at daylight. Much against his judgment, and fearful of the result, he consented, but Major Pickler neglected even to picket the approaches to his camp, and suffered severely for his temerity. A night of refreshing sleep had been gained here-the first since the camp at Booneville but in the gray dawn of the morning a great noise and rumbling of artillery from the crossing at Spring river, over which the Confederates had passed the night before, announced Ewing's whole army to be near at hand. Soon rapid firing from the direction of Carthage sent in all the pickets and called every soldier to his feet. Hasty preparations in moments of imminent danger were part of daily' drill and exercise for Shelby's brigade, and, in ten minutes, each soldier was mounted and in line. Throwing forward five companies in front of Ewing to fire upon his advance, Colonel

Shelby started immediately southward before even his position had been discovered, although his camp stood only half a mile from the ford. The five companies, under Lea, Tucker, Toney, Crispin, and Jones nobly carried out their orders, and held Ewing in check for one long hour, forcing him to go into line of battle and bring his artillery into action. Then breaking swiftly into column, and being well mounted, the Confederates galloped off in triumph to their comrades, actually bringing with them seventeen prisoners. Fugitives from Carthage now began to come up, and reported that Pickler, neglecting t. guard a single road, and mistaking Ewing's advance for Shelby's, had allowed himself And thirty of his men to be captured. Most of them, however, with their leader, succeeded in escaping while being conveyed to Fort Scott, and rejoined the command the next week. Ewing was never seen again. Beaten

and out-genera.led at all points, he returned to the interior of Missouri to tell in flaming dispatches how eight thousand fresh and finely equipped Federals had suffered one thousand rebels-worn by heavy marches, surrounded, overwhelmed-to fight them five days, cut through their serried ranks, and escape proud, unconquered, and defiant. Crossing the telegraph road, leading from Rolla to Van Buren, near Crane Creek, a force from Springfield was encountered, sent down expressly to cut off this retreat. It was time lost and lives thrown away. Striking it about midway, and piercing the center like a pasteboard, both ends were rolled up as a woman winds a string. of cotton. The poor fugitives rushed breathlessly into Springfield and Cassville, hatless and gunless, swearing Joe Shelby's men were not humans and could only be likened unto devils. A large party repairing the telegraph line was captured on this road, and whatever might have been the scientific attainments of its director, he certainly had no knowledge of English. To every question propounded he answered" yah;" and I verily believe the same reply would have been given if his death had been the stake, with a thousand to one on death. It was not proposed, however, and they were released minus horses and arms, which some seemed to love better than their lives, for a bullet or two had to be used as a gentle argument for possession.

Safe at last and well ahead of danger, Colonel Shelby camped the seventh day on White river, near Berryville, to rest his men and horses, and listen for news from the unfortunate Shanks, still struggling in the toils of the enemy. The various detachments sent out at Bentonville on the upward march to destroy railroads and telegraphs, came rapidly in, reporting splendid success. Indeed, every indication qualified this. Five and six led horses, loaded with arms, blankets, and overcoats, to say nothing of elegant McClellan saddles, cavalry boots, and revolvers, told the story of their busy work. One detachment under Brown Williams, numbering twenty men, and another under Lieutenant James Wills, numbering fifteen men, had followed up the rear of a large column under command of McNeil southward from Springfield, and between them captured ninety prisoners, killed forty-three Federals, wounded nineteen, and brought safely to Colonel Shelby ninety-five horses, seventy-three Sharpe's rifles, one hundred and twenty navy revolvers, two six mule teams loaded with bacon and" hard tack," and any quantity of blankets and overcoats, besides destroying for miles the telegraph on three roads, and keeping the garrison at Springfield constantly on the alert for fear of immediate attack.

CHAPTER XIV.

How fared it with Major Da.vid 'Shanks, left alone to work out his salvation on that rough prairie by Marshall town, his leader gone and his bravest falling all around him? After turning

squarely oW to the east, a great huge wave of cavalry swept after him, but he stationed Captain Maurice Langhorne and Captain James Franklin, two of his truest officer!!, on the bank of a deep dry ravine, and bade them hold the pass until he arranged his column and his plans. For one long hot hour these devoted men stood firm against the leaden hail and drove back again and again every stubborn assault of the enemy, their leader!! happily engaged in fighting Shelby. Shanks heard the noise of Shelby's guns growing fainter and fainter, and he knew his loved commander was safe, for he had everything behind him, and there lived not and fought not men that could crush his trained briga.de by a rear attack. Night fell, the stars came out slowly and wide apart, the winds blew drearily, and yet Shanks had only marched three miles from the battle-field. But when the darkness came good and brown he grew again the wary, vigilant, daring cavalryman. He had been waiting simply to feed his exhausted horses, distribute ammunition, and strengthen the teams in his single cannon-the captured gun of Springfield. Colonel Hunter had remained with :Major Shanks also, and being the ranking officer, he assumed command, though this was unknown until after escape had been certainly

accomplished. When the night came, therefore, one bright star as a beacon was selected far away upon the southern horizon, toward which all faces were turned, and the march commenced at once very swiftly and very quietly. All that night and the next day it went on unmolested, but just after crossing the Pacific Railroad near Sedalia, Shanks encountered a large force of Federals guarding seven forage wagons and two hundred fine fat mules. To see them and charge them required the work of a moment. The escort scattered in every direction after one fire, the mules scampered off furiously, and the wagons were stripped and on fire in a dozen minutes. This capture was made quite opportunely, for provisions were bountifully obtained, many mules taken for future emergencies, and the lone cannon good for heavy traveling yet.

From the railroad the march led directly through Florence, fiercely alive now, with every house illuminated as if for a festival. It was very dark and very late when the head of Shanks' column reached this town-the advance being commanded by Captain Sears, of Hunter's regiment, a daring, desperate soldier, and thoroughly acquainted with his business. Just upon the extreme northern edge of Florence, and hidden behind houses and in strong buildings, the Federals poured a deadly, sudden fire into the faces of Sears' men, which irradiated the dark shadows of the night with blazing flashes. The entire column charged massively down the principal street-for that one order charge had been stamped into nerves and brain during

all the long trying march. Muskets crashed, pistols rang out shrilly, women shrieked, dogs barked furiously in the darkness, while over all and above all arose wildly and keen that peculiarly piercing yell of Confederate lungs-not a shout, nor cheer, nor battle-cry-but one long, ringing blast of hate and triumphant malice, cold and cruel as the grave. One fire was all the ambushed Federals gave, for, ridden over in the darkness, silently stabbed or as conveniently shot they were crushed in a moment, and many citizens rushing into the streets, attracted by the firing, shared a similar fate. This little town, so silent and so desolate as Colonel Shelby passed through on his upward march, and which was religiously protected, now, like the adder warmed into life at the cottager's hearth, darted out deadly fangs from its every portal. But short work was made of the combata.nts. Lights disappeared in a moment; women hushed their cries before the breath of a deadlier peril, and gouty old Germans suddenly left their shops when the whizzing bullets began dancing merrily through the darkness.

a silence as of death rained down from heaven and settled upon the deserted streets, broken only by the steady tramp of the defiling squadrons, and the muttered curses of some heartless rider as his sensitive steed shied from the corpses strewn thick along the roadside. Darkness hid many ghastly sights in that quiet German village, and some slumbers

would have been lighter and sweeter in eternity, if waking eyes had been kept from frozen forms lying stark and cold in the early morning.

From Florence and its bloody sacrifice, Shanks and Hunter continued the march with unabated speed and endurance. The position became one of extreme peril. At Warsaw, Cole Camp, and holding nearly every ford upon the Osage river for fifty miles from a given point, were the forces of General McNeil, who had recently succeeded General Brown in command at Springfield. The Osage was reached by a forced march of extraordinary speed, and forded in safety. Several miles beyond this point a. large force of Federals, scouting clown from Warsaw on the right, were encountered ambushed in a mountain gorge, having received notice of Shanks' approach in time to select a position of great natural strength. A close fire from the rocks halted Colonel Hunter, riding at the head of the column, and he coolly waited under the guns until Shanks came up. " You will clear the road, Major," said Hunter. " All right," replied Shanks-" nothing easier, sir. Captains Langhorne and Franklin, form your companies for the charge in column of fours. I'II draw their fire by a half dozen skirmishers, when you

must break through, 'hap what hap.''' It was a picturesque and memorable scene. A sulky red sun was just dropping behind the great western wall of the gorge, seeming to kindle sparks in the underwood, glowering on the boles of the oaks, throwing crimson splashes on the cold gray rocks, and wisping a mazy, murky light about the deepening gloom of the brown stripped trees in front. They are coming up for the charge-those young bronzed veterans from Jackson county-an eager light in their eyes, and weapons bare. Not a word from the firm set lips as girths were tightened, and revolvers examined. Nat a word when they mounted lightly in the red light of a cold dry sun and spurred away, some of them into eternity. Shanks threw forward ten skirmishers in front, who were greeted by a sharp volley, when the stormers, Langhorne leading, dashed away like the rush of an express train, and close behind

them the solid column in serried ranks. A halt and a leap at the barricade; a burning, shuddering crash of two hundred rifles, a wild, passionate cheer of victory, were ,all that came back on the wind as the advance went thundering through, shooting and trampling down everything before it. But one prisoner was taken-a mere boy his fresh beardless cheeks paling at the thoughts of approaching death, and shivering with the horror of the scene he had witnessed ill that fatal pass. Learning that he would be safe from all harm, and was among civilized beings-a fact very much doubted at first, from the horrible tales he had heard of Shelby's men-his composure gradually returned, and much valuable information was obtained from him. McNeill was at Bolivar with a large infantry force, and his cavalry on every road and at every ford upon the Osage. The march of Shanks had been signaled and the direction taken accurately described, while orders were issued only that morning to spare none of the" cut-throats," as the Confederates were stigmatized, so certain were they of capture.

Ah! but there's" many a slip between the cup and the lip," and none knew it better than Shanks and his followers. The command almost completely exhausted, ammunition running low, and starvation grimly in sight, turned off directly from the road, marched four miles west, found a plentiful supply of corn, killed half a dozen fat hogs, baked bushels of meal into hoe-cakes, and made a delicious supper for men and horses. Then carefully posting pickets around the entire encampment, the tired soldiers slept sweetly until daylight, many of them too fatigued to wash away the blood upon their faces, gathered at Marshall, Florence, and the Osage.

Reaching Humansville, the next day at sunset, and driving out a small force there holding the place, it soon became known that several thousand Federals had just left, going toward Bolivar. Darkness fell rapidly. The rear guard was ambushed, and Lieutenant Rogers of Franklin's company captured with several of his men, gallantly striving ·to cut through to their comrades; and very soon, with an infernal din of bugles sounding clearly on the night air, McNeill bore down with his entire force and pressed the column fast and furious. Darkness favored the Confederates. Shanks organized rapidly his companies of defense, and remained with them until long after midnight, repulsing eleven distinct and renewed charges of the enemy, who tried in vain to break through and scatter his command. About ten o'clock matters looked, indeed, desperate. Hunter in front was ambushed and fired upon from all sides

at once, and Shanks in the rear required all the firmness and tenacity of his character, seconded by officers Langhorne, Greene, Tucker, Lane, McKinney, Franklin, Winship, Soper, Hamilton, Mace, Ford, White, Adams, Grooms, Spainhour and Meadows, to beat back the heavy masses constantly hurled against him. But both triumphed in the end. Hunter, aided by the intrepid Hooper and his regiment, drove the stubborn guerrillas from the bushes in front, and Shanks came up about two in the morning to report that the pursuit had been abandoned.

The next night the men almost prayed for sleep, for nature had been completely exhausted during the long hours of incessant marching and fighting. A notorious Union man lived not very far north from Mount Vernon, who commanded a company of murdering Home Guards, and to his farm Shanks went for forage. The turkeys had scarcely been roasted, the horses fed and curried, the numberless bee-hives taken without brimstone, when, upon a road leading west from the camp, was heard a great firing and clattering about the outposts. Every sullen sleeper rose up alertly, and every tired steed was fast bridled and saddled. On picket, fortunately, in their direction was Lieutenant Columbus White, with details from other

companies in his regiment. White, a cool, daring, capital officer, scarcely understood the word fatigue and was wide awake and merry as a lark when his videttes were engaged. On the extreme outpost, too, was 11 young soldier, Will Fisher, a beardless boy, but intelligent beyond his years and brave as the oldest and best in the brigade indeed, his Captain, Franklin, would have no other kind of men. Will Fisher returned the fire of the Federals with his musket, and, knowing the great fatigue of the men at the reserve post, and fearing that nature might have given way he retreated slowly before the pursuers, using his revolvers continually and making the most noise possible that his comrades might be awakened if asleep. White

fought the same way for two miles to awaken the camp, and Shanks got the command in motion half an hour before the Federals reached his fires. The night was dreadfully dark; the horses were almost worn out; the men were nearly in the same condition, and the entire country was swarming with the enemy. Hunter, leading the advance, got lost and separated from the main body, owing to the officer in front of it falling fast asleep in his saddle, and no one seemed to know the country or have any idea of the geographical position of things. In this emergency Colonel Hooper rode to the front, taking with him Captain Lea, Toney and some others of the Southwesters, and soon reduced all confusion to perfect order and

extricated the men from their perilous position.

Making a wide detour, leaving Springfield to the left, and escaping two watchful detachments at Mount Vernon and Greenfield for the ammunition was getting fearfully low-the wire road was at length reached the seventh day from Marshall, and crossed just ten miles above the place there Colonel Shelby had crossed five hours before. Here, two hundred Federal cavalry coming from Cassville were met and routed, the advance killing seventeen, and capturing thirty-three horses, which were a valuable addition, as many of the men had been dismounted in the incessant combats of the retreat. Still ignorant of Colonel Shelby's fate, but hoping and believing for the best, Major Shanks, after crossing the Springfield road passed

on swiftly toward Berryville, and camped within five miles of Shelby's position. During the night some of the scouting parties-came upon his pickets and before firing had prudence enough to ask their command:

"Shelby's. And yours?" "Shanks'" was the eager shout, and the two friendly detachments rushed up for further conference. No more sleep for Shelby that night. Arousing his entire camp he communicated the joyful intelligence, when such a shout went up as awoke the forest for miles around and scared the prowling beasts back to their lairs amid the crags and brakes. At midnight he marched to Shanks' quarters, and the two heroes, embracing in sight of both columns, set the example for cordial greetings among all the generous and reunited soldiers. That was a day these men will look back upon with reverence, for after all the perils and hardships of the march, the dangers and gloom of separation, the disjointed brigade closed up once more in safety, laurels twining thick about the brows of many saddened before by fears of dire disaster.

Moving slowly southward and resting at every convenient place for forage, the communicative and joyful soldiers marched gayly along, camping near Huntsville, Arkansas. A small detachment, under Colonel Hunter, was sent to this town that some companies of recruits on War Eagle creek, a. large mountain stream near Huntsville, might be brought into the lines. Great glowing fires were built in a heavy strip of timber skirting a cold, frosty creek, and abundant rations of beef, meal, mutton, and salt issued, the first for many days. Through the lapse of years and from the cold, premature graves of trampled battle-fields, I can recall many faces gleaming bright and happy in the ruddy firelight. At the central fire, rough with great logs and crammed with seasoned rails, sat Shelby and Shanks, Hooper and Gordon, talking, smoking, and telling incidents of the march. Sears, with his long, fair hair and mild, kind face-one of the truest scouters who ever fired pistol. Yandell Blackwell humming some snatches of battle songs, and watching the blue smoke curling up lazily from his captured meerschaum.

Jim Wood, Conant, Charley Jones, Newton Hart, Stonehill and Carneal arguing the relative qualities of beef over mutton. Elliott, with his calm, staid courtesy, the battle light not gone from

his eager eyes. Captain D. Williams polishing the barrels of the trusty revolvers he had used so well. Will Gregg, the gentle and the brave, thinking of his guerrilla days in good old Jackson; Ben Neale and Toney reading scented billet doux by the fitful firelight, laughing in amorous glee as some soft melodious sentence came stealing up from" sweetest lips that ever were kissed." June Terry, with his languid air and metaphysical humor-the chief surgeon of the brigade-quoting Larry to prove the folly of amputations at the hip, and the difference between delirium tremens and mania-a-potu. Crispin, the tall cavalier, with the keenest zest for a sonnet and the archest smile for women in all the gay brigade. Lawrence balancing his certified accounts to cover" sundries," and scattering greenbacks in gusts for generous apple-brandy. Dale looking away to Carthage where his mill was burnt, and guessing the weight of Leonard's imported Durhams. Plattenburg reading some rare old story he had. brought from Booneville, telling how in that" terrible charge at Rylan which swept away the Russian cavalry, three lengths ahead of the best blood in France rode the innkeeper's son." Ingram and Pat Marshall filing notches in their pistol-butts for Federals killed in manly combat. Langhorne and Franklin comparing notes about the night attack at Humansville, and wondering. upon the fate of Rogers. Captain Dickey binding up the ragged wound of Captain Lea, and pouring confidence into his comrade's heart. Grooms thinking of his North Missouri home, and vowing to strike as he did strike in after days before his bravo, fond life went down in death. Crittenden, reversing the old axiom, and contending that to "the victor belongs not the spoils," though the overcoat upon his back and his horse standing near are captured

property.

Shepard, with his neat soldierly figure hid away beneath its great, blue cape, warming as true a heart as ever beat beneath the "banner of the bars." McCoy telling some galloping story of border foray, and how he went snugly into St. Louis and brought out seven hundred thousand musket-caps. McArthur rejoicing in the pleasant reflection that his pickets are all stationed and his hard work done. George Hall nestling at Shelby's feet-the boy orderly -but fierce as a lion in battle. Kephart parting his hair in the old coquettish way, and thinking of Wellington and his blue-eyed absent one. Trone preaching a patent sermon and giving personations of his inimitable acting. Harris, Kelley and Cloudealy drawing Up a petition for a new battery of Napoleons and Parrotta. Coffee and Johnson, McDougall and Charley Lewis, George Corder and Tom Ustick, Ab. Jeffries and Jerry Warren, Jim Kirtley and Tom Cordell, J o. Knox and Bob Ewing; all happy in the calm, still night, and forming bright plans for the future, while the inimitable, agreeable, gasconading, irrepressible Morry Boswell-" Uncle Morry "-darting in and out amid the fires with a word and a joke for all. This man was a curiosity and a genius. Old, heavy, and weighing nearly three hundred pounds, he yet went on every exhausting march and on every headlong gallop. There was a quaintness in his appearance, in his manner of speaking, in his doing every description of thing, which distinguished him from

every other man in the brigade. His energy was unlimited and his curiosity unbounded. He helped the pioneers to build roads; he fed the horses; he got corn where none grew; he had" flat" tobacco when it was more precious than rubies; he was a doctor, an apothecary, a. surgeon, a. farrier, a. carpenter, a horse-trader, a farmer, 8 lawyer, a magistrate, a Catholic and a Methodist; an artillerist and a preacher-there was no trade, calling or profession which he could not assume and personate to perfection. Years have passed since this night; many manly forms there then have gone away from earth in all their warrior beauty, but while the survivors live, while the memory of their immortal renown yet lingers in the past, their memories

will be shrined as something time can not destroy nor defeat obliterate.

Colonel Hunter, sent to Huntsville, came rapidly back about daylight and reported McNeill occupying the town in force. Hunter had been engaged sharply with the Federal advance, but was driven out finally and pursued for several miles. This news occasioned no alarm, for Shelby had gained the mountains. With the enemy behind him, and having no possible way to inaugurate flanking attacks, he was in no immediate danger. It was not desirable, however, to await for a general engagement, as the ammunition had been reduced to ten rounds for each man, and there might be trouble ahead. Colonel Brooks and some four or five hundred hungry-looking, seedy mountain conscripts, from Arkansas and Missouri, were met the second day's march from Huntsville, ignorant of McNeill's advance, and having on the whole no fixed or feasible plan. Some wanted to go South and some did not; but all united in

the wish that Colonel Shelby would keep the enemy away, which he proceeded to do by sending them a day's march to the front, with orders to make good time and abandon their innumerable wheezy, rickety wagon!!, filled with every description of plunder from a spinning-wheel to a. wedding bonnet, trimmed with peonies and sun-flowers. McNeill soon carne up and made a dash in his usual blustering way, but his cavalry was held in check as easily as a. mother leads her little child to church, and never but once came near enough to be reached by the longest Enfield. Colonel Shelby went quietly into camp at nightfall-so did McNeill. Shelby moved on again at daylight to be followed at a respectful distance by the .same cautious squadrons. Once and once only could they be lured to battle, and it was when Shelby had learned that there were no forces in front to oppose the crossing of the Arkansas river. Thirty miles from Clarksville, away up among the Buffalo mountains, lay hid away a little stream, pure and sparkling as crystal. Right upon its head, where it bubbled out fresh and freezing

from under a huge rock, the brigade camped early in the day, Colonel Shelby remarking quietly: "If McNeill gets this water he must fight for it. Major Gordon, ambush your battalion two miles in the rear and wait until I relieve you." To gain this camp McNeill had to cross a long, rocky ridge, travel over four miles of bottom land, and up and over another spur of mountains before he could reach water, and the water then was that held by Shelby. Thinking naturally the Confederates would go further during the day, he advanced on until too late to retreat, and taking what he believed to be the proper horn of the dilemma-the fighting horn-found to his great surprise Gordon right across his only road and strongly stationed. His cavalry advanced feebly to be driven back by skirmishers; his infantry fared no better, and as a last resort his artillery opened a furious fire. So nervous were his efforts that Gordon refused reinforcements sent him, and Shelby went into camp and held the hill with six companies during the night. How McNeill fared for water was never ascertained, but judging from his efforts to obtain it, his soldiers were neither thirsty nor averse to doing for one night without their refreshing coffee.

Two days more of easy traveling brought the brigade to Clarksville, McNeill preserving his proper distance all the way. The next, Arkansas river was slowly crossed, and unmolested and perfectly at case the march went on southward. Near Caddo Gap a furious rain and snow storm came up after an unusually warm day for the season, and the sufferings of the men were terrible for several days. Hogs were found, however, in abundance, which strengthened the soldiers somewhat against the cold, and gave rise to a quaint remark from some observing old sovereign shivering in one nipping morning to look after his corn accounts. Blackwell's company had camped nearest his house, and to Blackwell he thus addressed himself:

"See here, Mister, mor'n five year ago the hog cholera passed along this here valley, and its ravages was powerful, sartin." Here he heaved a deep sigh as visions of. departed

porkers flitted before his bleared and watery eyes.

"Well," said Blackwell, in his quiet way, "you didn't catch the cholera too, did you?"

" No, no-not that; but that ar' disease left the hog whole you see, and now it takes all but the skin and head," looking sorrowfully down upon four or five bloody signs lying about the fire.

