1 | | i oe reer ema one gmaeineeeenme 218 North Caroiina Troops, 1861-65. travel in smaller parties, as we found it hard to get food for such a large crowd. Captain Joe Mills of Brindletown, Dr. R. R. Murphy and John Corn of Polk, with Bill Carson, a servant of Joe Mills, took the first left hand road we came to, the others keeping the right. After that we had no trouble in getting places to stay and food to eat. On Monday, the 17th, Tom McEntire and W. T. Wilkins caught up with us at G. W. Napiers, the old tobacco trader, who used to travel through this country before the war. After Tom came with his fiddle we had a fine time, but I don’t suppose the readers will be interested in our trip. We passed through Camp- bell, Bedford, Henry and Patrick Counties, Virginia, and Stokes, Surry, Yadkin, Wilkes, Caldwell, Burke and MeDow- ell, then home, where we arrived on 27 April. Just at the mile post on the Asheville road I met Colonel Wash Hardy driving an ambulance, with Mrs. General Polk and daughters, on their way to Asheville. Telling them that J had heard at Morganton that the Yankees had left Asheville and gone down into Tennessee, they drove on and in a few miles met the Federal General Palmer and 1,500 of his bummers. Learning who the ladies were, they allowed Colonel Hardy to go on with them, but made him promise to turn over the team and ambulance to a Quartermaster they had left at Asheville. HOME AT LAST. A few hours after reaching home, while sitting on the street talking to some friends, a party of about a dozen Yanks rode down the street carrying a white flag. Some of the boys who had not had enough of war stopped them and talked about capturing the party. The Lieutenant in command said they were going to carry a message to some troops below to stop taking property, as the war was over, and on the strength of that they were allowed to go. The officer in charge smiled very blandly as they rode off. They then pro- ceeded to eross the branch on the Shelby road, and true to habit established themselves as a picket post and caught every one who attempted to leave town by that road. One man from the country who had come in horseback, saw them pass, SIXTEENTH REGIMENT. 219 ran and jumped on his horse without waiting to put on the saddle, and went out of town at full speed, calling to some one as he passed to get his saddle. Every one laughed at him for being seared, but he was the only one who saved his horse. In a very few minutes after this there was at least fifteen hundred Yankees in town. A number of citizens who had hid out their horses and other valuables, thinking the coast was clear had brought them in, only to have everything that a Yankee could steal taken from them. While standing on the street looking on, a party of officers rode up to the front gate of one of our citizens, dismounted and entered the house, the family coming down to the gate. I thought I would walk up and speak to them. One who, four years later, became very near and dear to me, came running down the walk wring- ing her hands and erying, and without any welcome to me, said: “Do go and tell Settle, Hawes and the others to get away with their horses—please go.” Not knowing who they were, I asked who and where they were. “Oh, McCormack’s men—Wheeler’s Cavalry,” was the answer. I afterward learned they were a lot of Kentucky cavalry who had strag- gled off from the army, and thinking they had found a safe place had stopped here and were feeding their horses on the public corn and were being feasted and feted by the citizens, and soon as the Yankees came took refuge in Mrs. MeDowell’s attic and there remained until General Palmer left next day, taking the Blue Grass horses with them but leaving the men as not being of any value. I have tried in this long and rambling story to do nothing but justice to all, and to tell nothing but the truth, though I am fully conscious that I have not told the half, so I think I had better close without any apology to anyone; the only thing I am sorry for is that it has not been better told. G. H. Mirts. Rurnerrorpton, N. C., 9 April, 1901.