I put the money in my pocket
my heart beating with joy. I showed the money to brother Bill, and
he said, Joe, they ought to give you some of it!. I stepped up and
said, “Pap, I believe I will pay you what I owe you, and I pulled a handful
of gold out of my pocket and poured it in his hand. Now this was
so sudden and unexpected that my father didnt speak for several seconds
when he said, “Where did you find it?” And I told him and we went
to the place and he said it was the place he had put it and he had lost
the place himself. Now some time in July 1863 there was a good
many Company in Benton Co. Ark. The officer that was in command called
the men together for them to go to the army then stationed at
Honey Spgs. Indian Territory.
We go to the army a few days before the Honey Spgs. battle the 17th.
Our army didnt try to hold the ground any longer than to get our baggage
on the road when all the army retreated. There was several of our
boys wounded with our third Lt. Dr. Ballinger was killed. The army
retreated all that day and all that night following. My brother Wm.
was in a one horse rig and had a wounded man in with him. My brother
was a Capt. of a company. As the evening had about worn away and
darkness had began to hover over us, my brother remarked to me and said,
“Jo, I want you to ride behind me tonight. If you dont, some of them
rascals will kill me. I was thinking this myself and I intended to
ride there if my brother hadnt said a word. Some time along in the
night we came to a man stopped at the side of the road on a gray horse
and he dropped in by my side on my right, and my brother asked him it who
it was on the gray horse and John Ingle, for that was who it was changed
his voice and said. “It is a Texian. One of Col. Martins men”.
My brother drove on and I took charge of Ingle for I knew that his purpose
was to kill my brother. He talked along to me about us getting whipped
in battle that day. As tho he thought I didnt know him. He
had a gun on his shoulder and to be up to the imergency of the case, I
drew my pistol out of the case and carried it in my hand down by my side
and talked with him as we rode along. I watched him very close and
if he had raised his gun the least bit off his shoulder I would have began
shooting him in the left side, and I came very near killing him any way.
It was about all I could do to keep my bullets in my gun. After Ingle
rode by my side for quite a while I didnt do any thing I think he found
out that he was in a trap, he pulled back and fell out of ranks, and that
was the last I saw of him on the retreat. I am satisfied I saved
my brothers life that night. After the army had retreated For
enough as they thought to be out ofdanger and had found a convenient place
they stopped and put up camp and after resting a few days I got a furlow
and brother Wm. and I went back to Benton Co. Ark. This being the
later part of July nothing more of note transpired till on Sunday the 16th
of Aug. 1863. When my brother was on his way to my fathers he was
waylayed by the Ingle mob and killed on the Ingle farm about 2 miles north
of where Gentry, Ark. is now. We got news of my brothers death some
time after night and father and I harnessed a team and hitched it to a
wagon and went 2 miles and got some lumber and I made a coffin next day
and we buried him in the Heaslet cemetary. This was my last brother gone
all in less than one year. “Oh how sad it is to be without a brother.
No one can tell only those that are bereft”. On the 17th day of Nov.
1863 Capt. hedrens company was called together and started to Texas for
winter quarters. It was a long road to travel especially for old
men who had to leave to save their lives. My father and Hiram Gholson,
afterwards my father-in-law and several old men was on this long tiresome
trip. Our Co. got to Texas early in Dec. and was stationed in Preston
a little town on the south bank of Red River in Grason Co. One day
when all of my mess mates where gone, some of them on duty and some
were gone for pleasure, and I was by myself and as it happened I had my
pistols on my belt around my waist and I was standing up and I happened
to look up the road and I saw my arch enemy, John Ingle coming about 100
yds. away. Now where I was standing, it was 40 or 50 yds. from the
main road and when Ingle saw me he turned off the road and came angeling
in a straight line to me as fast as he could walk and the closer he got,
the faster he came till he got with in 5 of 6 ft. of me and all at once
he stopped and threw himself back in a bracing position and he looked me
straight in the eye with all the grim hatred that he could put on his already
mean face.
He looked me in the eye as long
as he wanted too, and then turned and walked away. I looked to see
the bullets go flying, but they didn’t. There was not a word spoke,
or a pass made. It wasn’t any thing that I had done to John Ingle
that he wanted to kill me for, it was for what he had done himself.
A lowdown cowardly murderer, and he was afraid to let me live on the account
of it. This was the last time I ever saw John Ingle, before we had
the chance to meet again a scout of Pin Indians ran in him in Coon Hollow
in Benton Co. Ark and transport him from this mode of existance to
a world beyond from whence no traveler has ever returned. He was
an ardent lover of blood shed and murder and he got a taste of it to the
bitter end. It was a relief to me when I heard that he was killed
for he was seeking my life without a just cause. In the spring of
1865 when the war ended a part of our Brigade was sent to the western part
of the Indian Territory near Ft. Sill to make a treaty with some wild tribes
as they called at that day and when we got thru with that and got back
to camp, every thing was deserted and gone. Not a thing was left
for us to eat. We didnt know what was up for we had no chance of
getting any news. So our company fixed up and started for Benton
Co, Ark. and when we got to the Arkansas River it being swollen and no
boat to cross in we made rafts to transport our guns and saddles and all
that could not swim. We drove our horses in the river and made them
swim accross. And I, thru a boyish freak swam the river just for
the fun of it. I wouldnt undertake such a thing again.
When the men got accross and all was ready to resume the march, it being
about 3 days travel before we would thru and on the last day, June 10,
1865, when I was nearing my home I left the road and cut accross thru the
timber and came in back of the old barn and when I came in full view of
the house I began shooting off my pistol and loaped my horse around the
lane. When I jumped off my horse and got in the yard where we had
a lively hand shake. “A home sick boy had got home again”. This was
my first knowledge that the ware was ended. In a few days Capt. Hendren
got the company together and we went to Fayettville, Washington Co. Ark.
and was paroled on the 19th day of June 1865. As this is an abridged and
condensed statement and looking over a period of several years, you will
pardon mistakes and other misgivings. I will close for the
present.
Written by,
J. G. Heaslet.
1999 -copyright -The above information may
be used for non-commercial historical and genealogical purposes only and
with the consent of the page owner may be copied for the same purposes
so long as this notice emains
a part of the copied material. Permission
to reproduce must be given by Kate
Wilkowski in writing...
EDWARD
G. GERDES
If you have any questions or comments or if
you would like to have more information about the Civil War and
Pension Records of the men who served in these
Companies, contact Bryan Howerton
or Jeri Helms Fultz
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Webpage by Phoenix Helms
6/12/99