TO me and to those of my generation, Judge Priest was always Judge
Priest. So he was also to most of the people of our town and our county
and our judicial district. A few men of his own age--mainly men who had
served with him in the Big War--called him Billy, right to his face, and
yet a few others, men of greater age than these, spoke of him and to
him as William, giving to the name that benignant and most paternal
air which an octogenarian may employ in referring to one who is ten or
fifteen years his junior.
I was a fairly sizable young person before ever I found out that once
upon a time among his intimates the Judge had worn yet another title.
Information upon this subject was imparted to me one summery afternoon
by Sergeant Jimmy Bagby as we two perched in company upon the porch of
the old boat-store.
I don't know what mission brought Sergeant Bagby three blocks down
Franklin Street from his retail grocery establishment, unless it was
that sometimes the boat-store porch was cool while the rest of the town
baked. That is to say, it was cool by comparison. Little wanton breezes
that strayed across the river paid fluttering visits there before they
struck inland to perish miserably of heat prostration.
For the moment the Sergeant and I had the little wooden balcony to
ourselves, nearly everybody else within sight and hearing having gone
down the levee personally to enjoy the small excitement of seeing the
stem-wheel packet _Emily Foster_ land after successfully completing one
of her regular triweekly round trips to Clarksburg and way landings.
At the blast of the _Emily Foster's_ whistles as she rounded to and put
her nose upstream preparatory to sliding in alongside the wharf, divers
coloured persons of the leisure class had roused from where they napped
in the shady lee of freight piles and lined up on the outer gunwales of
the wharf-boat ready to catch and make fast the head-line when it should
be tossed across the intervening patch of water into their volunteer
hands.
Two town hacks and two town drays had coursed down the steep gravelled
incline, with the draymen standing erect upon the jouncing springless
beds of their drays as was their way. In the matter of maintaining a
balance over rough going and around abrupt turns, no chariot racers of
old could have taught them anything. Only Sergeant Bagby and I, of all
in the immediate vicinity, had remained where we were. The Sergeant was
not of what you could exactly call a restless nature, and I, for the
moment, must have been overcome by one of those fits of languor which
occasionally descend upon the adolescent manling. We two bided where we
sat.
With a tinkle of her engine bells, a calling out of orders and
objurgations in the professionally hoarse, professionally profane voice
of her head mate and a racking, asthmatic coughing and sighing and
pounding from her exhaust pipes, the _Emily Foster_ had found her berth;
and now her late passengers came streaming up the slant of the hill--a
lanky timberman or two, a commercial traveller--most patently a
commercial traveller--a dressy person who looked as though he might be
an advance agent for some amusement enterprise, and a family of movers,
burdened with babies and bundles and accompanied by the inevitable hound
dog. The commercial traveller and the suspected advance agent patronised
the hacks--fare twenty-five cents anywhere inside the corporate
limits--but the rest entered into the city afoot and sweating. At the
very tail of the procession appeared our circuit judge, he being
closely convoyed by his black house-boy, Jeff Poindexter, who packed
the master's bulging and ancient valise with one hand and bore a small
collection of law books under his other arm.
Looking much like a high-land terrapin beneath the shelter of his
venerable cotton umbrella, Judge Priest toiled up the hot slant.
Observed from above, only his legs were visible for the moment. We knew
him, though, by his legs--and also by Jeff and the umbrella. Alongside
the eastern wall of the boat-store, nearmost of all buildings to the
water-front, he halted in its welcome shadows to blow and to mop
his streaming face with a vast square of handkerchief, and, while so
engaged, glanced upward and beheld his friend, the Sergeant, beaming
down upon him across the whittled banister rail.
“Hello, Jimmy!” he called in his high whine.
“Hello, yourself!” answered the Sergeant. “Been somewheres or jest
traveling round?”
“Been somewheres,” vouchsafed the newly returned; “been up at
Livingstonport all week, settin' as special judge in place of Judge
Given. He's laid up in bed with a tech of summer complaint and I went up
to git his docket cleaned up fur him. He's better now, but still puny.”
“You got back ag'in in time to light right spang in the middle of a warm
spell,” said Sergeant Bagby.
“Well,” stated Judge Priest, “it ain't been exactly whut you'd call
chilly up the river, neither. The present thaw appears to be gineral
throughout this section of the country.” He waved a plump arm in
farewell and slowly departed from view beyond the side wail of the
boat-store.
“Looks like Judge Priest manages to take on a little more flesh every
year he lives,” said the Sergeant, who was himself no lightweight,
addressing the remark in my direction. “You wouldn't scursely think it
to see him waddlin' 'long, a to tin' all that meat on his bones; but
once't upon a time he was mighty near ez slim ez his own ramrod and was
commonly known ez little Fightin' Billy. You wouldn't, now, would you?”
The question I disregarded. It was the disclosure he had bared which
appealed to my imagination and fired my curiosity. I said: “Mr. Bagby, I
never knew anybody ever called Judge Priest that?”
“No, you natchelly wouldn't,” said the Sergeant--“not onless you'd mebbe
overheared some of us old fellers talkin' amongst ourselves sometimes,
with no outsiders present. It wouldn't hardly be proper, ever'thing
considered, to be referrin' in public to the presidin' judge of the
first judicial district of the State of Kintucky by sech a name ez that.
Besides which, he ain't little any more. And then, there's still another
reason.”
“How did they ever come to call him that in the first place?” I asked.
“Well, young man, it makes quite a tale,” said the Sergeant. With an
effort he hauled out his big silver watch, looked at its face, and then
wedged it back into a hidden recess under one of the overlapping creases
of his waistband.
“He acquired that there title at Shiloh, in the State of Tennessee, and
by his own request he parted from it some three years and four months
later on the banks of the Rio Grande River, in the Republic of Mexico,
I bein' present in pusson on both occasions. But ef you've got time to
listen I reckin I've got jest about the time to tell it to you.”
“Yes, sir--if you please.” With eagerness, I hitched my cane-bottomed
chair along the porch floor to be nearer him. And then as he seemed not
to have heard my assent, I undertook to prompt him. “Er--what were you
and Judge Priest doing down in Mexico, Mr. Bagby?”
