USA > Iowa > Page County > History of Page County, Iowa : also biographical sketches of some prominent citizens of the county > Part 25
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two men rode on either side of me. The maimed bodies of the Union boys lay where they had fallen and here and there wandering listlessly among the slain you could observe some few civilians, while others stood idly at their doors or near the depot grounds, gazing, half amazed and wonderingly on the scene, as though they had not fully recovered from the shock of the revolting spectacle they had so recently witnessed.
The guerrillas proceeded in a northwesterly direction toward a temporary camp they had established, about two and a half miles from Centralia. When about a half mile from the latter place, the noise made by an ap- proaching train was heard and looking toward its direction, we beheld a freight train approaching Centralia from the south. Immediately twenty of thirty guerrillas detached themselves from the main column and dashed rapidly over the prairie, aiming it seemed, to intercept the train before it reached the station. We continued on to the camp. I was told by the guerrillas afterward that they captured the train and burned it on the track near Centralia.
We reached their camp. It was on the edge of the prairie where the brush and timber jutted up from the southwest and had simply been chosen as a temporary spot for stragglers, scouts and others to assemble during their operations on that day. Their horses were unsaddled and picketed. while the men threw themselves upon the ground, and in a little while the majority were soundly sleeping away the effects of their inebriation and exciting conquest. I tried to follow their example and courted sleep in the vain hope it would bring me some ease of mind and body. The very un- certainty that hung about my future I think brought with the thought far greater torture of spirit than even death inflicts. I could not obtain the coveted boon of even momentary forgetfulness in sleep, and I at last began wondering and speculating on the circumstances that could possibly have made the quiet, calm host who lay slumbering near, the incarnate fiends whose deeds of blood I had but lately witnessed. So wondering, I looked npon their chief. I observed him closely, for I felt a singular interest in the man whose simple word had snatched me from the jaws of death. My interest was increased by overhearing the following from the lips of two of the guerrillas, who lay partly shaded in the brush, a few steps beyond me: "I say, Bill, I wonder how in the h-1 Anderson has permitted that d-n Yankee to live so long?" "Dun no," was the reply ; "Can't say lest like 'twas a Providence ; for 'taint like old Bill, is 't?"
William T. Anderson, the leader of the most bloodthirsty and inhuman gang of wretches that ever infested Missouri, was a man of about five feet. ten inches in height, round and compact in form, slender in person, quick and litlie in action as a tiger-whose nature he at times possessed. His com- plexion naturally was soft and very fair but had taken a tinge of brown from his exposed manner of life. His face was in no sense attractive or win- ning, neither was it repulsive. It only left you wondering what manner of man it mirrored to your view. His eye, said to be the index to character. portrayed not his. It was unfathomable,-a strange mixture of blue and gray, the opposing colors sustained by opposing forces, in the war he waged.
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They were cold, unsympathizing and expressionless, never firing in anger or lighting with enthusiasm in battle. I have his word for it, they were never known to melt in pity, and I was the first man who wore the federal blue, who had fallen in his power, whose life he had ever spared. His hair was his greatest ornament and hung in thick, clustering masses about his head and neck ; in color, a rich dark brown. His style of dress and clothing were typical of his life and nature and seemed to blend something of taste, something of roughness, and much that was indicative of his inclinations and pursuits, in its ornament and the fabric of which it was composed. To be never called "unarmed" was his great pride and care, one would suppose, for, see him when and where you might, a brace or so of revolvers were stuck in his belt. Such was the personal appearance of this famous chieftain, and I really believe I have done him justice in the description. At least, I honestly aimed to do it.
Todd, Thrailkill, and others of their officers, sat near Anderson upon the ground in silence, only broken now and then by some direct question, ad- dressed to some one of their number from their chief. I could not hear their remarks, but once, observing Todd tracing a plan or route on a piece of pa- per and handing it to Anderson, I judged they were holding a council about their future operations.
