Part 6

When I had just fairly got the water and the fire agoing there came up the main road, just a few rods away, the sound of many horsemen and the clatter of hoofs and a motion from the house for me to flee in the direction of the mountains. I started, not knowing whether to ever come back or not. I ran about a mile along the foot of the mountains, when I came to a man by the name of Sampson Robertson. I found that he was one of our men, but had been conscripted into the rebel service. He never went into the Southern army, but skulked for a living among his friends. He told me for the first time that this dash of rebels numbered over one hundred men, and that they had come over the mountain from the west, from Sullivan county, to capture our eighteen Union scouts, and that they intended to intercept them, for these rebels had already robbed the poor people of everything, even their bedding and household goods, and had killed an old man some sixty-two years old and burned the grist mill. If ever I wanted to help a handful of our poor soldiers, cut off from our army, it was now. So I went along to where I fell in with about seventeen of our men and boys, all told, and nine of the very best of these men allowed me to go along with them upon a bluff overlooking a run called Stony Creek, traveling down through the valley. This run was very deep and at least sixty yards across, and there was a small foot bridge, made of hewn timber, on small abutments. Just opposite this foot bridge there was a very large bluff or mountain, some three hundred feet high, and on this high elevated ridge these nine scouts had located themselves. I had the honor of being one to help in the little battle that was soon to come off. I had one of the old hero’s muskets. Now we could see the Johnnies coming. They had divided their force of one hundred men and were advancing right up to this foot bridge and began to cross it, when our boys opened fire on them from five shooting carbines. They told me to load the old musket well with buckshot and let them have it. Well, to tell the truth, I took too much powder from an old powder horn, for I put in nearly a handful, and also about a handful of buckshot. When this gun did go it would kick right smart, I reckoned, but still kept on loading and firing it, to the merriment of the other boys. But, oh, such fun! In a short time the rebels turned back and went away faster than they came. The Union boys, some of them, went on the mountain trail as the rebels were on their way back, and while they were leading or riding their horse the Union boys opened fire on them and nearly stampeded the whole force. There were only six or seven of our boys. We succeeded in escaping while they were trying to capture us. We had it from their own men that there were seven, I think, wounded and two killed. If I am not mistaken, this is what the rebels reported. They could not reach us from where they were.

Now after this great share in the battle I went back to the place that I had left, and stayed with a woman by the name of Urie Low. At this place I stayed for some four or five days. I made while here, I think, three pairs of shoes out of almost raw hide, working the hide just long enough to get the hair off and left them tan color.

So ends my first introduction into Carter county, Tennessee.

After this I stayed at Mrs. Low’s place for some time. Then I went to Lieutenant Housley’s, one of our men, and a commander among the Union boys. I went to Housley’s place to stay, and would go to a mountain cave to sleep nights, for it was very dangerous to stay at the dwellings any more.

There was one thing that happened soon after I went over to Lieutenant Housley’s place. I was requested to stay at a place called Sampson Robertson’s. All the boys had gone to the cave and I stayed at the house a short time to finish a pair of shoes for one of Mr. Robertson’s daughters. I had just got seated near the fireplace and was telling some of the exciting times I had in making my escape. Time passed along very pleasantly, when there came a stern command from the door for the women to clear away from the hearth of the fireplace so they could end that Yankee talk. If ever I felt afraid in all my life I did just now, and if I ever needed help it was now. The good woman had me sit clear down on the hearth, and if ever I felt myself under petticoat government or protection it was now. Here I sat while the daughter of Mr. Robertson entertained these two rebels and gave them apple-jack, or what was sometimes called apple brandy. The women got a large amount of walnuts and butternuts for them to crack, and for over two long hours I sat on the hearth and took the cursing of those two rebels. I can tell you if I ever had to be placed in the same position again I would say let me stand before the belching cannon and the rattle of small arms rather than to be cooped up in a log hut on the stone hearth surrounded by the breastworks of brave women!

How often have I thought of this place in my life and what a delicate position it was. Well, it seemed as though the time had passed the slowest it ever did in all my life. While these two rebels began to be fired up with drink they began to make threats about what they would soon do to the Yankee, and I began to whisper to the women to let me slip out and make one dash by those two blood thirsty rebels. There was but one door and they told me to sit very quiet. Soon the wife of Lieutenant Housley’s father-in-law slipped by those two rebels and went over a mile and a half to the cave where the Union boys were staying, and very soon there came dashing down from the mountain cave the brave Lieutenant Housley and the husband of this brave and heroic woman. She had to climb over one hundred and fifty feet, where the edges of rocks were not more than three feet in width, and on a very dark night at that.