“Tryin' to git out of the United States of America fur one thing.” A
little grin, almost a shamefaced grin, I thought, broke his round moist
face up into fat wrinkles. He puckered his eyes in thought, looking out
across the languid tawny river toward the green towhead in midstream
and the cottonwoods on the far bank, a mile and more away. “But I don't
marvel much that you never heared the full circumstances before. Our
bein' down in Mexico together that time is a fact we never advertised
'round for common consumption--neither one of us.”
He withdrew his squinted gaze from the hot vista of shores and water and
swung his body about to face me, thereafter punctuating his narrative
with a blunted forefinger.
“My command was King's Hell Hounds. There ought to be a book written
some of these days about whut all King's Hell Hounds done en-durin' of
the unpleasantness--it'd make mighty excitin' readin'. But Billy and
a right smart chance of the other boys frum this place, they served
throughout with Company B of the Old Regiment of mounted infantry. Most
of the time frum sixty-one to sixty-five I wasn't throwed with 'em,
but jest before the end came we were all consolidated--whut there
was remainin' of us--under General Nathan Bedford Forrest down in
Mississippi. Fur weeks and months before that, we knowed it was a
hopeless fight we were wagin', but somehow we jest kept on. I reckin
we'd sort of got into the fightin' habit. Fellers do, you know,
sometimes, when the circumstances are favourable, ez in this case.
“Well, here one mornin' in April, came the word frum Virginia that
Richmond had fallen, and right on top of that, that Marse Robert had
had to surrender. They said, too, that Sherman had Johnston penned off
somewheres down in the Carolinas, we didn't know exactly where, and that
Johnston would have to give up before many days passed. In fact, he
had already give up a week before we finally heared about it. So then
accordin' to our best information and belief, that made us the last body
of organised Confederates on the east bank of the Mississippi River.
That's a thing I was always mighty proud of. I'm proud of it yit.
“All through them last few weeks the army was dwindlin' away and
dwindlin' away. Every momin' at roll-call there'd be a few more
absentees. Don't git me _wrong_--I wouldn't call them boys deserters.
They'd stuck that long, doin' their duty like men, but they knowed good
and well--in fact we all knowed--'twas only a question of time till even
Forrest would have to quit before overpowerin' odds and we'd be called
on to lay down the arms we'd toted fur so long. Their families needed
'em, so they jest quit without sayin' anything about it to anybody and
went on back to their homes. This was specially true of some that lived
in that district.
“But with the boys frum up this way it was different. In a way of
speakin', we didn't have no homes to go back to. Our State had been in
Northern hands almost frum the beginnin' and some of us had prices
on our heads right that very minute on account of bein' branded ez
guerrillas. Which was a lie. But folks didn't always stop to sift out
the truth then. They were prone to shoot you first and go into the
merits of the case afterward. Anyway, betwixt us and home there was a
toler'ble thick hedge of Yankee soldiers--in fact several thick hedges.
You know they called one of our brigades the Orphan Brigade. And there
were good reasons fur callin' it so--more ways than one.
“I ain't never goin' to furgit the night of the fifth of May. Somehow
the tidin's got round amongst the boys that the next mornin' the
order to surrender was goin' to be issued. The Yankee cavalry general,
Wilson--and he was a good peart fighter, too--had us completely blocked
off to the North and the East, but the road to the Southwest was still
open ef anybody cared to foller it. So that night some of us held a
little kind of a meetin'--about sixty of us--mainly Kintuckians, but
with a sprinklin' frum other States, too.
“Ez I remember, there wasn't a contrary voice raised when 'twas
suggested we should try to make it acrost the big river and j'ine
in under Kirby Smith, who still had whut was left of the Army of the
Trans-Mississippi.
“Billy Priest made the principal speech. 'Boys,' he says, 'South
Carolina may a-started this here war, but Kintucky has undertook the
contract to close it out. Somewheres out yonder in Texas they tell me
there's yit a consid'ble stretch of unconquered Confederate territory.
Speakin' fur myself I don't believe I'm ever goin' to be able to live
comfortable an' reconciled under any other flag than the flag we've fit
to uphold. Let's us-all go see ef we can't find the place where our flag
still floats.'
“So we all said we'd go. Then the question ariz of namin' a leader.
There was one man that had been a captain and a couple more that had
been lieutenants, but, practically unanimously, we elected little Billy
Priest. Even ef he was only jest a private in the ranks we all knowed
it wasn't fur lack of chances to go higher. After Shiloh, he'd refused
a commission and ag'in after Hartsville. So, in lessen no time a-tall,
that was settled, too.
“Bright and early next day we started, takin' our guns and our hosses
with us. They were our hosses anyway; mainly we'd borrowed 'em off
Yankees, or anyways, off Yankee sympathisers on our last raid Northward
and so that made 'em our pussonal property, the way we figgered it out.
'Tennyrate we didn't stop to argue the matter with nobody whutsoever.
We jest packed up and we put out--and we had almighty little to pack up,
lemme tell you.
“Ez we rid off we sung a song that was be-ginnin' to be right
fashionable that spring purty near every place below Mason and Dixon's
line; and all over the camp the rest of the boys took it up and made
them old woodlands jest ring with it. It was a kind of a farewell to us.
The fust verse was likewise the chorus and it run something like this:
Oh, I'm a good old rebel, that's jest whut I am;
And fur this land of freedom I do not give a dam',
I'm glad I fit ag'in her, I only wish't we'd won,
And I don't ax your pardon fur anything I've done.
“And so on and so forth. There were several more verses all expressin'
much the same trend of thought, and all entirely in accordance with our
own feelin's fur the time bein'.
“Well, boy, I reckin there ain't no use wastin' time describin' the
early stages of that there pilgrimage. We went ridin' along livin' on
the land and doin' the best we could. We were young fellers, all of us,
and it was springtime in Dixie--you know whut that means--and in spite
of everything, some of the springtime got into our hearts, too, and
drove part of the bitterness out. The country was all scarified with
the tracks of war, but nature was doin' her level best to cover up the
traces of whut man had done. People along our route had mighty slim
pickin's fur themselves, but the sight of an old grey jacket was still
mighty dear to most of 'em and they divided whut little they had with us
and wish't they had more to give us. We didn't need much at that--a few
meals of vittles fur the men and a little fodder fur our hosses and we'd
be satisfied. We'd reduced slow starvation to an exact 'science long
before that. Every man in the outfit was hard ez nails and slim ez a
blue racer.