From all I could learn from the conversation of those about me, many of whom had now arisen and were standing idly around chatting in groups, the bulk of Anderson's command consisted of deserters from Price's old Army of the Border, renegades from the Paw Paw militia-many of the latter showing guns they had been furnished by the general government when they were enrolled as such. Others of the command were men who, through some act of violence committed by them, had been compelled to flee their homes and dared not return. Suddenly the attention of all was aroused and centered upon the figure of a single horseman, approaching at full speed from a northwesterly direction across the prairie. "Bill, our scout," said one of my guards quietly, as he noticed I too, observed the commotion his advent was creating. The words had scarcely died upon his lips cre another horseman came bounding through the low brush on our right and galloped straight to where Anderson stood.
His intelligence, whatever it was, seemed of importance and in a moment the guerrillas scattered in search of their horses and were seen in all direc- tions mounting and forming into squads of ten or twenty. By this time the first horseman observed before the arrival of the one causing such an ex- citement, had reached the side of Anderson. The chief addressed only two questions to him, when a mounted man left his side at his order, and rapidly riding to where my guards and I were standing, said: "Have your prisoner saddle yon gray horse and mount him, quick, and mark me, if he attempts to escape in the battle. kill him instantly." In a few moments the horse designated was by my side and I was seated in the saddle. Strange, I did not think of or shudder at his threat of death to me! There was then, to be a battle! I only thought of this-of the battle. I wondered if God had sent his Avenging Angel thus soon upon the track of the murderers of my
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comrades ? I longed only to behold the line of federal blue dealing retribu- tion to the assassins. I dreaded not the conflict which, perhaps, would bring liberty to me. I learned subsequently that the scouts had brought intelligence of the approach of a federal force from Sturgeon, of about one hundred and sixty men, under the command of Major Johnson. The regiment to which he belonged I never learned. He had been at Centralia shortly after the guerrillas who destroyed the last train had left, and leaving twenty-five of his command at this place, was now approaching to give the guerrillas bat- tle.
After riding a circuitous route, occupying nearly an hour, the guerrillas seemed to have reached the spot where they purposed awaiting the onset of the federal troops. A halt of ten or fifteen minutes took place here and men were sent out by Anderson to observe the advance of the federals. They soon reported back. They were nearer than the guerrillas thought and had halted about a half mile beyond and just over the crest of a hill that com- pletely hid them from our view. Detaching Todd and some hundred and twenty-five men, he divided this force, sending Todd with half their num- ber by the left, around the south side of an old field, skirted by brush and scattered timber. The remaining half, led by Thrailkill, marched by the right. Anderson led the center and was to do all the fighting, the other force simply acting as a decoy to attract Johnson's attention and were only to join in the affray, in case Anderson did not succeed in routing the federal line.
As yet we had not obtained a view of the federal forces and our disposi- tions for attack completed, the guerrillas moved slowly forward to the summit of the hill. My guard and I rode immediately in the rear of Anderson's com- pany. Hope had gradually been growing brighter and brighter. I trusted more to the circumstance of fortunate accident releasing me in the heat of battle, than in any individual efforts of my own. I was fully resolved, how- ever, to embrace at any risk any propitious moment that might offer, promis- ing liberty to me. As we cleared the top of the hill and passed through a narrow belt of scattered timber, the federal line burst upon our sight. The cry "Charge!" broke shrill and clear from the lips of their leader and with one, long, wild shout, the guerrillas dashed forward, at the full run upon the little line of dismounted federals in the field. At the same moment both Todd and Thrailkill, their men yelling like so many fiends, appeared on either flank. I saw at a glance the battle was already won by the guerrillas and 1 was not astonished to witness one volley fired, and too hastily fired, by the fed- erals, proving the force of their resistance made. I saw the defeat of my friends was inevitable and yet, I must confess, the courage of that mere handful of boys in blue was worthy of emulation. There was no flinching from the onset of the guerrillas, but they did all they had time to do before the enemy were upon them. They were surrounded before thy could have possibly found time to reload their emptied pieces and the guerrillas were rid- ing around and in their ranks, firing and shouting, "Surrender ! Surrender !"