Once more I had great reason to thank God and these kind ladies for saving me from blood thirsty villains.

In about an hour there was a stern command for those rebels to surrender, and they arose to their feet and ran, but soon the lieutenant stopped them with a shot or two, wounding one of them in the arm. The two Union men made the two rebels take the oath of allegiance to our government and then they were allowed to go.

Now, just as soon as I found that our boys had arrived it made me glad to know that I was able to get out of such a cramped position. Before this I never had witnessed such a close place, let alone being in it. I can say that I was very thankful for my deliverance from these drunken rebels.

After they were disposed of the lieutenant told me that I had better go to the cave with them, and after this I was careful when night came on to find my way to where I was more safe than at the houses in this neighborhood.

I would like to tell you about the cave we had to stay in. I must say it was a most wonderful sight. The trail commenced at the foot of the bluff, or mountain, and wound its way up the side for nearly three-fourths of a mile and followed along the west side of a large range of mountains. Very close, or right under this trail, there was a large cataract, and for over one hundred and fifty feet above this cataract was the mouth of the cave, concealed by a large amount of foliage, such as laurel and sage bush. It would be almost impossible for a stranger to find this cave. After passing into this cave it was very beautiful, for far up through the crevices of the rocks came the light of the sun. This cave was over one hundred feet in length, and it seemed to be of different widths, varying from thirty to forty feet. On either side were rude couches where our poor boys caught their short naps, and in the middle, on the rock bottom, there was a warm fire, which was perfectly concealed from observation below, and the smoke went a long ways up among the mountain’s high cliffs. This reminds me of hiding in the cliffs of the rocks.

Oh, I am so thankful that I have learned to hide in the Cliffs of the Rock of our salvation through Jesus Christ!

Well, now, since I have explained the cave, I must tell you that my stay in Carter county must have an end. So the report came that the rebel army had left Sullivan Station. This was on the railroad. They had retreated way beyond the lead mines and salt works. The time had come for us—myself and all of these Union boys—to leave for Knoxville, so we all started in the direction of the mountain trail. The night before we started the people all met at the house of one of the Union boys, and it was as sad a parting as I ever want to witness in my misspent life. I saw here mothers, fathers and sisters parting with each other, probably never to meet again. Oh, such a sad sight! Finally my time came to bid farewell to friends. It seemed in so short a time, only about three weeks, I had gained such an attachment with these people that it seemed as though I was parting with near and dear friends of longer acquaintance. When I came to Lieutenant Housley’s family it seemed I had to pass them by, for I had been at their table and had been treated very well by them. This is an incident that I will speak of later. Now when I came to bid Angeline, the daughter of Lieutenant Housley, good bye I could not do so without showing more than common feeling, for without thought I had learned to have a great deal of affection for this girl. When we left all these good people we did not think we would ever return—at least I never thought that I would see any of them again in this world of sin.

We started for the mountain and as soon as we got to it it was said the lieutenant wanted two men to volunteer to go across the mountain, about nine miles, and find out for sure if the rebel army had gone from Sullivan Station. I stepped forward with a young fellow by the name of Rogen Anderson. The lieutenant told us where we would find one of our spies over the mountain near Sullivan Station. We started armed with a brace of good revolvers and a fine shooting revolving carbine. It was in the afternoon, and we were to be back by night if nothing prevented us. We started on our way and that night we arrived at a Union spy’s place. We intended to go back just as soon as we found out that the rebel army was gone, but the old man told us where there was a blue overcoat which he claimed was about two miles from where he was staying. So my friend Rogen and I thought we would go and see the man where the coat was. He was a Presbyterian minister. There was also a breech loading rifle here. We intended to get it if we could. The old pilot went as far as a small piece of woods and Rogen and I started in the direction of a large house that was about three-quarters of a mile away. When we got within about forty rods of the house, what was our surprise to see seven armed rebels come out of the east side and form a line, and on the back of the spokesman was the blue coat I have spoken of. This leader called to us to surrender. I did the talking, and told him that we would never do so, but if they did not throw down their arms we would advance and shoot as many as we could. We both acted upon my suggestion, for we started, with drawn weapons. Just as soon as these seven rebels saw our bravado they started and ran around the house and opened an outside cellarway and down into this they went. When we came up to the front we were very careful not to go around to that cellarway, but instead came up in front at the piazza. I had told these rebels that our Colonel Kirk, of the Seventh Tennessee, was awaiting our success, and we demanded the gun. The old man produced, and as soon as we got it we started back and struck the piece of woods where the colonel was. We started for the mountain as fast as we could. We had not gone quite a mile before they found out that we had tricked them. They made all possible speed to overhaul us. We had about three-fourths of a mile start of them, and about a mile further to make, so we improved the time right royally, and if two young fellows ever got there we did. None too soon did we get to the mountain either, as they were but a short distance away, and after we had got within a few hundred feet from the foot of the mountain we could well bid defiance to them all, for the mountain was steep and hard of ascent for a man let alone a horse. Soon we went back to where we left the scouts, or Lieutenant Housley and his men.