“Whut Northern forces there was East of the river we dodged. In fact we
didn't have occasion to pull our shootin'-irons but once't, and that
was after we'd cros't over into Louisiana. There wasn't any organised
military force to regulate things and in the back districts civil
government had mighty near vanished altogether. People had went back to
fust principles--wild, reckless fust principles they were, too. One day
an old woman warned us there was a gang of bushwhackers operatin' down
the road a piece in the direction we were headin'--a mixed crowd of
deserters frum both sides, she said, who'd jined in with some of the
local bad characters and were preyin' on the country, hariyin'
the defenceless, and terrorism' women and children and raisin' hob
ginerally. She advised us that we'd better give 'em a wide berth.
“But Billy Priest he throwed out scouts and located the gang, and jest
before sunrise next mornin' we dropped in on 'em, takin' 'em by surprise
in the camp they'd rigged up in a live-oak thicket in the midst of a
stretch of cypress slashes.
“And when the excitement died down ag'in, quite a number of them
bushwhackers had quit whackin' permanently and the rest of 'em were
tearin' off through the wet woods wonderin', between jumps, whut had hit
'em. Ez fur our command, we accumulated a considerable passel of plunder
and supplies and a number of purty fair hosses, and went on our way
rejoicin'. We hadn't lost a man, and only one man wounded.
“When we hit the Texas border, news was waitin' fur us. They told us ef
we aimed to ketch up with the last remainders of the army we'd have
to hurry, because Smith and Shelby, with whut was left of his Missoury
outfit, and Sterlin' Price and Hindman with some of his Arkansaw boys
and a right smart sprinklin' of Texans had already pulled up stakes
and were headed fur old Mexico, where the natives were in the enjoyable
midst of one of their regular revolutions.
“With the French crowd and part of the Mexicans to help him, the Emperor
Maximilian was tryin' to hang onto his onsteady and topplin' throne,
whilst the Republikins or Liberals, as they called themselves, were
tryin' with might and main to shove him off of it. Ef a feller jest
natchelly honed fur an opportunity to indulge a fancy fur active
hostilities, Mexico seemed to offer a very promisin' field of endeavour.
“It didn't take us long to make up our minds whut course we'd follow.
Billy Priest put the motion. 'Gentlemen,' he says, 'it would seem the
Southern Confederacy is bent and determined on gittin' clear out frum
under the shad-der of the Yankee government. It has been moved and
seconded that we foller after her no matter where she goes. All in
favour of that motion will respond by sayin' Aye--contrary-wise, No.
The Ayes seem to have it and the Ayes do have it and it is so ordered,
unanimously. By fours! Forward, march!'
“That happened in the town of Corsicana in the early summer-time of the
year. So we went along acrost the old Lone Star State, headin' mighty
nigh due West, passin' through Waco and Austin and San Antonio, and
bein' treated mighty kindly by the people wheresoever we passed. And
ez we went, one of the boys that had poetic leanin's, he made up a new
verse to our song. Let's see, son, ef I kin remember it now after all
these years.”
The Sergeant thought a bit and then lifting his voice in a quavery
cadence favoured me with the following gem:
I won't be reconstructed; I'm better now than them;
And fur a carpet-bagger I don't give a dam;
So I'm off fur the frontier, fast ez I kin go,
I'll purpare me a weepon and head fur Mexico.
“It was the middle of July and warm enough to satisfy the demands of the
most exactin' when we reached the Rio Grande, to find out Shelby's force
had done crossed over after buryin' their battle-flag in the middle of
the river, wrapped up in a rock to hold it down. On one side was cactus
and greasewood and a waste of sandy land, that was already back in the
Union or mighty soon would be. On the other side was more cactus and
more grease-wood and more sandy loam, but in a different country. So,
after spendin' a few pleasant hours at the town of Eagle Pass, we turn't
our backs to one country and cros't over to the other, alookin' fur the
Confederacy wherever she might be. I figgered it out I was tellin' the
United States of America good-by furever. I seem to remember that quite
a number of us kept peerin' back over our shoulders toward the Texas
shore. They tell me the feller that wrote 'Home Sweet Home' didn't have
any home to go to but he writ the song jest the same. Nobody didn't say
nothin', though, about weakenin' or turnin' back.
“Very soon after we hit Mexican soil we run into one of the armies--a
Liberal army, this one was, of about twelve hundred men, and its name
suited it to a T. The officers were liberal about givin' orders and
the men were equally liberal about makin' up their minds whether or not
they'd obey. Also, ez we very quickly discovered, the entire kit and
caboodle of 'em were very liberal with reguards to other folks' property
and other folks' lives. We'd acquired a few careless ideas of our
own concernin' the acquirin' of contraband plunder durin' the years
immediately precedin', but some of the things we seen almost ez soon ez
we'd been welcomed into the hospitable but smelly midst of that there
Liberal army, proved to us that alongside these fellers we were merely
whut you might call amatoors in the confiscatin' line.
“I wish't I had the words to describe the outfit so ez you could see it
the way I kin see it this minute. This purticular army was made up
of about twelve hundred head, includin' common soldiers. I never saw
generals runnin' so many to the acre before in my life. The Confederacy
hadn't been exactly destitute in that respect but--shuckins!--down here
you bumped into a brigadier every ten feet. There was a considerable
sprinklin' of colonels and majors and sech, too; and here and there
a lonesome private. Ef you seen a dark brown scarycrow wearin' fur a
uniform about enough rags to pad a crutch with, with a big sorry straw
hat on his head and his feet tied up in bull hides with his bare toes
peepin' coyly out, and ef he was totin' a flint lock rifle, the chances
were he'd be a common soldier. But ef in addition to the rest of his
regalia he had a pair of epaulettes sewed onto his shoulders you mout
safely assume you were in the presence of a general or something of that
nature. I ain't exaggeratin'--much. I'm only tryin' to make you git the
picture of it in your mind.