Yes, they surrendered. Surrendered as we did at Centralia, with as- surances of humane treatment. I felt the scene approaching would prove but
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a counterpart of what I had witnessed at the station and I shut my eyes to pre- vent the tears from welling forth, in token of my sympathizing fears, as I beheld the guerrillas proceed to disarm and render defenseless these "pris- oners of war." No sooner was this accomplished than hell was suddenly transferred to earth and all the fiends of darkness summoned to join the car- nival of blood. C'entralia, with all its horrors, was eclipsed here in the enor- mity and infamous conduct of the bloody demons ! No treatment too brutal, no treatment too cruel to satisfy the greed of that hellish crew, and were it possible for human souls to grow drunk on blood, I trust the idea may offer some palliation for the scenes enacted there, for the bloody, dastardly, cow- ardly, wanton acts committed upon the living and dead persons of those brave Union boys! Men's heads were severed from their lifeless bodies, ex- changed as to bodies, labeled with rough and obscene epitaphs and inscrip- tions, stuck upon their carbine points, tied to their saddle bows, or sat grin- ning at each other from the tops of fence stakes and stumps around the scene. God knows the sight was too horrible for description.
At the beginning of the battle, or before the guerrillas had made their appearance on the left flank, a detachment of twenty-five of Johnson's men, mounted, sat holding the horses of the balance of their comrades, who formed the line of battle. No sooner had the yells of the flanking party of guerrillas revealed their proximity than this squad sought safety in flight. It was the work of a moment only for the guerrillas to enter in hot pursuit, from five to ten men chasing one federal soldier, and away over the prairie as far as eye could reach, this race for life continued. Such shouting, firing, running and cursing, I suppose was never witnessed before in a battle, and it is said that the race extended, in two cases, to the very limits of the town of Sturgeon. I was told by the guerrillas they did not think more than two of the twenty-five escaped their murderous weapons and that about one hundred and twenty-five men were slain, belonging to Johnson's command, on that memorable occasion. Fairly crazed with their success and the ex- citement of the battle and slaughter, the guerrillas started in a body for Centralia to finish, as they said, their glorious victory in the massacre of the escort left by Johnson at that station, with the few wagons belonging to his command. Fortunately some of the soldiers observed them coming and succeeded in mounting and getting away. Some few, however, were capt- ured and killed. One man having shut himself up in an outhouse and being also well armed, the guerillas used their usual duplicity in order to get him out. He was assured by everything sacred that he would not be harmed. He was told Major Johnson and his comrades were all prisoners and that if he came out and gave himself up he should be treated as they had been. In the whole parley they only uttered one truth, which the poor fellow found to his cost, for, accepting what they said in good faith, he opened the door, and was shot dead on the spot! They "treated him as they had his comrades." They did not promise falsely in this. They murdered him!
In a little while it was evident many of the guerrillas were again becom- ing brutally intoxicated and in one or two instances difficulties occurred be- tween them and some of the citizens of Centralia, which came near proving
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fatal to the latter. In one instance a man's wife was defending her hus- band from the accusations of complicity with Johnson, made by a guerrilla, when some one offered her some personal indignity. She instantly resented it with a blow, when the inhuman wretches felled her to the ground like a beast of slaughter and otherwise maltreated her person. At last the order was given to return and the drunken cavalcade made night hideous as they straggled, without order of discipline back to their camp.
Repeatedly my life was placed in jeopardy by the careless handling of their arms and I sometimes supposed the act was not as careless as I im- agined, as, on several occasions it required the utmost care on the part of my guard to preserve my life, sometimes doing so only by knocking up the barrel of a revolver or carbine, as it was discharged full at my person. The camp was reached at last and three hours given for the rest allotted to man and beast ere, as their chief announced, we would be called upon to march. The night was cool. I had neither coat nor blanket and I could not sleep. I lay and watched the silent stars, and watching, and thinking of all that had passed that bloody day, I wept.