The next day we all started across the mountain again, and we all thought we were on our way to Knoxville, but it seemed that these Union men wanted some satisfaction, for as soon as we got over into Sullivan county where all of the rebels lived, and who had been over so many times to capture them, they were bent on taking all of the home guards that they could and make them take the oath of allegiance to our government.

It seemed that the home of the old colonel of the home guards, or guerillas, was the first place that I came to. It was about eight o’clock at night. Here we found a double log block house and in the west end of this house sat the old colonel on the floor, playing with a young grandchild. There were five or six of our men at the door and several at the windows, and before we gave the old man any warning the men broke the door in and took the old man by surprise, but just as soon as the colonel got to his feet he had a gun in hand, that hung on a couple of pegs, and there were several other guns hanging around the house and standing in the corners. The old man struggled to avoid being taken, but at last submitted. The pleading on the part of his wife and daughter was pitiful and heart-rending, but in spite of their tears and pleadings we started in the direction of the mountain. We securely tied the old man’s hands behind him with a rope, and then tied another some ten feet long to that, and they had the Andersonville prisoner, as they chose to call me, lead the old man. He swore a good deal and was very surly about being led, but he had to go just the same. When we came to a piece of woods the scouts came to a halt and run the old man under a large low-limbed tree. The rope that was tied to his hands was untied and a noose placed around his neck. The rope was then thrown over a large limb and the rebel was commanded to say his prayers before they strung him up. Then it was that the old man knew his time was short. Well, to tell the truth, this made me feel sad and almost sick to see an enemy hung after taking him prisoner, although it was often done by the rebels to our men. As soon as the old man began to plead very hard they gave him his choice of either taking the oath of allegiance or dangle at the end of the rope, so he took the oath of allegiance. Then we all went to others of the home guards and got hold of a large number of them and made them all take the oath of allegiance to our government.

After this we went to a large plantation and here we found the folks had left with the rebel army, leaving the plantation in charge of an old darkey and his wench. These two old colored people the boys compelled to bake biscuit and hoecake for nearly three hours. We found a large bee hive full of honey in the loft of the smoke house, and nearly one hundred weight of butter, and here around the old planter’s table we sat and ate until we all felt very much satisfied. Then we all retired for the night, lying down in whatever beds we could find to occupy. In one of these beds I found over forty yards of sheep’s gray cloth, which was worth at this time over five dollars a yard in gold. This I took back across the mountain and gave it to Lieutenant Housley’s wife, and out of this cloth Mrs. Housley made me a nice pair of gray pants, the first pair I had been able to wear for a long time.

Now the time had come for us to go in the direction of Knoxville. There had been some of Colonel Kirk’s scouts about fifty in number, who had come to help our boys in reaching our lines, so we started. Most all of our men were mounted on good, fleet horses. Lieutenant Housley had a nice little black mare that he let me have to ride. All the men in this company would number about eighty-five men. There were some seventy mounted men and in the neighborhood of fifteen footmen. Some of these footmen were young boys, going to Knoxville to keep out of the rebel army. There was one or two rebel deserters along with us. We had been traveling a part of one night and one day along the line of railroad, when we came to a school house, or church, I don’t just remember which, and camped for the night. Along the way we had captured a rebel spy, who pretended to be a good Union man, and our boys let him go. He had not been gone more than two or three hours before there came a report from the guard lines that we were surrounded by at least four or five hundred rebels. This was about eleven o’clock at night, so the scouts all fell in and made a dash in the direction of the mountains. Our men were successful in breaking through the rebel lines, which let all of us footmen into the mountains. There were sixteen of us besides the pilot, who was left with us. We got high up into the mountains between two large bluffs and here we stayed that night, or the balance of it.

The next morning found us very hungry, for we had not had much to eat for about two days. I want to say that our boys had a very sharp and hard time to get through these rebel lines, and some of the rebels must have fell under the fire of the scouts.

About noon, or somewhere near that time, the pilot came to the conclusion that he would take one of our crew and go and try and get something for us to eat. So he started off in the direction of the valley. He had not been gone long before I took one of the young men and started off on my own hook, to see what success I would have, and we started down in about the same direction. We came to where the rebels were in pursuit of us and we went near the building where our boys had previously had their troubles with the rebels.