"Yes," said Blackwell sententiously, "it gets worse and worse every year, and if this war lasts much longer these men you see around you will be eating babies and children."

The old man evidently thought so too, for he quickly left the camp with a muttered malediction, and hurried home to call over the names and count the noses of his two dozen white headed urchins.

The beautiful little town of Washington, girt about with its evergreen pines and long, low ridges of oak, heard a faint whisper of the coming "raiders," and held its breath for very expectation. What were they like and how would they look, had been asked often without any reply to satisfy the curious imaginations. Mr. Scroggins, fifteen miles north of town, first became satisfied with their appearance, and as he had some dozen or so barrels of excellent apple brandy for sale at reasonable prices, the brigade soon became satisfied with him. That was a jolly night among the pines-not a drunken man in all the camp, but everyone feeling in merry mood, and happy that they had marched so fast, fought so hard, and this far back toward months of rest and needful preparation. The cold chilling rain of the next day did not dampen their enthusiasm as they marched through Washington, clad in magnificent overcoats, splendidly mounted, arms burnished and presented, and a proud light in every eye as the rapturous shouts of "well done good and faithful servants" came from each window and crowded balcony.

The raid was ended. The toilsome march was over, and in almost every breast its dangers and fatigues were forgotten. There were great gaps here and there in the brigade; many familiar faces were covered forever or seamed with agony in distant hospitals, but that elasticity which makes a soldier's life so fascinating, soon closed upon the ugly rents and banished but never destroyed the memories of the absent comrades. A brief recapitulation of events may enable the reader to take in the entire expedition at a glance, and see spread out distinctly before him the deathless glories of a gallant ride. In forty days fifteen hundred miles were passed over, making an average of about thirty-seven miles each day. Twenty garrisoned towns taken; eleven forts and block-houses burned; one railroad depot, six cars, ten miles of track, and thousands of yards of telegraph wire destroyed; three thousand Federals killed,

wounded, and captured-thirty-seven battles and skirmishes fought; one piece of artillery captured and broken up for want of horses to take it away; three thousand splendid Sharpe's rifles and more than three thousand revolvers distributed among the men; the entire command superbly mounted and clothed; one thousand recruits enlisted and brought safely out mounted and equipped; the spirit of opposition in Missouri rekindled and reinvigorated; the great Southern heart of the people .electrified and elevated by the heroic example of its kindred; two armies met, fought, defied, broken through, out-generaled and defeated; distance annihilated; cold, hunger, and fatigue stripped of their terrors by physical outrage and endurance ; Home Guard companies swept away from existence; guerrilla bands exterminated in their own fastnesses; Union men, notorious for their persecutions of Southerners, warned and threatened into good behavior; and the fancied security of the Federals and militia in Missouri shattered about their ears by the thunder-blasts of cannon and the rattle of avenging musketry. This much is 8 plain, unvarnished statement of naked facts, and yet there have not been considered the daring and the desperation of the expedition. Seven

hundred miles into the enemy's country, bushwhacked, surrounded, ambushed, overwhelmed, attacked hourly but never surprised, betrayed, imposed on, outlawed, cursed-this man, Jo. Shelby, with scarcely a thousand men, sick, wounded and suffering hourly, towered over all, fought, marched, starved, and triumphed. This young cavalry officer, known only as a captain in his own county, leading one thousand of his own trained soldiers, burnt like a. meteor into the heart of Missouri, dazzled St. Louis, terrified Jefferson City, took Booneville, eluded Brown, rode over Ewing, played with. McNeill, and went away to Arkansas in his own good time-unharmed, unwhipped, with new laurels clustering around his brow. True enough he lost many good men, but when it is remembered how he fought, how set upon, how imminent the dangers braved, it seems like a miracle that all were not overwhelmed and destroyed.

Believing the expedition would be a failure necessarily, the wise authorities were unwilling to sacrifice more than eight hundred men. Gifted with a perspicacity sublime in its conclusions, they contended from the first that Shelby's ambition was unreasona.ble and foolhardy; that his discretion was weak and his temerity a passion. They did not know nor care to inquire about his genius, his dash, his valor, his iron endurance, the idolatry of the men who followed him, and their resolution to triumph or to die. " The enemy "ill get in your rear," said one military wiseacre. " Granted," replied Shelby, "but if I turn suddenly about will not my forces be in the enemy's rear 1"

" You can't handle more than one thousand men," said another.

"There will be less need for haste," answered Shelby, "if I have five thousand, and I can therefore take more time to handle five thousand."

"It's madness-folly-criminal folly," shouted all-"You can do no good."

And so, half mad and half glad, he galloped away, stormed Neosho, fought hourly, gathered in recruits, rode down everything in his way, and at last at Waverly, when the worst came about--when ammunition was fearfully low, when Ewing and Brown were pressing on fiercely, he had his men stripped of all superfluities and rode with them ONE HUNDRED AND

SIX MILES IN EIGHTEEN HOURS. Search-the annals of the Confederate war for such another feat and the inquirer will surely go unrewarded. After the dark, bitter fight at Marshall, Colonel Shelby gained Waverly and halted for an hour. Precisely at four o'clock in the morning he started southward. The next morning at precisely ten o'clock he took post beyond Clear creek, in Vernon county, having fought and repulsed on the march, after a brief combat, five hundred Federal cavalry. This speed has never been surpassed, and with such capabilities for endura.nce, and with such consummate nerve and abandon, it might repay some philosophical writer in making hereafter an estimate of Shelby's ability, to speculate

upon what great results might have followed from the operations of eight thousand men instead of eight hundred.

Three days had scarcely been passed in ca.mp near Washington when Shelby again was in the field. A Federal force advancing from Fort Smith threatened Lewisville, where were large factories for the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods. Shelby, ordered to protect it, threw himself forward by extraordinary marches, but the enemy, learning how it was defended and by whose forces, turned short around and returned in hot haste, when he came back to Washington and a triumph.

During his absence many of his warm admirers among the citizens, foremost among whom were Captains Ferguson, Bouldin, Hannah, Mr. Block, Colonel Eakin, and numerous others, and his no less devoted friends in the army, made preparations for a magnificent supper to be given in his honor. Everything that ingenuity could suggest or cultivated taste contrive was upon the table. Fair hands arranged great wreaths of flowers from the costly chandeliers, and spread out the elegant repast upon long tables decorated with silver and gold. Wine hid away for years in dusty cellars, sparkled into light and blushed rosy in the goblets pledged by woman's lips'. Music swelled out in soft delicious strains upon the perfumed air.

and gray coats and blue coats, gauze dresses and home-spun dresses mingled in and out upon the silk and satin edges of the throng. The banner of the Iron Brigade hung high over all, broad barred and flaunting crowned with roses and the evergreens, for in the festive hour war's red terrors were laid away and only love and mirth held high carnival. General Marmaduke and staff came in to pass the happy hours, and pledge brimming bumpers to the beautiful and brave. Toasts were drank in joyousness and glee, the ladies used all the social graces of their sex to heighten the brilliancy of the entertainment, and all went merrily until two o'clock in the morning. The last star had almost faded from the sky; the purple hills away in the gloaming were emerging gray from the ocean of twilight; the last music ripple had broken upon the ballroom floor, and the last sigh had been breathed in the last voluptuous waltz, when Captain Hart read to the departing guests the story of" Joe Shelby's Raid;' a poem too long for publication here, but filled with a recapitulation of the events of the march. Everything

passed off delightfully, and the company separated filled with the pleasures and the enjoyments of the occasion.

About the middle of November, Marmaduke had concentrated. his troops, consisting of his own brigade, under command of Colonel Colton Greene, Cabell's brigade, under command of Colonel J. C. Monroe, Dobbins' brigade, under command of Colonel R. C. Newton, and that portion of Shelby's brigade that did not accompany him into Missouri, under command of Colonel G. W. Thompson, at Princeton, preparatory to an expedition against Pine Bluff, then held by Colonel Powell Clayton, with twelve or fifteen hundred Federal troops. Colonel Clayton was an officer of activity and enterprise, clear-headed, quick to conceive, and bold and rapid to execute. His success in the field had caused him, and no doubt correctly, to be considered the ablest Federal commander of cavalry west of the Mississippi river, and it was naturally supposed that he could not be taken out of his stronghold with impunity. Marmaduke, therefore, made his arrangements with more than ordinary care. His scouts felt well up in the direction of. Pine Bluff, and reported everything quiet in that vicinity, and the Federal commander as being unsuspicious of an impending attack.

Marmaduke moved his column out from Princeton, filled with high hope, on a clear fall morning, intending by a rapid movement to reach, surprise, and attack the enemy by daylight on the succeeding morning. But the road crossing the Bayou Bartholomew bottom was found to be so exceedingly heavy, when cut up by the passage over it of thousands of horses, that the Ilrtillery could make but slow progress, .and so much time was lost by the unavoidable delay that there occurred, that the head of the column did not reach the immediate vicinity of Pine Bluff until after the sun had risen. Marmaduke, impressed' with the belief that Clayton, overawed by his superior force, would surrender without hazarding ltn engagement, and with It view to avoid as far as possible the useless sacrifice of his men, divided his command into three columns that were to menace a simultaneous attack. Colonel Monroe held the

left, Colonel Newton the right, and Colonel Green the center. The attack was not to open until the different columns got into position, when two shots fired from the artillery in the center were to be the signal for the onset. The distance that the different columns and to move being unequal, Monroe got into position a half or three quarters of an hour before the others. As soon as the center column reached its appointed ground, Marmaduke sent in an officer with a flag of truce, demanding a surrender. The enemy refused to receive the flag, and the signal of attack was given. The surprise was in itself complete, but it chanced that the attack occurred on Sunday, and the whole force of the enemy was in line, undergoing the inspection usual on the morning of that day and the Federal commander actively employed the half hour of warning that Marmaduke's dispositions gave him, to erect hasty fortifications of cotton bales around the court-house and the public square, planting his artillery in the angles, so as to sweep the streets leading up to the central point that he occupied.

At the sound of the signal the Confederates drove the enemy rapidly before them into their fortifications. But having got them in, the difficulty remained to get them out again. The Confederates captured and burned the negro encampments above and below the town; destroyed or appropriated all the Federal commissary, quartermaster, and ordnance supplies; seized their cavalry, and draught-horses, and mules, and in many instances the personal effects of the officers, of which, however, they took only their public and official papers; and, in short, held the town and everything in it, except the small area inclosed by their cotton bales. In the meantime the main body of the troops were actively employed in attempting to dislodge the enemy. The soldiers took advantage of every kind of covering-houses, trees, and the inequalities of the ground-to pick off every man who exposed himself to view, while the artillery kept up a brisk fire at the courthouse, and exploded their shells continuously within the fortifications. After five or six hours' of fighting in this manner, it became apparent that the attacking force was making but little if any progress in the work of dislodgment; and, as an auxiliary measure, the efficacy of fire was determined on. The buildings on one side of the public square were fired, but the wind shifted, or they were too far removed 'for heat and smoke to seriously incommode the enemy, or from both causes combined: the effort proved unavailing.

No course now remained but to charge the fortifications along the streets swept by the enemy's artillery, and take them out of their stronghold by direct assault, or to relinquish the attempt altogether, and retire, content with the spoils already secured. Most of the officers, and no doubt most of the soldiers as well, were in favor of the course first named; but Marmaduke, after some hesitation, considering that it would cost the lives of two hundred and fifty or three hundred of his best men to secure the possession of a place that he could hold at most only a few hours, and that there were no remunerative advantages to counterbalance this severe loss, except the bare name of victory achieved, concluded to withdraw his forces. The movement in retreat was mal]e without difficulty. The enemy, however, with something of the spirit of bravado, threw out the Fifth Kansas cavalry (Clayton's own regiment) dismounted, to press Marmaduke's rear, and add as much as possible to his further discomfiture. the Fifth Kansas, though having a somewhat damaged reputation in the way of appropriating other people's goods and marauding generally, was, unquestionably, a dashing body of troops in battle, and prided itself upon never having met with a serious reverse. Marmaduke dismounted Green's regiment to receive it. The Confederates were drawn up along the edge of a small open field, through which the road passed. The enemy advanced rapidly and in line, and burst suddenly into the open space, confronting at the distance of sixty or eighty yards the Confederate line. The two commands were about equal in numbers, and both very determined. They de· livered their volleys almost simultaneously, and both stood their ground firmly, and delivered a second and a third fire, and whichever gained the advantage, the Fifth Kansas made no further pursuit. In this deadly little episode among the Confederate loss was Lieutenant William Biser, adjutant of the regiment, and an officer

of more than ordinary information and gallantry. Marmaduke also had his favorite horse shot under him-a horse known for his many warlike and fearful virtues, and that had the

additional recommendation to his owner of having been presented to him nearly a year previously by the soldiers of Shelby's brigade.

The event of this expedition subjected Marmaduke to some just criticism and to a great deal of unjust denunciation. His failure resulted, no doubt, in great part, from too great a desire to preserve the lives of his men, and from his supposition that Clayton would be actuated by the same motive, leading him to avoid a useless effusion of blood. He thought it necessary only to surround the place to secure its immediate surrender; and in this he was probably correct, only that he did not foresee that the Federal commander would have his men in line undergoing inspection, nor that cotton bales would be at hand, ready to be used as a formidable means of defense: Had he not used his artillery as a means of intimidation, acting under this view of the subject, he would probably have left it behind in the heavy mud of Bayou Bartholomew bottom, with a sufficient guard for its protection, to have come up later in

the day. In a rapid assault the artillery would have been necessarily almost entirely useless. Nor would he have delayed the attack of the different columns as they came into position, but would have ordered their advance at once, and thus have given the enemy sufficient employment to have prevented their raising breastworks, however convenient the material for doing so. The result under such circumstances can hardly be a matter of speculation; for though Clayton might have been able to hold in check, or even to press back either one of the columns repeatedly, yet the other column striking him successively in flank and rear, must speedily have demoralized his command, and have ended in their total destruction

or surrender.

When he refused to take the place by assault, he understood thoroughly that the failure of the expedition would be used remorselessly against himself personally; but considering that he had failed to take it in the first place by miscalculation of his own, he declined to retrieve the error he had made by a deadly sacrifice of the blood of his men without any compensating advantages. If in this he erred, the error was not one of selfishness; and certainly his men would rather have paid the debt, heavy as it would have been, than have gone back worsted by an enemy inferior in numbers.

This battle at Pine Bluff occurred during Colonel Shelby's absence in Missouri, and the author is indebted for its description, as he is for the accounts of the battles of Poison Spring, Jenkins' Ferry, and Ditch Bayou, to a young friend whose generosity is only equaled by his ability, and who, as a peerless young Trans-Mississippi cavalry officer, desired to have incorporated in their proper sequence those actions which reflected such renown upon that arm of the service.

CHAPTER XV.

JUST after getting comfortably settled into camp at Washington, General Kirby Smith came from Shreveport to Camden, intending to make a campaign against Little Rock and drive Steele across to Duvall's Bluff if possible. Colonel Shelby received marching orders immediately and broke up camp at once. The movement upon Camden was the severest one of the year. The night of the second day's march came in with a terrible snow storm, unusually heavy for the latitude, which, being followed by ten days of bitter, freezing weather, rendered traveling difficult and disagreeable. Through it all, however, the brigade struggled, and finally arrived at Camden to find the expedition abandoned because no rations and transportation had been provided by General Holmes, just as if the, old man had ever provided anything in his life by the time it was needed. The garrison at Camden required meat, and General Fagan

was sent across the river and even as far as the Saline to bring in large supplies of hogs from the rich pasture lands about Pine Bluff and Monticello. Of course Shelby had to go, notwithstanding the exhausting ,raid just triumphantly concluded, and he took post near Mount Elba Ferry, sending over Colonel Elliott with two hundred men to scout for porkers as he would do for Federals. Elliott had nearly finished his packing commission, when General Clayton, holding Pine Bluff, came suddenly down to break up the business with eight hundred of his Kansans and two pieces of artillery. The fight lasted two hours and was very hot and stubbornly contested. Elliott finally retreated, McCoy bringing up the rear with his old company in fine style.

The hog expedition, as. far as the hogs were concerned, was a success, but not much glory accrued in 8 military sense. Clayton's force was inferior to Fagan's and should have been cooped up in Pine Bluff while the live stock was being withdrawn from under his very guns. Small detachments, however, were only thrown across the Saline river, and these had no community of action nor depended upon each other for mutual assistance and advice. When one gained the advance of another, Clayton's force, concentrated and compact, dashed down upon it and drove it in rapidly, which would cause Fagan to concentrate all his brigades in expectation of a general attack, Clayton then made a few polite bows and retired in turn

quite gracefully until some other weak and isolated detachment, following on his heels, aroused a hornet's nest.

Scouting parties sent from Shelby's brigade, although numerous anti led by daring officers, could accomplish but little. Captain Oliver Redll, his aid-de-camp, took with him ten men-Clay Evans, Sam. Downing, James Kirtly, Elhanan Stafford, Jim Rudd, Tom Ustick, John Isbell, Felix Graves, Ab. Jeffreys and Lem Cochran, and met and attacked a Federal lieutenant, Greathouse, leading a rival party of twenty Kansans. Captain Redd charged and dispersed this detachment, killing four, wounding seven, and bringing five prisoners to General Shelby.

Captain Bob Adams, with fifty men, the next day, successfully encountered a superior force, charged and drove it pell mell to within four miles of Pine Bluff, returning with twenty captured horses and a dozen or so prisoners.

The restless and insatiate Arthur McCoy-whose energy and battle-intellect were Titanic-hovered around Clayton for three days, cut off two picket posts, captured seven wagons, killed a notorious Union bushwhacker living near Pine Bluff, and returned loaded with arms and accouterments. Thus, while the scouting operations were going on continually, great droves of hogs were crowding the road to Camden, followed soon by the forces of General Fagan.

Lingering three or four days among the pines around this frozen, winter-girdled town, enduring extreme cold without tents or shelter of any kind, the 'brigade at last went into winter quarters eight miles below, on the Washita river, where comfortable houses were built from green cottonwood planks, and a regular town laid out, constructed, and inhabited in five or six days. The long winter months, broken by alternate snows, freezes, and thaws, were spent in hard drilling when the weather permitted, and upon the most meager and damnable rations imaginable. Every soldier sighed for active operations, and the chance once more to ride down some laden commissary train. A great sham battle at Camden gave the brigade an opportunity to hum a little harmless powder, and music some hundred or two curious ladies gathered from the country around about. This was the last battle General Holmes ever planned in the Trans-Mississippi, and it resulted as the others before it had done in "noise and smoke," except in this, there were no pale victims left to chide his folly. He Boon left the department forever as a commander, and was succeeded in his Arkansas district by Major General Sterling Price. As Holmes rode from the undefended city of Little Rock, he remarked sententiously to General Marmaduke: "Steele will make no effort to pursue; it is not the wish of his government to disturb us now; we are an army of promoters and self supporting

at that." This last expression has been attributed to General Grant; but it was wrung from the despairing lips of Holmes as he marched away from a position needlessly given up, and from a city left undefended to its fate.

The days lengthened. The flown away birds when the last snow fell came back to the meadow bars and sunned themselves upon the warm hill-sides. The river, shrunken before as the heart of disappointed love, felt the Spring moons shining softly down over the great cottonwoods, and expanded visibly from bank to bunk, now and then breaking into joyous ripples the sullen waves or' winter. Hearing nothing-for military oracles never visited camp" John C. Moore," and learning nothing from the customary channels-fur not a soldier did duty about the outposts-the brigade remained in blissful and refreshing ignorance of all unreliable rumors and misbegotten reports"; yet ominous preparations at General Price's headquarters,

who succeeded General Holmes in command of the district of Arkansas, told well and joyfully that the dreary camp-life was almost ended. Suddenly, on the 23d of March, 1864, Colonel Shelby was ordered north of Washita river to garrison Princeton, hold the line of the Saline, cover all roads leading into Camden, and annoy the enemy in every disagreeable manner his known ingenuity might invent. Price's full brass-band escorted the Iron Brigade through the streets of Camden, and as the veteran soldiers marched along, conscious of their own glory and renown-impassable, firm, superbly armed and mounted-they contribute(} a spectacle more imposing and cheering than the desponding citizens had ever witnessed before. Many breathed freer when the river had been crossed and it was known that Shelby stood between Camden and its enemies.

Colonel Shelby was soon busy at work and having everything his own way. Captain Wilkinson crossed the Saline with fifty men, captured eighteen Federals and two hundred fat beeves. Lieutenant Wolfenbarger brought into camp seventeen prisoners, twentynine cava.lry horses, and eleven Butler wagons loaded with everything a gourmand might wish, besides nineteen boxes of first-class cognac. Shelby had served too long as an old campaigner to waste these good things upon post and district quartermasters, so he only sent back to Camden the mules, wagons, and prisoners, and a dozen or two bottles of brandy for" Old Pap," and distributed the rest among his deserving soldiers.

Colonel Frank Gordon was stationed in Princeton with discretionary powers, and he, too, did good work. Ten or fifteen detachments sent to the front returned loaded with captured wagons, supplies, prisoners, and horses. The Federals had evidently not been aroused from their winter's sleep, and fell by hundreds into the traps laid by the wily Confederates.

In this connection, a. dozen or so words for Princeton. Cosily nestled away among its green, prolific hills and quiet, refreshing ·valleys, it was filled brimful with some among the purest and best Southern people on earth. For the sick it had hospita.ls; for the timid it had words of hope and courage; for the brave smiles of exquisite grace and beauty. Out in front of Westport, along the low, rough fence at Newtonia-where Smith fell, and Shelby saved an army; there were forms lying stark and still under the sober Autumn skies having close about their hearts the precious talismans given by the patriotic girls of Princeton.

Colonel Shelby determined to give Little Rock a wholesome scare, and selected accordingly Captains D. Williams and Bob Adams, with fifty men each, to make a night attack upon the 3d Missouri cavalry, keeping grand guards on the Camden road three miles from the capital. Their camp was surrounded and charged from all sides at daylight. Many were killed and wounded in the darkness, while the survivors fled on foot into tlie city, abandoning horses, arms, camp equipage and even the vital road itself. Williams and Adams separating, returned by different roads, but not until two more blows had been struck upon the enemy, now thoroughly aroused and in motion.

Captain Bob Tucker, on a scouting expedition above Benton, heard one evening of a ball to be given at some loyal man's house five or six miles from Little Rock, and he resolved to attend without even an invitation. Those who dance must pay the fiddler, says an adage old as the Plymouth Rock blarney-stone at least, and as Bob Tucker and his rascally dragoons did not dance they had nothing to pay of course. There were v.ith him only fifteen men, but stalking the house in true pioneer fashion, he had it surrounded before a horse could be mounted or a pistol fired. Twelve stolid, simple looking Wisconsin infantrymen were picked up and marched off in triumph, and Captain Tucker remained behind just long enough to admonish the amiable hostess that in future, when such recherché affairs were to come off, it might be better to make her invitations a little more general.