“Well, they received us very kindly and furnished us with rations, sech
ez they were--mostly peppers and beans and a kind of batter-cake that's
much in favour in them parts, made out of corn pounded up fine and mixed
with water and baked ag'inst a hot rock. Ef a man didn't keer fur the
peppers, he could fall back on the beans, thus insurin' him a change of
diet, and the corn batter-cakes were certainly right good-tastin'.
“Some few of our dark-complected friends kin make a stagger at speakin'
English, so frum one of 'em Billy inquires where is the Confederacy?
They explains that it has moved on further South but tells us that first
General Shelby sold 'em the artillery he'd fetched with him that fur to
keep it frum failin' into the Yankees' hands. Sure enough there're the
guns--four brass field-pieces. Two of 'em are twelve-pounders and the
other two are four-teen-pounders. The Mexicans are very proud of their
artillery and appear to set much store by it.
“Well, that evenin' their commandin' general comes over to where we've
made camp, accompanied by his coffee-coloured staff, and through an
interpreter he suggests the advisability of our j'inin' in with them,
he promisin' good pay and offerin' to make us all high-up officers. He
seems right anxious to have us enlist with his glorious forces right
away. In a little while it leaks out why he's so generous with his
promises and so wishful to see us enrolled beneath his noble banner.
He's expectin' a call inside of the next forty-eight hours frum the
Imperials that're reported to be movin' up frum the South, nearly two
thousand strong, with the intention of givin' him battle.
“Billy Priest, speakin' fur all of us, says he'll give him an answer
later. So the commandin' general conceals his disappointment the best he
kin and retires on back to his own headquarters, leavin' us to discuss
the proposition amongst ourselves. Some of the boys favour thro win'
in with the Liberals right away, bein' hongry fur a fight, I reckin,
or else sort of dazzled by the idea of becomin' colonels and majors
overnight. But Billy suggests that mebbe we'd better jest sort of hang
'round and observe the conduct and deportment of these here possible
feller warriors of our'n whilst they're under hostile fire. 'Speakin'
pusson-ally,' he says, 'I must admit I ain't greatly attracted to them
ez they present themselves to the purview of my gaze in their ca'mmer
hours. Before committin' ourselves, s'posen we stand by and take a few
notes on how they behave themselves in the presence of an enemy. Then,
there'll be abundant time to decide whether we want to stay a while with
these fellers or go long about our business of lookin' fur the Southern
Confederacy.'
“That sounded like good argument, so we let Billy have his way about it,
and we settled down to wait. We didn't have long to wait. The next day
about dinner-time, here come the Imperial army, advancin' in line of
battle. The Liberals moved out acrost the desert to meet 'em and we-all
mounted and taken up a position on a little rise close at hand, to
observe the pur-ceedin's.
“Havin' had consider'ble experience in sech affairs, I must say I don't
believe I ever witnessed such a dissa'pintin' battle ez that one turn't
out to be. The prevailin' notion on both sides seemed to be that the
opposin' forces should march bravely toward one another ontil they got
almost within long range and then fur both gangs to halt ez though by
simultaneous impulse, and fire at will, with nearly everybody shootin'
high and wide and furious. When this had continued till it become
mutually bore-some, one side would charge with loud cheers, ashootin'
ez it advanced, but prudently slowin' down and finally haltin' before it
got close enough to inflict much damage upon the foe or to suffer much
damage either. Havin' accomplished this, the advancin' forces would fall
back in good order and then it was time fur the other side to charge.
I must say this in justice to all concerned--there was a general
inclination to obey the rules ez laid down fur the prosecution of tie
kind of warfare they waged. Ez a usual thing, I s'pose it would be
customary fur the battle to continue ez described until the shades
of night descended and then each army would return to its own base,
claimin' the victory. But on this occasion something in the nature of a
surprise occurred that wasn't down on the books a-tall.
“Right down under the little rise where us fellers sat waitin', stood
them four guns that the Liberals bought off of Shelby. Ef brass cannons
have feelin's--and I don't know no reason why they shouldn't have--them
cannons must have felt like something was radically wrong. The crews
were loadin' and firin' and swabbin' and loadin' and firin' ag'in--all
jest ez busy ez beavers. But they plum overlooked one triflin' detail
which the military experts have always reguarded ez bein' more or less
essential to successful artillery operations. They forgot to aim in the
general direction at the enemy. They done a plentiful lot of cheerin',
them gun crews did, and they burnt up a heap of powder and they raised a
powerful racket and hullabaloo, but so fur ez visible results went they
mout jest ez well have been bombardin' the clear blue sky of heaven.
“Well, fur quite a spell we stayed up there on the brow of the hill,
watchin' that there engagement. Only you couldn't properly call it an
engagement--by rights it wasn't nothin' but a long distance flirtation.
Now several of our boys had served one time or another with the guns.
There was one little feller named Vince Hawley, out of Lyon's Battery,
that had been one of the crack gunners of the Western Army. He held in
ez long ez he could and then he sings out:
“'Boys, do you know whut's ailin' them pore mistreated little
field-pieces down yonder? Well, I'll tell you. They're Confederate guns,
born, bred, and baptised; and they're cravin' fur Confederate hands to
pet 'em. It mout be this'll be the last chance a Southern soldier
will ever git to fire a Southern gun. Who'll go 'long with me fur one
farewell sashay with our own cannons?'
“In another minute eight or ten of our command were pilin' off their
horses and tearin' down that little hill behind Vince Hawley and bustin'
in amongst the Mexies and laying violent but affectionate hands on
one of the twelve-pounders. Right off, the natives perceived whut our
fellers wanted to do and they fell back and gave 'em elbow-room. Honest,
son, it seemed like that field-piece recognised her own kind of folks,
even 'way off there on the aidge of a Mexican desert, and strove to
respond to their wishes. The boys throwed a charge into her and Hawley
sighted her and then--kerboom--off she went!
“Off the Imperial forces went, too. The charge landed right in amongst
their front ranks ez they were advancin'--it happened to be their turn
to charge--takin' 'em absolutely by surprise. There was a profound
scatteration and then spontaneous-like the enemy seemed to come to a
realisation of the fact that the other side had broke all the rules and
was actually tryin' to do 'em a real damage. With one accord they turned
tail and started in the general direction of the Isthmus of Panama.
