Subject: Historical Record J. G. Heaslet
Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 11:08:01 -0700
From: “traffic”traffic@goldcom.com

J.G.H. History #6 & #7

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.

J.G.H. History  #7

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.



The Original copy was sent to Mrs. H. D. Lefors of Willows, Calif. as per request of the writer, J. G. Heaslet. This copy was made for P. G. Heaslet of Chicago, Ill.  27th and Robey Sts. McKinley Park Station by O. S. Heaslet of Peru, Kans. This document was transcribed by Kate Wilkowski  with all mistakes intentional.  traffic@goldcom.com

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

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 6/12/99