S amuel SPARLING was a
member of Co. G. 4th Ohio Cavalry. He went early into the war
with Capt. Edwin ROGERS. We haven't found many of the boys of
this gallant regiment, and was consequently delighted when we
found that it was in that organization that our old friend,
Sam Sparling, did his fighting for the Union.
"Well," said he, when we asked him for a Narrow Escape, "the
one first that comes into my mind occurred down near
Huntsville, Alabama during the campaign of ROSECRANS, in 1863,
I believe. Both incidents were of the bushwhacking kind. I was
on courier duty, a service that was especially hazardous, and
which had to do with bushwhackers. Many of the couriers were
killed on their little missions, carrying orders from our part
of the army to the other.
I remember one time a force of 300 of us started from
Huntsville to Bridgeport on the cars. This was not exactly a
courier service, but our detachment happened to be with the
300, when we ran into a rebel force of about the same number.
The cars were just entering a big cut when the volley from the
rebs struck us sorely. It was a very hot place for five
minutes. Thirteen of our boys fell, but the rebs soon
scampered.
I speak of this because it was in the same cut where happened
the event which I started out to tell. After being at
Bridgeport and on down to the front for sixty days, my
detachment of couriers were ordered back to Huntsville on some
special duty. I was Sergeant in command of twenty men. We were
given a locomotive and two cars, one for our horses and one
for ourselves. The distance was twenty seven miles, and the
rebs had been bad of late, along that route. An officer said
to me : 'Watch closely-you will have trouble going back to
Huntsville. Keep your eyes on that gap.' Well, we started. The
horses were in the car next to the locomotive, and we were in
the last car-21 of us. Both cars were closed. It was about ten
miles to the gap, and as we approached we saw no signs of any
rebs and really thought the coast was all clear, but just as
we struck the entrance to the gap, a party of rebs, at least
200 of them, banged at the train. They |
seemed to rise out of the ground, but they were there, and
there to kill. They fired at the engine and the second car,
thinking to kill the engineer and as many of us, whom they
supposed to be in the second car, as possible. The engineer,
by scrooching flat saved himself but the conductor was filled
with bullets, and never knew what hurt him. I heard the boys
say that 57 balls went into his back. Nine horses were killed
in the second car.
As soon as I saw we were attacked, I jumped to the door of the
car, where the bullets played around me in the most spirited
manner. One ball struck the board just over my head, and about
three inches from me. Another ball hit the side of the door
where I stood, while another grazed my left hand right there,
you see, and, altogether, I felt the escape was pretty narrow.
The engineer gave the throttle a big pull and we flew through
that gap like young lightning. And yet, I sometimes think that
if he had stopped and let us have got a whack at them fellows,
we could have whipped them, for we had Spencer carbines and
two revolvers apiece; but I was glad to get out of there as it
was.
In the first ambush that I referred to , when the 300 were
attacked , I forgot to relate that Mathew l. MOORE and Elizur
C. NEWTON, both from this county, met with narrow escapes, for
they were both on top of the car. Elizur didn't exactly
escape, for a ball just grazed the top of his head; and I have
always believed that right there and then began the trouble
which resulted in Elizur's mind being badly deranged. When he
came from the roof of the car, his face was as white as a
sheet, and he complained that the top of his head burned
painfully.
Some of these times I might think up a better narrow escape,
but I am in a hurry now. Good bye."
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