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We got away at last and some time that_ night readied .Montgomery, where we received a telegraphic order to "come back to Mobile.? A force had come out from Memphis under General Grierson nnd was raiding all over Mississippi, burning and plundering. There were very few of our troops in Mississippi at that time, so we were to go after them. Back wc rushed. No straggling now; we were going toward fight, wc thought. A train was ready for us when we reached Mobile, and for ten days we rushed up and down the roads of Mississippi, ordered around by telegraph, and saw the Yankees but once. We reached Enterprise just as they were coming into the town, fired one round at them, and they skedaddled. General Grierson finally reached New Orleans.
That raid convinced the authorities at Richmond Ihni they needed more cavalry in that department; so orders were ?5*l?.c?Lt.? mount us. the 3d, 7th, and 8th Kentucky, all old soldiers. General Forrest had us sent to his command. General Buford gave up a fine brigade to come with us. Forrest gave him a division?Lyon?s Brigade, 4th Kentucky Regiment, and Bell's Brigade of Tennessee, with Captain Morton?s battery. He kept us with him all the time. We were the first to cross the Tennessee River in front of General Hood and the last to cross 011 the retreat.
In the battle of Harrisburg, Miss., the worst fight we were ever in, though our regiment and the 7th were in the charge that broke the ?Hornets' Nest? at Shiloh, I was knocked down by the concussion of a shell five hundred yards from the Yankee lines. 1 went 011 in the charge, but my hearing was ruined. We lost more men in our regiment there than Pickett did in any one regiment that was in his famous charge at Gettysburg. I was 011 the detail to bury the dead after the
hnkees started hack to Memphis. It was a very disagree-ble job. The poor fellows had been lying out in the hot sun for forty-eight hours. We had no stretchers and had to pack them all by hand to the trench, working in pairs. We picked ?up one big fellow and carriedMiin? to the trench, laid him down 011 the edge, and I hurried off, leaving my partner t<> do the rest. He threw a clod at me to attract my attention, and I went back. He pointed to the dead man?s breast, and there 011 the inside lining of his jacket, right over the heart, was a little Confederate flag. I then looked at the bod}? carefully and recognized my long-mustached friend who had been given the flag by General Buckner?s little girl at Mobile. We lowered him tenderly to an unknown and unmarked grave.
MISSOURI 1i'AR HISTORY.
Referring to a late inquiry in the Veteran for something on the "Warfare of the Border,? O. P. Ray, of Kevtesville, Mo., gives the following information of these books and their authors:
??So far as the inquiry applies to Missouri, there are two such books, one of which is ?Noted Guerrillas; or, The Warfare of the Border.? written by the late Maj. John N. Edwards, sometime editor of the Kansas City Times and one of the greatest writers the West has ever seen. He also wrote 'Shelby and His Men,? which is in commemoration of the famous Shelby Brigade.
?No library 011 Missouri history is complete without '.Shelby?s Expedition to Mexico,? an account of the Confederates who went there after the surrender of the Confederacy and which is one of the most interesting pieces of literature that 1 have ever read. It has been said of Major Edwards by one o: his contemporaries that he v.as a ?born poet.? This Lc work
was published by his wife after his death and contain> j biographical sketch and the best of his compositions ih.v. had been published in ncwspaj>ers, together with a reproduction of press notices of his death. He served with the rar... of major under General Shelby, and in the three producti..i.-you will not find where he referred to himself, unless it wu* in official orders. The first two were published shortly a tin the War between the States and the latter in the year of lu> death, 1889.
"There is another book, published by William E. Connclli > of Topeka, Kans., in 1909, 011 ?Quantrill and the Border Warfare.? Mr. Connelley is a good writer, and 1 think his cfiY.r:-have added materially to Missouri history. His account ha* been given from an anti-Quantrill viewpoint, while that ? i Major Edwards is from the pro-Quantrill side of the qucstim:. I suspect that the only line of difference between the twn accounts is on the question as to whether Quantrill had a ro.i! grievance for his stormy career, as outlined by Major F.4-wards, or whether he was merely selected as a leader h. those who did have grievances, those who had been rmi>e.! to desperation by the ruthless vandals who swept in hordi* into this State and destroyed every vestige of property tlir.i they could not carry away. It may be that, inflamed by tlic>r outrages, they found in Quantrill a leader who was williiu-to direct them, and under his guidance there were found tlu most desperate men that have yet been assembled upon tit:-continent.
?This county now contains two men, regarded as of o;:-very best citizenship, who served with Quantrill. one ? whom was with him on that eventful day in August. 1 So.; when they raided the town of Lawrence, Kans. 1 was !.?'.. by a survivor of this expedition, a man who spent tue:.:;. five years of his life in a Northern prison, that Quantrill writhe nerviest man he had ever seen in all his experiences wit:, men.??
HIGH COMMENDATION OP THE VETERAN
This highly appreciated letter comes from M. W. Cainj.i-:. of the Florence (Ala.) Times:
"Please let nte extend to you my congratulations and gratitude as an ex-Confedcrate soldier for the able maimer :: which you have sustained (he Confederate Veteran sir. the lamented death of its beloved founder. The Confedek Veteran occupies an absolutely necessary field in Souilu: literature. At present it is the only recognized bulwark aj.?a::.. the great volume of misrcpre?entation, not to say slander. \? which nearly all the so-called histories of the country arc ii:!' to running over.
?The late Hon. J. L. M. Curry, one of the ablest statejmr:-the South has ever produced, wrote that if history as n..-.i v.-ritten is allowed to stand, it would ?consign the South : infamy.' This pregnant statement has been called to my mi: : by an able article in the August Confederate Veteran uii.I. : the caption. ?National vs. Sectional Interpretation of Unite-! States History.' in which the writer justly exposes ti.r falsity of the story, so universally prevalent, that the W:.r between the States was fought solely in the interest of shv,:. The hundreds of so-called histories that burden the she!*-. ? of the libraries of the country have taken this superficial.\n-.i of the great war. almost completely ignoring the fundament.:' causes which had their genesis in sectional condiiions .ihn. -: rnexictent with the life of the country: and as a result iu: S. -'mTr. icacherr have absorbed that erroneous idea and ;>?