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Ragged Texans: Boots and Booty. and delighted at these discoveries; but In one of the frightful contests near when he examined the haversack and found Yorktown, Virginia, some notable instances it well stored with capital rations, incluof bravery and reckless daring occurred, ding a canteen full of fine rye whisky, he nor was this confined to one of the great was electrified with sudden joy, dropped armies only. Conspicuous among these boots, haversack, and money, upon the cases was the conduct of a tall, hard-fisted, ground, and half emptied the canteen at a and very ragged Texan soldier, who was draught. Setting down the can, he smacked hunting up, very cautiously, "a pair of his lips, and thus soliloquized upon his rare boots and pants." He was warned by his adventure: Confederate comrades not to show his head "Well, poor devil, he's gone, above the parapet, for the Yankee sharp- mighty big sight of 'em; but he was a

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Ragged Texans.

gentleman, and deserved better luck. If he'd been a Massachusetts Yankee, I wouldn't cared a darn! but these fellows are the right kind. They come along, as they should, with good boots and pants, lots to eat, money in their pockets, and are no mean judges of whisky. These are the kind of fellows I like to fight!"

shooters, armed with rifles of a long range, with telescopic "sights," were "thick as blackberries" in the woods to the front, and were excellent shots. "Darn the blueskins, any how; who's scared of the bluebellies? (That is, Eastern men.) Let all the Yankees go to for all I care. Let 'em shoot, and be -! I'm bound to have a pair of boots, any how!" And so saying, the rash fellow passed over the Bleeding to Death, but Sound as a Trout. parapet, down its face, and returned with After the fight at Manassas had termithe body of a Federal, which he had fished nated, Adjutant Flint, of the Confederate out of the water. He first pulled off the ranks, was detailed as one of a burying boots, which proved to be an excellent party, and was out all night and most of pair; then, proceeding to rifle the pockets, the following day. As his regiment had he found the handsome booty of sixty been engaged near Centreville, he was dollars in gold. He was much astonished hunting along the slopes for any poor fel

low who required assistance, when his at-" Where are you hit, Lieutenant?" intention was called to moans in the bushes quired the surgeon tenderly. "Oh! don't near by. Calling some comrades, search touch me, doc., pray don't-I'm mortally was made for the sufferer. They found wounded under the left shoulder blade, the him leaning against a tree, near which a ball has ranged downwards, and I'm bleedshell had exploded-his countenance was ing internally!" ghastly pale, and he rolled his eyes appar- In a trice, Shanks's coat was cut in all ently in great torture. "What's the mat- directions, but yet there was no wound vister, Lieutenant?" he was asked; but he ible, until, to stop his lamentable groans, groaned and fell on his face. "What can the surgeon asked again: "Where are you we do for you?" inquired another. "Oh! hit,-don't groan everlastingly, Shanks, but leave me to my fate, boys," was the sor- place your hand upon the wound, and let's rowful and faint reply. "I am dying every see what can be done for you." The place minute, and can't last long-I'm bleeding indicated was as sound as any part of his internally, and my blood is flowing fast! body, and after searching in vain for half Farewell to my own sunny South; good an hour, and cutting the clothes off his bye, boys, and if any body shall ever visit back in search of blood, the doctor gave Holly Springs, tell 'em that Shanks died Shanks a slap, laughing as he saidlike a patriot for his country, and shot four Yankees before he fell! Give my love to the Colonel and all the rest of the boys, and when you write, don't fail to give my last dying regards to Miss Sally Smith, if any on ye know her, and say I was faithful to the last-faithful to the last."

"Get up, Shanks, and don't make a fool of yourself any longer; you are as sound as a trout, man-your wound is all imaginary."

They all began to laugh heartily, and were about to take signal vengeance on him for making them carry him half a mile Affected beyond all words by the poor through the mud and bushes, when Shanks Lieutenant's simplicity and sufferings, they jumped up as lively as ever and threatened determined to carry him to the nearest am- to whip any man who should dare laugh bulance, and ask a doctor to look at his at him—a threat that would have been fulwound. They placed him in a blanket, filled to the letter. It seems that a shell and in solemn procession had proceeded had burst within a few feet of him, and about half a mile, when he positively re- feeling certain that he was wounded by a fused to go farther. "Let me down gent- fragment, he suffered all the symptoms of a ly, boys, I can't stand shaking—there isn't wounded and dying man. In proof of his much blood in me now, anyhow, and I feel sincerity, poor Shanks had lain out in the I'm passing away from this vale of tears rain all night, and when found he looked and wicked world every minute, and can't the most lamentable object for a first Lieulast long." A doctor was passing at the tenant that could be imagined. The story time, with sleeves rolled up, looking more got wind pretty universally, and Shanks like a gentleman butcher than anything always had an engagement on hand to else, and in whispers he was told of the whip somebody,' until at Gaines' Mill he condition of poor Shanks, who was now at last fell mortally wounded. groaning more piteously than ever.