Ef they kept up the rate of travel at which they started, they arrived
there inside of a week, too--or mebbe even sooner. I s'pose it depended
largely on whether their feet held out.
“Hawley and his gang run the gun forward to the crest of a little swale
ready to give the retreatin' forces another treatment in case they
should rally and re-form, but a second dose wasn't needed. Howsomever,
before the squad came back, they scouted acrost the field to see whut
execution their lone charge had done. Near to where the shell had busted
they gathered up six skeered soldiers--fellers that had dropped down,
skeered but unhurt, when the smash come and had been layin' there in a
hollow in the ground, fearin' the worst and hopin' fur the best. So
they brung 'em back in with 'em and turned 'em over to the Liberals ez
prisoners of war.
“The rest of us were canterin' down on the flat by now. We arrived in
time to observe that some of the victorious Liberals were engaged in
lashin' the prisoners' elbows together with ropes, behind their backs,
and that whut looked like a firin' squad was linin' up conveniently
clos't by. Billy Priest went and located a feller that could interpret
after a fashion and inquired whut was the idea. The interpreter feller
explained that the idea was to line them six prisoners up and shoot 'em
to death.
“'Boys,' says Billy, turnin' to us, 'I'm afeared we'll have to interfere
with the contemplated festivalities. Our friends are too gently-inclined
durin' the hostilities and too blame' bloodthirsty afterward to suit
me. Let us bid an adieu to 'em and purceed upon our way. But first,' he
says, 'let us break into the picture long enough to save those six poor
devils standin' over there in a row, all tied up like beef-critters fur
the butcher.'
“So we rid in betwixt the condemned and the firin' squad and by various
devices such ez drawin' our carbines and our six-shooters, we made plain
our purpose. At that a wave of disappointment run right through the
whole army. You could see it travellin' frum face to face under the dirt
that was on said faces. Even the prisoners seemed a trifle put-out and
downcasted. Later we found out why. But nobody offered to raise a hand
ag'inst us.
“'All right then,' says Billy Priest, 'so fur so good. And now I think
we'd better be resumin' our journey, takin' our captives with us. I've
got a presentiment,' he says, 'that they'd probably enjoy better health
travellin' along with us than they would stayin' on with these here
Liberals.'
“'How about them four field-pieces?' says one of the boys, speakin' up.
'There's plenty of hosses to haul 'em. Hadn't we better take them along
with us, too? They'll git awful lonesome bein' left in such scurvy
company--poor little things!'
“'No,' says Billy, 'I reckin that wouldn't be right. The prisoners are
our'n by right of capture, but the guns ain't. These fellers bought 'em
off Shelby's brigade and they're entitled to keep 'em. But before we
depart,' he says, 'it mout not be a bad idea to tinker with 'em a little
with a view to sort of puttin' 'em out of commission fur the time bein'.
Our late hosts mout take a notion to turn 'em on us, ez we are goin'
away frum 'em and there's a bare chance,' he says, 'that they might hit
some of us--by accident.'
“So we tinkered with the guns and then we moved out in hollow formation
with the six prisoners marchin' along in the middle and not a soul
undertakin' to halt us ez we went. On the whole them Liberals seemed
right pleased to get shet of us. But when we'd gone along fur a mile or
so, one of the Mexicans flopped down on his knees and begin to jabber.
And then the other five follered suit and jabbered with him. After
'while it dawned on us that they were beggin' us to kill 'em quick and
not torture 'em, they thinkin' we'd only saved 'em frum bein' shot in
order to do something much more painful to 'em at our leisure. So then
four or five of the boys dropped down off their mounts and untied 'em
and faced 'em about so the open country was in front of 'em and give
'em a friendly kick or two frum behind ez a notice to 'em to be on their
way. They lit out into the scrub and were gone the same ez ef they'd
been so many Molly Cottontails.
“Fur upward of a week then, we moved along, headin' mighty nigh due
South. Considerin' that the country was supposed to be in the midst of
civil war we saw powerful few evidences of it ez we rode through. Life
fur the humble Mexican appeared to be waggin' along about ez usual, but
was nothin' to brag about, at that. We seen him ploughin' amongst the
prevalent desolation with a forked piece of wood, one fork bein' hitched
to a yoke of oxen and the other fork bein' shod with a little strip of
rusty iron. We seen him languidly gatherin' his wheat, him goin' ahead
and pullin' it up out of the ground, roots and all and pilin' it in
puny heaps, and then the women cornin' along behind him and tyin' it
in little bunches with strings. Another place we seen him and his women
folks threshin' grain by beatin' it with sticks and dependin' on the
wind to help 'em winnow the wheat from the chaff jest ez it is written
'twas done in the Bible days. We seen him in his hours of ease, fightin'
his chicken-cock against some other feller's game-bird, and gamblin' and
scratchin' his flea-bites and the more we seen of him the less we seemed
to keer fur him. He mout of been all right in his way, but he wasn't our
kind of folks; I reckin that was it.
“And he repaid the compliment by not appearin' to keer very deeply fur
us strangers neither, but the women seemed to take to us, mightily.
They'd come out to us frum their little dried mud cabins bringin' us
beans and them flat batter-cakes of their'n and even sometimes milk and
butter. Also they gave us roughage fur our hosses and wouldn't take pay
fur none of it, indicatin' by signs that it was all a free gift. Whut
between the grazin' they got and the dried fodder the women gave us,
our hosses took on flesh and weren't sech ga'nted crowbaits ez they had
been.
“Seven days of traversin' that miser'ble land and then, son, we ran
smack into the Imperial scouts and found we'd arrived within less 'en a
day's march of the city of Monterey. Purty soon out come a detachment of
cavalry to meet us and inquire into our business and a most
Godforsaken lookin' bunch they were, but with 'em they had half a dozen
Confederates--Missoury boys, all of 'em exceptin' one, him bein' frum
Louisiana; and these here Missoury fellers told us some news. It seemed
that after Shelby and Price and Hindman got to Monterey their little
army had split in two, most of its members headin' off toward the City
of Mexico with no purticular object in view so fur ez anybody knowed
but jest filled with a restless cravin' to stay in the saddle and keep
movin', and the rest strikin' Westward toward the Pacific Coast.
