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.
Starts home on veteran furlough—Trouble at the table—Bluffs the Captain—Suspected of being a rebel spy—Commissioned officer serves him at the table—Kind attentions at home—Silences an old maid—Returns to the front—Shot at twenty-one times—The remedy—A Union lady—The dwarf weaver—The weaver beheaded—Goes into Marietta as a spy—Confederate side of the lines—Escape from the rebs—General McPherson's death—Hard fighting.