Events gathered fast; war clouds clustered dark all about the horizon, and two armies started simultaneously for Shreveport. The largest under Banks, moved by Red river upon Shreveport; and the best, under Steele, by land upon Camden. The success of one necessitated the triumph of the other, and both had to be driven back or the Trans Mississippi Department was in danger. The time, too, for battle hall arrived. The army, exasperated and dispirited by continual and systematic retreats, must be fought or disbanded; and Smith concentrated his entire infantry strength upon Banks, leaving the cavalry to manage Steele and harass his movements until the issue had been decided on Red river. Shelby lay along the Saline covering ground to the extent of fifty miles, his scouts traversing the entire country around Little Rock and Pine Bluff, and far do\\'ll the river below. Steele's movements

were admirable and precise. News came in from every direction that he was moving upon Camden, but in what force the best spies had not been able to determine. Gordon, right in his path at Princeton, covered his flanks and rear with scouters, but nothing reo liable could be gained. Shelby, quickly gathering up his entire strength, waited quietly for Steele to pass when he intended to throw himself upon the rear and deal him heavy blows. The numbers of the invading army were yet unknown, and Colonel Shelby" sent Lea, Toney, Wills, Spainhour, Wolfenbarger, 'l'om Walton, Arlams, Dickey, Langhorne, Plattenburg, and a dozen more to determine definitely and surely before returning. They did it quickly,

but the tale to tell had much about it that was dark and gloomy. Steele had passed through Rockport with thirteen thousand soldiers of all arms, and forty-eight pieces of artillery, being now well on the road to the Washita river. Immediate pursuit was ordered, and the brigade in splendid fighting trim took the broad big road trampled smooth by the feet of Steele's compact battalions. The Federals crossed at Arkadelphia-Shelby eight miles below, while a. scout under Dan, Ingram dashed into the town and captured Steele's rear-guard of two cavalry companies, officers, horses, and all. Very good so far, and the first blood for the Confederates. The evening before the b:Lttle of the next day and ere the river had been crossed,

Colonel Shelby received the first intimation that Congress had confirmed his appointment as Brigadier General. The information came in a kind letter from Colonel Colton Greene, than whom no braver nor better officer ever drew sword, and who was rising rapidly into fame and prominence just as the Southern sun went down in blood. He paid a generous tribute to his comrade's worth; wished him future glory and success; and closed by saying: "Whatever laurels the future has in store for you, be sure none can be greener and fresher than those already bound upon your brow."

Promotions are not always given to the most deserving, and long months of active and successful service create sometimes no recognition beyond empty compliments and cheap notoriety in general orders. The capacity to do and to suffer is rare indeed, and can nut be purchased without genius nor flattered by burnished sabers and glittering regimentals. The country-alas! for her desire and uses-had too many butterfly brigadiers, gyrating around correspondents and absorbing newspaper notoriety under the transient sunshine of congressional or executive favoritism. The remoteness of the Trans-Mississippi Department from Richmond; the lack of all official information concerning it; and a foregone intention to abandon it as soon as possible, made the merits of its officers little understood-their service and their victories ignored and unappreciated. Occidentals could do nothing right, nor could the mantle of genius cover many beyond the sacred precincts of West Point; yet, when the plain story had been told to Mr. Davis, and explained to Congress of how Colonel Shelby had fought, marched, bled, gained and triumphed-his appointment was confirmed and the commission made out with promising alacrity. General Shelby was too busy with battle preparations to rejoice even over the proud but well merited promotion, for ammunition had to be issued in plentiful quantities; Collins' new splendid four-gun battery must be looked to with parental eyes; five days' rations were to cook and stowaway, and every wagon but a small ammunition train sent to the rear. All these various duties were not finished until nearly sunset, when the brigade was assembled under arms, orders issued to move precisely at moonrise-which came just at twelve o'clock-and the war orders read to the eager and impatient

men. "Soldiers of Shelby's Brigade: You march in four hours to attack the enemy. He is strong, well equipped, and not deficient in courage, but I intend that you shall ride down his infantry and scatter his battalions by the splendor of your charge. You have just four hours to say your prayers, make your needful preparations, and nerve your hearts for the onset. It will be desperate, because you are brave; bloody, because you are reckless; and tenacious, because I am today a Confederate Brigadier General. I have told you often about our homes, our country, and our glorious cause-to-day, I simply appeal to your ambition, your fame, your spotless reputation and your eternal renown. Strike as you struck at Marshall; charge as you charged at Marshall, and the day is won."

Then a great shout went up from three thousand soldiers when their hopes were at last realized, and their loved leader stood before them entitled to wear the wreath and the broad buff sash. Changes, too, had been made in the brigade during its winter's rest. Shanks was a full Colonel, Frank Gordon also; Thompson no longer commanded the 3d Regiment, and Smith had been elected in his place. Blackwell was Lieutenant Colonel of the 1st, and Captain George Gordon promoted to Major, while Lieutenant Colonel Erwin came in next to Shanks in the 2d, and Captain Vivion to the Majorship. Elliott had also recruited his battalion to a full regiment, and Captain Wash McDaniel was elected Lieutenant Colonel, with Captain Walton as Major. Heroic officers all, and tried in the fire of a hundred conflicts.

This battery of Collins' was one of the features of the old brigade, too, and the men had a species of tender love and reverence for the guns. They wanted them in their midst. They de·

sired to camp around them; they swore to protect them, and they inevitably cheered them whenever their voices thundered out over the field. The artillery company was composed of merry, frolicking, devil-may-care fellows, ever ready for fun and fighting. First commanded by Joseph Bledsoe, brother of the celebrated Hi. Bledsoe, whose" Old Sacramento" was a household word in Missouri, and afterward by Captain Richard A. Collins, the battery was Shelby's pet. When not required elsewhere, he was always close up to his guns. ·IIe had a passion for artillery, and would frequently dismount under the hottest fire to coolly sight and discharge one piece after another, although Collins would sometimes hint rather broadly

that he had twenty men much better shots than their General. The organization also was peculiar, and the officers were possessed of various qualifications. On the field Collins was unsurpassable, and considered the finest battery commander in Smith's army. First Lieutenant Dave Harris possessed all the courage and iron firmness of Collins, with more of reticence and less of demonstration. Lieutenant Jake Connor was ornamental, stylish, and kept up its reputation among the ladies. Lieutenant Inglehart had the energy of Shelby himself, and a. business tact peculiar and profitable to his company. Lieutenant Coleman Smith was cultivated and refined, studying artillery as a science, and coolly and effectively putting into practice on the battle-field the scientific facts and demonstrations he had delved from books in the silence and solitude of the woods. Lieutenant Luther Wayman, who afterward preferred the

cavalry, had great ideas of dash and enterprise. His element was to gallop about rapidly with one gun, fire from sudden and unlooked for points, and then away again to another outer position. The non-commissioned officers and privates were always chosen because of something sturdy and daring about their character, and for some quixotic act accomplished. The escapades and madcap adventure of John Cloudesly, Joe Cooper, Jack Anthony, Joe Graham, Chas. Davis, Tom Pritchard, John Williams, Jimmy O'Grady, Jeff. Elliott, Silas Starkes, Ben. Hainline, Frank Ward, Billy Grigsby, Henry Grigsby, John and Alec Cooper, Dave Smith, Gus Armstrong, Joe Beale, John Graham, George Wilcox, John Paul, James Lindsay.

Wm. Pollack, James Hamilton, Charley Tyler, and Wesly Beale would fill a larger volume than this. The bugler, too-Uncle Tommy Wilcox-was a genius. An old, gray-haired veteran of

the Mexican war, he had lost none of the fire and courage of youth,

but marshaled his men to the drill and to battle with a bugle whose tones were strikingly loud and harmonious. Another peculiar feature of Collins' immortal battery was it" hear-a veritable, good.-natured, intelligent black bear. Shelby'; silence about the column now became fearful and thrilling with coming death. Beyond the river the broad wire road from Arkadelphia to Washington lay before the brigade, cut into almost bottomless pits by the iron wheels of innumerable wagons, and abundant unmistakable signs told that the rear was near at hand. Thorp led the advance, and Shelby had ordered him to charge from the first, charge upon sight, and charge continually. At a large frame house on the right

of the road, and just about two miles from where Steele's rear was overtaken, lived Colonel Boseman, a substantial farmer and strong Secessionist. Some two dozen ladies were congregated there in every temperature of excitement, for the hands of the spoilers had been laid heavily upon their goods, and as the house stood in a central position, they assembled for mutual condolence and sympathy. When the head of Shelby's brigade marched firmly and defiantly down the road so near to Steele, these poor women went frantic almost with joy and revenge. They cried, shouted, praised God, sang psalms, and one of the younger ones even went so far as to throw her arms around Captain Charley Jones and bid him march to

the battle with a "firm reliance upon heaven and the right." "Heaven's a mighty good place for angels," whispered Jones, returning the ardent pressure of the beautiful devotee, "but this earth will do me very well just now, especially when I can gaze into such eyes as I do at this moment." Whether his bold, bad looks destroyed the spell or whether the religious fit passed off he could not ~ell, but true it was she broke away like some frightened bird, and fluttered off to the house in sweet confusion.

Ah! danger ahead. Thorp's quick eyes saw blue form~ in the road above, and several hundred more swarming around a large, cool spring drinking by file. This was a heavy brigade of infantry covering Steele's rear, and led by a General Rice, never known before perhaps-but still General Rice commanding a grim brigade. l<Steady, men, steady" were the low, calm words of Thorp as he dashed splendidly down upon the infantry in the road, the infantry around the spring, and the unseen infantry in line among the bushes beyond. Through the ranks under a deadly fire sweeping the road on the right and left, sabering, stabbing, shooting the disjointed companies, Thorp thundered on, glorying in his young manhood, and that one word" forward" coming loud on the breeze from Shelby's lips. The infantry regiment in the rear rallied across the road and delivered one murderous, deadly fire. Thorp wet down in the

battle's van badly shot, his horse dead across his body, and by his side, in the blood and the mire of that fatal lane, were Kavanaugh, Little, Prior, Wills, Marshall, Levy, Smith, the brothers Lascy and twenty others dead or dying. Shelby heard the fierce roar of the battle storm in front and came on at a gallop. Rice retreated rapidly and gained a splendid position. On the right into the line went the brigade at a run, and advanced swiftly upon the crouching infantry in the woods-horses against steel; naked bosoms against logs and trees. Elliott, on the left in a large field, felt the whirlwind first, and three times he charged the woods, and three times he was repulsed. Shelby saw his devoted efforts and galloped to the front. "My gallant boys, it will not do, you have no backs to show. Once more-once more, and follow me!" Leading this heroic regiment upon the muzzles of two thousand muskets, General Shelby broke the enemy's line and poured his column through the gap. Gordon and Vivion charged so fiercely that numbers of horses fell bayoneted, and Captain Adams rode three times through the ranks, backward and forward. Collins had been busy too and fought his battery magnificently. The dead and wounded of the advance were tenderly sent to the rear, and General Shelby called to him Captain D. Williams. "I can not compliment an officer more pointedly," he said, "than by assigning to him a post of imminent danger. Take command of the advance so nobly led by Captain Thorp, and let Die see you do good work this day." Williams did do good work, and wherever the firing was hottest and the bullets thickest, there were the forms of the decimated forlorn hope-there were Williams and his beautiful gray steed. Rice in full retreat, yet in admirable order, was pursued with a bitterness never before exhibited by the brigade,

and he sent for immediate succor. Steele gave him another brigade and one six-gun battery. With these heavy reinforcements Rice made a vigorous stand and fought desperately. The woods fires during the retreat of the Federals now blazed fiercely everywhere, consuming alike their dead and wounded. In the face of blinding smoke, heat, and whirling cinders from the dry trees on fire, the brigade advanced to the attack of this second position. The six-gun battery opened at once, but Collins silenced it by a dozen rounds, and the infantry and cavalry joined battle. For two hours it was evenly balanced, a brigade against a division. General Shelby lost another of his famous sorrels, his saddle holsters were shot away and blood

drawn in two places from touching bullets, yet he hurled his whole force in one desperate charge upon Rice's right, rode over for the second time the 9th Wisconsin Infantry, and scattered the Federals through the woods like partridges. Until darkness stopped pursuit the chase went swiftly on. Prisoners were brought in by companies, the dead and wounded strown through the woods for miles in extent, and Rice shot twice, hatless and swordless, finally reached the main army, swearing he fought nothing but devils who rode horses upon his bayonets and shot his infantry in square with revolvers.

Rice spoke simple truth and nothing more. But twice afterward and never before had Shelby's brigade fought so desperately and so persistently for eight long hours. Never, perhaps,

in the war had a column of cavalry rode over veteran infantry in chosen positions among heavy timber, a strong wind blowing fierce flames in their faces, and the ground filled with ravines and streams of deep and running water. Not a company wavered nor a regiment faltered. The lines advanced with unbroken front and galloped into column when the chase was at its best. Many old soldiers fell in this day's battle-nearly two hundred-but the enemy suffered fearfully and the Confederates were satisfied. The last struggle took place after it became too dark to distinguish objects four rods away. Lieutenant Colonel Blackwell, Colonel Elliott, and Major George Gordon, with several companies nearest cut off three hundred Federals

operating on their extreme right from the road which was on the left, and chased them helter skelter through the woods. They were Dutch, and believing it to be death in the end made a desperate resistance; but they were at last killed or captured, and the survivors brought into camp late at night. Nearly four hundred prisoners were concentrated and sent to General Price's headquarters, with a brief statement of Steele's force, the operations of the day, and the probable destination of his army. This had been the first authentic news received, and it came to wondering and despairing hearts like the dew on a summer's hill.

Very tired and sternly bent on further fighting, General Shelby bivouacked upon the battlefield, waiting patiently for the morning. During the night trusty scouts brought tidings of Rice's junction, and of the massing of Steele's army ten miles in front. Citizens came in steadily bringing provisions and ministering to the wounded. They had tasted Federal occupation and found it bitter and disagreeable. There were a few stars in the sky and many shadows among the trees when the advance moved out early upon the road, along which numbers of the overpowered Federals were sleeping, broken down by fatigue and incessant marching. Steele's army was encountered in a line of battle two miles long, cavalry well in advance and batteries all along the front. He had mistaken Shelby's attack for the blow of an army, and waited to give general action. This mistake favored operations wonderfully, and Shelby immediately bore down upon the cavalry drawn up in a large field before the infantry line stationed upon the crests of a long series of hills, steep and precipitate. It seemed like child's play to drive back these timid horsemen, and General Steele soon sent forward a brigade of infantry, whose skirmishers advanced rapidly to the attack. The battle grew fierce in a. moment. Smith's regiment had repulsed one sudden charge, and Elliott had nearly executed an admirable flank movement, when one of those sudden, fearful hurricanes came roaring out of the sky, so peculiar and so familiar in southern latitudes. The air became dark as midnight. The cloud billows, lashed to fury by the incarnate whip of the wind, piled higher and higher their sable masses all over the heavens. The blare of bugles and the clatter of musketry were hushed instantly in the valley below.

The power of Omnipotence thundered in the elements and stilled the puny strife of man by the shadow of a great darkness. Both armies paused in strife, and stood shudderingly in battle order. Shelby marked the roar of the coming hurricane and sent swift orders for Elliott to return, lest in the gloom and darkness his way might be lost. The skirmishers halted and rallied by fours, while Collins stood amid his silent guns listening to the blasts of heaven's artillery, more fearful than all the cannon on earth. Presently the hurricane burst in its fury and tore the trees into shreds of shivered, twisted wood. The hail was terrific and bent to the earth whole regiments crouching for protection against its stones falling heavy and hard as bullets. Two enormous oaks, torn from the firm earth, fell prostrate in Gordon's regiment, scattering the ranks not often broken, but its leader marked the yielding giants and gave a timely shout of warning. One huge, hot wave of wind, the lightning's keen spur in its naked bosom, tore down in front of Smith's regiment and mowed a ghastly swarth through the bending and terrified

trees, piling the distorted limbs and trunks in one vast mass of interlaced and intermingled wood. For two hours this terrible storm • raged with fierce power. On every side came the crash of falling oaks and the thunder of splintered timber. The murky air grew red with the hot breath of the lightning, making the darkness more dense and appalling. Horses reared and snorted in ungovernable fright, scared and aggravated by such bursts of thunder as shook the earth, and hurled the hailstones down harder and thicker. Slowly the air grew lighter-the wind became less mighty-and the sulphurous stench in the atmosphere died out by degrees. Forgetting the awful lesson of Divinity, and thinking only of blood and victory, General Shelby renewed the fight from amid the fortifications made by the fallen timber, and drove infantry and cavalry from the field below, back upon the main line on the hills. Steele not

caring, perhaps, to uncover his front, and, doubtless, busy with preparations to cross the Little Missouri river, retired his forces, and left only a hard, naked line of massive infantry impossible to be penetrate by a single brigade of cavalry. General Shelby marched his entire length in column, firing at every battery visible, and trying every species of bravado to draw down some opposing ,forces into the valley. The artillery opened upon him at long range, but speedily retired as soon as Collins got into position, while some of his daring scouts went to the rear of the line and brought the pioneers engaged in making roads into camp. Night coming on, the brigade withdrew three miles for water and forage, ready to renew

the fight the next day.

The last position taken before retiring-the position which preceded the last fight-developed a most curious and amusing incident. In front of the lines, and directly upon the crest of an abrupt hill, was a large log cabin, substantial in structure and surrounded by fruit trees and shrubbery. Below this house and nearer to the troops were probably ten or fifteen beehives, from the natural gum to the elaborate and more intricate box, with sliding panels and treacherous caps. Few noticed these little houses at first; but, by and-by, a twelve pounder howitzer added its deep, sullen voice to the battle-din in front. The third or fourth shell exploded fairly and midway the line of hives-splintered two or three, knocked over as many more, and raised the very mischief with the fierce and vengeful inhabitants. Out they poured with wings all tense and daggers poisoned. First a swarm, and then a cloud-buzzing, singing, biting, stinging. All among the horses; in the hair and the faces of the men; in the rear, in front, on flanks-everywhere the mimic battle went on. For several minutes the cannonade of the enemy was forgotten, and the fatal bullets of his skirmishers unheard. Horses reared and plunged furiously; the men broke ranks and rushed ludicrously hither and thither, trying in vain to elude the

torturing insects. Shelby swore and stormed, but at length he was attacked in turn and rode hurriedly into a clump of bushes to rid himself of the tantalizing pests, followed by the insatiate bees and the noisy laughter of his men. The misery of being literally stung to death was intolerable. The bravest flinched, and twisted, and dodged about with unsoldierly alacrity. The line was fast getting mixed up and the bees were reinforcing every moment. The officers could only laugh immoderately and shout commands that were never heeded. At last, cutting the gordian knot by one stroke, Shelby ordered an advance much against his will, for he desired greatly that the Federals should march down further, and the entire line pressed forward with glad cries, really willing to fight a bloody combat rather than to endure five minutes more of such stinging misery. The battle ended with this episode, and the day's work was over.

The utmost caution was necessary now to guard against surprise, and the unusual desire of General Steele to avoid battle more than confirmed the opinion of his meditated strategy. Sure enough, about eleven o'clock at night, Lieutenant Wills, scouting toward the Little Missouri river, sent trusty messengers with the information that Steele's entire cavalry force had passed down to the left of General Shelby's camp, and taken position four miles in his rear, with the intention as the prisoners captured and sent in would testify, to attack him at daylight in the rear, while a heavy body of infantry was to engage simultaneously in front, and thus crush at a blow the" infernal tenacity of Shelby's bloodhounds," as Steele laconically

expressed it. Shelby moved camp immediately beyond the road traveled by the cavalry column, withdrew his pickets as if retreating, and lay in line of battle until it was barely light enough to see his way over ravines and gullies, when he marched squarely against the old position taken the first part of the preceding night, and struck the cavalry column of Steele upon its march to the fancied surprise. So completely was it out-generaled and cut up that but few shots were fired, and in its frantic flight it rode over and stampeded the infantry coming to its relief. The short distance from Steele's impregnable position alone saved the fugitives. Many were killed and captured, and the nice little piece of strategy fixed up so quietly recoiled upon their own heads with a cruel force.

In the hot charge made by Thorp on the morning of the first day's fighting, there rode by his side a young Lieutenant of Marmaduke's escort-fresh, blooming, a brave light in his fine eyes,

and a manly smile, full of hope and high endeavor on his bronzed face. This peerless officer, Lieutenant D:1I1icI Trigg, had been sent by Marmaduke the day before with important orders to Shelby, and came safely through the perils of field and flood, successfully accomplishing his errand, and naturally proud, too, that the mission had been so thoroughly performed. When Thorp sounded his fierce shout of defiance, he dashed away with the advance; splendidly and recklessly, and, fighting heroically in the battle's van, fell dreadfully and mortally wounded. He was borne from the field to die-he the kind, the gentle, and the brave. The South offered up no purer sacrifice; the brigade mourned no truer heart; war claimed no

prouder victim; and his friends wept over no more precious clay, crowned with immortality and the grief of an army.

General Steele crossed the Little Missouri river the next day with his entire army, after having been reinforced by several thousand troops from Fort Smith, under General Thayer, and General Shelby crossed the same river five miles below, marching to Steele's front and taking position on Prairie d'Ann, a beautiful stretch of smooth, level land bordering the bottom, in whose muddy and pestilential marshes Steele still struggled, having to corduroy every mile of ground before he could advance his huge train to firmer soil. Five miles in the rear of this prairie, General Price and General Marmaduke were fortifying, and determined, ostensibly, to make a fight in front of Camden. General Gano came from the Indian nation with several regiments of Texans and Choctaws, making the whole cavalry force, when united, about seven thousand. Three days passed slowly away waiting for Steele to get ready, broken by incessant skirmishing and occasionally a shock or two of outlying regiments. While basking in the sunlight on this emerald Arkansas prairie, two of General Price's staff came out to the front to see how Shelby managed out-post work and handled his troops in battle. These officers were Colonel T. L. Snead and Colonel J. F. Belton. There had been a long lull in the skirmishing before their arrival, which lasted an hour or so beyond, and they talked and looked around inquiringly. Colonel Snead believed Shelby to be a capital fighter -very brave and tenacious-and a kind of good fellow who had but little discipline and control over his men. Presently, Captain Franklin, doing duty on the nearest outpost to Steele, became hotly

engaged and reported a heavy advance of cavalry. Then Shelby astonished them. The quiet conversational gentleman changed instantly into a quick, nervous, vigorous soldier. The laughter and songs about the camps hushed instantly. Orderlies galloped away swiftly for a few moments; half a dozen bugles rang out shrilly and keen, when, as if by magic and in an inconceivably short space of time, the fires were abandoned and the formed and marching regiments were thronging quietly to the front, the artillery prepared,· the position chosen, the lines formed, and Shelby coolly waiting for the attack. "I did not know him then," said the manly and gallant Snead," but never before have I witnessed such remarkable celerity and intelligence displayed by any officer. His camp seemed to have neither front, nor flank; but let a rifle ·crack or ten skirmishers fire a volley, and Shelby is in his saddle at the head of every

man." No battle, however, took place this day, and the regiments returned silently to camp.