“But about two hundred of 'em had stayed behind and enlisted at
Monterey, havin' been given a bounty of six hundred dollars apiece and
a promise of one hundred dollars a month in pay ef they'd fight fur
Maximilian. The delegation that had rode out to meet us now were part
and parcel of that two hundred. They seemed tickled to death to see us
and they bragged about the money they were gittin', but ef you watched
'em kind of clos't you could tell, mighty easy, they weren't exactly
overjoyed and carried away with enthusiasm over their present jobs. They
told us in confidence that the French officers in their army were fine
soldiers and done the best they could with the material they had, but
that the rank and file were small potatoes and few in the hill. In fact,
we gathered frum remarks let fall here and there that after servin' ez
a Confederate fur a period of years and fightin' ag'inst husky fellers
frum Indiana or Kansas or Michigan or somewheres up that way, bein' a
soldier of fortune with the Imperials and fightin' ag'inst the Liberals
was, comparatively speakin', a mighty tame pursuit--that you'd
probably live longer so doin', but you wouldn't have anywheres near
the excitement. On top of all that, though, they extended a cordial
invitation to us to go on back to Monterey with 'em and enlist under the
Maximilian government.
“Some of our outfit seemed to sort of lean toward the proposition and
some to sort of lean ag'inst it, without exactly statin' their reasons
why and wherefore. But amongst us all there wasn't a man but whut relied
mighty implicit on Billy Priest's judgment, and besides which, you've
got to remember, son, that discipline had come to be a sort of an
ingrained habit with us. We'd got used to lookin' to our leaders to show
us the way and give us our orders and then we'd try to obey 'em, spite
of hell and high water. That's the way it had been with us for four
long years and that's the way it still was with us. So under the
circumstances, with sentiment divided ez it was, we-all waited to see
how Billy Priest felt, because ez I jest told you, we imposed a heap of
confidence in his views on purty near any subject you mout mention. The
final say-so bein' put up to him, he studied a little and then he said
to the Missoury boys that hearin' frum them about the Confederacy havin'
split up into pieces had injected a new and a different aspect into
the case and in his belief it was a thing that needed thinkin' over and
mebbe sleepin' on. Accordin'ly, ef it was all the same to them, he'd
like to wait till next mornin' before comin' to a definite decision and
he believed that in this his associates would concur with him. That
was agreeable to the fellers that had brung us the invitation, or ef
it wasn't they let on like it was anyhow, and so we left the matter
standin' where it was without further argument on their part.
“They told us good-by and expressed the hope that they'd see us next day
in Monterey and then they rid on back to headquarters to report progress
on the part of the committee on new members and to ask further time, I
s'pose. Ez fur us, we went into camp right where we was.
“Most of us suspicioned that after we'd fed the hosses and et our supper
Billy would call a sort of caucus and git the sense of the meetin', but
he didn't take no steps in that direction and of course nobody else
felt qualified to do so. After a while the fires we'd lit to cook our
victuals on begin to die down low and the boys started to turn in. There
wasn't much talkin' or singin', or skylarkin' round, but a whole heap of
thinkin' was goin' on--you could feel it in the air. I was layin' there
on the ground under my old ragged blankets with my saddle fur a pillow
and the sky fur my bed canopy, but I didn't drop right off like I
usually done. I was busy ponderin' over in my mind quite a number of
things. I remember how gash'ly and on-earthly them old cactus plants
looked, loomin' up all 'round me there in the darkness and how strange
the stars looked, a-shinin' overhead. They didn't seem like the same
stars we'd been used to sleepin' under before we come on down here
into Mexico. Even the new moon had a different look, ez though it
was another moon frum the one that had furnished light fur us to go
possum-huntin' by when we were striplin' boys growin' up. This here one
was a lonesome, strange, furreign-lookin' moon, ef you git my meanin'?
Anyhow it seemed so to me.
“Somebody spoke my name right alongside of me, and I tum't over and
raised up my head and there was Billy Priest hunkered down. He had a
little scrap of dried greasewood in his hand and he was scratchin' with
it in the dirt in a kind of an absent-minded way.
“'You ain't asleep yet, Jimmy?' he says to me.
“'No,' I says, 'I've been layin'here, study-in'.'
“'That so?' he says. 'Whut about in particular?'
“'Oh nothin' in particular,' I says, 'jest studyin'.'
“He don't say anything more fur a minute; jest keepin' on makin'
little marks in the dirt with the end of his stick. Then he says to me:
“'Jimmy,' he says, 'I've been doin' right smart thinkin' myself.'
“'Have you?' I says.
“'Yes,' he says, 'I have. I've been thinkin' that whilst peppers make
quite spicy eatin' and beans are claimed to be very nourishin' articles
of food, still when taken to excess they're liable to pall on the
palate, sooner or later.'
“'They certainly are,' I says.
“'Let's see,' he says. 'This is the last week in July, ain't it? Back in
God's country, the first of the home-grown watermelons oughter be comin'
in about now, oughten they? And in about another week from now they'll
be pickin' those great big stripedy rattlesnake melons that grow in the
river bottoms down below town, won't they?'
“'Yes,' I says, 'they will, ef the season ain't been rainy and set 'em
back.'
“'Let us hope it ain't,' he says, and I could hear his stick scratchin'
in the grit of that desert land, makin' a scrabblin' itchy kind of
sound.
“'Jimmy Bagby,' he says, 'any man's liable to make a mistake sometimes,
but that don't necessarily stamp him ez a fool onlessen he sticks to it
too long after he's found out it is a mistake.'
“'Billy,' I says, 'I can't take issue with you there.'”
“'F'r instance now,' he says, 'you take a remark which I let fall some
weeks back touch-in' on flags. Well I've been thinkin' that remark over,
Jimmy, and I've about come to the conclusion that ef a man has to give
up the flag he fout under and can't have it no longer, he mout in time
come to be equally comfortable in the shadder of the flag he was born
under. He might even come to love 'em both, mighty sincerely--lovin' one
fur whut it meant to him once't and fur all the traditions and all the
memories it stands fur, and lovin' the other fur whut it may mean to him
now and whut it's liable to mean to his children and their children.'
