ent into camp in the pine woods late
in the afternoon, and after supper the colonel sent for me, and I went
to his tent. All the officers were there, and as many soldiers as dared
crowd around. The colonel said the corporal had reported where he left
me, and how the enemy had charged in force, and he supposed that I had
been promptly killed. That he felt that he could not hold his position
against such immense odds, so he had fallen back slowly, firing as he
did so, until the place was too hot for him, and now he wanted to hear
my story. I told the colonel that I was new at the business, and may
be I did not use the best judgment in the world, by remaining to fight
against such odds, but I meant well. I told him I did not wish to
complain of the corporal, who no doubt was an able fighter, but it did
seem to me that he ought at least to have waited till the battle had
actually commenced. I said that the first charge, which stampeded the
corporal and his men, was not a marker to what took place afterwards. I
said when the enemy first appeared, I dismounted, got behind a tree, and
poured a murderous fire into the ranks of the rebels, and that they fell
all around. I could not tell how many were killed, but probably ten,
as I fired eleven shots from, my carbine, and I usually calculated on
missing one out of ten, when shooting at a mark. Then they fell back and
I mounted my horse and rode to their right flank and poured it into them
red hot from my revolver, and that I saw several fall from their horses,
when they stampeded, and I drew my saber and charged them, and after
cutting down several, I was surrounded by the whole rebel army and
captured. They tied me to the wheel of a gun carriage, and after trying
to pump me as to the number of men I had fighting against them, they
left me to hold a council of war, when I untied myself, mounted my
horse, and cut my way out, and took to the woods. I apologized to the
colonel for running away from the enemy, but told him it seemed to me,
after the number I had killed, and the length of time I had held them at
bay, it was no more than right to save my own life, as I had use for it
in my business. During my recital of the lie I had made up, the officers
and soldiers stood around with mouths open, and when I had concluded my
story, there was silence for a moment, when the colonel stepped forward
and took me by the hand, and in a few well chosen remarks congratulated
me on my escape, and