The Boy of Battle Ford and the Man

CHAPTER XI

90 THE BOY OF BATTLE FORD came to pieces and was dtscarded the Sunday before the fight, and I was without a shirt afterwards and was, therefore, compelled to wear my coat. It was a blessing to have lost my hose. I wore;:lY soft shoes thirty minutes and walked baref00ted thirty minueson the da,llp ground, and thus partially avoided scalded feet, Which were such a calamity to most of the men. Yet with that advanta,ge over others, the skin came off' the bottoms of those parts 'of my feet that bore my weight, and my toes. My little toes/lost all of theIr skin in one piece, except a little on top! Nearly all the others were in worse condition than I was. Till the seventh. day of July we were· not assigned to ilny duty whatever. After I ate the half of a cracker at the coming of the relief train for us, I ate less during the next three weeks than 1 ever ate in any other three weeks in my life, if weE. I did not once feel hungry. The first thing I did after getting to camp was to send my mother a sllOrt letter , telling her of a little skirmish we had been in and that I was all right. My letter , from, some cause,. did not reach' her, and, as I did not arrive with the first of our men, the news was sent nome that I was among the missing. She thought of. my unprepared state to meet death, and therefore she could not be comforted. She Slept neither day nor night, and was on the verge of collapse or insanity when a letter was received from me by a young lady, who had heard of mother's brok~n-heartedness. A messenger was at once dispatched to her, conveying the news that I was alive and well. Her grief gave way to great joy, which rendered her unfit to talk of much elH' for days. Her neighbors, who had deeply sympathized with her before, came to rejoice with her now that she was happy. I sorrow to this day on account of the accident that caused her inexpressible, though needless, grief 'for three days and nights. The next day John H. Parks came in and brought the sad news that th~ guerrillas had ca:ptured six others beside himself, including Captain Somers. of the 108th Illinois ; and, after having them sit on a log, shot them all to death except himself, who alone rose, running, and escaped. Frank Pankey, one of our own company, and James Mitchell of company E, he said, were among the killed. The particulars of the killing will be told later on. 'the men who escaped death or capture continueJ to arrive for six or seven days, one or two at a time. They had to do most of their traveling by night, through thickets and byways, and without anything to eat; for· none could allow himself to be captured' if he could avoid it. Andersonville prison was too bad for any civilized :wldiers, unless it be such CO',vpsdly traitors as S. D. Sturgis, who was tile whole cause of all our misfortunes. If he could have been confined ther" and died in the pen, instead of the innocent men whose death he caused, justice would have been subserved. CHAPTER XI. ON the seventh day of .July we were shipped to La Grange, Tennessee, to drive away guerrillas in the rear of General Smith, who had gone to punish Forest and to keep epen communif .me I sa,Y in large letters the words: "Thou, God Eeest me," The solemnity of the scene was increased so much that I evacuated the place to return there no more to this day. \Vhethe~' in camp or 0::1 the march, hurrying to meet the foe or l'etreating toa bettK' p03:tion, whether OIl guard with all the company or draw.ing or issuingclothing or rations, the one desire of my heart was to know God in the pardo:l of my s;ns and to have eternal life. Smith's expedition returned, having gained a great victory over the men whom Sturgis had betrayed us to, including the recapturing of most of the 200 wagons and the ,batteries, the provisions and ammunition and prisoners being out of his reach, We grieve over the death of the wise old Colonel Wilkins. of the 9th Minnesota regiment...