“'But Billy,' I says, 'when all is said and done, we fit in defence of a
constitutional principle.'
“'You bet we did,' he says; 'but it's mostly all been said and it's
practically all been done. I figger it out this way, Jimmy. Reguardless
of the merits of a given case, ef a man fights fur whut he thinks is
right, so fur ez he pussonally is concerned, he fights fur whut is
right. I ain't expectin' it to happen yit awhile, but I'm willin' to bet
you something that in the days ahead both sides will come to feel jest
that way about it too.'
“'Do you think so, Billy?' I says.
“'Jimmy,' he say, 'I don't only think so--I jest natchelly knows so. I
feel it in my bones.'
“'Then I persume you must be correct,' I says.
“He waits a minute and then he says: 'Jimmy,' he says, 'I don't believe
I'd ever make a success ez one of these here passenger-pigeons. Now, a
passenger-pigeon ain't got no regular native land of his own. He loves
one country part of the time and another country part of the time,
dividin' his seasons betwixt 'em. Now with me I'm afraid it's different.'
“'Billy,' I says, 'I've about re'ch the conclusion that I wasn't cut out
to be a passenger-pigeon, neither.'
“He waits a minute, me holdin' back fur him to speak and wonderin' whut
his next subject is goin' to be. Bill Priest always was a master one to
ramble in his conversations. After a while he speaks, very pensive:
“'Jimmy,' he says, 'ef a man was to git up on a hoss, say to-morrow
momin' and ride along right stiddy he'd jest about git home by
hog-killin' time, wouldn't he?'
“'Jest about,' I says, 'ef nothin' serious happened to delay him on the
way.'
“'That's right,' he says, 'the spare ribs and the chitterlin's would
jest about be ripe when he arrove back.'
“I didn't make no answer to that--my mouth was waterin' so I couldn't
speak. Besides there didn't seem to be nothin' to say.
“'The fall revivals ought to be startin' up about then, too,' he says,
'old folks gittin' religion all over ag'in and the mourners' bench
overflowin', and off in the back pews and in the dark comers young folks
flirtin' with one another and holdin' hands under cover of the
hymn-books. But all the girls we left behind us have probably got new
beaux by now, don't you reckin?'
“'Yes, Billy,' I says, 'I reckin they have and I don't know ez I could
blame 'em much neither, whut with us streakin' 'way off down here like a
passel of idiots.'
“He gits up and throws away his stick.
“'Well, Jimmy,' he says, 'I'm powerful glad to find out we agree on so
many topics. Well, good night,' he says.
“'Good night,' I says, and then I rolled over and went right off to
sleep. But before I dropped off I ketched a peep of Billy Priest,
squattin' down alongside one of the other boys, and doubtless fixin' to
read that other feller's thoughts like a book the same ez he'd jest been
readin' mine.
“Well, son, the next mornin' at sun-up we were all up, too. We had our
breakfast, sech ez it was, and broke camp and mounted and started off
with Billy Priest ridin' at the head of the column and me stickin'
clos't beside him. I didn't know fur sure whut was on the mind of
anybody else in that there cavalcade of gentlemen rangers, but I was
mighty certain about whut I aimed to do. I aimed to stick with Billy
Priest; that's whut. Strange to say, nobody ast any questions about whut
we were goin' to do with reguards to them Imperalists waitin' there
fur us in Monterey. You never saw such a silent lot of troopers in your
life. There wasn't no singin' nor laughin' and mighty little talkin'.
But fur half an hour or so there was some good, stiddy lopin'.
“Presently one of the boys pulled out of line and spurred up alongside
of our chief.
“'S'cuse me, commander,' he says, 'but it begins to look to me like we
were back trackin' on our own trail.'
“Billy looks at him, grinnin' a little through his whiskers. We all had
whiskers on our faces, or the startin's of 'em.
“'Bless my soul, I believe you're right!' says Billy. 'Why, you've got
the makin's of a scout in you.'
“'But look here,' says the other feller, still sort of puzzled-like,
'that means we're headin' due North, don't it?'
“'It means I'm headin' North,' says Billy, and at that he quit grinnin'.
'But you, nor no one else in this troop don't have to fol-ler along
onlessen you're minded so to do. Every man here is a free agent and his
own boss. And ef anybody is dissatisfied with the route I'm takin' and
favours some other, I'd like fur him to come out now and say so. It
won't take me more'n thirty seconds to resign my leadership.'
“'Oh, that's all right,' says the other feller, 'I was merely astin' the
question, that's all. I ain't dissatisfied. I voted fur you ez commander
fur the entire campaign--not fur jest part of it. I was fur you when we
elected you, and I'm fur you yit.'
“And with that he wheeled and racked along back to his place. Purty soon
Billy looked over his shoulder along the column and an idea struck him.
Not fur behind him Tom Moss was joggin' along with his old battered
banjo swung acrost his back. Havin' toted that there banjo of his'n all
through the war he'd likewise brought it along with him into Mexico.
He had a mighty pleasin' voice, too, and the way he could sing and play
that song about him bein' a good old rebel and not carin' a dam' made
you feel that he didn't care a dam', neither. Billy beckoned to him and
Tom rid up alongside and Billy whispered something in his ear. Tom's
face all lit up then and he on-slung his banjo frum over his shoulder
and throwed one laig over his saddle-bow and hit the strings a couple of
licks and reared his head back and in another second he was singin' at
the top of his voice. But this time he wasn't singin' the song about
bein' a good old rebel. He was singin' the one that begins:
The sun shines bright on my Old Kintucky Home;
'Tis Summer, the darkies are gay,
The corn tops are ripe and the medders are in bloom,
And the birds make music all the day.'
“In another minute everybody else was singin', too--singin' and
gallopin'. Son, you never in your whole life seen so many hairy, ragged,
rusty fellers on hoss-back a-tear in' along through the dust of a
strange land, actin' like they were all in a powerful hurry to git
somewheres and skeered the gates would be shut before they arrived.
