Four Years a Scout and Spy: "General Bunker", One of Lieut. General Grant's Most Daring and Successful Scouts, Being a Narrative of ... the Experience of Corporal Ruggles During Four Years' Service as a Scout and Spy for the Federal ArmyDowns, E. C. (Edward C.)
History
Four Years a Scout and Spy: "General Bunker", One of Lieut. General Grant's Most Daring and Successful Scouts, Being a Narrative of ... the Experience of Corporal Ruggles During Four Years' Service as a Scout and Spy for the Federal Army
Downs, E. C. (Edward C.)
Ruggles, Lorain, 1823-1902; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
The soldier, seeing us coming, and having heard the conversation, said:
"The Colonel is a brave man, indeed; but, by the looks of things out
here, he is gone up. Hearing that, they made a rush for their animals,
and we fired a volley from our revolvers, which killed the Adjutant
instantly. We emptied our revolvers at the Colonel; but in the
excitement of the occasion every shot missed, and he succeeded in
mounting his horse and starting off toward the river. By the time he was
in his saddle, I was within twenty feet of him. The chase was a
desperate one. The Colonel, at intervals of a few rods, would let drive
a back-handed shot toward me, until he had emptied his piece. My horse
would lay back his ears and open his mouth, and spring forward with all
his force, as if to catch hold of the Colonel's horse with his teeth. A
mile and a half brought us to the river. I had gained at least ten feet.
The Colonel's horse splashed into the water, and mine gave a leap and
came nearly up, and then outswam his, till I came near enough to strike
the Colonel on the back of the head with the butt of my revolver, which
considerably stunned him, and enabled me get his horse by the bridle.
"Surrender," said I, "or I'll kill you!"
"I'm your prisoner," said the Colonel.
"Bring him out," shouted the boys, who, by this time, had come up.
We conducted the prisoner back to the house, where we found the
soldier, still bleeding and very weak from the loss of blood. He
belonged to the 32d Ohio Infantry. He said that he had asked the woman
of the house for a rag with which to tie up his wound, which she refused
to give him, adding, "I hope you will bleed to death." We dressed the
wound as well as we could, and then took care of the woman's rags by
setting fire to the house and out-buildings. We then carried the soldier
to his regiment, and the Colonel to General McPherson's head-quarters.
After crossing Pearl River, very little occurred of interest in my
individual experience during the march back to Vicksburg. A great many
forage parties and straggling soldiers were gobbled up by the enemy
during the raid; but, though I was out with men under my charge nearly
every day, I never lost a man during the entire campaign, which lasted
thirty days. On the march from Canton to Vicksburg the troops were not
allowed to destroy property. The raid was a demonstration of the
feasibility of the plan of campaigning, which was afterward inaugurated
by General Sherman in the state of Georgia.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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