The next day about two o'clock in the evening, Steele came sure enough, driving everything before him from the timber and pouring line after line upon the naked prairie. Shelby was always ready, and having previously selected his position, about midway between the camp of Steele and the fortifications of Price, on the long crest of a little narrow ridge, prepared quietly for the desperate combat close at hand. General Steele advanced slowly, but in beautiful array. Far as the eye could reach might be seen the glitter of burnished arms and the proud flutter of embroidered banners. The skirmishers, deployed along the whole front in one unbroken line, kept exact time and distance. Dockery, on the left, soon quit the contest, for the force thrown upon him was very heavy, and nothing stood between the Federal hosts and General Price but the Iron Brigade, drawn up on either side of Collins' immortal battery.

Shelby opened fire first with artillery, and, as if by magic, and before almost a shell had exploded, two magnificent six-gun batteries galloped up in advance of the skirmishers and concentrated a heavy fire upon Collins and the exposed horsemen bestriding their steeds as calmly as if on dress parade. Collins fought on under a fire more destructive than even he had ever endured before. The two batteries, unable to silence his guns, were reinforced by another, and still another, until twenty-four pieces of cannon were pouring a hell of shot And shell into the ranks. Not a soldier moved or changed the position of his horse's head. Steele turned angrily to his chief of artillery and said: "If you can not silence those four guns of Shelby's yonder on a naked prairie, and break his simple lines of cavalry, you had best return to Little Rock-you can do nothing here."

For an hour and more the artillery fight continued. Every horse and seventeen of Collins' men lay dead arid wounded among the guns. Great gaps torn in the cavalry regiments were coolly filled up-the nearest soldiers frequently having to dismount and tenderly remove some well known comrade from beneath the horses' feet. Then the skirmishers met in desperate battle. The cavalry thrown forward by Steele was shattered and driven back; three batteries changed positions twice, and finally left the front for repairs. Until night did this lone brigade hold thirteen thousand men and twenty-four pieces of artillery in check, repulsing three separate attacks. Two of Collins' guns were withdrawn by hand, and Shelby retired only after four distinct orders. "Tell General Price," was his unyielding answer, "I can not fall back-I am pressed too hard, send me ammunition and ambulances."

Darkness came down upon· the vast prairie, yet the battle was not ended. Steele showed signs of advancing, and Marmaduke ordered Shelby to attack and check him effectually. Deploying his entire brigade, except Gordon's regiment, as skirmishers, he engaged Steele's whole army. The horizon, from east to west, was one leaping, incessant blaze of about six thousand muskets, lighting up the very sky and making night hideous with their screaming missiles. The batteries, too, joined in the combat and burst like volcanoes from the solid earth, throwing large jets of flame at every discharge; while from the gloom and dista.nce came the wild yells of the Confederates as they drove a regiment here or gained an advantage there. Steele at midnight had not advanced an inch when General Shelby withdrew his command. The next day he again went to the front and skirmished heavily, Steele positively refusing battle and remaining quietly upon the prairie, secure in his concentrated strength. It soon became evident that General Price would not fight in the position chosen-indeed the attempt, had the issue been made-could only result in severe defeat, and check the Federal army' but a moment; so when General Steele advanced the third morning upon the fortifications he found only a few logs and shallow ditches. Yet much good had been done.. The severe blows struck by General Shelby on both sides of the river; Colonel Monroe's brilliant and stubborn fighting near Okalona, which took place a short time before Shelby's attack upon the rear the first day; and General Marmaduke's vigorous efforts to contest the passage of the Little Missouri river, told upon General Steele's organization and the elan of his troops. The desperate nature of the fighting made him naturally cautious, and the rapid movement of the cavalry impressed upon his mind ideas of numbers having in fact no real existence.

Two roads at this time were open to General Steele-one to Washington and the other to Camden. Generals Marmaduke and Shelby proposed a plan of operations which necessitated the deploying of one division to cover the first point and one division to cover the other, so that in whatever direction Steele moved, troops were upon his front and rear. General Price thought Steele's objective point' was Washington, and withdrew from the Camden road all opposition. Steele's quick eyes saw the outlet instantly, and he pushed immediately for Camden. To oppose his front again and make one more battle for the town was now General Price's desire, and Generals Marmaduke and Shelby, after a forced night march of great severity, accomplished the orders given for this purpose. The troops in the rear made no attack at all, the Federals doing some harmless shelling whenever the head of the pursuing Confederates got uncomfortably near the covering squadrons. General Shelby, in advance, gained the front, took position on the main Camden road, at a place called Poison Spring, and prepared for the morrow's battle. The preparations had been made by four o'clock in the evening, when General Marmaduke arrived with his brigade and sent it to a position in rear of Shelby's, remaining himself with those troops which would soonest meet the enemy. An hour before sunset a scouting party of Federals came into the Confederate lines, mistaking them for friends, and, in endeavoring to escape, the leader, a notorious spy, was killed, after a sharp chase, by one of the advanced skirmishers mounted on a superb race mare, while the rest of the detachment were taken prisoners at once. These prisoners informed General Shelby that .they were the advance of 8 cavalry division, and General Steele's army would not arrive before morning-the cavalry, however, being just behind and looked (or every moment. Instantly seizing the road by which they must advance, General Shelby had scarcely gone into line before the head of the leading regiment came gayly up, unconscious of the lurking danger. The premature discharge of a musket in the hands of some nervous soldier frustrated their

complete overthrow j but the foremost regiment which had passed through the ambuscade was badly worsted and followed by Colonel Gordon II. mile or more. Nothing so far but disaster had accompanied General Steele j and his largest detachments, whether sent for forage or to cover a movement of infantry, were invariably cut off or driven back. Indeed, so notoriously inefficient and cowardly were his cavalrymen, that their fighting became a by-word and reproach in the Confederate ranks. Steele's camp-fires were plainly visible a short distance in the rear, but Generals Shelby and Marmaduke slept quietly in a comfortable house at the extreme edge of the brigade, and moved leisurely a little before day-break to the ..

hill selected the evening before to give battle upon. Directly upon the road crossing this hill, General Shelby masked Collins' battery by placing a thick screen of brush before it and removing the horses below its crest for safety. In the valley beneath, in the dry bed of a creek, were the regiments of the brigade dismounted. Captains Reck Johnson and Will Moorman, left purposely in the' rear to bring on the fight, retired slowly before Steele's advance, which, after firing the house occupied. as headquarters by General Shelby, on account of the spy killed the day previously, came slowly forward, shelling the woods in front by rapid discharges from a mountain howitzer battery of four guns.

These two captains passed on beyond the skirmishers and the concealed infantry in the ditch as if nothing were there, and the little battery halted within fifty feet of the advanced line without seeing a gray jacket amid the brushwood. Standing full in the road and shooting at random, it presented a beautiful target for Collins, having a keen eye for sport. Training his guns upon them and firing at command, the four pieces went off by battery, killed several of the horses, six men, and the Lieutenant commanding, while the skirmishers dashed

out from behind a hundred logs and trees to drag it in triumph to the rear, but the Federals were too quick for them and got it safely off. There never was a fire more effective, and never a battery more rapidly silenced and driven away from sight and range. General Steele, knowing too well that Shelby must be again in his front, sent up battery after battery from the rear, and the artillery fire grew hot and deadly. Then the infantry advanced in splendid order upon the concealed ravine, filled, like the Grecian horse, with armed men. The first line staggered and recoiled, the second broke into confusion, and the third halted at long range and poured in many harmless volleys. Again they advanced to the charge, covered by eighteen pieces of artillery, but again Shelby hurled them back in bleeding masses. Then two heavy columns broke away to the right and left, and crossed the ravine above and below, while from the rear the reinforcements came up in such overwhelming numbers that Marmaduke was forced to fall back. General Shelby withdrew under a galling fire without pursuit, and after three hours' stubborn fighting General Steele was compelled to advance in line over a wretchedly broken country, loosing heavily in killed and wounded. Marmaduke's brigade had not been engaged, being held us a reserve in case of accident, and the division, united, turned off the Camden road to the right for General Steele to pass, whose rear was furiously attacked and driven with confusion into Camden by Colonels Lawler and Jeffers, where, of all places on earth, the Federals could do less harm and be more sure of ultimate defeat and destruction. In a bend of the Washita river, surrounded by a country exhausted of supplies, hemmed in by swamps and bayous, and invested by troops holding all the roads available for forage, the position must have been anything but pleasant for General Steele, and only chosen because forced upon him: The cloud long gathering burst suddenly and deluged the Federals with blood and agony.

As Steele was crossing the Little Missouri river, General Marmaduke sent Wiley Fackler, a young soldier belonging to his escort, with instructions to the troops watching and fighting the Federals in their efforts to get over. Wiley, ignorant of the localities and of all the changes which had taken place in the position of the Confederates, rode boldly on until surrounded by half a regiment of blue coats demanding his surrender. He complied gracefully; was sent to Little Rock; escaped on the road; visited Missouri and all his friends there; went on through Maryland and Virginia as a medical student, and finally reached Richmond after much danger and exposure, where Mr. Davis listened with pleasure to his story, complimented him on his daring and ingenuity, and sent him back to his command with the bars of a Lieutenant upon his collar.

The house occupied by Generals Marmaduke and Shelby, preceding the battle at Poison Spring, belonged to a worthy farmer and was destroyed wantonly and maliciously. The man killed in the evening and buried near it, fell in a desperate attempt to escape, and not until he had been called upon to surrender three distinct times. The circumstances were these: Before reaching the house in question, General Shelby sent Lieutenant Whitsett, Dan Ingram, Wallace Cook, Pleas. Hicklin, Pat. Marshall, Weed Marshall, and some six or eight others on an expedition to the left of his line of march, and ordered them to bring in as many prisoners as possible, as he wanted information of Steele's movements. About sunset they encountered an equal number of Federals accompanying this man who was killed-a Missourian-and a desperate and noted spy and scouter. Both parties being on the alert, challenged simultaneously Ingram's detachment dressed in blue overcoats and knowing the others to be Federals, decoyed them to within three or four feet without exciting suspicion, when suddenly bringing their revolvers to bear upon them, they captured and dismounted all but one, and he turned to run followed by two or three Confederates. Superbly mounted on a coal-black mare, the chase was a long one and a stern one. He fell shot from his saddle at last, though, and was brought back and buried near this house.

CHAPTER XVI.

AFTER the occupation of Camden, General Price took post at Munn's Mill, twenty miles distant, covering every road leading southward, waiting patiently until Banks should be disposed of. Shelby, ordered to report to Fagan, made a circuit of Camden, drove in all the Federal pickets on the east, and halted at Miller's Bluff until General Fagan arrived.

From this point Lieutenant Colonel McDaniel turned back upon Camden with one hundred men from Elliott's regiment, marched boldly up and attacked a large force holding an important bridge over a wide deep ·bayou east from the town, and alarmed the garrison greatly. Severe skirmishing lasted until McDaniel stirred up a perfect hornet's nest and drew down upon him a considerable force, when he quietly withdrew and galloped back to Shelby.

While Shelby was awaiting Fagan at Miller's Bluff, General Steele had received another damaging blow from the west. The second . battle of Poison Spring was brief and bloody, with Marmaduke as the hero.' After the capture of Camden, Steele quietly rested behind the fortifications so kindly erected for his use by the Confederates during the preceding fall and winter. There were two roads leading from Camden to Washington: the more southerly known as the wire road and the other passing more to the north, and by the way of Poison Spring. General Steele had entered Camden by the latter route. The Confederate cavalry was camped on the wire road, about three miles from Camden, with pickets of observation of the

other road. It was known that General Steele was severely pressed for subsistence, and that he must replenish his commissariat from the surrounding country, or fall back to the line of the Arkansas river.

On the 20th of April, pressed by hard necessity, he pushed out a foraging column on the Poison Spring road, consisting of some two hundred and fifty wagons and ambulances, escorted by a section of artillery, a regiment or battalion of cavalry, and a force of probably two thousand infantry, including a regiment of negroes. Marmaduke was promptly informed of the movement, and that night passed across the country to the road the enemy were upon, with a view to intercept their return. He learned, however, in a few hours that the force of the enemy was stronger than he had anticipated; and he resolved to return to camp for the night, inform General Price of the condition of affairs, request a co-operating force from the

troops camped further to the rear, and to renew the movement the next day. General Price promised the desired assistance. At daylight the column moved out. It consisted of Cabell's brigade and a portion of Marmaduke's brigade. A regiment and a battalion of the latter had been previously sent to Louisiana on detached service. Both brigades were greatly reduced in numbers, by reason of the hard and continuous service they had undergone during the preceding months. Of this force Marmaduke was compelled to leave a strong detachment to guard his rear from any demonstrations General Steele might make upon it from the direction of Camden. Early in the day the Confederate command reached the road, and pushed vigorously forward in the direction of the enemy. After an hour and a half's rapid marching, he was informed that the enemy were just beyond Poison Spring-an admirable point for a battle, and where a few days previous Shelby had had a furious and successful artillery engagement with the enemy-their wagons headed toward Camden on their return, and pushing forward rapidly in order to gain possession of the higher ground in the neighborhood of the Spring. Marmaduke understood the topography of the country thoroughly, and determined to be beforehand with them if possible. He ordered his escort company forward at speed to occupy the ground, and Cabell's 'advance regiment to support them at a gallop. The escort obeyed the order well, and when Cabell came thundering on the field with his whole brigade, sharply followed by Greene, the escort was found dismounted, and fighting sturdily in front of the position they were ordered to occupy. Hynson's artillery wheeled into the position occupied a few days before by Collins' battery. The troops were dismounted and formed to the

rear of the artillery, and beyond the view of the enemy. A skirmish line was thrown forward to attract their attention and give them pleasant employment, and Lieutenant Colonel Woods' battalion was retained mounted, and placed upon the extreme right of the line.

The arrival of the co-operating force promised by General Price alone delayed the opening of the attack. In the meantime the artillery fired slowly, and the skirmishers made only such demonstrations as were necessary to hold the enemy firmly to their position. The men seeing the enemy fairly before them, waited eagerly and excitedly for the order to advance, and cha.fed restlessly because of the delay which they could not understand. At this moment General Maxey opportunely arrived on the field. Marmaduke immediately reported to him as the ranking officer, explained his own dispositions, and desired to receive his orders. General Maxey refused to take the command, alleging that Marmaduke had proposed the expedition, and was entitled to command it, and was moreover well acquainted with all the advantages and disadvantages of the position. Marmaduke then requested him to send a staff officer and

have his troops formed in line, perpendicular with the formation already perfected. General Maxey did so. The Confederate order of battle was thus in the form of two sides of a parallelogram, with I he enemy inclosed in the angle between them. Marmaduke then explained that his design was to advance Maxey's command, which was yet masked, on the enemy's flank, and as they attempted to change front to meet the unexpected attack, to open upon them furiously with his artillery in front, and under cover of its fire, and while they were discovered by the effort to meet the attack on their flank, to charge and rout them with his Arkansas and Missouri troops. He asked General Maxey to ride with him to his own troops and order them forward. General Maxey declined to do so. saying that he yielded the entire command to him, and would himself retire to the rear and seek a. little repose, being somewhat

fatigued; but offered a guide to show him where the troops were. General Maxey retired, and Marmaduke rode to put his plans into execution. He ordered General Maxey's troops forward through the dense woods at a charge. They were Indians, and about as well fitted for a noisy demonstration, such as they were required to ma.ke now, as for any other movement in the art of war, unless, indeed, we except the plundering of a beaten field, and there their skill approached absolute and exquisite perfection. And after such an exhibition of their warlike prowess, logically came the necessity of going home to cache their plunder. For what was the use of fighting without getting the spoils, and what was the use of getting the spoils, without securing them in a safe place?

As soon as the enemy found themselves attacked from an unexpected quarter, they attempted to change their lines to meet it. In doing so considerable confusion ensued, and just at the most critical moment the fire of Hynson's guns increased in rapidity and violence with an angry storm of shot and shell, hurling and exploding in every direction among them, and at the same time the Arkansas and . Missouri brigades, bursting over the crest of the hill, behind which they lay concealed, swept down upon their startled and disordered ranks in a wild, impetuous charge. The voice of the battle, that before had been like the tearing and shivering of timber, when the hurricane rends the forest, now swelled into a deep and steady sound, in which the heavy roar of the artillery was confounded and lost in the sharper ring of thousands of muskets. A fierce spirit of emulation animated the soldiers of the two States, as to which should first strike and shatter the enemy's lines. As they rushed across the open fields that lay at the foot of the hill, and into the dark woods beyond, they delivered their volleys in quick and terrible succession. The enemy, though staggered by the first onset, made a vigorous effort to recover from the shock, and to stem the tide of battle setting so strongly against them. They threw out their negro troops to the front, and when they recoiled before the fury of the Confederate fire, they drove them forward again with musket, ball and bayonet. But it was impossible to resist the impetuosity of the Confederate attack. The enemy reeled backward from one position to another, firing useless volleys, and becoming more confused and broken with each successive movement. Their cavalry with the first reverse of the day, took to ignominious flight without firing a gun. Their artillery when pressed by the advancing

lines, was driven into the woods, the horses cut loose from the pieces, and the guns abandoned. Their wagon train was in the utmost confusion. The wagons were jammed together or overturned the tongues torn out-and the mules down, entangled and struggling in their harness. Many of the teamsters rushed to the train as to a place of safety, and were found secreted in the wagons among heaps of promiscuous plunder, or under them clinging to the running gear, or dangerously mixed among the struggling and fallen mules.

When the Indians reached the captured train they were enchanted. As far as they were concerned the battle was over. They considered that the greatest victory of the war had been achieved, the power of the Yankee nation hopelessly broken, and the independence of the Confederacy placed beyond a doubt. Marmaduke, however, restrained them with stern orders. But the battle-field offered a brilliant opportunity for the display of their skill; and many a mountain of useless plunder was seen, beneath which reeled and swayed an invisible Indian.

Though the enemy were irretrievably broken and scattered through the woods, Marmaduke still urged on the pursuit, picked up prisoners, and completed at once his own success and their discomfiture. He dispatched couriers ordering forward Colonel Bob Woods' mounted battalion, but Woods, strangely enough, did not come. The dismounted troops had now pressed the pursuit several miles, and he deemed it inadvisable to separate them further from their horses. The bugles sounded the recall, and the men, weary and exhausted, slowly began to retire. Marmaduke hurried to the rear, and found upon his arrival there that General Maxey, with that large intuitive military perception that leads such men to be just where they ought to be, just at the right time, and to do just what they ought to do, just at the right time, had taken command of the field, that is, the captured train, had countermanded his orders to Colonel Woods, and put his command, not much to their satisfaction it must be admitted, to straightening out the entangled train preparatory to withdrawal. Though this little exhibition of

skill on the part of General Maxey prevented the Confederates from following up their advantage and securing several hundred prisoners, it was, nevertheless, deemed a remarkable evidence of genius and of military sagacity. For General Price shortly afterward arrived upon the field, and complimented General Maxey in courtly terms upon the brilliant success he had achieved, and that gentleman received the compliments bestowed upon him with such admirable complaisance, and returned them in such pleasant and skillfully diplomatic phrases, that Marmaduke, and Cabell, and Greene, and Monroe, and others, who were only the rough fighters of the army, sank at once into merited insignificance, and found none so poor as to do them reverence save only the ragged soldiers of the line.

The material fruits of this expedition were two pieces of rifled artillery, nearly two hundred and fifty wagons and ambulances, twelve or fifteen hundred horses and mules, more than a hundred white prisoners, as many more white soldiers killed and wounded, and an uncounted number of' dead negroes. The wagon train contained a general assortment of everything within the State of Arkansas. The enemy seemed to have acted with great fairness upon the double principle, observable in all their foraging expeditions, of taking with an equal hand whatever they needed, or whatever the people of the country needed-whatever it was convenient for them to take, or whatever it was inconvenient for the citizen to lose. The motley contents of their wagons showed not only every kind of provisions from the farm-yard, the pantry, the dairy, and the side-board, but men's, women's, and children's clothing, household

furniture, gardening implements, the tools of the mechanic, and the poor contents of the negro hut.

The further advantage occurred to the Confederates of the demoralization that would naturally result to the forces within Camden from the adverse fate of the expedition-their morale already severely shaken by the hard and unrenumerative campaign they had made. It struck off at a single blow the arm with which their commander had reached out in one direction to seize the supplies upon which his continued occupation of Camden depended. He would not again venture an expedition in the same direction. The chances against him were too great for him to hope for success in such an attempt, and his marauders had already despoiled the country too thoroughly to leave its resources an object of temptation. With crippled transportation, he must look to the north of the river for his supplies, and abide the storm gathering to burst upon him there.

After this bloody and severe conflict at Poison Spring, the chimerical brain of General Smith conceived the idea of sending General Fagan to Little Rock with three brigades of cavalry. The orders were issued and Fagan immediately, with Cabell's and Dockery's brigades, started, intending to form a junction with Shelby at Miller's Bluff. While all this was going on, General Ste~le suffered severely for provisions in his inhospitable town, and had sent three hundred wagons over the miry bottom between the Washita and Saline rivers to cross the latter at Mount Elba ferry, and thence on directly to Pine Bluff for supplies. This wagon train was escorted by two brigades of veteran infantry, three regiments of cavalry, nine pieces of artillery, and thousands of negroes impressed or seduced from the nearest plantations to work upon the muddy roads. When General Fagan crossed the Washita at Miller's Bluff

with Cabell's, Dockery's, and Shelby's brigades he knew nothing of the existence of this convoy. A hard day's march had brought him to the vicinity of Mark's Mill on his way to Little Rock, when Lieutenant W. H. Ferrell, an excellent and sterling officer of Gordon's regiment, brought information of its lorality, which was on the eastern edge of Moro Bottom. Unless checked, its passage across the Saline river would be certain the next morning, so Fagan determined to attack it and destroy it if possible. In any event, the crossing should not be permitted. Fagan digested his plans during the night and executed them in the morning.' The wagons were to be permitted to advance well on the road to the ferry; Shelby was to gain the front by a detour of ten miles and attack simultaneously with Cabell and Dockery in the rear. Associated with General Shelby for the attack was an Arkansas regiment under Colonel Crawford. These gallant fellows fought side by side with the veterans of the brigade, and charged manfully and well from the first. I regret that my limited acquaintance with the regiment renders it impossible to mention the names of the deserving. About twelve o'clock Cabell's skirmishers encountered the Federal rear-guard, and when the first guns were fired Shelby had ten miles to go over horrible roads, broken and intersected by innumerable deep and boggy streams. Starting in a round swinging gallop, the terrific pace never slackened, nor the speed diminished a moment. The weak and unserviceable horses fell out by the wayside, or came up at a more moderate pace. The wild notes of battle burst up from the rear shrilly and loud. But that one sound rang in Shelby's ears, and but one shout of "forward, faster," seemed all his lips could utter, as Cabell, in his dire extremity, prayed" would God, Shelby or night might come."