Boy, listen: the homesickness jest popped out through my pores like
perspiration.
“It taken us all of seven days to git frum the border acros't that long
stretch of waste to within a day's ride of the city of Monterey. It only
taken us four and a half to git back ag'in to the border, the natives
standin' by to watch us as we tore on past 'em. The sun was still
several hours high on the evenin' of the fifth day when we come in sight
of the Rio Grande River; and I don't ever seem to recall a stretch
of muddy yaller water that looked so grateful to my eyes ez that one
looked.
“We come canterin' down to the water's edge, all of us bein' plum' jaded
and mighty travel-worn. And there, right over yond' on the fur bank
we could see the peaky tops of some army tents standin' in rows and we
heared the notes of a bugle, soundin' mighty sweet and clear in that
still air. And it dawned on us that by a strange coincidence whut
wouldn't be liable to happen once't in a dozen years had happened in our
purticular case--that the United States Government, ez represented by a
detachment of its military forces, had moved down to the line at a point
almost opposite to the place where we aimed to cross back over.
“I ain't sure yit whut it was--it mout a-been the first sight of the
foeman he'd fit ag'inst so long that riled him or it mout a-been merely
a sort of sneakin' desire to make out like he purposed to hold off to
the very last and then be won over by sweet blandishments--but jest ez
we reached the river, a big feller hailin' frum down in Bland County rid
up in front of Billy Priest and he says he wants to ast him a question.
“'Fire away,' says Billy.
“'Bill Priest,' says the Bland County feller, 'I take it to be your
intention to go back into the once't free but now conquered state of
Texas?'
“'Well, pardner,' says Billy in that whiny way of his'n, 'you certainly
are a slow one when it comes to pickin' up current gossip ez it flits to
and fro about the neighbourhood. Why do you s'pose we've all been
ridin' hell-fur-leather in this direction endurin' of the past few days
onlessen it was with that identical notion in mind?'
“'Never mind that now,' says the other feller. 'Circumstances alter
cases. Don't you see that there camp over yonder is a camp of Yankee
soldiers?'
“'Ef my suspicions are correct that's jest whut it is,' says Billy very
politely. 'Whut of it?'
“'Well,' says the other feller, 'did it ever occur to you that ef we
cross here them Yankees will call on us to lay down the arms which we've
toted so long? Did it ever occur to you that mebbe they'd even expect us
to take their dam' oath of allegiance?'
“'Yes,' says Billy Priest, 'sence you bring up the subject, it had
occurred to me that they mout do jest that. And likewise it has also
occurred to me that when them formalities are concluded they mout extend
the hospitalities of the occasion by invitin' us to set down with them
to a meal of real human vittles. Why,' he says, 'I ain't tasted a cup of
genuwyne coffee in so long that----!'
“The other feller breaks in on him before Billy can git done with whut
he's sayin'.
“'And you,' he says, sort of sneerful and insinuatin', 'you, here only
some three or four months back was a ring-leader and a head-devil in
formin' this here expedition. You was goin' round makin' your brags
that you'd be the last one to surrender--you! And we've been callin' you
Fightin' Billy! Fightin' Billy? Hell's fire!'
“Billy rammed his heels in his hoss's flanks and shoved over, only
reinin' up when he was touchin' laigs with the Bland County feller. A
shiny little blue light come into his eyes and the veins in his neck all
swelled out.
“'My esteemed friend and feller-country-man,' says Billy, speakin'
plenty slow and plenty polite, 'ef any gentleman present is inclined to
make a pussonal matter of it, I'll undertake to endeavour to prove up
my right to that there title right here and now. But ef not, I wish to
state fur the benefit of all concerned that frum this minute I ain't
figgerin' on wearin' the nickname any longer. Frum where I set it looks
to me like this is a mighty fitten and appropriate time to go out of the
fightin' business and resume the placid and pleasant ways of peace. Frum
now on, to friends ez well ez to strangers, I'm goin' to be jest plain
William Pitman Priest, Esquire, attorney and counsellor-at-law. I ast
you all to kindly bear it in mind. And furthermore speakin' solely and
exclusively fur the said William Pitman Priest, I will state it is my
intention of gittin' acrost this here river in time to eat my supper on
the soil of my own country. Ef anybody here feels like goin' along with
me I'll be glad of his company. Ef not, I'll bid all you good comrades
an affectionate farewell and jest jog along over all by my lonesome
self.'
“But, of course, when he said that last he was jest funnin'--talkin' to
hear hisself talk. He knowed good and well we would all go with him. And
we did. And ez fur ez I know none of us ever had cause to regret takin'
the step.
“By hurryin', we did git back home before hog-killin' time. And then
after a spell, when we'd had our disabilities removed, some of us
like Billy Priest started runnin' fur office and bein' elected with
reasonable regularity and some of us, like me, went into business. We
lived through bayonet rule and reconstruction and carpet-baggery, and
we lived to see all them evils die out and a better feelin' and a better
understandin' come in. We've been livin' ever since, sech of us ez are
still survivin'. I've done consider'ble livin' myself. I've lived to see
North and South united. I've even lived to see my own daughter married
to the son of a Northern soldier, with the full consent of the families
on both sides. And so that's how it happens I've got a grandson that's
part Yankee and part Confederate in his breedin'. I reckin there
ain't nobody that's ez plum' foolish ez I am about that there little,
curly-headed sassy tike, without it's his grandfather on the other side,
old Major Ashcroft. We differ radically on politics, the Major bein' a
besotted and hopeless black Republikin; and try ez I will I ain't never
been able to cure him of a delusion of his'n that the Ninth Michigan
could a-helt its own ag'inst King's Hell Hounds ef ever they'd met up
on the field of battle; but in other respects he's a fairly intelligent
man; and he certainly does coincide with me that betwixt us we've got
the smartest four-year-old youngster fur a grandchild that ever was
born. There's hope fur a nation that kin produce sech children ez that
one, ef I do say it myself.”
He stood up and shook himself.
“In fact, son,” concluded Sergeant Bagby, “you mout safely say that,
takin' one thing with another, this country is turnin' out to be quite a
success.”