Crossing the Iron Mountain railroad south of Blackwell‘s Station, we gained the vicinity of the Old Mines, in Washington county, before it was yet light, where we took up quarters for the day. One of my men being acquainted in the neighborhood, we had no trouble in getting our necessary provisions and horse feed.
While we made our brief sojourn in this locality an incident worth relating occurred, which was very amusing to us, and may not be uninteresting to the reader. About ten o‘clock in the forenoon, while it was my turn to stand on picket I sauntered through the thick brush down to the main road, distant about two hundred yards, and suddenly ran on to a German who was sitting near the road side, sheltered from the sun by some brush. I discovered him before he saw me. He held in his hand an old double-barreled shot gun. As he had on an old suit of Federal uniform, my first impulse was to draw my revolver, which I did in an instant. As soon as the German saw me he sprang to his feet, let his old gun fall to the ground and threw up his hands. Seeing that I was dressed in Federal uniform, he immediately cried out that he was “all right,” and began in a hurried, broken gibberish to give an account of himself; that he was from De Soto, and was going to a saw mill west of Potosi; that he was a discharged Union soldier; that Sam Hildebrand was in the country about De Soto, and that he was afraid to stay there on that account. At this I advanced toward him and extended my hand, saying as I did so that I was really a little frightened, that I thought he was Sam Hildebrand himself when I first saw him; that I would not hurt him if he was a Union man, but that I came very near shooting him under the mistaken idea that he was Hildebrand. He laughed heartily at the coincident and was quite merry over the happy turn that the affair had taken.
I told him that I had some men stationed back in the woods on one of Hildebrand‘s old trails, and that he could go with me and form one of my party for the day, to which he gladly consented, manifesting a great deal of gratitude. As we made our way cautiously to the camp through the thick brush I told him that he was running a great risk in traveling through that portion of country, for it was one of Hildebrand‘s main passways.
On coming up to the boys in camp he did not wait for an introduction, but stepped in ahead of me and shook hands with them all in the greatest glee, telling as he did so a great many things he knew about “Sam Hildebrand.”
The boys seemed to understand the matter perfectly well without any explanations from me, and humored the joke very well by asking the most absurd questions about my barbarity; but none of the questions were too hard, for he answered them all, making it appear that I was a blood-thirsty barbarian, without an equal in the world‘s history.
It was not until sometime during the afternoon that we undeceived him in regard to the true nature of things; it was sometime before he could comprehend the sudden change, or be made to believe that he was really in my hands. But as he gradually became convinced of the fact he began a series of lies that would have shamed “Baron Munchausen” himself. We stopped him short, however, and told him that if he would not report us for one month we would let him go, at which he sprang at me, seizing my hand with both of his, he pledged himself and swore by all that was holy and righteous that he never would report us while he lived. He shook hands with us all and started, looking back every ten feet until he was out of sight, then he seemed to double his speed until he was out of hearing.
While the sun was yet an hour high we started on our way, keeping in the woods until dark, then passing west of Potosi, by traveling all night, we reached a point near the town of Centreville, in Reynolds county, where we obtained feed for ourselves and horses.
In traveling down Black river late one evening we ran into a squad of Federals, six in number, whom we charged in a furious manner, firing on them with our revolvers. They did not return our fire, but ran most gloriously. We killed one and captured two more; those we captured stated that they belonged to Leeper‘s command; this being the case of course we shot them.
We took their horses and arms, made another night‘s journey, and arrived safely in Green county, Arkansas. There I found a dispatch for me from Gen. Sterling Price, requesting me to take charge of the advance guard of his army, as he was “going up to possess Missouri,” to which I most gladly consented on conditions that I would be released as soon as we should reach the vicinity of my old home on Big river.