It was getting darker and darker for Cabell. The Federals, dreaming of no danger in front, turned fiercely upon him and commenced driving him back with heavy loss. Dockery, associated in the same division with him, had, by some misunderstanding of orders halted four. or five miles from the battle-field, and commenced foraging. Fagan strained his hearing and rode rapidly about, waiting for Shelby's battle signal. Cabell encouraged his suffering men, and begged them to stand firm but ten minutes more. He knew the peerless soldier to be on the war-path in front, and that never in life had he been too late, or too slow, or too faint. The signal came at last. Two cannon shots rang out clear and sharp in front. Fagan heard the crashing volleys of rapid musketry; the exultant shouts of victory; the wild blare of advancing bugles, and then he saw the head of the brigade dashing upon the only organized thing left of wagons, infantry, cavalry-that of a solitary battery on a solitary hill. General Shelby, knowing Cabell was hard pressed and certain to be whipped with the force against him, made the ten miles in five minufes lesB than one hour, and waiting not a moment for the brigade to close up, charged at the head of the advance to where the firing sounded heaviest, leaving orders for the arriving regiments to do likewise. Six squadrons of cavalry were covering the advancing train, and these went down instantly before Williams' unabated charge. The wagons were swept of their drivers and captured by hundreds, and the brigade arriving at this time, General Shelby formed one single line and bore down upon the terrified and demoralized enemy. The battle-field was sickening to behold. No orders, threats, or commands could restrain the men from vengeance on the negroes, and they were piled in great heaps about the wagons, in the tangled brushwood, anti upon the muddy and trampled road. The 77th Ohio, disgraced at Shiloh and ordered to Alton for prison duty, was encountered upon this gory field, and all the prayers of outraged prisoners, all the cruelties of these cowardly abolitionists, and all the petty insults of their stay at Alton were visited upon the head of this regiment in withering volleys of avenging musketry. No insult or slow torture came from it, no opposition or resistance either. After the cannon shots had been fired as a signal to their crowded friends in rear, the charge of the brigade became like the march of a hurricane. Lines went down before it at a breath, and entire regiments surrendered without a.

shot. Captain Lea, with one company, took two hundred prisoners, and in marching them to the rear had scarcely men enough to form a. respectable guard. Colonel Blackwell, with only a few men had pressed too far ahead of his lines in his eagerness, and was suddenly surrounded by a Major and a hundred fierce looking infantry. "Surrender!" shouted they. "All right," said Blackwell, cool as an iceberg, "I am lost anyhow in this infernal woods, and will be much obliged if you will pilot me out."

Just then firing commenced all around their position, and the unearthly yelling of the Confederates came shrieking through the undergrowth. Blackwell's bold face blankly fell, and he shook in counterfeited fright as he turned his eyes toward these horrible sounds. "How now," said the Major, "what is that?"

"Aid" faintly answered Blackwell, "them's Injuns-inJuns, do you hear; and if we are caught not a man of us will escape alive!"

"Let's get away then from this place as soon as possible," said the Major. "But where shall we go-the woods are full of Indians?"

" Well, follow me, I know a road that will take us to the river, where we can cross and reach Pine Bluff, for if I'm caught with your blue coats, before I could explain myself, my scalp would hang dangling at the girdle of some loping Choctaw."

"Are they really so bad 'f" Asked the terrified Major.

"The wildest things what are" (an army expression), softly replied Blackwell. The road taken to the river, by some strange freak of geography, ran directly into Gordon's regiment, where

Blackwell turned over his captors and sent them to the rear, lest the Indians should be troublesome.

The hour of vengeance was hovering over the remainder of Rabb's magnificent six-gun battery, two of the pieces being with the expedition destroyed by Marmaduke at Poison Spring, and it was standing on a lone, steep hill, fighting as it fought at Prairie Grove and Cane Hill. Shanks and Gordon marked the bright, long James' and sprang away side by side to grapple them. A crash and no more. Horses, riders, cannoniers, sergeants, all fell at that one close, deadly volley, but its Lieutenant commanding, seeing the storm coming, fled disgracefully, being found captured afterward among the infantry. Only ten of its heroic defenders escaped-one of them an old French driver, unable to speak a word of English, sat upon the rear gun composed, indifferent, only giving a quiet shrug of the shoulders when the battery changed hands. The brigade was justly proud of its trophy, and the oath sworn solemnly before to annihilate this battery had been at last fulfilled.

When General Shelby first gained the front of the Federals and before he had ordered the charge, he detached Colonel Elliott and sent him down to the crossing of the Saline, to prevent any force coming from Pine Bluff, where a large garrison had been stationed for many months. Encountering a heavy detachment at the river, Colonel Elliott, with his usual impetuosity, attacked it immediately. The work was soon over. Elliott drove the enemy from the ferry, took the boats, killed one hundred and fifty horses tied under the cover of the Federal guns, crossed over his regiment under fire, and ran the entire detachment pell-mell into Pine Bluff, killing and wounding in the chase one hundred and thirty-three.

Three hundred and fifty-seven wagons, thirteen hundred and twenty-five prisoners, twenty ambulances, and nine pieces of artillery were captured by Shelby's single, unbroken charge; four hundred and seventy-five white Federals were buried upon the field; and the black Federals, never considered and never looked after, could not well be numbered. Nine hundred wounded white Federals were safely provide(l for in hospitals, and this number embraced the commander of the expedition and many field and line officers. The victory had been the most crushing and overwhelming one in proportion to numbers, of any during the war. Again had the dash and daring of Shelby turned an almost positive defeat into glorious success, brought renown from disaster, destroyed two brigades of Steele's veteran infantry, chased off and dispersed three regiments of cavalry, broken up nearly the entire transportation of the Federal army, and raised the cavalry arm into vivid and instant notice.

General Fagan thanked him upon the field for his rapid march, his instantaneous attack, his prompt seizure of the fords on the Saline, and for saving his division from overwhelming disaster. Two regiments of furloughed Federals, coming down in the rear of the train, were heard of just at sundown, and General Shelby sent Colonel Hunter after them, who drove them back into Camden, being seriously wounded himself in leading a splendid charge against a. bridge covered by their guns. Nearly all the wagons, all the artillery, prisoners and ambulances, captured in the battle of Mark's Mill, were sent safely back to General Price, with the request, also, that surgeons and supplies might be sent to the Federal wounded.

General Cabell's brigade suffered severely in this battle-having to bear the brunt for an hour and to resist the superior numbers of the enemy. Cabell was equal to the task. A thorough soldier, brave. devoted, intelligent, and bluff and manly, he understood his work and did it well. His men called him" Old Tige," and he deserved the soubriquet as far' as his fighting qualities went. his tenacity was conspicuous, and his firmness and unyielding courage well known in the army. He trained Monroe and made his regiment one of the best in the service, and his brigade was composed of as fine fighting material as the Confederacy afforded. Cabell schooled it, disciplined it, fought it, and his men worshiped him and followed him ever into battle with distinguished bravery.

Shelby's loss was thirty killed and sixty wounded. Among the former was Joe Alumbaugh, Company G, Gordon's regiment, a peerless cavalryman and one of Shelby's veterans. splendidly mounted, he had dashed ahead of the skirmishers upon seven Federals crouching behind a large log before him, and called upon them to surrender. They obeyed at first, but seeing Alumba.ugh alone, one of them raised his gun quickly and fired. The bullet sped truly and well, and Joe Alumbaugh fell heavily, shot through the head. His horse, seeming to feel the calamity, stood tenderly over his prostrate rider, and was looking down mournfully into his face when the Confederates rushed up.

While operating in Steele's rear, Captain Toney, who had been for several days on perilous service near Camden, sent to General Shelby a Federal Captain and two lieutenants taken at some house where buttermilk ran abundantly. On the person of this captain-I think he belonged to the 11th Missouri Cavalry-Toney found a book-a journal-a record of atrocious crimes, which, in all due form, accompanied the captain into camp. A few extracts here and there read thus:

"April 3, 1864.-In advance to-day. Captured two men on the road near some timber. They were said to be bushwhackers. Didn't inquire much, had them shot in an hour. Died game and shouting for Jeff. Davis.

"April 11.-On scout with my company. Rations short and hard to get. Found a contraband who told me where some Secesh lived having bacon hid away. Reached the house and inquired for something to eat. Had nothing-and especially nothing for the Yankees. Burned the house, killed all the poultry, and carried oft' all the old man's horses. Pretty dear refusal for one day.

April 12.-In advance to-day. Heavy skirmishing in front. Our Colonel said this morning no prisoners must be taken. I am not sorry-and killed two with my own hand.

April 20.-A big fight expected to-morrow. They say Banks is whipped, and that the d---d rebels under Smith and Price are within ten miles of this place (Camden), and will attack us at daylight.

Orders just received to cross the river and scout toward Pine Bluff, as a train is coming or going, I don't know which. At any rate, if they fight like h-ll in the morning I will be safe."

It is safe to say that this was the last entry he ever made on earth, and that the Missouri captain burned no more houses nor shot any more prisoners.

An affecting incident occurred after the sun of Mark's Mill went down upon the torn and trampled battle· field. A lieutenant colonel of Shelby's brigade, one of his bravest and most accomplished officers, fought through the red, brief fight with his accustomed gallantry, and marched with his command the next morning, ignorant that anything dear to him was stretched in one of the lonely hospitals pale and suffering. A messenger sent by the wounded man sought out General Shelby, stated the case, and Shelby immediately called up his

trusty officer and said to him: "Your brother fought us yesterday and is badly wounded. He desires you to come to him. Go nurse him, cure him, liberate him, and return when you have finished."

The sad, stricken officer galloped back, found his brother badly wounded, sat by him for weeks and weeks until he could travel, gave him an escort to Little Rock, and returned to his post, the same daring, desperate fighter as before.

While camping at Miller's Bluff, before the battle of Mark's Mill, General Shelby sent a detachment under Lieutenant Wesley Neale -a pure, spotless, and heroic young officer"":""to the neighboring county of Union, for the purpose of obtaining horses for Collins' battery. Firm and steadfast in the discharge of his duty, Lieutenant Neale went on conscientiously in its fulfillment. Some Union citizens and deserters waylaid the little party, fired on it at midnight, and shot the leader dead at the head of his company. Though well avenged, and his murderers exterminated afterward, there could be nothing done to wash away the great shadow existing in his regiment, nor any spell potent enough to fill up the wide gap left in the

hearts of his devoted company. The famous funeral oration pronounced over good Sir Launcelot, when they carried him away and buried him in Joyous Guard-the truest, noblest, simplest ever uttered-suited beautifully and well the fame of the young warrior, and the frank, genial honesty of his devoted ardor.

" Ah! Sir Launcelot, thou there liest that never wert matched of earthly hands.

Thou wert the fairest person, and the goodliest of

any that rode in the press of knights; thou wert the truest to thy

sworn brother of any that buckled on the spur; and thou wert the

faithfulest of any that have loved women; most courteous wert thou,

and gentle of all that sat in hall among dames; and thou wert the

sternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever laid spear in the rest."

At Mansfield, the Federal freebooter Banks fought and was worsted-at Pleasant Hill he gave battle again and retreated. The first blow was struck by General Dick Taylor, and the issue was made contrary to orders from Shreveport. In the month of January, 1864, a wandering copy of a Memphis newspaper found its way through the lines. It contained some speculations on the plan of the coming campaign. Banks' expedition up Red river was foreshadowed, and the objective points stated to be Shreveport, Louisiana, and Marshall, Texas. With but slight modification, this was actually Banks' plan. In addition to this, the newspaper writer declared boldly that a regular bargain had been concluded between Smith and Banks, and that upon penetrating into the Trans-Mississippi Department. by way of Alexandria and Natchitoches upon Shreveport, the· Confederate commander, after a show of resistance, was to surrender to the Federal. This newspaper account was republished by the Confederate journals of Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, and invariably denounced as absurd and sensational. The

people were not suspicious and were little given to entertain injurious thoughts about their leaders. While being pure, and as true to the cause as any officer in the army, the unfortunate dispositions and maneuvers of General Smith placed him in a position to be violently criticized, and this criticism not unfrequently took the form of abuse or denunciation. The failure tQ destroy Banks completely is due, in a great measure, to the feebleness of Smith's blows and the detached manner in which he fought his army. He appeared bewildered from the first, and uncertain whether to give battle or retreat, and only accepted it at the time because forced upon him by the hot stubborn blood of Taylor. As the commander-in-chief, General Smith had a perfect right to choose his ground, take his own time, fight in his own way, and maneuver as seemed to him best and the most promising of gratifying results. His refusal to

offer battle anywhere between Natchitoches and Shreveport proves only that in his judgment the time h~d not arrived, and that it was desirable to lure Banks as far into the interior as possible. The attack of Taylor involves serious considerations of unfortunate impetuosity and rash and hasty judgment. It is by no means certain that a further advance of Banks would not have resulted in irretrievable disaster to him, by the entire destruction of his fleet and his army. It is quite reasonable to suppose that had Banks moved forty miles further over-land and then met with the same losses as were inflicted upon him during the two days' fighting, his retreat would have been more difficult and destructive. The fleet, too, was in danger from the first. Red river, never remarkably reliable for stability, was falling rapidly, and great uneasiness was felt and feared about the falls at Alexandria. Thus, while Banks may have fought with an army concentrated and alert, his fleet would have been useless and his enemies would have been overwhelming and all around him. The eagerness of Banks, too, favored Smith's plan of operations. He believed Shreveport to be in a measure undefended, and he hastened on to seize its fortifications and export its cotton. Mingled with his ambition as a soldier there were the instincts of the thief, the mock piety of the abolitionist, and the atheism of the free-lover. Taylor had been ordered to fall back before him. He did it like a man who resolves to march forward five miles and march backward six. He was moody, discontented, desperate-and desperate men fight terribly and fast sometimes. Louisiana was his home; along his line of march were the white, cool houses of his friends, and with these and with everything else that would burn, Banks was playing dreadful havoc. Not content with the cotton bales, he took the silver ornaments and the valuable domestic utensils-the chafing-dishes, the spoons, the napkin rings, the pitchers for water and the goblets for champagne.

The Massachusetts Puritan was a precious thief. He cultivated roguery as a science, and smiled in satisfaction when he graduated with eclat. He would have ravished virtue, but he lacked the virility. He would have ridden with his cavalry to see houses on fire and women stripped naked, but he lacked courage. He was a Nero without Nero's Grecian elegance

and refinement. The one burnt Rome that the magnificence of the scene might appeal to his imagination; the other burnt Alexandria, because, living there were men who denied the martyrdom of John Brown and the immaculate conception of Harriet Beecher Stowe. With Banks came a twin brother in debauchery and crime. The euphony of his name was surpassed only by the' repulsiveness of his features; and the atrocity of his orgies outdone only by the range and diversity of his pleasures. He was called Gottleib, Gottfried, Godfrey, or G something Weitzel. The name signifies his German descent, and this is the best point about his disgusting character. This wretch reveled in the delightful aroma of his negroes,

and flaunted his vices conspicuously before the eyes of tender, innocent females whose houses he had seized for his revels and his fetisch performances. Weitzel burned, blasted, plundered, drank, caroused, and ravished as he came. Believing in neither God nor eternity, he lived as if life' ended beyond the earth, and that he must crowd into it every species of crime and distress. Less nervous than Banks, he took more desperate chances. More vigorous than Banks, he drank deeper, swore louder, and de~ spoiled more remorselessly. Banks' arms were dabbled in crime to the elbows-Weitzel's to the shoulders. Banks had more heart unpetrified than Weitzel, but Weitzel's was the largest and all adamant.

So, on the 8th of April the "soft, balmy skies of Louisiana dark with the smoke of a thousand fires, General Alfred Mouton held the rear of Taylor's retreating column. A Louisianian, too, was Mouton, and desperate and determined. His division was clamorous for blood, and Mouton said, " Wait a little, and you shall have one taste; but we must fall back afterward, you know." He formed to fight a bit, but his eager men went in fiercely and would not be held back. They were at last too far in to get out, and suffering greatly too-so Mouton told the tale to Taylor. Half glad, half mad, and thoroughly desperate, General Taylor turned like a lion, and dashed his whole army upon Banks, routing half his forces, taking thirty or forty pieces of artillery, thousands of prisoners, and great quantities of military stores and many wagons. Banks, terrified and demoralized, fled hastily back upon his rear corps and waited there for

another day. His army was twice as large as Taylor's now, and he must have more cotton or more blood. Smith, convinced that Taylor's intentions were well meant, supported the movement and hurried forward to the front his reserves during the night of the 8th. Banks was attacked the next day at Pleasant Hill and severely worsted again. The battle closed upon his forces broken and retreating at all points with immense losses of transportation and material. Then came the turning point in the campa.ign, and the actions of General Smith in the crisis exposed him to great denunciation, although in the minds of all his errors were reckoned as errors of judgment and military ability. Under General Magruder, an able and extraordinary soldier, there were about twenty thousand Texan troops, magnificently armed, splendidly equipped, and commanded by a man who, in his eagerness to reach Banks, had hurried his battalions forward from the far South by great and wonderful marches. These troops were panting for battle, had not yet fired a gun, and were within two days' march of the Federals. It was only necessary now for General Smith to concentrate all his infantry, press his advantages, and destroy Banks completely. This he woefully failed to do. Walker's, Polignac's and Parsons' divisions were withdrawn from the pursuit to move against General Steele j Magruder was halted on the march, and the demoralized and. terrified masses

of Banks' bleeding army were only assailed by small and inadequate bodies of cavalry.

To justify these unfortunate dispositions of General Smith must suppose a greater peril menacing the department from Camden, and that danger was more to be feared from Steele's inferior and sorely tried army than from Banks with his fleet and his thousands. But such was not the case. Steele's army had been handled so roughly by the Arkansas and Missouri cavalry under Price, that he had thrown himself into the dungeon of Camden, and was without light and without food: Steele was starving. He had heard of Banks' rout from Lieutenant Wiley Fackler, and he credited it. This finished soldier and elegant gentleman, Steele, did not believe victories could be won by robbers and the insulters of female purity. Steele's

campaign had been a failure, inasmuch as it depended greatly for success upon the capture of Shreveport by Banks. His seizure of Camden indicated weakness. It was the instinct of a staggering man who clutches for support, for something to hold to: Camden had strong fortifications, be it remembered. His communications with Little Rock were severed j Poison Spring had broken the right wing of his fleet forage train, Mark's Mill the left. The body could neither fly nor run-it must drag itself along painfully. Banks already demoralized, with the fight and the nerve beaten out from his heart, needed only pressing with the united infantry and cavalry to be utterly and everlastingly destroyed. Steele, wounded badly in material, harassed, surrounded, and taxed hourly to the greatest, was cool as snow, wary and determined. He had two days' fighting in him anyhow, if he could get bread.

From the beaten army-the larger, the more bloodthirsty, the more barbarian, Smith came without reason to throw himself upon a small force of hungry, quiet, desperate men. Steele only wanted to be "let alone," and he would have retired with profound bows and sighs of relief and pleasure. Smith was eager and attempted too much. He relied on the cavalry to finish Banks, when his infantry and cavalry combined failed to strip Steele's front bare even of its skirmishers.

The cavalry pursued Banks to the best of its ability, and fought him with great vigor and tenacity. General Tom Green commanded it, an intelligent and devoted officer, bravely assisted by Generals William P. Hardeman and Bee, DeBray, and Hunter, and numerous Colonels commanding brigades. In this service General Green lost his life, and the Texas soldiers a leader whom they worshiped, and who also had written upon the banners of his State actions which will live longer than the memories of her Alamos and San Jacintos.

The operations of the cavalry, wanting in power as they must necessarily have been, affected Banks greatly, and added visibly to the terror and confusion of his soldiers. Enough was learned in this way to see in all its bearings the error of Smith. It was in his power to move upon the short lines, and concentration was perfectly feasible, for he knew thoroughly the condition of Steele. However, he withdrew the infantry almost in the presence of the discomfited enemy; marched first to Shreveport forty-five miles; thence to Camden, Arkansas, one hundred and ten miles, leaving the Federal forces to slip through Taylor's fingers, and abandoning the results of two victories. Most of the infantry except Magruder's, consisting of Walker's division, three brigades; Parsons' division, two brigades of Missourians; and Churchill's division, three brigades of Arkansans, moved at once upon Camden. 80 thoroughly was Steele shut up in his dungeon that he received no information of Smith's movement until he appeared in force before the works at Camden. This was a feint to cover the crossing of Fagan at Miller's Bluff preceding the battle of Mark's Mill.

Now that everything on lower Red river had been abandoned, and, the fruits of two severe battles thrown recklessly away, it may be profitable to inquire how the campaign against Steele was concluded, and why he was not routed and destroyed. Smith's army was jubilant and exultant. Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, the splendid fighting of Price's cavalry had injected new blood into their veins and given additional determination to their resolves. They had reached Camden by forced marches, but were eager to engage Steele at once and crush his hungry army.

General Fagan's duty now became clearly manifest. After gathering the spoils from the well-won field of Mark's Mill, he should have marched as near Camden as possible from the north;

blown up every bridge; torn away the corduroys; felled gigantic cypress trees upon the only two roads leading from the town; broken and battered down the trestle-work running for miles over deep, treacherous morasses; and fought Steele, step by step, from hill to hill and valley to valley-with artillery and musketry, with Arkansans and Missourians, mounted and dismounted, by night and by day, until Smith's army hurled itself upon the rear. These exertions General Shelby implored and begged should be made. The Washita river was bank full. The two reads lending to Little Rock ran through an overflowed bottom five miles wide, and in many places passing over narrow causeways barely sufficient for eight men to walk abreast. Failing in all these things he should have crossed the Saline river, taken position on the other side, and disputed the passage of Steele's army at the sacrifice even of half his corps.

