We organized by selecting Captain H. W. Wade of the Sixth Texas commander. I cannot now recall all of them, but among them were Captains O. P. Preston, Reuben Simpson, Cook, and Broughton, and Lieutenants W. J. Swain, Thompson Morris, W. W. McClathie, Bridges, and Park. We were joined by the gallant Captain Reams, of Missouri, whose command had surrendered at the fall of Vicksburg, and who, having gone to Missouri to recruit his command, was captured and imprisoned, but had escaped into Canada, and from there made his way back to General Hood’s army. We were sent on duty in the country lying north of the West Point Railroad and south of the Chattahoochee River, west and northwest of Atlanta—this being a large scope of country not occupied by either army and liable to be depredated upon by the enemy. Campbellton, the county seat of Campbell County, was a town of some importance situated on the south bank of the Chattahoochee River, some thirty miles northwestwardly from Atlanta. The Federal outpost in this direction was twelve or fifteen miles out from the city.
Our duties were performed for several weeks without incident worthy of mention. We were sometimes in the territory over which we had fought during the summer, and a more desolate country I never saw; not a domestic animal or fowl, and scarcely a bird, could be seen; the woods, where we had fed our horses shelled corn, had grown up in green corn more than knee high, and there were no animals to crop it down; the fences had all been torn down to build barricades, and the crops had been without cultivation or protection since the early summer; the corn had made small ears and the sorghum had grown up into little trifling stalks, and the people who lived hereabouts were subsisting on corn bread made of grated meal and syrup made in the crudest manner. Oh, the devastation and horrors of war! They must be seen to be realized.
One morning we met Lieutenant Bob Lee, with his scouts, and it was agreed that we would spend the day together on a trip towards the river between Campbellton and Sherman’s outpost. Bob Lee was a fine scout, a member of the Ninth Texas Cavalry who had been promoted from the ranks to first lieutenant for his efficiency. Lee’s scouts numbered twenty, while we numbered twenty-one, all well armed with Colt’s revolvers and well mounted. On our way we picked up Pem Jarvis, of Company K, Third Texas, who was glad to join us. Pem had the only gun in the company, and no pistol.
We moved north by any road or trail found to lead to the right direction, until about noon, when we struck the rear of a farm lying in a little valley. Along the opposite ridge ran the “ridge road” from Atlanta to Campbellton, probably half a mile distant. Near the road, in a strip of timber, stood a farmhouse. Near the house we heard a gun fire and a hog squeal. Throwing down the fence we rode in and moved across cautiously, so as not to be seen from the house. Passing out through a pair of draw-bars, three or four of the men galloped up to the house and into the yard, where they found two Federal soldiers in the act of dressing a hog they had just killed. From them we learned that a party of about sixty cavalrymen, in charge of an officer, and having with them two four-mule wagons, had just passed, going in the direction of Campbellton. We started off, leaving the hog killers in charge of two of our men, and filed into the road. At the first house on the road, supposed to be Dr. Hornsby’s, two ladies were in the act of mounting their horses at the gate. They were crying, and told us that some Yankee soldiers had passed there and insulted them, and that they were going to headquarters to ask for protection. They estimated the number at about sixty, with two wagons. This was about five miles from Campbellton.
We sent two of our scouts ahead to look for them, as there is also a road from Campbellton to Atlanta called the river road. If they returned by the ridge road we would meet them, if by the river road we would miss them. The scouts were to ascertain this matter and report. We moved on to within about two miles of the town and formed a line in the brush, a few steps south of the road and parallel with it, where, with bridles and pistols well in hand, we patiently waited the return of our scouts. The road from our position, towards town as far as we could see it, ran on a rough down grade and was lined with thick black jack brush. From here it was impossible for a horseman to get into the river road without going into town. The intention was, if they came our way, to wait until their column came up in our front and charge them in flank.
In due time we heard our scouts coming at a gallop, and looking up we saw they were being pursued by two Federals. One of the Federals reined up and stopped before he got in our front, while the other rode along nearly the entire front of our line, fired his gun at our scouts, cussed the d——d rebels, then stopped, and stood as if waiting for the column, which was then slowly moving up the hill. We could hear them driving milch cows, which they had taken from citizens, and accompanied by wagons loaded with the fruits of their day’s robbery, such as tobacco, chickens, and turkeys. The fellow in our front furnished such a tempting target that one of our men fired, and the Federal dropped from his horse. This was sufficient to spoil the ambush, and we instantly spurred our horses into the road, gave a loud yell, and charged at full speed down the rough road, into the head of their column. As we approached them they seemed almost to forget the use of their seven-shooting rifles in an effort to reverse their column, and before they could accomplish this we were in among them, and they ran for dear life back to gain the river road. We went along with them to town, and they fired back at us vigorously, and powder burned some of our men in the face, but no one of our men received as much as a scratch. We were better armed for such a contest than they were, for though they had good rifles, their pistols were few, while we carried from two to four Colt’s revolvers apiece.
Jarvis’ horse became unmanageable in the excitement and ran under some black jack, and knocked Jarvis’ gun out of his hand and plunged in among the enemy, passing by several of them while Jarvis had nothing to defend himself with. Some of them were in the act of shooting him in the back, but invariably Bob Lee or someone else would save him by shooting his assailant in the back of the head. The foremost and best mounted men, about twenty in number, with one wagon, got through the town. We followed them a few hundred yards and turned back. We had twelve prisoners unhurt, and going back over the road we found fourteen dead and fifteen wounded. We had in our possession one wagon and team, thirty or forty rifles, a few pistols, and a number of horses with their rigging.
As I was going back on the road I came to an elderly wounded man just outside of the road. I reined up my horse, and as I did so he reached out a trembling hand, in which he held a greasy leather pocketbook, and said: “Here, take this, but please don’t kill me.” I told him to put up his pocketbook; that I would neither take that nor his life; that I only wanted his arms.
The slightly wounded men, who would likely be able to fight again very soon, we put into the wagon, and mounting the unhurt ones on the captured horses we paired off with them, and thus started for our own lines. I rode with one of the prisoners, who was quite a talkative fellow. Upon asking him why it was that so many of their men refused to surrender, and allowed themselves to be shot, he said: “Our officers have told us that Ross’s brigade never shows prisoners any quarter, but will rob and murder them; and we knew it was Ross’s brigade as soon as you yelled that way.” I told him that was a great slander on the brigade; that no men would treat prisoners more kindly; that sometimes we were hard up for clothes and would take an overcoat, or blanket, or something of the kind from a fellow that was well supplied. “Oh,” said he, “that’s nothing; we do that.” I then said to him: “I believe your boots will fit me, and these brogans of mine will do you just as well at Andersonville.” He said, “All right,” and instantly he dismounted and pulled his boots off. We traded, and I had a good pair of kip boots that fit me, and he had brogan shoes, and was apparently happy. He asked me how it was that we were so much better mounted than they were. I explained that we furnished our own horses, and we must keep them or go to the infantry, and that made our men good horsemasters; while the United States Government furnished them with horses and they knew that when they rode one to death they would get another.
We continued our scouting duties in the same section of country until the early days of October, when General Hood moved around in General Sherman’s rear, and began destroying his communications, capturing supplies and provisions. Sherman moved out of Atlanta and followed Hood until the latter came to the vicinity of Rome. General Hood unwilling to risk a battle in the open field, crossed the Coosa River, moving by way of Gadsden, Ala., towards Guntersville on the Tennessee River. When General Sherman discovered this movement he turned back towards Atlanta, devastating the country and despoiling the citizens as he went.