Night passed and the morning hours wore away, when at length we saw two government wagons coming, and in the sunlight sure enough, twenty bayonets were gleaming.
We suddenly broke from the woods with a great shout, and dashed in among them with all the noise we could make. We fired a few shots, killing two and causing the remainder to break for the woods in every direction. The sole object of our trip being to get supplies of clothing, ammunition, etc., we felt no disposition to hunt them down, but let them continue their flight without any pursuers.
We unhitched the horses and packed them with such things as we needed; after which we burned the wagons and every thing else we could not take with us.
On starting back we went through Mingo Swamp and made our way safely to St. Francis river, which we found out of its banks. With a great deal of difficulty we succeeded in swimming the river with our train, but with the loss of one man named Banks, who unfortunately was drowned. Becoming entangled in a drift of grape vines and brush, he drowned before we could render him any assistance.
CHAPTER XIV.
Federal cruelties.—A defense of “Bushwhacking.”—Trip with Capt. Bolin and nine men.—Fight at West Prairie.—Started with two men to St. Francois county.—Killed a Federal soldier.—Killed Ad. Cunningham.—Capt. Walker kills Capt. Barnes, and Hildebrand kills Capt. Walker.
On arriving at headquarters we busied ourselves for several weeks in building houses to render ourselves as comfortable as possible during the coming winter. Our headquarters were on Crawley‘s Ridge, between the St. Francis river and Cash creek, in Green county, Arkansas. It was a place well adapted to our purpose, affording as it did a safe retreat from a large army encumbered with artillery.
Many of Capt. Bolin‘s men had their families with them, and our little community soon presented a considerable degree of neatness and comfort. I could have contented myself longer at this quiet place, but our scouts were constantly bringing us rumors of fresh barbarities committed by the different Federal bands who were infesting the country in Southeast Missouri, making it their especial aim to arrest, burn out, shoot and destroy all those peaceable citizens who from the beginning had taken no part in the war.
They were especially marked out for destruction who had been known to shelter “Sam Hildebrand, the Bushwhacker,” as they were pleased to call me. If any man should happen to see me passing along the road, and then should fail to report the same at headquarters, regardless of the distance, he was taken out from his house and shot, without even the shadow of a trial to ascertain whether he was guilty or not. An old man, with his head silvered over by the frosts of seventy winters, who had served his country in many a hard fought battle before his tormentors were born, and who now hoped to go down the declivity of life in peace and security, found himself suddenly condemned and shot for disloyalty, because he generously took a stranger into his house for the night, who afterwards proved to be “the notorious Sam Hildebrand.”