General Fagan gave as his reason for not doing so the orders from General Smith to attack Little Rock. Shelby urged that couriers should be sent to Smith with communications asking the adoption of one of the two plans proposed. They were sent: arrived safely at his headquarters; remained there two days and returned without a line of anything in the shape of instruction. But when General Fagan ascertained b)" actual trial and in a manner satisfactory to himself that the Saline could not be forded in his attempt to reach Little Rock, why not then, with the discretionary 'powers forced upon him by circumstances, march at once upon Camden? General Fagan had the courage, the devotion, and the desire to do great things, but in this instance he did not appreciate the importance of the moment, and lost an opportunity which comes to a soldier only once in a lifetime of winning eternal glory and renown. Upon reaching the Saline river the fording was found to be deep, but by no means dangerous (\r impracticable. Shelby's indefatigable commissary, Major John B. Dale, assisted by his able subordinates, James Dunn and Columbus Catron, with many fatigued duty men, had no difficulty in crossing and preparing abundant rations at a large mill beyond the river. General Fagan's horse,; were greatly overworked, too, and had been starving for twenty-four hours, so he turned squarely around from the river, marched across both roads open to Steele, and halted only when the vicinity of Arkadelphia had been reached, II. town forty miles from the outlets to Steele's retreating army. This journey for forage and provisions occurred just as Steele was evacuating Camden, and after Shelby's scouts brought in prisoners from the retreating army.

General Smith also maneuvered horribly. Fate fought against the Confederates, that fate which the superstitious attribute to heaven-the practical to humanity. As soon as he unmasked his force before Steele, the Federal general saw the imminence of his danger and the exposure of his isolated column. The thunder of Fagan's guns at Mark's Mill; the splendid fighting of Cabell; the fierce gallop and fiercer charge of Shelby, had all been told to him by terrified and breathless fugitives, and he resolved to retreat at once upon Little Rock. His antagonist, having sufficiently impressed upon the Federals the importance of his numbers; having no further occasion for concealment; confident in the morale and enthusia.sm of his troops, retired them to their old camp, eleven miles south from Camden, and left Steele unwatched and anxious for escape. The night of the day upon which Mark's Mill was fought, General Steele, after severe and incessant punishment, evacuated Camden. Almost destitute of transportation, he destroyed great quantities of baggage and ammunition; threw several of his fine

batteries into the swollen Washita; burned his tents and the personal effects of his officers; tore up the bridges behind him, and delayed in every possible manner Smith's advance by using the very identical means so strongly urged by Shelby upon General Fagan.

The immediate departure of General Steele naturally was not known by General Smith for some time-the next day, and late in the day at that. When the information finally reached the somnolent headquarters of this Trans-Mississippi Department commander, he hurried forward his troops to Camden. Here, by some unaccountable and criminal oversight, the pontoon trains were a day's march from the Washita and still traveling; the river full as an inland sea and roaring and tossing its tawny crest almost upon the redoubts about the town. Steele was safely over and well on the road to Princeton. His movements at first were necessarily slow, for the bottom beyond the town was almost bottomless, and the bridges none of the best and strongest in the world. The pontoons came at last, and, twenty-four hours behind Steele, without artillery, with scarcely any rations, General Smith pressed on in pursuit. General Marmaduke, for the same want also of this pontoon train, was forced to march east from Camden about forty miles-away from Steele-swim and struggle over the Washita at Miller's Bluff, the only available place for crossing in this manner; and then strain on and press on' without rest or food to the Federal front. He failed simply to do an utter impossibility, and struck the

rear of Steele's army at Princeton.

It scarcely belongs to the pages of this book to dwell upon the series of enormous blunders perpetrated; the tardy pursuit by Smith; the failure of Fagan to follow up the terrible blow dealt at Mark's Mill; the withdrawal of his cavalry from the only" two roads open to Steele; the marching so far away as to be too late for the battle of Jenkins" Ferry; the failure to blockade a single road or destroy a single bridge; the unfortunate judgment which prevented the crossing and holding of the fords upon the Saline, but in a similar struggle, perhaps, the blunders of the past may be used to sharpen some battle-intellect, and render more vivid the inspirations of some military genius.

General Steele, believing and expecting to meet a large force in his front by every principle of ancient or modern warfare, had already contemplated the alternative of surrender, and made up his mind like a man to the bitter resort if the worst came to the worst. His relief may well be imagined when every road ran open before him to Little Rock, with skirmishers nowhere to oppose the steady advance, nor one squadron of light-heeled cavalry to hang upon his flanks or startle him with the laconic" Halt!" As soon as Marmaduke got over the Washita he pressed on after Steele, who evacuated Camden on the 25th of April. He had halted a few hours in Princeton to refresh his men, and when he left two prisoners of Marmaduke's escort gained their liberty in a very shrewd manner. The prisoners were all confined together in a large room in the court-house, with the guard on the outside. In this room was a rostrum, or judge's bench, raised somewhat above the floor, and the thought suggested itself to these two men to pull off some of the guards, crawl under the stand, and get their comrades to nail the boards on again. The thing was soon done. When the army moved the officer of the guard missed his two men, inquired for them, looked out of the windows, examined the rostrum, which gave no sign, and having but little time to spare, thought they had been spirited away as prisoners sometimes are, and left them in their cosy cage. As soon as the town became quiet, they kicked the boards off and ,$lame forth free Confederate troopers, ready for any duty or any dare-deviltry.

Marmaduke's failure to get in General Steele's front at Princeton, though 8 matter of regret to him and his command, was without influence upon the results of the campaign. His force was too light to have seriously checked the advance of the Federal column. He had far out-traveled his ammunition train, and the fifteen or twenty rounds that the men carried with them, and the small supplies in the limber chests of the artillery, would have been soon exhausted in a continuous running fight. Marmaduke took up the pursuit of the Federal column at once. He was here joined by that portion of his brigade that had been on service in Louisiana under Colonel Jeffers. The clouds had been collecting heavily during the day, and the .threatened rain now began to fall in earnest. The rest of the day was dismal enough; the woods became deep and miry; men and horses were thoroughly wet; and guns and pistols streamed with water, putting them in no good condition for use. But the rear and the advance guards of the two armies managed to engage each other repeatedly, but without serious results. Just

before night the Federals disappeared in the wide, deep, and gloomy bottom of the Saline river, and prepared to camp and to erect their pontoons across the river, already rising under the influence of the falling rain. Their lines were' soon established, and the Confederates, after skirmishing with them until dark, drew back to the bluff and went into camp as well.

For both armies it was a sufficiently miserable night. The rain fell without ceasing. The Federals in the deep mud of the bottom, surrounded by rising waters, labored continually to secure the means of their further retreat. The Confederate cavalry was either on duty, or lay under the trees without covering of any kind, drenched and muddy, and the infantry toiled heavily onward through the storm to reach the front. It was a night utterly devoid of any of the romance or pomp of war. Toward morning the head of the infantry column came up, and the day, long delayed seemingly, dawned at last. General Smith ordered the cavalry to find the enemy. Two regiments, Burbridge's and .Greene's, were ordered forward, and discovered them in the position held the evening before. They were at once deployed as skirmishers, and tested the strength of the enemy's line and found them in force. General Smith rode over the field and reconnoitered the position. He then retired to the bluff, a mile and Ii half in the rear, and ordered forward General Churchill's division, to be deployed as skirmishers along the entire battle front. But neither Parsons' Missouri division, nor Walker's Texas division, were ordered down within co-operating distance. Before General Churchill had time to complete the execution of his order, the firing suddenly ceased along the line, and General Smith, not interpreting the movement that caused it, and imagining that the cavalry were only fighting a rear guard, and that the enemy had in filet withdrawn, countermanded Churchill's order, and directed him to advance his forces in column down the road, keeping pace with that portion of his force already deployed as sharp shooters. The road held down the bank of a bayou usually without water, but now filling rapidly with the falling rain. It passed through an old abandoned field, without fences, and containing in the middle a dilapidated cabin. The Federals had withdrawn suddenly their adva.nce line from the front of this field to their main line in the rear of it. General Churchill, in obedience to his orders. exposed his column terribly in this open space, and very naturally met with a severe check. He deployed his men and got them into line under cover of the woods, however, in good order under the circumstances. Churchill was then ordered, unsupported, to cross the open field, and right gallantly he made the attempt.

But the enemy were too strongly posted, and he met with a reverse. The Missouri division was now ordered forward, and it, unsupported, made the attempt of the field and likewise failed. In the meantime, General Price was in command on the field, and General· Smith, as at first, in the rear. In the beginning a section of artillery had been ordered forward, but the horses floundering in the mud nearly to their girth!!, and the pieces becoming unmanageable, it had been ordered to the rear by Marmaduke. Later in the day another section had been ordered forward by somebody, it was impossible even to tell exactly by whom, and not being ordered to halt, it was driven into the lines of a negro regiment, the horses shot down in their

harness, ann the men at the pieces, before they had fired three rounds, were indiscriminately bayoneted. The enemy used no artillery, but trusted the issue entirely to the musket.

A pause ensued. Walker's strong Texas division was brought into action. A portion of it, under General Walker, moved to the right, and attempted to turn the enemy's position in that direction. But h\ 0 brigades were ordered, with the stubbornness of fatality, -directly into the open field. This field contained not more than two hundred acres, and by deflecting a little to the right might have' been entirely avoided. But it was deemed by some kind of wisdom, absolutely necessary to cross it. When Walker advanced to the attack neither the Arkansas nor Mississippi troops were properly in hand to support him. His division made a gallant but unavailing fight. They were beaten back, as the other divisions had been before them. Each division of the army had by this time been whipped in detail. The day looked gloomy for the Confederates. Marmaduke went back to General Smith, reported the condition of affairs, and urged that General to mass his whole army, and make a vigorous effort in force, General Smith gave him carte blanche as chief of staff on the field, and directed him to fight it out as he

pleased. Marmaduke employed himself with the necessary preparations in reorganizing the different commands; but before he could complete them the enemy took advantage of the lull in the storm, crossed the river, destroyed his pontoons, and thus ended the battle. The Confederates retained possession of the field, and the wounded. Both sides lost heavily. The Confederates had two general officers, Randall and Scurry, of Texas, killed, and two, Clarke, of Missouri, and Waul, of Texas, wounded.

This engagement ended the Spring campaign of 18G-! in the West. Not withstanding the great successes General Smith's subordinate officers had gained, both the campaign in Louisiana, and that in Arkansas, was so managed as in the end to result in no practical good to the Confederate army. After General Dick Taylor had, in open violation of orders, utterly routed General Banks' column approaching Shreveport, and General Steele had been beaten and foiled ill Arkansas, General Smith had so divided and weakened the pursuing forces, as to allow both armies to escape, crippled and demoralized, certainly, but still in a condition to be reorganized and to become formidable, Aside from the terrible blunder that marked the field of Jenkins' Ferry, intelligent criticism would probably decide that the battle itself was a faux pas. There were two routes leading from Camden to Pine Bluff; the one direct, and the longer, one passing through Princeton, making with the other two sides of  a triangle. General Steele chose the longer route, because it masked his intentions, and left it doubtful whether his objective point was Little Rock or Pine Bluff. General Smith, by taking the shorter route could have reached Pine Bluff before General Steele, and then be in a position to destroy his line of communication and of supplies with White river, and render the Arkansas valley untenable in his exhausted condition. Possessed of the Arkansas, the road lay open to a vigorous and effective campaign in Missouri.

The official report of the bloody and horribly managed battle of Jenkins' Ferry gave the Confederate loss at one thousand and twenty-three killed and wounded, and it is probable that General Steele suffered equally as much. Several splendid exhibitions of • courage were given by officers of all grades and arms. At one time when the Missouri infantry were falling back from a sudden and II. terrible fire, Marmaduke and his gallant aid-de-camp, Captain William Price, snatched two standards from their bearers, rushed in among the troops, and by their bearing and exposure restored order to the line and led it forward with conspicuous bravery.

Lieutenant John Lockhart, of Ruffner's battery, was ordered forward, by some unknown officer, with one section of guns. No point was designated, and this daring officer, as willing to fight an army as a battalion, continued to advance until he found the enemy. This was done speedily. Two fires upon a charging regiment at ten paces, and his guns were swept bare of men and horses. He was wounded and captured, the most of his men were killed, and his cannon were taken off by the Federals. He stood to the last, though, and was endeavoring to load when he was stricken down.

Colonel R. H. Musser, leading his splendid 9th Missouri Infantry, in the charge across the fatal field, saw instantly that the line had become disarranged and somewhat broken in toiling through the treacherous mud of the bottom lands. The fire was hot and pitiless, yet he halted his regiment, rode out ten paces in its front, and, mounted on a conspicuous horse, clad, himself, in conspicuous regimentals, his sword drawn and his deep voice rising louder and . deeper as the musketry increased-ordered his men to mark time"

after the line was dressed, spoke a few calm, energetic words, and then dashed them superbly upon the timber line held by file thousand crouching Federals.

After Stecle got well over and was moving to Little Rock, Colonel Elliott, who had crossed the Saline river at Mount Elba after the battle of Mark's Mill, came upon his rear and pressed it heavily with his regiment. The demoralization was great. In the retreat arms, ammunition, clothing, and medicines had been abandoned lavishly. Many prisoners were picked up, and many of the slightly wounded, unable to continue further, had fallen down despairingly . by the roadside.

CHAPTER XVII.

FROM Saline river, General Shelby moved with his brigade to within a short distance of Arkadelphia.; General Smith encamped his army around Camden, and General Steele reoccupied his old quarters at Little Rock to repair damages and sum up his losses. Short rest for one of them. Shelby's impatient soul, thirsty and longing for glory, asked permission to march to White river, gain Steele's rear, organize the vast number of conscripts there into serviceable commands, and inflict such punishment upon the enemy as might be possible, looking in the end to another formidable expedition into Missouri.

After much debate as to its peril and expediency, and a succinct explanation of the good results to follow by Governor Reynolds, one of the most thoroughly comprehensive minds in the department, General Shelby received his orders, twenty-five heavily laden ammunition wagons, four pieces of Rabb's "naturalized" battery, and a useless caution to be prudent and circumspect. Smith came with his grim Southwesters; to the front rode Shanks with the young. gallants from Jackson county; the knightly Gordon marshaled his scarred veterans; and infused with the fire of Elliott, there followed his new but battle-tried regiment. Williams led the wary advance right royally, and Collins' quick eyes had scanned and lingered 10\'ingly upon his beautiful guns. Far away upon the fertile banks of White river lived girl-idols whose memories had been shrined deeply in manly bosoms, and the cuirassiers" would a-wooing go."

Sore from heavy blows, weary from three weeks of incessant fighting, the Iron Brigade yet fell in merrily that soft May morning when the bugles rang reveille, and led by its worshiped leader spurred away for Batesville. Through Princeton, with its goodly array of beautiful and patriotic girls; through Rockport, on its river home, desolate and in decay; across the Saline river, up amid the rugged scenery and wild grandeur of the Petite Jean mountains, and over the cataracts and cascades of the Fourche la Fay, the brigade hurried on. The second day's march from Rockport brought heavy skirmishing with mountain guerrillas. One band. led by a notorious Confederate deserter named Carter, was surprised and almost exterminated.

Added to the killed, which amounted to thirty-two, seventeen were captured and shot in two hours after establishing their identity. In sifting the wheat from the tares, and in separating the

white sheep from the black, the women were of the greatest use and never failed to define the proper status of a prisoner, at least well enough to secure release or immediate punishment. One instance I remember as remarkable for its interest. A man, gray headed, hollow-eyed, but a perfect bundle of nerves and muscles, just such a man as Wise described old John Brown to be, was brought in with a number of others captured skulking in the mountains. Nobody knew him, his looks were in his favor, and it had been decided to release him when it became prudent to do so. Still marching with the column under guard, the prisoners and escort stopped at a respectable-looking house on the roadside for rest and water. The lady, a careworn, grief-stricken looking matron, glanced occasionally at the group of prisoners with eyes that had but little expression, and scarce anything of eagerness. Suddenly her gaze became fixed upon the old man's features, the blood rushed to her brow, she went nearer, nearer as a snake sometimes draws the fascinated bird, and at last uttered one wild, piercing shriek, which could be heard from one end of the brigade to the other, and then fell upon the ground in complete nervous prostration. Her story was soon told, however. Four months previously, this old man, looking now so respectable and innocent, hall, at the head of a murderous party, attacked the lady's house, killed her husband and eldest son, robbed the premises of everything valuable, and driven away the only cow spared by the ravages of war. This crime had been but one of a series perpetrated by these guerrillas. and this old man was a kind of a fiend-god among the wicked. "Madam, would you like to shoot the murderer of your husband with your own hand ?" asked the captain of the firing party, as the men were being told oft' for the duty. The lady thought long and earnestly, and the struggle was intense. Once her brow corrugated and the lips set stern and ominous, but her woman's nature finally triumphed, and she answered: "No, I can not kill him, but I can stand by and see him die as I did my husband and my poor, poor boy." She did watch him with wild eyes half-glazed, but fearfully cold and tearless, and turned away without a shudder, when his body fell pierced. with eleven bullets, his hoary hair floating upon the tide of his own blood.

Truly, war has sometimes such terrible calamities that nature is obliterated, and even woman will give a serpent when you ask for a fish.

On one of the many tributaries putting into the Fourche Ill. Fay river sailed quite an array of flat-boats, laden with all manner of trinkets, provisions, goods, etc. It was the fleet of the Union guerrillas, and plied up and down among the mountains, rendezvousing occasionally at Dardanelle or Lewisburg for the purpose of refitting and renewing supplies. The flag-boat of this squao.ron had a most peculiar banner and recognized by all nations-it was a woman's petticoat. Captain Will Moorman, with a hundred men, bore down upon this fleet, stood oft' awhile for broadside and broadside, then boaro.ing the anomalous crafts simultaneously, brought  them, their freight, and. fifty prisoners, all under the suggestive flag, into a Confederate post. An idea presented itself to General Shelby instantly. He immediately impressed four wagons, hoisted the boats upon them, and with this pontoon train advanced to the Arkansas

river. One or two points were accessible for an attack, either of which promised big results to the conqueror. Dardanelle and Lewisburg, strongly garrisoned and well supplied, might be taken by surprise with all their armaments and ammunition. Lewisburg, located on the north side of the river, was, consequently, more difficult of approach, but General Shelby determined to attack it because it had a larger garrison, and was, therefore, the richest prize of the two. The river was reached four miles below about eleven o'clock in the morning, but, as the march had been heavy, and but little sleep enjoyed for four nights, he resolved to rest until dark and force a crossing then. Sentinels were carefully posted, the men slept quietly until four o'clock, when a sudden dash of five hundred cavalry from toward Dardanelle aroused the camp instantly. General Shelby desired above all things to conceal his force from the

enemy, hide the artillery, and convey the impression that only a small scouting party was hovering about the river. To do this he could simply oppose to the attacking Federals a very insignificant body of men, and maneuver as if he were wary and uneasy. The ruse succeeded admirably. Hooper and Williams held the enemy in check: quite easily, and repulsed their charge with a single volley, when Lieutenant Simms followed the retreat and captured seven prisoners, who were released after being informed in a casual manner that a Captain somebody was after them with a hundred bushwhackers.

On this campaign there came to General Shelby and volunteered as an aid upon his staff, a Methodist preacher named Mobley, a most devout and worthy man, thoroughly capable as a guide, and fearless as David. Everybody knew him, especially the ladies, and he knew everybody, especially the ladies. Jo. Shelby, though by profession a stout Episcopalian-I wish the same might be said of his practice-had great toleration for differences in creeds, and made himself particularly agreeable to the Methodist divine. The tenderest chickens were laid upon his plate-though some were uncharitable enough to suppose that this attention arose from a peculiar taste he had heard of these gentlemen possessing in his younger days-and the best brand of cognac passed first invariably to Brother Mobley, which, to his credit be it spoken, he never refused nor pushed away untasted. The godless, devil-may care soldiers of the brigade rarely ever spoke harshly in his presence, and the roughest voices were hushed into respect when his attenuated and worn figure Klided among their camp-fires. I never

knew Shelby to forget himself but once in his company, and it was when standing by his battery when Captain Collins called his attention to two shells with damaged fuse and perforated by a dozen holes. "It will be dangerous to use these, Gimeral, for there is every probability they will burst in the gun," said Collins. " May . the devil flyaway with the traitor who tampered with them," was his hot answer; but seeing the mild blue eyes of Brother Mobley looking reproachfully into his own, he qualified the curse, by adding, "if God is willing."

The Federals, on being repulsed with ten killed and twenty-three wounded, hurried back to Dardanelle. Night soon came down, and the thin, sharp edge of the waning moon could be seen, scarcely illumining the sky with a pale and doubtful glimmer. It was a region of cottonwoods. Not a breath of wind whispered among the branches; not a night bird twittered or fluttered amid the foliage; only from distance to distance was heard the tinkling of the bell hanging at the neck of hog or cow-they bell hogs in Arkansas-and the continuous murmur of the waters running along their sandy channel. Slowly and silently the brigade moved out into the night, and down upon the river bank for the crossing. Captain Shaw, of Granby, surnamed" Commodore," a jolly soldier as well as sailor, had charge of the little fleet and launched it upon the river. The dim shore beyond could scarcely be seen through the glimmering darkness with its black outline of trees, and nothing could be heard except the rush of the river, and the sound of the waves breaking upon a huge bar midway the channel. Volunteers were called for to swim over and reconnoiter. Fifty naked figures sprang out to the front and disappeared suddenly in the gloom. Then Colonel Elliott manned two boats with fifty picked riflemen in each, and steered away also in the darkness. For half an hour the silence was unbroken except by the slight creaking of the muted oars and the painful breathing of some tired swimmer. Finally Colonel Elliott reported that the crossing was impracticable. Half way the channel stood a bar, and to avoid this the boats were carried upon a large island, between which island and the main land ran a deep, rapid arm of the river. The boats, therefore, would have to land everything upon the island, then be drawn upon and carried across

to the other side, launched and re-embark the brigade-an Operation requiring a night and a day. The naked skirmishers were reo called from the opposite bank, which they had reached and thoroughly explored; Elliott came back after much exertion, and the command, without a single accident, moved rapidly toward Dardanelle.

At four o'clock on the evening of the second day, General Shelby was within twelve miles of Dardanelle. The best scouts returned without definite knowledge of the numbers of its garrison, and rumor reported large reinforcements constantly arriving. The question of simple attack had been settled from the first, and it remained now only to be considered whether it should take place in the day or the night. Revolving the two plans anxiously and sending out additional scouts, delayed General Shelby until nearly sundown, when a pale, girlish, but fascinating woman rode up to his headquarters and offered to go into Dardanelle and bring back the desired information. Nobody knew her. She was a stranger in the country, and the dilemma was greater than before. At last General Shelby, relying upon his knowledge of human nature, which was, indeed, acute, gave the girl an escort and started her upon the mission, following himself with the brigade in half an hour, resolving, if she were treacherous, to attack before the town could be evacuated or the defenses strengthened. True as heaven, the fair, proud Confederate heroine rode boldly into Dardanelle, counted its garrison, impressed upon her mind the positions of the fortifications, and came rapidly back to inform General Shelby of the result. Compensation and thanks she hastily refused, and remarking, just as she rode away, ,,'What I have done may seem imprudent in one of my sex, but I regard it as a high and holy duty. General Shelby trusted me and I have not betrayed him. If I were a man I would glory in following his standard, but as I am I can only pray for the success of a command whose heroic career I have watched for many months," and she was gone with a sudden flush on her pale face, leaving a void of wonderment and curiosity not easily filled. It became afterward ascertained that she was the daughter of n. respectable Southern farmer living in Clarksville, Arkansas, who had been killed by some deserters, after which she,

with her mother and two smaller sisters, removed to the neighborhood of Dardanelle. Her name was never learned, though the brigade treasured the memory of her bra.ve deed as one of the many devoted acts Southern women performed for their struggling and bleeding country.

