Today in History:

208 Series I Volume XLI-III Serial 85 - Price's Missouri Expedition Part III

Page 208 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.

NEW ORLEANS, September 16, 1864.

Major GEORGE B. DRAKE,

Assistant Adjutant-General, &c.:

MAJOR: In compliance with your request, I beg to report that on Friday of last week, about 3 p. m., as I was riding down the levee road from the Southwood to the Mount Hannas plantation, a lot of jayhawkers halted me, and with threats of blowing my brains out made me dismount from my horse and mount one of theirs. They then carried me to the store of Mr. Hill, near by, which they robbed of everything they could carry away, including the old man's money. They then made me remount one of their horses and away we went back. They stole two horses on our way, and when about three miles in the woods they stripped me of everything, my watch, money, gloves, and every thing; ordered me to take off my spurs, which I resolutely refused to do, so the leader of the gang unbuckled and took them off himself. He put my saddle on another man's horse and his one mine, then turned me loose in the woods to find my way back on foot. They unbuttoned my clothes and ran their hands over my person to see if I had any belt or other property, and subjected me to other indignities. On Sunday last, just as I had dined, a colored boy came riding hurriedly up and said the guerrillas were coming to our house, and I immediately determined to fight them. Our clerk (a young fellow of the name of Whitney) and carpenter (Mr. Perry), both white, said they would stand by me, and some of the colored boys said they would, too. We left the house in order to get what arms we could together, and collected our forces in the corn-field below the negro quarters, and got together two old double-barreled guns (one barrel of each serviceable), an old musket, a good revolver, belonging to the carpenter, Mr. Perry, and a small pocket pistol which I borrowed from Mrs. Minor; we then marched to the house, three whites and three blacks, a ball in the musket and buckshot in the guns. The thieves remained at Hill's store awhile to get some more plunder from him and thus gain us time, and we got to the house first; some more of the black boys volunteered and we got in some brickbats and clubs. We closed the doors and opened the windows and stationed ourselves there. A barrel of one of our pistols was accidentally discharged and the rascals came riding up full gallop with their pieces cocked and aimed at us, and the fight immediately began. I don't know who fired first, but think we did. The leader was riding my horse and we shot him dead, and another was dangerously wounded and taken prisoner. One or two others were reported slightly wounded, as also one of their horses. We killed, therefore, the leader, Harry Kind, and wounded and took prisoner the second in command, Alphonso de Bulnez, and captured my horse and another (shot through the neck), two Remington army pistols, a double-barreled gun (which they had just stolen from Mr. Hill), two saddles and bridles, and a lot of the goods they carried away from Hill's store, all of which we returned. We had the wounded man cared for and sent for the doctor, and next day sent him to New Orleans, where he is now in hospital. They returned in about three hours, but twelve men of the One hundred and eighteenth Illinois Regiment, sent by Colonel logan for our protection, were there and drove them off, killing one of their horses, and, as is reported, wounding one or two of the men. The two men mentioned (Kind and Bulnez) have long been a terror to the neighborhood, I am told, and some of the soldiers say their gangs are those that have given so much trouble about Baton Rouge, in shooting and capturing U. S. soldiers


Page 208 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.