"I

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mit of Lost Mountain.

think he's bleeding internally, doc.," said Waving the Stars and Stripes from the SumAdjutant Flint," for I don't see any blood, although his momentary contortions are awful to look at-if he wasn't suffering so much I should be tempted to laugh."

The battle of Lost Mountain, in Georgia, was one of the most severe battles of the war of the rebellion. At daylight on the

seventeenth of June, 1864, the Union right Bloody Sabre-Charge by Colonel Minty. was in motion from the third line of rifleGeneral Kilpatrick made a brilliant raid pits on Lost Mountain; and as Hooker upon the rebel region around Atlanta, advanced steadily, he was only supported Georgia, in August, just preceding the by Schofield, immediately on his left. fall of that place. Four days of constant From the beginning the battle raged furi- fighting was had under Kilpatrick, and the ously; each succeeding line of rebel works damage and destruction was great. was found stronger, and the ascent, as the National forces neared the top of the mountain, grew more difficult and dangerThe rebels, too, fought more obstinately the further they retired, and their fire continued to increase in deadly fury and power.

ous.

Suddenly, however, the Union forces were surrounded. With wild yells a whole division of Confederate cavalry (Jackson's,) five thousand strong, were seen coming down on the keen run, accompanied by ten pieces of artillery. Ere Kilpatrick had time to learn what was coming, a spirited attack was made upon the rear, and shells came tearing over the fields and bursting over the columns. Kilpatrick's keen eye soon comprehended the situation.

At eight o'clock, the fourth line of riflepits was carried, resulting in the capture of a few rebel prisoners, and of nearly all their wounded. The troops who occupied the works only left them when absolutely Minty's brigade was instantly withpushed out; for in many places the assail- drawn and hastily formed along the road, ants and assailed were mingled together in line of regimental column. While othin a hand-to-hand encounter for several er regiments which were to charge simulminutes, before the Union troops could ob- taneously with Minty's, were being matain positive possession. Schofield moved noeuvred into position to meet the onforward toward Pine Hill, carefully keep-slaught of the rebels, who were sweeping ing up the unity between his right and down upon them, the men had time to see Hooker's left, and, after a pretty stubborn resistance on the part of the rebels, he carried two lines of their earthworks.

After so furious an onslaught as was made in the morning, it became necessary to rest and recuperate the men for an hour or more, which was done by the lines lying down in the ditches from which they had just dispossessed the enemy. About eight o'clock the onset was renewed, and more furious fighting occurred; but the Union march was onward, with steady tread, and the resistance of the rebels only availed to sacrifice thousands of lives on both sides-nothing more. From that time there was no halt, no real check; and by one o'clock, at high noon, the Stars and Stripes waved from the summit of Lost Mountain, and Hooker stood proudly on the top, greeted by the voices of ten thousand of as gallant soldiers as ever fired a shot or charged a bayonet.

the danger that surrounded them-rebels to the right of them, rebels to the left of them, rebels in the rear of them, rebels in front of them-surrounded, there was no salvation but to cut their way out. Spectres of Libby prison and starvation flitted across their vision, and they saw that the deadly conflict could not be avoided. Placing himself at the head of his brigade, the gallant and fearless Minty drew his sabre, and his voice rung out clear and loud,

"Attention, column; forward, trot, regulate by the centre regiment, march, gallop, march!"

Away the brigade went with a yell that echoed loud across the valleys. The ground from which the start was made, and over which they charged, was a plantation of about two square miles, thickly strewn with patches of woods, deep water cuts, fences, ditches, and morasses. At the word, away

went the bold dragoons, at the height of their speed. Fences were jumped, ditches were no impediment. The rattle of the sabres, mingled with that of the mess kettles and frying-pans, that jingled at the sides of the pack mule brigade, which were madly pushed forward by the frightened darkies who straddled them.

Remember Fort Pillow!