The advance under the intrepid Williams had halted four miles from Dardanelle, in order to give the column time to close up and rest half an hour. The men were dismounted and resting in groups, trying to snatch a few moments' sleep, the videttes well to the front, when the 3d Arkansas Cavalry, one thousand strong, came down the road and received the fire of the ten men on outpost duty. Judging from the number of shots that only a guerrilla party was ahead, this regiment swung into line and delivered a steady volley, which swept down the narrow and crowded lane with an effect certain of fatality, had not the soldiers been lying flat upon the ground. This volley sealed their fate and lost them Dardanelle. Williams mounted and charged furiously and blindly upon the unseen enemy, fearing nothing and caring less. Shelby, at the head of the brigade, sprang away after the advance, and the race went shrieking and clattering through the night. Lights flashed from windows, dogs bayed fiercely, frilled night-caps and flannel nightcaps peered out from balconies, but the stern gallop of horsemen

went thunderingly on, living flames leaping from busy muskets, and shouts and groans of agony swelling on the air. The road was dreadful. Broken by decayed bridges, rough with the streams of Spring, and muddy to unknown depths, pursuers and pursued rushed on under the midnight stars through the yellow, splashing pools, over hills and crazy bridges-the prize was life, the forfeit death. Woe to the unfortunate rider losing seat or saddle, woe to the stumbling horse too slow for the rapid leap, for trampled into the miry clay, all semblance of form or face was stamped out by the feet of three thousand steeds in motion. Three times the Federals halted for a checking fire, and it often was their rear swept away and their destruction hastened. Darkness hid many revolting sights, but if the burial bugles had sounded next morning, heaven knows the 3d Arkansas would scarcely have had men enough to bury the dead.

Even with the tremendous pace, Collins held his battery to it, and General Shelby going right into line at a gallop was advancing upon the town before the last of its covering regiment had gained the fortifications. Cutting off all communication above and below by sending Elliott to the left and Williams to the right, there only remained for the garrison capitulation or the river in the rear. One thing Jo. Shelby never did in all his long career-demand the surrender of a defended position. Moving against it with all the impetuosity of his peculiar attack, he left it with the enemy to make the first propositions and lift the first truce-flag. If these were done, very well-they were religiously received and respected; if not, still very well, the besieged must bargain for their own terms. The troops holding Dardanelle preferred to cut their way out, and the attempt was made. Going up the river Elliott received them with a sudden, deadly volley and they fled back upon Williams even more advantageously posted than Elliott, and certainly fully as eager to be in at the death. Failing here, as a last resort, two large flatboats were manned, filled with human freight, and drifted out into the stream. But Elliott watched through the gloom the hasty preparations, and opened a calm, deliberate fire upon the crowded

boats. The result was inevitable and heart-rending. A wild, despairing cry rent the midnight, dark forms leaped frantically in the raging· waters soon to be followed by prayers, and shrieks, and gurgling moans of strong men in their agony. It was finished. The Arkansas, swollen by heavy rains, swept swiftly away the struggling victims. Some reached the opposite side in safety, many were killed in the passage across, and more went down to lie amid the fishes until the great resurrection morn. Two hundred and thirty-.three of the garrison, however, preferring surrender to death by field and flood, hid away in houses until the anger of pursuit was over, and then gave themselves up in squads. These prisoners reported

that the town would have capitulated without resistance had the garrison known Shelby was attacking, but thinking it must be a detachment of bushwhackers they deemed death preferable to a surrender.

Daylight came soon after occupation, which revealed a. heavy stockade and formidable earthworks almost around the town. These might have been successfully defended until morning, when the Federal officer in command could have at least seen the extent and imminence of his danger; but the wild, unceasing charge upon the 3d Arkansas, the unchecked advance of Shelby's column, the imaginative dangers of a night attack to weak nerves, and the sudden seizure of all roads leading from the city, completely turned the head of Colonel Fuller, a gasconading coward, and caused him to sacrifice his command almost without a manly blow or a. rational effort in its behalf. Two hundred and thirty-three prisoners and

three hundred and seventy-four killed and wounded from a force two thousand strong, besides those of the 3d Arkansas left dead upon the roadside, and those of the garrison drowned in efforts to escape, were indeed a fearful aggregate. In the town were eighty-six released Southern prisoners, one hundred and fifty valuable mules, eleven army wagons, four suttler stores filled with everything, and commissary supplies and impressed negroes in great abundance. The negroes, mules, goods, wagons, salt, sugar, molasses, rice, tobacco, whisky, and blankets belonging to the United States Government were sent south after the brigade had been supplied, and Dardanelle ,vas soon stripped bare of all its garrison plumage. General Shelby, in this brilliant dash, had only two men wounded, Lieutenant Colonel Hooper and one of Williams' advance-Tom. Daniels.

Two days in Dardanelle gave sufficient time to parole the prisoners, distribute clothing, and pay the usual devoirs to the ladies, when General Shelby, after again launching his fleet under the indefatigable Shaw, proceeded to cross the Arkansas river, now very high from the Verdigris running out full, which, as the citizens explained, gave it the strong impregnation of salt-so salt induced that it was unfit for use by the soldiers, but drank with avidity by the horses. Langhorne went over first, met a scouting party of Federals in the little village of Norristown, enga.ged them a few moments, and drove the detachment toward Lewisburg with the loss of four killed and seven wounded. The brigade crossed without accident and camped near the river. Early in the morning four hundred Federals came up again from the direction of Lewisburg and drove in the pickets on that road. Making no stand whatever when attacked in force, they retreated rapidly to the town, followed by two squadrons. General Shelby avoided Lewisburg with fear and trembling. Two hundred small-pox patients were quartered there -though this fact was unknown until after the capture of Dardanelle-and the very air seemed filled with the disease. True, its garrison fled toward Little Rock almost as soon as the fugitives

from Dardanelle carried thither the news of disaster, but the stores were filled with vast quantities of valuable supplies which would have been sent south had not an enemy more powerful than man held its deserted suburbs and rendered everything safe within the grave-girdled precincts. In the eagerness of pursuit the two squadrons under their young, reckless leaders, Randolph and Crispin, dashed into the infected place and brought away several prisoners and articles of clothing, but General Shelby reproved· them severely for their temerity and kept them a mile in rear of his brigade for two weeks.

Among the prisoners captured at Dardanelle was an officer-a lieutenant-who formerly belonged to Fagan's Confederate division. When asked an explanation for this fatal facility he had of serving two master, he exculpated himself by declaring that being ordered upon the Arkansas river for recruiting purposes, he had been captured, sentenced to death by the Federals, and only escaped execution by joining their ranks and taking their uniform. No one credited his story but General Shelby, and a request was made for his trial. Shelby talked to him often, cross-questioned him like a lawyer, studied his countenance well-and, finally, believing firmly in his own power of character-reading, released him and permitted him to join a company in the brigade. His estimate of the man was perfectly accurate. lie fought faithfully to the end, was elected a lieutenant in the cavalry, and fell badly wounded leading his company upon the enemy in the last disastrous raid into Missouri.

After Dardanelle surrendered, Captain Maurice Langhor.ne, riding slowly down the principal street, saw upon the .levee a suspicious object creeping and dodging about among some hogsheads. Galloping up to it and calling out for it to stand, a huge Federal leveled his gun instantaneously within four inches of Langhorne's breast and fired. The bullet carried away a large bunch of Maurice's whiskers, and the powder burned his eyes and eye-lashes severely. Notwithstanding the nearness and imminence of the danger, his wonderful nerve remained unshaken, and not a muscle of his arm quivered as he covered the would-be assassin with his unerring "dragoon." As Langhorne rarely ever missed his aim, this surely was no exception, and the cowardly skulker met a. well merited fate.

Lingering near the river for several days in hopes of capturing some of the passing boats, three scouting parties of Federals were picked up or destroyed, and no communication permitted between Little Rock and Fort Smith, until at last for forage the brigade moved to Dover. Here a long procession of young and beautiful girls came out to meet the brigade and scatter flowers before its leader. Songs of triumph and redemption were sung by the ladies; the great patriotic mass of the people seemed stirred into vigorous life by the presence of conquering soldiers; and from the houses in the town and from the hills and valleys around there came the sounds of merriment-the pleased shouts of joy and happiness.

Here Colonel Jackman was met with a few men, and here was formed Shelby's Missouri cavalry division. Jackman, a stern, able and devoted soldier, had been authorized, in formation with orders from General Smith in Shelby's possession, to recruit a brigade, and went immediately to work with an energy certain of success. Clarksville, twenty miles distant was at this time occupied by seven hundred Federals. Shelby attacked the town just at daylight, surprised its garrison, killed and wounded three hundred and nineteen,

captured twenty-one, and followed the survivors in every direction amid the mountains. After these heavy blows struck at Dardanelle and Clarksville, besides a dozen more equally severe, although lighter, Shelby and Jackman separated-the former to press on to Batesville and the latter to gather up his recruits and follow after. When within two days' march of Batesville, Colonel Shanks surprised and captured seventy mountain" boomers," a peculiar Arkansas organization, which, acting ostensibly with the Federals, yet used this cloak to commit under its covering crimes the most enormous and outrageous. There was a shooting-match this day, and four counties in Arkansas thanked God at sundown that Shelby

had avenged at last neighborhoods desolated and old men butchered.

White river was crossed fourteen miles above Batesville, where thirty-two of the same specie of "boomers" were taken and the town reached by a forced march. The hands of the Vandals had indeed borne heavily upon it. Deserted houses, now filthy and reeking with the litter of the barracks, defaced walls, and bruised and dying trees all told the sad tale of Federal occupation and negro amalgamation. But the hearts of the women beat with the old patriotic thrill, and they came out in the night to show their happy faces, scatter flowers among the soldiers, and sing in proud, rich voices that grand old air of" Hail! to the chief who in triumph advances."

General Shelby's advance and seizure of White river had nearly the same effect upon the Federals holding the various towns upon it as the swoop of a large hawk into a well-filled barn-yard of fowls. There arose sudden clamorings, a dart and a dash for cover, and the whole space so lately alive with strutting bantam and unwieldy shanghai became silent and deserted. From Batesville the garrison went to Jacksonport, followed in two days by General Shelby. Taking water at Jacksonport, the Federals embarked on three steamers all their horses, dogs, furniture, stolen goods, negroes, and courtesans, and struck out for Duvall's Bluff, but ran hard aground at Grand Glaize, sixteen miles below. Shelby followed with his "long gallop that could never tire," intending to blow them out of the river if overtaken. for their crimes had been enormous, and the orgies of their winter's occupation frightful and obscene. Fortune favored the devil again, and he, by some power or other invisible to all, floated the boats from the bar and gave the swift steamers two hours' start of the horsemen, who reached Grand

Glaize at daylight, wet, cold, hungry, dreadfully fatigued, and the tawny sand gleaming yellow in the misty morning, the oar marks not obliterated by the waves, and the river still uneasy from the wheels of the steam birds.

Pursuit was abandoned here. General Shelby surveyed his field of operations, and commenced work with an acuteness and iron will hardly to be supposed were contained in a nature where there existed so much of recklessness and nervous energy. Ten thousand men within the conscript ages-Texans, Missourians, Arkansasans-were scattered along the valley of White river-three and four at a house drinking, gambling, smuggling, trading cotton for Memphis whisky, and swapping sweet-potatoes to the Federals for flat tobacco and pocket-knives. This country had been the deserter's paradise and the coward's retreat when danger grew imminent. A sort of free-masonry existed between these quasi-Southrons and the Federals, which simmered down presently into an understanding that boys sometimes make when doubtful of each other's prowess: "I'll let you alone, if you'll let me alone:' Mob law, supremely

triumphant and always brutal, ground the peaceful citizens into the dust and paralyzed industry and the cultivation of those cereals so essential to the maintainance of the department. Horses were taken from their plows and negroes from the furrows whenever it suited the convenience or pleased the fancy of these professed Confederates spending their time in rioting when the country bled at every pore. Officer after officer had been sent to organize these clements and make them useful in cementing the temple sought to be erected in the name of Liberty, but all of them retired in disgust or fell into the habits of the masses, which defied their authority and laughed at their appeals. From the camp at Grand Glaize rough hands' were heavy with the idols, and a keen, pitiless knife was busily cutting away the hideous ulcers. The first blow came like the blast of a. bugle, and startled the cormorants into attention.

Thus read the daring, defiant order:

"Men of Northeast Arkansas: The land of your birth is struggling in the grasp of a giant, and you are cold to the consequences and indifferent to the results. I have come among you to appeal to your manhood before I appeal to the sword. Every inhabitant of this valley owing military service by law to the Confederate States Government must immediately enroll himself in some company; companies will as rapidly join regiments; and the regiments will be assigned to brigades as please the wishes of Lieutenant General E. Kirby Smith. Choice of organizations will be allowed until the 10th of June, after which time you shall be considered as conscripts and treated accordingly. I know your past history. I have heard of your disgraceful fraternizing with the Federals. I believe you have committed crimes and treason against your country, but I am willing that you shall take up arms and wash out dishonor in the blood of a common enemy. I call upon all good men to support me, but as plain statements will save future trouble, and as I had rather act than talk, I here announce to you, upon the

faith of a soldier and the truth of a gentleman, that all who refuse to rally to their country's flag shall be outlawed, hunted from county to county, and when captured hung as high as Haman. You shall fight for the North or the South. I will enlist you in the Confederate army; or I will drive you into the Federal ranks. You shall not remain idle spectators of a drama enacted before your eyes. I have ammunition for your muskets, and these shall be taken from the enemy. I come with veterans to fight for your homes, but you must fight, too, or the homes will be desolate and your own blood shall be spilt upon the door-sills. Events gather fast. There is no time to argue now, and I command you to rush at once to arms. Every officer with recruiting papers will report at once to my headquarters, and colonels or generals professing to have regiments or brigades will come immediately to receive orders and instructions for future operations. I do not condemn, but I threaten; I do not bully, but I strike. This beautiful valley shall be quiet and peaceful, or it shall be desolated with fire and sword. If the snake can not be scotched it shall be killed. No more smuggling, no more stealing of cotton, no more dodging conscription and harboring deserters. Come up like men, or go to General

Steele like men, but whatever you do, remember the 10th of June."

This proclamation spread like wild-fire. From every house, hillside, bottom, brake, bayou, river, the men came swarming forth. They knew the man, they knew his soldiers-and both were terribly in earnest. Colonel T. H. McCray, sent months before by General Smith, but powerless for good or for evil, received his orders and commenced in earnest to organize a brigade. Dobbins, from the swamps about Helena, between whom and McCray a feud existed, came next for authority and instructions. Freeman, with his halfclad mountaineers from near Pocahontas and Powhatan, wheeled complacently into line, and took his cue from the hands of the wizard throned in simple but imposing pomp upon the river. Companies multiplied into regiments, and regiments into brigades. Camps sprang up suddenly in every healthy locality, and drilling, marching, parading went on from day to day with eagerness and enthusiasm.

Shelby was everywhere, and his staff and escort rarely unsaddled. Inspecting a camp here, mustering in regiments there, and drilling brigades yonder, he infused the exuberance of his confidence into the breasts of his officers, and stimulated the men by showing the steady ranks and scarred visages of his own veterans. The country became quiet in a week, and old farmers, encouraged by the protection and security given, renewed their youth and made a fresh start in the path of agriculture. The robber-bands drifted into good soldiers or joined the Federal army, as interest or feeling dictated. The 10th of June arrived and dawned upon a peaceful district, filled with happy, self-reliant soldiers, and" farms teeming with promises of

a plentiful harvest. One man did all this. In such emergencies personal qualifications in the commander always tell. If there is in him that mysterious but all-powerful magnetism that calms, subdues, and inspires, there results one of those sudden moral transformations that are among the marvels of the phenomena. of battles as well as of administration and discipline.

During the winter occupation of ca.mp John C. Moore by the troops of General Shelby, information was brought to the effect that Colonel Horace Brand, in the faithful discharge of his duties, had been cruelly murdered. Active and important military· operations taking place immediately after the report was circulated prevented an investigation of the matter; but upon his arrival in Batesville, General Shelby determined to know the truth in regard to it. Colonel Brand, after leaving Shelby's expeditionary forces at Huntsville, Arkansas, proceeded with his accustomed energy to Northeast Arkansas, and recruited, in a remarkably short space of time, eight hundred soldiers. Anxious and eager for work, and in obedience to his orders, he marched at once into Misspuri to make a diversion in favor of the raiders stirring up such excitement in that State. At Warsaw, on the upward march, Colonel Quin Morton, commanding

seventeen hundred men, with two pieces of artillery-an officer of experience and courage, who had won reputation at Shiloh-came upon Shelby's rear with the full determination of pressing it to the best of his ability until a junction was formed with General Brown. Colonel Morton's column, however, had other work just then, for Colonel Horace Brand, with his eight hundred recruits, had thrown himself toward Rolla with great speed and with consummate ability. Thinking Rolla in danger-as Colonel Brand's forces had been largely overestimated, and really not knowing but what another and formidable detachment was approaching from the south-Colonel Morton marched directly east to meet Colonel Brand. After accomplishing

thoroughly and well his mission, and after fighting and gaining several severe skirmishes, Colonel Brand returned to Northeast Arkansas, intending to consolidate his regiment and incorporate it immediately with the army. Commanding, unfortunately, in the section of the country to which this officer had hurried, was the phantom Brigadier General, Dandridge H. McRae, who desired nothing better than to reign supreme among the lawless and corrupt elements then carrying everything before them in that beautiful but deserter-cursed valley of White river. He naturally disliked every species of discipline, and made instant war upon this devoted officer seeking to promote the country's good. Having but few men with him, for Colonel Brand had furloughed his eight hundred troops in order that they might obtain fresh horses and additional clothing from their homes-and anxious to finish speedily his work, he had obeyed one order of arrest from McRae and reported himself accordingly. Released without even the accusation of having done anything wrong, he commenced again to gather up his recruits. McRae, still dissatisfied with himself and eager for more arbitrary measures, sent for him a second time, and to enforce the second order he sent fifty well-armed men. Colonel Brand and six or eight of his soldiers were encountered by the leader of this party, a man whose name was never ascertained, and acquainted with the order for his arrest. He refused positively to obey it, and calmly replied that he and his party would fight to the death first. McRae's officer, unwilling, perhaps, to resort to fighting, and naturally averse to the unsoldierly work required of him, entreated for submission. But Colonel Brand, feeling himself grossly outraged, prepared for the conflict and drew his pistols. After a few moments of hot, swift fighting, he, together with four of his soldiers were killed. McRae-was satisfied, and dead upon the peaceful, murmuring river was his dauntless victim, who had fought fifty battles for the South and not one against her. Colonel· Horace Brand had been General Price's adjutant general in the Missouri State Guard, and was a singularly gallant and accomplished officer. Fearless in the discharge of every duty, daring almost to excess, and tender and gentle in bearing as he was reckless in battle, he risked his life and lost it rather than yield to what he considered harsh and ungentlemanly conduct on the part of his superior officer.

In the same section of the country, but at a later period, were killed Lieutenant Colonel Walter Scott, of St. Joseph, Missouri, and Captain William Edwards, and five of his men, from Shelby's brigade. Colonel Scott's death was also a most sad and brutal murder. Some of his soldiers had been guilty of indiscretions-taking horses and saddles most probably-and were arrested. They gave Colonel Scott's name as their commander, and he was sent for to identify them. Sternly opposed to everything like insubordination or rascality, he condemned their actions, yet in order to obtain their release -knowing they had been influenced more from the surroundings than from dishonesty-declared himself responsible for them. This generosity cost him his life. .Without warning or without preparation, he and his comrades were deliberately murdered. Elegantly mounted and armed, it was supposed that the richness of their

accouterments tempted the cupidity of their captors, and that they were sacrificed to an unholy and unnatural lust for plunder. Colonel Walter Scott was a young officer of great promise, and gave every indication of becoming an effective and brilliant cavalry leader. He had served with distinction in the old State Guard, and was scarcely well of a severe and painful wound received some months previously in Missouri. lie gave up his life for his men because, actuated by that high and holy friendship which makes comrades-in arms so sensitive to the punishments of one another, he was unwilling to leave them unassisted and uncared for. Captain Edwards and his men were veterans from Shelby's brigade, and true and tried soldiers. Every effort was made to discover the murderers of these devoted officers, but without effect. Those directly engaged in it in all probability joined the ranks of the Federal army. McRae was cashiered by his government for disgraceful conduct upon the battle-field, and was never heard of afterward. Indeed the condition of Northeast Arkansas upon Shelby's arrival was such that the only wonder seemed to be how any honest, patriotic soldier could live without being constantly exposed to danger and death.

Colonel Dobbins and his men were true and brave soldiers, but were too far removed from the ulcer to cut it away, and were busy in protecting their own homes about Helena from the rapacity of the robbers and Federals. McCray had no arms and wanted but few, if any. To some men nominal command is pleasant, empty rank desirable, but hard work and blows tiresome and disagreeable. Captain Rutherford, a brave and conscientious partisan near Batesville, fought often and well, but his numbers were too small to exert much influence, and he could do scarcely more than threaten and occasionally strike. Captain McCoy, another partisan leader, further away toward Searcy, stood up stoutly against the horrible anarchy

and kept his hands clean and his house in order. Colonel J. R. Freeman had been operating here for some time before Shelby's arrival, but had gone over to Croly's ridge, across Black

river, for supplies. lie had returned once, however, to deliver battle, and as the fight was a close, deadly one, and belonging properly to a resume of the condition of affairs, I relate it in this connection. A Federal general, Anderson, leading fifteen hundred men, came up White river, landed at Augusta, and immediately started into the interior on a pillaging expedition. The convoying gun-boats not being amphibious, of course, remained at Augusta. Freeman, duly informed of the expedition, met it about four miles from this town, in a dense bottom, attacked fiercely and drove it in confusion back upon the iron-clads. In the fight Colonel Freeman was severely wounded, as was also Major Shaver; and Captain Bland, a gallant young officer from Augusta, with some twenty others, were killed. The Federals abandoned their dead and wounded, amounting to one hundred and seventy-eight. Anderson retreated hurriedly down the river, and the naval officers of the expedition, dissatisfied, doubtless, with the unimportant part performed by their service, fought a sham battle for a dozen miles or so, firing at every substantial-looking cottonwood and into every dark stretch of matted cane. Very soon after this battle, another and a larger detachment of Federals returned for more negroes and more cotton. Freeman fell back before them across Cache river, followed soon by an enterprising scout. This he drove away without difficulty, killing many and causing the rest to recross the river hurriedly. The Confederates then dispersed, each commander choosing his own theater of operations. Rutherford went to the mountains about Batesville; Colonel McGhee to the vicinity of Memphis; and Freeman remained yet a little longer near the theater of his exploits, endeavoring to raise a brigade. Colonel E. T. Fristoe, a truly deserving and intelligent officer, joined him with a regiment; Lieutenant Colonel B. Ford came with a battalion, and at last Colonel Freeman had about seven hundred effective men-a brave brigade truly, but better than

none, without doubt. These operations had all been conducted under the regime of General D. H. McRae, and now came Colonel T. R. McCray, with a multitude of orders from Shreveport, and the Ins't Me. superseded the first Me. To place the royal seal of purity upon his documents-which must be ever with a soldier blood-red and battle-crested-Colonel T. H. McCray concentrated his available forces for an attack upon Jacksonport, then held by a slight Federal garrison. The attack was a novelty in its way: Approaching the town during the night, the lines were formed by day-dawn, and were in open ground and quietly resting at ease. Amused, probably, but certainly not alarmed, the Federals formed speedily and marched

out to attack. McCray ordered a retreat, qualified so as to require now and then a checking fire from his own forces, and now and then a halt. But this soon grew into fast and furious racing, until his badly-handled and willing soldiers were safely behind Village creek, twelve miles from the intended-to-be-assaulted town. Here another separation took place, and each commander returned to his old haunts.

