The Boy of Battle Ford and the Man

CHAPTER XIV

100 THE BOY OF BATTLE FORD burned their houses and taken their money and prollerty, as well as to wage relentless war against the Union forces. The court closed its sittings, but not one word could be heard of "Dick's" sentence. It was believed that he would be hanged, yet no one knew when, if at all. All waited with anxi- 'lty to know if indeed such a traitor would come to receive the reward of his own sins. CHAPTER XIV. THE twenty-third day of December, 1864, came, with its northwest clouds and its Arctic winds, more piercing than was cO,mmon for that clime, and with them came the welcome news that Dick Davis was to be hanged in Fort Pickering that very afternoon. The reason the authorities had for keeping, the sentence and its execution to themselves doubtless was to preclude the remote probability of an attempt to liberate him. For even Dick Davis was not without pals, called friends. ,And no one knows the other man's heart. The city always had Southern sympathizers and even rebel soldiers dre~sed a" citizens inside its lines, "Vho might devise a scheme, unthought of before, to liberate Davis. Desperate men conceive desperate enterprises. Again, men sometimes enli &ted in the Union army for the evident purpose' of accomplishing some treacherous scheme, and many of them might be ready for such an hour and no earthly brain could detect their plan, if wisely laid. Cautioni & the better part of valor. But the six hour& intervenihg between 8 a. m. and 2 p. m. afforded little opportunity for scheming in his behalf. Captain William Roark, our commander, had the news early and hastened to camp, and selected Sergeant Jeff Slaten and myself to accompany him to the execution if by any means we could gaIn admittance. The fort was located on what was, befor~ the war; a farm,- adjoining the city on the south, and had been extended in to the city as the war progressed. Many dwellings and other structures were torn away to make room for it. The inclosure extended more than one mile southward down the river, and it was from 200 to GOO yards wide. Walls of earthwork, called breastworks, were erect- . ed, four to six feet high 0;0 the east, north and south, with portholes at intervals of 150 yards ,for the cannon to operate through, and openings of larger dimensions for the wagons ,and men to pass through at greater distances apart. The west side' was bounded by the Mississippi , whose banks were nearly perpendicular and more than fifty feet high, as I now remember them. Two years previous to that day we had camped on those banks for two months" as we were gtadually descend'ihg 'the river to Vicksburg. There we were initiated into some new and unpleasant phases of service that pertains to camp life in times of war. We found that the tents we were to occupy had been vacated by only one class of their tenants. The 13th Regulars had been sent away, but the parasites that seemed to be almost or quite as plentiful as house-fiies' in sum-, mer, were there for bllsiness. We had met in our boyhood days, flies, gnats, mosquitoes , bees, yellow jackets and hornets, besides other headfellows ..and bedfellOWS, and leeches and lizards; but these Canaanitish flesh-feeders and blood-suckers came nearer causing a stampede from our duties than all the other vermin together, and the tick and chinch tribes thrown in, Each individual seemed to have many feet and teeth in each foot. The alternatives were ,to die, to run them off, or clean them out. A war of extermination was waged and kept uP. from day to 'day-scratching, THE BOY OF BATTLE FORD 101 scalding; scraping and burning tiI! we were vidorious, and we could sleep in peace. We carried water up those high banks, and, as I went into thtl army to return again if possible, I was particular to bathe often. Though it was almost beyond my power to endure, I waded into the river the,e and bathed my body and neck and head and shoulders, while the wind was blowing down the river on my skin, from day to day; and I did not forget those events when we were to enter the fort again. Here we were accustomed to be called out as we were sleeping soundly, to rush to the breastworks to meet Vandorn, Price...