We mounted and rode down into the woods; there I discovered a great many fresh horse-tracks. I ordered the boys to dismount and form a skirmish line. We had hardly got into position, when a Confederate General made his appearance on a rise of ground in our front, a hundred yards distant, coming toward us. When he had ascended fairly to the top of the hill, he halted to look. He was the richest dressed General that I ever saw. His uniform was heavily trimmed with gold lace, and his saddle, bridle, and holsters were mounted with gold. The General was straight, and well proportioned, and made a splendid appearance. I presumed that it was General Ross, on his way to visit the young lady.
"Jim," said I to the man nearest me, whom I knew to be a good shot, "why don't you shoot that General?"
Jim fired, but missed him. We gave chase, and fired twelve or fifteen shots at him, but, in the excitement of the occasion, we all missed him. We followed about forty rods, then returned to our horses, recrossed the bridge, tore it up, stationed ourselves behind trees, and waited for the approach of the enemy, who, I felt sure, would give chase. We had not waited long until the expected enemy came. We opened fire on them as they came up, which was kept up by us for several minutes, and returned with equal vigor by them. Finding they made no impression on us, they withdrew. Suspecting that they knew of some other place to cross the stream, I told the boys to "light out." We were hardly in saddle till we saw the rebels coming from another direction. They had crossed the creek, intent on our capture. Away we went, and the rebs after us. It was now nip and tuck who had the fastest horses. Fortunately for us, during our absence the 16th Corps had moved out on the road that we were on, and gone into camp, and we had only about three miles to ride before we ran into our own lines. The rebs kept up the chase until they were fired into by our pickets. I never learned whether we injured any of the rebs or not; my own men received no injury.
Two days' further marching brought the army within four miles of Pearl River Swamp, where it halted to lay a pontoon bridge across Pearl River. While the army was waiting, I was ordered by General Leggett to get a detail of eighteen men from the 32d Ohio Infantry, in addition to which I had a squad of nine that had been on detail with me for several days. With these I was to go after forage, and be ready to start at daylight the next morning. I got horses for my men, and had them all ready that night. In the morning we started for General Leggett's head-quarters for special instructions. On the way I met a Lieutenant of the 23d Indiana Infantry, with a detail of ninety men, all mounted. He said to me, "Bunker, what is your detail for?"
I told him that I was going after forage. He said, "I am ordered to take command of all forage parties to-day. You and your men fall in with me." The men, supposing it was all right, fell in, except one. I knew well enough that he had lied. He wore shoulder-straps and I wore none. I was vexed. I sat on my horse and watched his movements. He rode on to the head of his command, with more assuming dignity than a Major-General with a command of a hundred thousand men. He paid no attention to his men, and they strung out behind long enough for a good sized regiment. I told the man that had remained with me to go on, and tell the men of my detail that I wanted them to run with me, and to drop back behind till I came up. This they did, without being missed by the Lieutenant. I got them all back but one man. The Lieutenant filed to the left at the first left-hand road; I went on to the second left-hand road, and then filed left. I calculated to let the Lieutenant have the outside track, and I would forage inside his operations. After turning to the left, we went a mile, and then took a track that led to the right, down through a field, and then into a piece of woods, until we came to a creek, with a steep bank on the side that we were on that was four feet down to the water. We could only get our animals down the bank by pushing them. In this we succeeded. The opposite bank we ascended without difficulty. We were then about five miles from where the Lieutenant and I parted. Going on a few yards further, I heard the sound of voices, and motioned to the boys to stop. We listened, and could distinctly hear loud talking, and occasionally such expressions as "thar," "you all," and "gwine," which led us to conclude that we were coming upon a party of rebs. I knew that Carson's cavalry was somewhere not far distant, and readily enough suspected that the talking we heard was from his men. To retrace our steps was impossible, owing to the nature of the opposite bank of the stream. To remain long where we were was dangerous. "Boys," said I, "we must do one of two things—either fight these rebs or go to Andersonville. Which will you do?"
"Try 'em a whack, Bunker."
"Well, then, tie your horses, and get into a line of skirmishers, and I'll ride cautiously forward and see what's there." I went so near that I saw two Confederate soldiers and a nigger, clad in Confederate uniform. This confirmed my suspicions that we had run into Carson's cavalry. I concluded that our only hope lay in the trial of strategy. From the voices that I heard, the party, whoever they were, greatly outnumbered mine.
Having placed myself at the rear of my command, I shouted, at the top of my voice, "Attention battalion! Company A, on the right, and B, on the left, deploy as skirmishers! Forward—double-quick—march!" Away the boys went. Then I shouted, "Battalion—forward—double-quick—march!" I was the battalion. I kept on giving commands, as we advanced, as loud as I could yell, as if I was commanding a full regiment of infantry. The strategy had its effect. The party did not wait to see who we were, but very unceremoniously "lit out." We only got sight of three persons; those were the two Confederate soldiers and nigger that I have mentioned, who remained behind for us to capture. We now found out that we had stampeded a party of Federal soldiers. They had left two yoke of oxen and a wagon, loaded with a barrel of sugar, a sack of flour, and nice hams. On top of the load was a roll of carpeting. The fleeing party had left along their line of flight great numbers of nice hams, that they had thrown away in their efforts to escape. The three persons that we had captured had hauled the stuff down into the woods that morning, to hide it from the Yankees. A party of Federal soldiers had discovered the track, and followed it up, and were in the act of appropriating the best of the hams to their own use, when we surprised them. We took possession of the property, and started on, keeping a plantation road that wound its way round to the main road, on which the army was encamped.
Shortly before coming out on the main road, I halted my party to give the oxen a chance to rest. While there, the 11th Illinois Cavalry and a brigade of infantry were seen coming out on the road that we were on, with battle-flags flying. Coming up to us, they halted. At the head of the command, with the Colonel of the 11th Illinois Cavalry, was the Lieutenant of the forage party and a private of the 23d Indiana Infantry. Said the private to me:
"Bunker, was there a carpet on that wagon?"