From the field of slumber, where lay calmly sleeping in all imaginable postures, the fierce, grim men who composed the guerrilla band, there arose on the still air of the night the given signal to mount and march and in a moment after the camp was all life and bustle in the hurry of preparations for our departure. My guard told me they designed moving in the direction of the Missouri river but that they would have to move slowly and cautiously and by night only, for, says he. "The land will be swarming with blue coats by tomorrow eve. Our late fight will only waken up a hornet's nest about our ears." I thought so, too, but discreetly remained silent. Their march was conducted in a manner peculiar to their discipline, yet with much more order and military empressment than I had anticipated. It was very dark, and being a stranger to the country, I was not certain as to the course we were moving and accepted the guard's statement, that it was in a westerly course. I was anxious to retain the points of the compass, as I yet had hopes of escape and I felt the importance of preserving my exact location at the time of escape in my memory. Hardly a word broke the stillness and the steady tramp. tramp of the horses, with now and then the jingle of a sabre or spur, were all the sounds to be heard. Our march continued in this man- ner for perhaps an hour, when the sudden stoppage of the rank in advance and the rapid closing up of the column indicated something suspicious or something wrong ahead.
"Halt !" was the command from their leader, and "halt" it became. The column, scarcely discernible over twenty paces of its length in advance, re- mained standing motionless and silent as a statue in the road. Now the dis- tant hoof tread of horses could be heard and the next moment a blue rocket shot far up in the sky and cast a lurid halo momentarily over the scene. Im- mediately the command was heard from Anderson's own lips, "Signal men, advance!" and three horsemen, leaving the column at so many different points, rode forward to its head. Again a blue rocket ascended from the spot marked by us as the line of the opposing party. Were they enemies or
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friends? No one yet knew. Suddenly two large, brilliant balls of flame, one white, one red, shot far up in the air from the head of our column. Hardly had the flash burst over us ere the signal was answered. Away in the distance on our right it rose and came borne upon the still, quiet air with a weird, solemn effect. It was simply a perfect counterfeit of the wild, ominous cry of a species of owl infesting the wood and timbered bluffs along the Missouri valley. It is strangely unearthly and suggestive of everything dreadful and supernatural to the listening ear of one who hears it for the first time and is a total stranger to its origin. The signal thus answered seemed satisfactory and in a few minutes a squad of mounted men was heard advancing rapidly by a road on our right, which intersected our route a few rods in advance of our column. After a brief conference with Anderson, this squad passed to our rear by our right flank. As they were passing near where I sat, one of the guerrillas shouted to them, inquiring who they were and where they were going.
They replied: "We have got a prisoner, one of Johnson's men. We had to chase him a long way and only settled him after putting six balls into his body."
"Ain't he dead yet ?"
"Nary dead. The devil can't kill him; an' seein' as how he's good stuff, we shall care for him. We were ordered to carry him to a house below, so you see we will save him yet."
Further conversation was interrupted by the advance of the column and I parted from them, honestly believing they were taking him back to the scene of the slaughter of his brave comrades to finish their hellish work and add torture to his death, in the sight that would surround him. I learned later that the prisoner referred to above was saved and recovered from his wounds and became a resident of Jackson county, Missouri.