We went some two miles farther into the valley, where there was a large house standing on a very large plantation. At this house we got a large hoecake, or a baked kettle cake of corn bread and some bacon and started back.

As we were passing the place where we had had the trouble with the rebels, what was our surprise to see two mounted rebels coming in our direction. Now I knew it was all up with us unless we could get ready for them in some way, so I told the young man to stoop down and get hold of anything that looked like a weapon and we would make a bold dash at them. There was a large thorn bush hedge between the rebels and us. We made a very sudden movement toward this hedge, holding short sticks in our hands, and called to them to surrender, when they turned their steeds and started off in the direction they had come. We made all the speed that we could, and soon found our way back to our concealment.

We all had a good lunch of corn bread and bacon and were ready to start again that night. We had to keep along the range of mountains, for we did not dare to follow the line of railroad for a while, for fear of the enemy. At this time we were about one hundred and twenty miles from Knoxville, Tennessee.

After starting again on our journey there was a woman pilot sent by Lieutenant Housley to help us along these mountain ranges, and, oh, such rugged, rocky cliffs that we had to climb, and such tired and aching limbs that we had during such nights of toiling up those mountains! It is something that I can never forget.

Well, as the distance grew less between the boys in blue and myself, my heart began to gladden and every night now began to tell on the distance. Oh, what thoughts I had of the folk; at home, and how I longed to see the playgrounds of my boyhood days!

After the third night our guide left us to traverse the rest of our journey without her and we at this time were following the railroad line to our final destination at Knoxville.

We were about thirty-five miles away the last night of our travel, and we had got very hungry. I had slipped ahead of the boys to see if I could not get some hoecake before the rest of them came up. I had advanced ahead about three miles, and had come to a large block house, about half a mile south of the railroad. I went up to the door and looked in an old stile window. In the east end of the house was a fireplace, and close to this was a half dozen pairs of boots, while in the corner sat as many guns. I stood there a short time, when I knocked on the door. Presently there was a gruff voice which demanded to know who was there. I told him I wanted some hoecake. He again demanded a knowledge of me as to who was there. I told him that I was a friend. Soon he told the men who were on the floor to get up in haste, and when I saw that they were all getting up, I ran about seventy rods in the direction of the railroad. Here I waited until the boys came up and I told them what had happened. The old pilot concluded to try and make them all surrender, but in this we were mistaken, for we could not make them do so. They seemed to be desperate in regard to giving up their arms, so we had to abandon the idea of taking them. We all started on again to finish up our journey.

There was nothing of any importance which occurred the balance of the way. The next day we arrived at the Knoxville river. Here we found the railroad bridge was gone, and there were ferry boats to take the people over the river. When I saw the stars and stripes once more I shed tears of joy to think I had arrived into our lines, and I had great reasons to thank God for His deliverance from worse than death in those prison hells.

Here I was taken to the commander’s headquarters, and I told him something of the privations I had gone through, and after I had been given some dinner I was taken to the sanitary commission department. Here I found an old man by the name of David Scott. He was assistant surgeon of the Hastings hospital of Knoxville. This old man took me to the sanitary commission where I was given a fine suit of navy blue clothes and a hat with an eagle on one side. Oh, how grand this made me feel to get a good warm suit of clothes on once more and to be free.

The next day I was given a pass to go to Washington, and how glad I was to take the train in the direction of home. I started and every eastern bound train that I could get on to without asking any questions I would get on, until I finally found myself in New York City.

Then the next place I found myself was in Pittsburg Pennsylvania, within ninety miles of home. Here I was accosted by a provost marshal, who asked me where I was from. I told him. Well he concluded that I had been taking a very good pleasure trip at the government’s expense. He put me aboard the train and started me for Harrisburg, and when I arrived there I met my old colonel, Chauncey Rodgers, whom I found at the Soldiers’ Rest. He induced me to go to the state capitol at Harrisburg. Here he introduced me to Maribee Lowery, a state senator of Pennsylvania. Here I was seated above all of the leading senators and related the story of my escape, while a shorthand writer wrote it down as fast as I could tell it.

After I had sat and told the story of my escape for nearly three hours a doctor came to me and felt of my pulse and told Mr. Lowery that if he intended to do anything for me he must do it soon, for he told him I was coming down with some fever. Now Mr. Lowery gave me a letter of introduction to the adjutant general of the war department, and the next day after I got to Washington I received a thirty-five days’ furlough to go home.