Then General Adams came and superseded T. H. McCray, as he had superseded D. H. McRae. Adams, having no faith in investments, except cotton investments', perhaps, led no army to besiege Jacksonport, and concentrated no horsemen from the mountains and the bayous. Then Colonel Dobbins followed Adams with commodious powers, and issued his orders and defined his bailiwick. The people got tired at last; the soldiers had been disgusted long before. No order, no system, no fighting, no anything save incessant wrangling, orders and counter-orders, proclamations and protocols, devouring of substance and devotion to anarchy. The Federals held the towns; the robbers held the country. Every thief who could "impress" an ox-cart and steal a cotton-bale was soon on his way, outward bound, to Memphis-trading and trafficking. Predator bands from afar, attracted by the immunity from danger and the wide scope for scientific roguery, made constant inroads upon the community, and despoiled the good citizens recklessly and remorselessly. Presuming upon the future from the experiences of the past, these deserters, robbers, thieves, Unionists, and Federals were making extensive preparations to inaugurate a delightful summer campaign, and to crown the record of infamy by devastating and depopulating. Swift, fierce, eager to hang and stem to execute, Shelby and his brigade threw a great sword into the other scale-a sword rough with the blows of victory, yet keen and flecked with blood-drops.

CHAPTER XVIII.

AFTER issuing the proclamation already referred to, and after becoming convinced that the leaven was at work, General Shelby thought it necessary to strike the enemy a sudden blow to encourage the efforts of the recruits and give them confidence in his ability and prowess. During the formation of the various camps of instruction, "Commodore Shaw" had been busy at Batesville constructing a. bridge of boats, which was floated down to Jacksonport, thrown across the river, and covered with thick, heavy flooring making an· excellent and speedy causeway from bank to bank. Without disturbing a. single battalion of recruits, and leaving McCray, Dobbins, and Freeman to their parades and daily drills, General Shelby crossed the pontoon at Jacksonport, and hurried on to Augusta. Heavy and incessant rains delayed him in its vicinity several days, but wading Cache bottom, ferrying over Cache river,

thence on through mire and water to Bayou de View, he crossed this crooked, treacherous stream after great exposure, and galloped away to Clarendon. Above this town, perhaps fourteen miles, was Duvall's Bluff-the point nearest to Little Rock on the river, and connected with it by a railroad-the only one then in Arkansas. This railroad supported General Steele's army. Duvall's Bluff was strongly fortified, guarded by gunboats, and heavily garrisoned, for indeed it was the heart which supplied the Federal arteries of Arkansas with blood; therefore, General Shelby determined to grapple the river at a point below this town, black mail it with his battery, and kill tie patient by striking the most vital part. .

Clarendon was selected as the point d'appui, because it was easy of access, easy of getting away from, and of good position. All that portion of Arkansas was a swamp, however; it was springtime, and it was raining incessantly, which will tell the whole story of roads without bottoms, streams without bridges, and swamps without boundaries. But Clarendon was reached late one sultry afternoon, and cautiously the advance reconnoitered the town, the river, and the woods. There, sure enough, not ten rods away from the wharf, stood a dark ironclad, grim sentinel of the place-lowering, defiant, •and "nursing her wrath to keep it warm."

The town was encircled with a cordon of scouts-hid from all sight though-who arrested and confined every human being going in or coming out, for it was resolved to surprise the vessel that night and blow her out of the water if necessary. Every disposition had been made by dark, and the tired warriors laid down under the gigantic cottonwoods to wait for the opportune

time. It came quietly. Just at midnight the battery drew up in the road leading into the town and advanced silently to its outskirts, when the horses were taken from it, and a hundred eager

hands grasped it and dragged it with the same noiseless motion to within fifty feet of the water's edge. Crouching and clinging to the shadows of the houses, a long line of dark figures came stealthily-with eyes to the front and guns at a trail. This was the outlying picket waiting for the coming daylight.

Clear cut against the naked sky, and solid as a wall of steel, stood the old brigade waiting for the coming daylight! Somber as an iron island, with all her red lights in gloom, and the deep peal of her time-bell sounding solemn and chill, the doomed craft sat upon the water unconscious of the coming daylight! A low, large moon, lifting a realm of romance out of the waves,

lit up the scene with a weird light, and crested the" stars and stripes" that flapped in melancholy motion against the painted gaff: Silence, like a tired queen, brooded in the whisperings of the leaves and in the suppressed breathings of the Thug-like warriors, glaring on their victim with eyes that never yet meant well to Federals.

General Shelby went close up to the boat-only a little blue band of water, smooth and pliant as a woman's necklace, lay between the lion and his prey. The drowsy sentinel paced his narrow beat, little dreaming that the fierce avengers of blood were on his track, and that four loaded cannon were almost touching him with their sinister muzzles. It was a complete surprise. A gunboat surprised having an armament capable of sweeping from the bank every vestige of man, cannon, and opposition. Heavily and wearily the time sped on. The soft waves sobbed on the beach, and curled and sparkled in sheer wantonness around the iron beak of the river falcon. The giant trees hushed the rustle of their leaves in sober expectation, and not a cloud waved a pennon across the mild June sky. Faintly and daintily the white hand of morning put away the screen of darkness, and up from the east little shreds of daylight

were tangled in masses of dun and sable shadows. Then General Shelby, with victory in his eyes and battle in his heart, gave the eager order. A yell of one thousand exultant men, a sharp, deadly crash of one thousand muskets, the roar of four pieces of doubly loaded cannon, and the thunderbolt crashed against the iron sides of the Queen City.

Again and again-the earth a volcano and the water red with a battle light-did the helpless vessel receive in her vitals a hurricane of shot and shell, until, rent, disabled, shattered-her scuppers running blood-she whistled defeat and struck her flag. Magnanimous in victory as terrible in combat, General Shelby took possession of his prize without boasting, and ordered assistance and surgeons to the wounded.

Thus, without the loss of a man, this gallant young leader surprised and captured one of the enemy's finest iron-clad war vessels, armed with thirteen heavy Parrott guns, and containing a large and desperate crew of devil-may-care Irishmen. The complete surprise, the romantic surroundings-a little field battery of four guns, grappling on an open beach, on of the most

formidable vessels of the enemy's gigantic navy, the mumed approach to within twenty feet of the boat, and the terrible suspense of four hours 1)f face-to-face waiting under the yawning muzzles of thirteen guns, form one of the most daring and brilliant episodes among many of the Confederate struggle. But, already the news of defeat and disaster had spread. The

sullen alarm guns of the fleet above were borne on the winds from Duvall's Bluff, and there was to be hot work and heavy work before the sun went down. Taking two thirty-pounder Parrotts from the disabled boat, and putting them in an improvised battery on shore, General Shelby determined to blow up the Queen City, as she could be of no further use to him or his cause. . In twenty minutes more, after all that was valuable had been taken from her, the earth reeled and the trees trembled under the shock of the final destruction of the Queen City, and the terrified water closed over the last remains of what had been, two hours before, a gallant mail-clad vessel. Major McArthur, of Shelby's staff, an old and experienced steamboatman, laid the mine and applied the torch. No blame could possibly attach itself to the commander, Captain Hickey. Every naval regulation had been strictly observed. The vessel was anchored in the stream, steam well up, the lookout man at his post and vigilant, the guns all loaded, and the reliefs stationed constantly and in order. Nothing but a cavalry patrol on shore could have warned him of his danger-and even with his seamen, just at nightfall, Captain Hickey had ordered a reconnaissance . through the streets of Clarendon, which was thoroughly made and narrowly escaped Shelby's advanced skirmishers watching them with an almost painful intensity.

Imagination can scarcely paint the feelings of surprise and the terrible shock which must have swept over the slumbers of captain and crew, when the tearing, grinding, exploding shells howled through the bunks, shattered the furniture and the mirrors of the cabin, and killed at least half a dozen in their furious course. The cook fell horribly mangled upon his stove in the very act of lighting the fire, and one poor little powder-boy, fresh-faced and beardless as an infant, lay almost cut in two by a shell. Not a line of pain marred the repose of his countenance, and the eyelids seemed covering eyes which would soon open again upon the beauty and the joys of earth. While the boat was coming to, several leaped overboard and made their way in safety to Duvall's Bluff, but the captain, an honorable man, soon stopped this violation of surrender, and gave everything in the hands of the captor, together with ten thousand dollars in greenbacks, just drawn a few days before by the paymaster. Shortly afterward, Captain Hickey, officers and crew were sent to Helena and paroled.

The fresh, early winds lifted the fog slowly after the night attack, and the river glowed like a green ribbon against the woods beyond now stirred gracefully by the mute fingers of the invisible breeze. The pale dawn of a June sky floated away in a sea of amber and gold, and the sun came up hot and vigorous as a young god to a feast.

With the sun came rapid and ominous preparations for battle, and, ever and anon, the shrill whistle of the leading boat, signaling the hindmost vessels to close up and keep well in order.

General Shelby separated the pieces of his battery to prevent a fire being concentrated upon them-the two Parrotts taken from the Queen Oily were in position-the matches were lit, and the old brigade deployed as skirmishers, lined the bank of the river. An hour went by slowly-an hour of eager suspense and anxious waiting. Hotter and hotter glared the sun, and louder and louder sounded the dull puffing of the advancing boats. Away up the river, a mile or more off, a dark, solid object loomed" suddenly in sight-followed by another, another, and still another, until four iron-clads came full in view, with banners streaming out gayly to the wind, and huge volumes of smoke floating up skyward, heavy and dark in the clear, young morning. The leading boat, gigantic and desperate, forged slowly ahead, every port closed, and a stern defiance on her iron crest. It was the Tyler, scarred and rent in previous fights, but wary and defiant still. The gunners stood by their pieces on shore waiting for the word, and the tirailleurs on the right commenced the rippling shots of the skirmish fight, which would frequently burst out in a spray of bullets.

A white puff of smoke burst suddenly from the bow of the Tyler, and curled gracefully in thin wreaths far astern. In a moment a one hundred and sixty-four pound shell passed overhead with 30 noise like an express train, and burst in the river half a mile away. It was the battle-gage thrown in the face of the waiting land-battery. The three boats behind closed up rapidly, yawned a little shoreward, and opened with a hurricane of balls that plowed the earth, shred away trees like stubble in the woods half a mile away, and now and then made sad gaps in the unprotected infantry.

The match was made. General Shelby rode from gun to gun in his quick, impatient way, and his voice fired his men like a torch passing along a line of ready gas lights. His order rang out sharp and clear above the rage and roar of battle: "Concentrate the fire of every gun upon the Tyler."

Full broadside to the wharf she stood sullenly at bay, giving shot for shot and taking her punishment like i\ glutton. For half an hour three thousand muskets and six pieces of artillery fought almost muzzle to muzzle with the grim boat, her three consorts pouring in all the time an enfilading fire of grape and cannister. A noise like the rush of five hundred steeds in motion, and the two-gun battery disappeared in a cloud of smoke, and dust, and splinters, having been literally destroyed by one terrific broadside. Hard hit and bleeding fearfully, the Tyler staggered over the water like a drunken man, every officer killed but one, two thirds of her crew dead and dying in the hold, and took up a position at long range, dropping now and then an occasional shell. But three more closed up immediately, and for two hours the combat raged with unabated fury, Shelby everywhere among his guns, cheering on his men to continue the desperate contest. On the naked beach-without 30 tree or stump for shelter-the old brigade with their unprotected battery fought for three hours-flesh against iron, nerve against steel. Of the three boats engaged after the Tyler retired, one was sunk, one riddled by shot, and the other had to tow off her disabled comrade. The fight was over! The fleet retired to a safe place above the town and kept up a fierce cannonade at intervals, for a heavy land force was coming down to be disembarked under the cover of its guns.

Gathering up his dead and wounded, and firing a last broadside of defiance, General Shelby retired two miles from Clarendon to prepare for the second day's fight.

Almost 8S the fierce combat ended, Colonel Shanks received his third wound. Encouraging his men by voice and example, and conspicuous in the coquetry of his new regimentals, he was a mark at once noticed and prominent. Although bushels of grape shot had whirled and twisted around him for three long hours, still, one tore through the overcoat behind his saddle at last, through the saddle also, and buried itself in his thigh, inflicting an ugly and horrible wound. He was borne from the field suffering greatly just as the Tyler fired her last broadside of defiance and left the scene of her deadly defeat. Kind hands and warm hearts ministered unto Shanks, and he soon got well again.

. The boats engaged after the Queen City met her death, were the Tyler, the Fawn, the Naumkeag, and the Sunbeam, numbering at least twenty-six heavy guns, and commanded by experienced officers. The battle on Shelby's part had been desperate-<>ne of those fights men shudder over afterward and wonder why any escaped.

Shelby formed his lines early for the battle of the second day, and took position just in the outskirts of Clarendon beyond the range of the vessels and waited silently for the onset. The white hair of the river mist, after being blown about fantastically upon the wrinkled face of the huge bluff and upon the green plumes of the great bottom-trees beyond, settled down heavily and chill around the dark undergrowth under which were ambushed the eager Confederates.

Brigadier General Carr, commanding six thousand Federals of all arms, came down from Duvall's Bluff escorted by five iron-clads, landed unmolested under their guns, took ample time to form his lines, and started gayly out from the wharf at Clarendon to measure swords with Shelby, patiently waiting until he got ready. A few shots first far to the front, a slight yell of fifty or so pair of lungs, a long, ragged, broken shout, and then a close, solid, deadly volley told that both lines were hard at work and mutually bent on killing. Collins, firm in the middle of the broad, white road, met the advance by a withering fire and drove the cavalry back with scarcely an effort. The infantry rushing furiously to the front, drove in Shelby's skirmishers and made a deadly and persistent effort even upon the main body, while three full batteries concentrated upon Collins and annoyed him greatly. Ike Shelby, the heroic standard bearer of Gordon's regiment, surrounded by the no less devoted color·sergeants, George Collins, Bob. Catron, Jim Kirtley, and Lem Cochran galloped fifty yards toward the enemy, planted the flag in the earth and quietly formed around it. Catching fire from the brilliant example, the regiment precipitated itself upon the left of Carr's line and drove it back upon the town, while

Hooper and Erwin struck the right squarely and dealt it such heavy blows that Carr!s entire line gave way and took refuge under the cover of the protecting fleet. Reforming the scattered

ranks and increasing them by additional reinforcements, Carr again came fiercely out and grappled Shelby with rough, impatient regiments. The battle now became bloody and desperate. Shelby, very advantageously posted and determined to hold on to the last, fought his best and lost without stint. The battle raged unchecked for three hours, now furious and rapid-now calming down' to artillery firing, and skirmishing more deadly than either. Gordon and Hooper suffered much. Jim Gordon, of Company C, Gordon's regiment, was badly wounded, after being attacked by five Federals and after killing four of them. Ahead of the skirmish line, forgetting or unwilling to fall back when his comrades did, he was surrounded yet refused to surrender, and fought his way out with a bullet through his manly breast, from the effects of which he never recovered. Little and Flenner, and a dozen other men were badly

wounded from Company E, while the other regiments suffered in proportion. The second time Carr was forced back to his gunboats, and for the third time reformed his lines and came again to the contest, stubborn and conscious of his superior numbers. It had become a military necessity to drive Shelby away, and either he must be forced to let go his hold upon the river or General Steele must abandon Little Rock.

Just as the battle was growing hot again, a dusty courier, covered with the dirt and the mire of the swamps, dashed up to General Shelby and informed him that a large ,detachment

of Federals, numbering three thousand, had landed at St. Charles, and were marching rapidly to gain his rear. No time to lose now. Either the road must be passed leading into the line of retreat or the brigade must be surrounded, hemmed in, captured and annihilated, with a thousand to one on annihilation, for few of Shelby's men were ever at this time taken und treated as prisoners. Calling in the skirmishers, and fighting for half an hour longer to give Collins time to get his battery well ahead, Shelby deposited his wounded, buried his dead, and fell back rapidly before ·the pressing Federals, now coming on with great cheers after the 'lines receded.

Thinking there could be no more danger at this time from the Confederates, Carr had the beautiful little town of Clarendon fired in a dozen places, and soon almost every house was entirely consumed. It seemed strange, too, that the act of vandalism should have been committed by an officer bearing Carr's reputation for kindness and humanity. It may, possibly, have been the work of some of his skulking soldiers after he went to the front, but history must ever hold him responsible, as the commander of the expedition, for the blackness and darkness of the deed.

All day General Carr pursued-not furiously, but just strong enough to make vigilance unceasing and a pleasant march out of the question; yet before night the dangerous road had been passed and every troublesome thing thrown in the rear. Early the next morning, just after the brigade had resumed its march, General Carr made a severe attack, and rather surprised the first Confederate picket line, but Captain Turner Gill, at the reserve post, mounted his detachment on their horses without saddles, not having time to get ready, and charged the Federal advance so viciously that the rear guard gained ample time to form and organize resistance. The position was anything but hopeful. This day's march would bring the brigade square up against Bayou de View, impossible to ford, but which must be crossed solens volens unless Carr could be defeated. Colonel Smith, late in the day, galloped up from the rear and reported Carr pressing him hard-so hard that he must have help. Lieutenant Colonel Hooper and Williams, with the advance, were carefully posted in a large body of heavy timber

on the edge of a pretty little strip of prairie, and ordered to hold the Federals in check until the artillery could be safely carried over 3 large swamp directly in the road. Hooper had a brief, bloody fight of half an hour, which checked Carr completely and gave ample time for the crossing of the deep, treacherous Bayou.

This sudden and brilliant fighting of Hooper, and the appearance of the advance on the right flank of Carr's forces, conveyed to him the impression that Shelby had been largely reinforced and was about to turn upon and envelope him. He retreated precipitately, and Captain Bob Tucker, one of the most daring and intelligent officers in the brigade, and one of Elliott's most reliable captains, followed him several hours with his splendid company, stampeding his rear guard and running it in furiously upon the main body, returning at last with nine prisoners and fifteen horses. Before closing this chapter it might be well to chronicle a few ludicrous events preceding the fight at Clarendon, and others which really occurred while the two days' battle lasted. Upon approaching the town, and after in fact hiding the brigade completely from sight, Shelby stationed Lieutenant Wm. Simms, Cam Boucher, Tom Daniels and a. dozen others of the advance upon all roads, byways and hog-paths. Simms heard a great laughing, shouting and chattering of voices approaching his position and he roads dispositions to capture the owners of these voices. Waiting a few moments in great curiosity, he found himself surrounded by a young lady returning from her daily duties as school-teacher, accompanied by about fifteen boys and girls of all ages and sizes, some half grown and some not much bigger than a man's hand with ragged jackets, barefooted, unkempt hair, and a great horror upon all of them as Simms laughingly surrounded the little urchins by two or three fierce looking soldiers. The lady shrieked, the girls huddled together about the leader, the boys bellowed, and kicked, and shouted, until the whole air was rent by every variety of shrill and infantine sounds. Finally Simms convinced the school-mistress that he wouldn't harm any of them for the world, but that it was necessary to go with him and remain with him until the expiration of a certain time. Procuring a large room, Shelby, after much difficulty stowed away his strange prisoners, and soon the little things were tolerably reconciled and dreadfully hungry. When the brigade marched to attack the boat, many of them, worn

out by fatigue, were fast asleep and lying thick as little pigs in the sunshine.

One of the guns of the battery, before firing on the Queen City at daylight, was stationed just before the door of a huge brick house, and no doubt shook it from top to bottom at every discharge. About the third or fourth round an old lady came tearing out, wringing her hands, her bosom unbuttoned, and the strings of her night-cap flying white in the moonshine, shrieking at every step:

" Don't shoot--don't shoot--there is a gunboat right out in the river here and it will kill you everyone. Take your gun away, for God's sake, before you wake up the gunboat!"

Wishing to drag the battery over a wide bridge about thirty yards from the boat, it became necessary to throw upon the planks something to destroy all sound, for the danger of discovery grew momentarily more imminent. Close at hand, and tall and rank, great patches of dog-fennel grew all along the road. Having exhausted all but one, and approaching it for the same purpose, a large, fierce dog, disturbed in his nocturnal slumbers, disputed the ownership, and neither threatening, coaxing, nor entreaty could induce him to move an inch; It was suicidal to shoot him, and so he retained his pre-emption right, and the soldiers went elsewhere for dog-fennel.

After the capture of the Queen City, and while the labored puffing of the Tyler and her consorts could be plainly heard, Shelby asked for half a dozen volunteers to cross the river and ascertain what delayed the boats so long in coming down, and how many boats were on the way. White river, at Clarendon, makes a bend of thirteen miles, and the point between the two streams of water is only some half a mile in width, so by walking this distance the scouts would have traversed the same distance by land which took .thirteen miles to make by water. Captain George Winship, Captain Jim Meadows, and about six other daring spirits from Shanks' regiment, manned a yawl from the captured boat and pushed off. Before reaching the opposite bank, however, the Tyler rounded the point above and cut off all retreat back to the Clarendon side. Nothing daunted, the little crew took positions behind large trees and opened on the Tyler a diminutive fire. A detachment sent from this boat to pick up the yawl, consisting of six seamen, were killed instantly at the first fire, and the Tyler, in revenge, shelled

Winship's party for half an hour without damage.

After dark the erratic soldiers built a raft, put their guns and clothing upon it, and swam over some distance below the town, having suffered much from hunger, fatigue, and mosquito bites.

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