The march was continued and gradually divested of the monotonous silence that had marked its beginning. The men about me began to con- verse, the topic being scenes through which personal members of the band had passed during the past fortnight. The operations of the day before were discussed in full and I learned from their remarks that it had been rather an "extra occasion," both in point of "plunder and success." I am sorry to be compelled to add here that I also heard relations of other occa- sions, equally as bloody and inhuman in point of deed and act as any that were witnessed at Centralia. I tried in repeated conversations and by lead- ing questions to ascertain if they operated as a command, independent of orders from higher authority, or if they were enrolled in the service of the Confederate states. They were very chary of their replies, and, as if suspect- ing my motive, I never found the story of any two of them to agree on this point. Some admitted their officers to be in the pay of the Confederate states, and holding their commissions under the seal of the war office at Richmond, while others denied this statement and asserted that not one of their number was responsible to, or in any way beholden to the authorities at Richmond. So far as men were concerned I am inclined to regard the latter statement as correct and that their "pay" consisted in the "stealings
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and plunder" obtained upon their forays. I think, however, their officers held commissions under the Confederate states, were paid by them, and conse- quently were individually responsible for the acts and duties of all men operating under their command, whether paid by the Confederate states or not.
The men came and went from the command at pleasure, on the march, and at all times, except when they were marching to or from an expected battle or the scene of active operations in the field. I was told at these times it was "death" to the man who absented himself, without permission of his chief. For a long time I was at a loss to determine how Anderson succeeded in governing so well such a collection of wild, turbulent spirits, as during the entire period I remained with them I never witnessed nor heard of one single act of cruelty upon the part of the leader toward his men. On one occasion, to be narrated hereafter, [ beheld a very wanton and foolish act committed by him toward his command, while he was excited by drink and with this one exception his intercourse with his men always appeared cordial and pleasant.
The march continued all night long and as day began to light up the east- ern sky, the halt was called. We were in a low piece of ground to the rear of a farm, near some stacks of oats and hay, and as a matter of course as nearly surrounded by brush as possible, for they nearly always confined their halts and temporary camps to such spots as these. We rested here for a few hours and the horses were fed from the stacks. The men obtained nothing save what little some few individuals had saved over from yester- day's supply. I got nothing to eat then, nor during that day. We marched a part of the day by the by-roads and through the brush, and about noon halted in the brush to await the friendly cover of darkness. At night we again mounted and pushed from the brush for more open country. We traveled pretty lively but in almost total silence, as a scout who had reached us in the afternoon imparted the intelligence that he learned federal troops had been seen the day before, moving east from Rocheport and they were perhaps in search of Anderson,
We returned to the broken and brushy land during the march and about midnight halted, with orders to rest until daylight. Springing from their jaded horses, which were soon fed from an old cornfield but a little way off and picketed out to graze, with their saddles for their pillows, these hardy wretches soon lay in picturesque postures and abandoned ease, courting the embrace of Morpheus. The night was very chilly, or else the absence of a coat or blanket gave that feeling to me. I had not tasted a mouthful of food since leaving St. Louis. I was not to say really hungry but I was weak as the result of the excitement I had lately undergone. I slept but little. My brain was occupied with thoughts of escape. I closely studied the faces of the men who lay around me, judging with whom to deal in. case I needed assistance in the attempt. I believed in the maxim of "every man filling a measure," and I thought gold was the measure most likely to fit the greed of those about me. Oh! that I had the boasted secrets of alchemy in order to turn whatever I desired into gold. At last the morning came and with
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the first dawn of light I was roused by my guard and conducted to where Anderson's horse was feeding. I was then directed to curry and saddle him.
I think I must have pleased Anderson with my job, for as he passed near me an hour or two later, he reined up his horse and said:
"Well, my old fellow, how do you get along?" I replied, "Very well, sir.".
"Well," said he, looking directly into my eye, "You, my man, are the first being whose life I ever spared, who was caught in federal blue!"
"That's so, Colonel," shouted twenty or more of the guerrillas as Ander- son rode forward.
Presently a tall, fine looking man overtook the rear of the column as it moved out of the brush and drawing up his horse he rode leisurely along beside my guard. I felt sure I had never observed him before among them, as he was dressed in the confederate gray and bore some insignia of rank upon his coat. I was wondering who he could be, when, observing me. he addressed my guard ;
"Who is this man?" Saluting, they replied simultaneously, "A prisoner" -one of them adding, "Taken, sir, at Centralia."
"I thought you took no prisoners, my man?"
"This one, Colonel, by orders, you see."
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