Tom Strong, Lincoln's Scout

n Tomblin's "Settlemint"-Stealing a Locomotive-Wilkes

lly sleepy old town, the center of a group of rich plantations, April 12, 1862, but Tom was not then with the column. Five days before, with Mitchell's permission, he had volunteered

ttanooga, Tennessee, and from the East through Chattanooga and Huntsville to Memphis. A few miles from camp, Andrews gave his men their orders. They were to separate and singly or in groups of two or three were to make their way to the station of Big Shanty, Georgia, where they were to meet on the morning of Saturday, April 12. Andrews took Tom with him. For two days they hid in the wooded hills by day and traveled by night, guided by a compas

the strange accents of these "furriners." The men of the hills were all in the army or all in hiding. On the fourth day they reached a log-hut or rather a home made of two log-huts, with a floored and roofed space between them, a sort of open-air room where all the household life went on when good wea

" said

ntouched upon the old woman's lap.

," sai

ped. The hill-folk ar

y I have a drink o

the old dame, "

he "spring-house," a square cupboard built over a neighboring spring. It was dark and cool and was the only refrigerator the hill-folk knew. While

I hearn thar wuz a right smart heap o'

"milk" meant "buttermilk." He should have asked for "sweet milk." Sairey handed him the goblet with a shy grace, blushing a little as the boy's hand touched hers. He lifted it eagerly to his thirsty lips, took a long draught, and sputtered and gagged. But the mi

uz you b

meant, his mother had told him: "A lie soils a boy's mouth." As he grew older, she had dinned that big truth into his small mind. Now, taken by surprise, the habi

," said Andr

at-a-way," grumbl

ned, "but soon as this yer onpleasantnes

overdone h

ed the old woman,

ere she had taken refuge behind her g

ar me? You put

up the hill before the hut. She came out with a Confederate flag, made of part of an old red petticoat with white stripes sewn across it. It was fastened up

o Bub, thar?" her gran

nuthin' to nobudd

an the old woman's, sharpened

rked. "You-uns haz bin right d

answered. "I'll give you somethin'

run. Take the cart-track." Instantly the grandmother appeared on the threshold, her old eyes flashing, a d

, you Yankees! My man'll kn

as no way to get them, even if they

ews and bounded tow

int of fighting for it, and they would have rejoiced to capture Andrews and Tom. The old woman's eyes and ears had pierced the thin disguise of the raiders. So she had forced her granddaughter to fly the flag and the girl, afraid to disobey her fierce old grandmother but loath to see the boy she had liked at first sight captured, had warned him to flee. Man and boy were out of gunshot, but still in sight, when their pursuers reached the house, yelled with joy to see the abandoned guns, and ran up the cart-track like hounds hot upon the scent. As Tom and Andrews panted to the hilltop, they

or four birdshot had gone through clothing and skin, but they lay close beneath the skin, little blue lumps, with tiny smears of red blood in the skin's smooth whiteness. They were picked out with the point of a knife. The cool water of the brook washed away the blood and stopped the bleeding

ling aloud "Coo, boss, coo, boss," while every now and then it said in lower tones: "Is you Yanks hyar? Hyar's suthin' to eat." At first they thought it was a trap and lay still. Finally, however, spurred by h

he asked, clasping h

taken from the spring-house when she left home that morning for her da

to us, Sair

y out of her big sunbonnet and digging her brown toes into the ear

ll t

be you

eager to help them on their way, but could be of real aid. Once in her life she had been at Big Shanty. She told them of a sho

n Tomblin's spry with his gun sometimes, when furriners don't do no hollerin'. But when he comes out, you-uns tell him Old Man Gernt

iled again as she shook hands. Then suddenly she stooped and kissed the startled boy. Then she fled back along the lane by which she had come, leaving th

anxious than his father to do anything Sairey Gernt wanted done. The fugitives' story that they had been scouting near General Mitchell's line of march and had lost their guns and nearly lost themselves in a raid by Northern cavalry was accepted without demur. Old Mrs. Tomblin, decrepit with the early decrepitude of the hill-folk, whose hard living conditions make women old at forty and venerable at fifty, cackled a welcome to them from

like the Tomblins," said Tom,

s too precious to be t

up his mind to fight for his country, the next time he had a chance,

ty. The train for Chattanooga stopped there for breakfast on those infrequent days when it did not arrive so late that its stop was for dinner. It was what is called a "mixed" train, both freight and passenger, with many freight cars following the engine an

breakfast, would end at the next station, put on guard by a telegram. To Tom, as the youngest and most agile of the party, the task of cutting the wire had been assigned. He was already at the spot selected for the attempt, a clu

! What's y

ognized him as a man with whom he had been chatting around a camp-fire e

ethin's wrong with the wire. The Cunnel's s

astened the ends to the pole so that from the ground nobody could tell it was cut, and climbed down. Bill urged him to stay and talk awhile, but Tom reminded him that sentries mustn

ive Tom Hel

engine jumped forward, the tender and the three cars bounding after it. The crowd upon the platform gaped after the retreating train, without the slightest idea of what was happening under their very noses. A boy came ru

ieutenant Strong, a Yank

oth fired his pistol at them, while the motley crowd his cry had aroused sent a scattering

ocomotive lying with steam up. They seized that and thundered ahead. Now hunters and hunted were on more even terms. The hunters reached Kingston, Georgia, within four minutes after the hunted had left. The latter had had to make frequent stops, to cut the wires, to take on fuel, to bundle into the freigh

eet the regular train at Kingston, but alas! it carried on its engine a red flag. That meant that a second section of the same train was coming behind it. There was nothing to do but to wait for this second section. The railroad was single-track, so trains could pass

. "I cum hyar to meet up with Cunnel T

e cars. They're full of powder. I'm on General Beauregard's staff and am taking the stuff

k one of the doors and reveal within, not powder, but armed men, all their lives would pay the forfeit. Andrews was in the cab with engineer, fireman, and Tom, who had been helping the fireman f

in," said Andrews. "We mustn't keep General Beauregard waiting for this powder a

ssed. But his train did not move and a brakeman jumped off the rear platform of the caboose of the second s

after much stronger expressions, "did

oo true that the engine of section two also bore the red

aughter and good-natured chaff amid the foes who thought them friends. The slow minutes ticked themselves away. At last the third section came whistling and lumbering

deep breath of deep relief. "Now we

occupants, shouting a story of explanation that put Kingston into a frenzy, ran from it to an engine that lay upon a second sidetrack, steam up and ready to

at the telegraph-key, frantically pounding out the call of

urse that had been done by the fugitives just out of sigh

commander, from the cab of the locomotive that was

rews's men, with a most comforting sense of safety had stopped and were

Andrews called. "They're cl

e thrust it aside or broke it or whether the engine actually jumped it, nobody knew then in the wild excitement of the chase and nobody knows now. The one thing certain is that there was no delay. Very likely the rail broke. Rails of those days were of

ed to the roof and passed to the car ahead. A long covered wooden bridge loomed up before them. Halfway across it, Andrews stopped, dropped the flaming car, and started ahead again. In a very few minutes the bridge would have been a burning mass, but the few minutes were not to be had. The Confeder

hing sooty vapor within a mile of them. "By this time, they've got a telegram ahead of us. Stop 'round that next curve in those woods. We

ed its mad pace,

from the engine and disappeared in the forest t

e hung. The other six of the fourteen who were captured were exchanged, a few months later.