The terrible butchery of colored Union soldiers at Fort Pillow-killed in cold blood, instead of being treated as prisoners of war-by General Forrest, the Confederate commander at that post, sent a feeling of horror throughout the entire country. It did not, however, excite astonishment on the part of those acquainted with the antecedents of the rebel chieftain. About the middle of the summer of 1862,

Charging for their very lives, and yelling like unchained devils, Minty and his troopers encountered the rebels behind a hastily erected barricade of rails. Press- Forrest surprised the post of Murfreesing their rowels deep into their horses' boro, commanded by Brigadier-General flanks, and raising their sabres aloft, on,

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"Remember Fort Pillow."

on-on, nearer and nearer to the rebels they plunged. The terror-stricken enemy could not withstand the thunderous wave of men and horses that threatened to engulf them. They broke and ran, just as Minty and his troopers were urging their horses for the decisive blow. In an instant all was confusion. The yells of the horsemen were drowned in the clashing of steel and the groans of the dying. On pressed Minty in pursuit, his men's sabres striking right and left and cutting down everything in their path. The rebel horsemen were seen to reel and pitch headlong to the earth, while their frightened steeds rushed pell-mell over their bodies. Many of the rebels defended themselves with almost superhuman strength, Crittenden, of Indiana. The garrison was yet it was all in vain. The charge of composed mostly of the Ninth Michigan Federal steel was irresistible. The heads and Second Minnesota infantry and the and limbs of some of the poor rebels were Seventh Pennsylvania cavalry. After actually severed from the bodies-the some little fighting, the troops were surhead of the rider falling on one side of rendered. A mulatto man, who was a the horse, the lifeless trunk upon the other. Hardly a Union man flinched, in the work of death, and when the brigade came out, more than half the sabres were stained or clotted with blood. Three stands of colors were captured-the Fourth United States taking two, and the Fourth Michigan one. Colonel Minty, whose soldierly form was conspicuous in the charge, urging his men to follow his lead, had his horse shot under him.

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servant of one of the officers of the Union forces, was brought to Forrest on horseback. The latter enquired of him, with many oaths, What he was doing there?' The latter answered that he was a free man, and came out as a servant to an officer-naming the officer. Forrest, who was on horseback, deliberately put his hand to his holster, drew his pistol, and blew the man's brains out. This statement was made by a Confederate officer, with the additional

fact that the mulatto man came from Penn- the rebel fire, as camly as possible, to sylvania, that the murdered man was not await developments. The soldiers witha soldier, and, indeed, the occurrence took in the fort could not raise above the paraplace before the United States Govern- pet to fire at them, for if they did a hunment determined to arm negroes for mili- dred bullets came whizzing through the tary service. air, and the adventurers were nowhere.'

But the example set by General Forrest at Fort Pillow furnished the colored troops with an avenging watch-word, when, some time afterwards, a force of Union black troops was sent out, opposite Natchez, Mississippi, to disperse a similar force of rebels. The latter were badly whipped and routed. The blacks went into battle with the rallying cry of "Remember Fort Pillow." Eleven men were captured, but were immediately put to the sword on the spot where they surrendered. One rebel dropped upon his knees before a black soldier, and begged for his life. The soldier turned to his Captain and said,

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Captain, what shall I do with this man?"

"Do with him as he would do with you if he was in your place and you was in his," was the quick reply.

Swift as thought, a loyal bullet was sent from a Colt revolver through the rebel's head, and he fell dead at the hands of one who, to that extent, had avenged the wrongs of his race. It was the example set at Fort Pillow and the policy there initiated, legitimately carried out.

Use for a Shell.

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ly in.

One of Bill Myers's Capers in Missouri.

Bill Myers was one of the earliest and How the Flag was Planted at Vicksburg. most notorious bushwhackers and horse For two long hours a terrible cannon- thieves in Missouri; his stealing of horses, ade was carried on during one of the guns, and everything else that came in the eventful days before Vicksburg, when on way, being all done in the name of the the left, in Smith's, Carr's, and Osterhaus' "Southern Confederacy," and he was a division, a charge was made. Winding kind of mean fac-simile of Jeff. Thompthrough the valleys, clambering over the son, and other 'Generals' of the same hills, everywhere subjected to a murder- stripe in that region, in those dark days ous enfilading and cross fire, they pressed of war and persecution. up close to the rebel works to find that a Soon after Bill commenced his patriotic deep ditch, protected by sharp stakes along career, he stole from a Union man one of the outer edge, lay between them and the the finest horses in the neighborhood, and intrenchments. They planted their flag continued to use him as his war-horse directly before the fort, and crouched down through many hard chases, both in pursuit behind the embankment, out of range of of plunder and in retreat from the pursuit

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