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Anxious to know what had caused another interruption in the advance, he hurried forward, to meet a most unexpected sight. Drawn up in front of the team in the narrow path was a squad of Chilian soldiers, or bushwhackers, more properly speaking, for he knew they did not belong to the regular army.
He had an idea that would commend itself to Belcha's bushwhackers, but it was not entertained.
Sheridan he played hell with his cavalry raids, an' whut the blue-bellies left ther durned guerillas an' bushwhackers wiped up es clean es a slate. Durn if a crow wudn't starve ter deth in ther valley now. Why, Cap, them thar deserters an' sich truck is organized now till they're mighty nigh an army, an' they don't skeer fer nuthin' les' ner a reg'ment.
The people of the South were by law helpless to take steps towards setting up any kind of government in a land infested by a vicious element Federal and Confederate deserters, bushwhackers, outlaws of every description, and Negroes, some of whom proved insolent and violent in their newly found freedom. Nowhere was property or person safe, and for a time many feared a Negro insurrection.
Upon learning the facts, the old man extended his hand to me, saying: "I would not harm a hair of your head for the world; but it is best that you stay here no longer, as your command is some distance from here now, and you might be cut off by bushwhackers before reaching it."
Here were 4000 barrels of pork, that had been collected from the country and a good many barrels of whiskey, for which there was no transportation and they were burned. Bushwhackers lined the route to Cumberland Gap and it was not safe to get away from the main road.
Then from the right side of the road a party, who must have been lying round the camp-fire that we faintly saw in among the pines, let fly at us. They had surely been surprised in their sleep. I clearly saw them as their guns flashed. "Forward! Don't shoot! Ride on," shouted Miller. "Bushwhackers! Thank God, not mounted! Any of you make out horses with them?" "No, sir! No, sir!"
It seems almost like a dream, and I can hardly believe" and here she stopped with a little shiver as she thought of the scene she had passed through with the band of bushwhackers. "I would not think anything at all about it," Vincent said. "And now I should recommend your getting to sleep as soon as you can. We will be off at daybreak and it is just twelve o'clock now."
Part of the squad were looking apprehensively toward hiim, as if they feared a volley from bushwhackers concealed near him, and others were taking from the bodies of the dead the weapons, belts, and other articles which it was not best to leave for the pursuers, and still others were pointing to the rapidly growing distance between them and main body, apparently adjuring haste in following.
Throughout that struggle the mountain region was a nest for bushwhackers and bandits that preyed upon the aged and defenseless who were left at home, and thus there was left an evil legacy of neighborhood wrongs and private grudges. Most of the mountain counties had incurred the bitter hostility of their own States by standing loyal to the Union.
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