Started to Bloomfield with three men.—Fight at St. Francis
River.—Starts on alone.—Meets his wife and family.—They had
been ordered off from Bloomfield.—Capture and release of Mrs.
Hildebrand.—Fight in Stoddard county.—Arrival in Arkansas.
For the purpose of getting my family to Arkansas, it was necessary that
I should make a trip to Bloomfield, although that place was now held by
a large Federal force under McNeal.
I started with three good men, crossed the St. Francis river at a
shoal, but we had not proceeded more than ten miles when we ran into a
company of McNeal‘s men, who instantly fired upon us, slightly wounding
one of my men in the fleshy part of his arm.
We thought it best for four men to retreat from the fire of nearly
one hundred, which we did, in double-quick time. They pursued us very
closely, but were at too great a distance for them to shoot us.
Wishing to get a few shots at them, we concluded to cross the river and
give them a fight from the other side; so we plunged our horses in the
deep water at the nearest point, were swimming, and had nearly gained
the opposite shore, when the Federals ran onto the bank we had just
left and fired a volley at us with their muskets; but their shots were
all too high.
We reached the bank where the willows were very thick, jumped off our
horses and returned the fire. From our place of concealment we could
easily see that three of their number were killed. They kept up a
random fire at the willow thicket, in which they wounded three of our
horses and caused them to run up into the woods, terribly affrighted.
By this time they had ceased firing and had taken refuge behind trees,
and were watching for our movements; in this position they stood two
rounds from our rifles, in which four of them fell, having been shot
through the head. Before we could get another shot we discovered a
portion of the men making their way up the river, and I understood at
once that their intention was to engage our attention at that place,
while a part of the command would make their way around and take us in;
so we retreated in good order to a place of safety, and remained all
night.
The next morning we crossed the river in company with several others
and found that the Federals during the night after the fight had gone
to Bloomfield. They procured a wagon and team from an old man living
near for the purpose of hauling off their dead. The old man stated to
us that there were seven killed and two wounded.
I now decided to change my tactics, and try my luck alone and on foot.
I thought that by stealthy movements I could find my family and get
them off to Arkansas much better than with a small company of men.
In a few days I met my family about twenty miles south from Bloomfield
on their way to Arkansas, in an old wagon pulled by a small yoke of
oxen, which my wife was driving. I learned from her that some of Capt.
Bolin‘s men had removed her from Flat Woods to Bloomfield, in Stoddard
county, Missouri, but that McNeal, on taking possession of the town,
had ordered her to leave, adding that the wife and family of that
“desperado, Sam Hildebrand,” could not remain within one hundred miles
of his headquarters.
With the wagon and oxen furnished her by a friend to our cause, she
took the children and some provisions and started out upon the road,
and when I met them she was making her way as best she could, but was
just preparing to camp for the night in the lone woods. She cautioned
me very particularly about the Federals, and said that she had seen
two or three squads that day. On the following morning we resumed our
journey, and about ten o‘clock I met six Union soldiers, who came
suddenly upon me at a short turn in the road, but, being dressed in
Federal uniform, they did not suspicion me as being a Rebel. They asked
me to what command I belonged, and I answered them to Capt. Rice‘s,
stationed at that time in Fredericktown; at this they seemed satisfied,
and passed on, swearing vengeance against any Rebels that might fall in
their way.
As soon as they were out of sight, I told my wife to drive on, while I
traveled through the brush awhile. I had scarcely got out of the road
when I discovered a whole regiment of Federal soldiers, not more than
half a mile off, who were coming directly toward us. I soon gained an
eminence in the woods, from which I could observe their maneuvers. They
stopped at the wagon, and after parleying with my wife for several
minutes, they turned her team around and took my family along.
At this juncture it is needless to say that I became enraged, and
knowing an old rebel citizen about two miles off, I resolved at once
to go to him, thinking that perhaps I might hear from some of our
boys, for I was sure that if there were any in the neighborhood the
old man would know it. I was overjoyed when he told me that James Cato
and Wash Nabors were taking a nap in the barn, while he was standing
on the lookout. I repaired to the barn at once, told them the fate
of my family, and that I wanted their assistance that we might amuse
ourselves in bushwhacking them.
After getting something to eat, and some provisions to take along with
us, we started through the dense forest, and got in sight of them about
sundown. Before darkness set in we killed a man apiece, and then lurked
around the camp all night. About every two hours, Cato, Nabors and
myself would meet at a certain hill, designated before dark, and report
progress. I made a great many random shots, but I think that during the
night I killed as many as fifteen men. My comrades thought that they
both together killed as many more. I learned afterwards that the number
we killed during the night was just thirty; none were wounded that I
ever could hear of.
Morning began to approach, and we fell back to a high hill, until they
began to move toward Bloomfield. Throughout the day they kept their
skirmish lines so strong that we could do nothing; however, we got
several shots, at long range, at their scouts, but during the entire
day I was not certain of killing more than two men.
We kept in the woods, as near the troops as we could, until we had
followed them into the very suburbs of Bloomfield; then we started
back along the road about dark, intending to pick up stragglers. Judge
of my surprise and joy when, on going back, I came across my wife and
children sitting by the roadside, where the Federals had left them
about noon, but without the oxen and wagon, and without any provisions,
bedding or change of clothing.
The capture of my wife had proved rather fatal to them, and her
detention among them had produced nothing but disaster and death.
It reminded me of a passage of Scripture that I once heard my mother
read from the Book of Samuel, giving an account of the Philistines
having captured the ark of the covenant; they took it from one place
to another, but a plague was produced wherever it was detained, until
many thousands were dead. Finally, to get it out of their hands, they
hitched up a yoke of cattle to a cart, and without any driver started
it out of the country. The Federals, however, varied somewhat from the
Philistines, for, instead of giving her a cart and oxen, and loading
her down with presents of gold, they took her wagon and oxen and
everything else she had, and left her by the roadside in an unknown
wilderness.
On seeing me my family was greatly relieved in mind, yet they were in a
starving condition, and we had nothing to divide with them. Believing
that the “ark” might have been left there for the purpose of trapping
me, I took my position about two hundred yards from my family, and
remained while my two comrades were gone after something for them to
eat. After their return I made a fire for my wife in the woods, and
gave her directions in regard to the course she must travel in the
morning, in order to reach the house of our old friend. After bidding
them adieu, I was forced to leave them in their forlorn condition. We
hastened on to our old friend and requested him to meet my family as
early as possible, and convey them to his house. He did so; and in the
evening of the same day, having procured the use of a team, we started
on for Arkansas.
Col. McNeal sent out a party from Bloomfield, under Capt. Hicks, who
followed us to the St. Francis river, but we had got across, and they
did not venture very close to the bank, having learned a lesson from me
on my upward trip a short time before.
We arrived safely at Capt. Bolin‘s camp, and my family was soon safely
housed and supplied with the necessaries of life, in the charming
little community where a score of pleasant families resided.