Andy Boggs Interesting War Experience
Narrow Escape #25
Ironton Register 5 May 1887
Submitted by: Shirley Reed
“Andy, can’t you give me that ‘Narrow Escape’ today?” said the reporter to Andy Boggs, one of the brave boys who helped abolish the Southern Confederacy.
“Which one-the one at the battle of Stone River?”
“Yes, that’s the one.”
“It was in 1862 between Christmas and New Year. I’ll tell you in my own way how it was. It was on Wednesday–Johnson’s division broke on our right. We were on the skirmish line when we were ordered to charge on the rebels. The situation was a warm one. We were ordered to fix bayonets, and in turning our bayonets,
Arfax Thornton pushed me out from behind a tree where I had been sheltering from the enemy’s fire. By this time, the rebels were right on us. Just as I was pushed out, a ball cut the top of my shoulder, cutting my blouse and leaving a mark where it burnt me.
“This stunned me somewhat and caused me to drop my gun. The rebels ran right over me then, and we were all captured. Hundreds of our men were taken. They ordered me to take off my cartridge box, saying I would have no further use for it in this war.
They thought I was badly wounded because I was covered with blood, which did not bother me much. Appearances are deceiving. The blood was Tom Town’s, who had been shot before me. After this, they commenced to pick up the wounded, and I went over to where Henry Cauley was lying, making an awful fuss. I asked him where he was hit. He had been shot through the hip with grapeshot, was in terrible agony, and soon died.
“Seeing Brice Bramfield, I asked him to hide with me in a pile of rocks close by as I saw the rebels were picking up the stragglers and hurrying them back to the rear, but he refused, saying he wasn’t going to get in there and be killed by a cannonball. I concluded I would try it and await events anyway.
So I crawled in between the rocks and laid there about three hours until our men charged back and took possession–not our regiment, though. I was uneasy for fear the Johnnies would find me, but luckily they didn’t. When our men came up, I crawled out. The boys did not at first believe I was a Union soldier. They thought I was seriously wounded, too, and a surgeon present asked me where I was wounded and what regiment I belonged to. I told him I was not hurt much and belonged to the 18th Ohio.
“He said that a soldier who would risk staying in that pile of rocks rather than be made a prisoner deserved a pass, and an officer standing by offered me a ____ to the hospital at Nashville, which I took. I told him I wanted a pass to my regiment, which he gave me, and I started to find the boys.
I returned and found our boys on the left, where Tom Towns had been killed the morning before. I was glad to see them once more. When I got to the regiment, I found Uncle Jim Lyons baking flapjacks for the company and going up the hill from him to where the boys were. I picked up an old-fashioned brass banded shotgun with a very short barrel that had belonged to some rebel. The boys were ready to go in the fight, and I went in with them using the old gun until one of the boys gave me a Springfield rifle. The change was very agreeable as the rebel gun kicked like a mule. We fought here for a couple of hours and then fell back.
“Now, Andy, tell us about Jack Culbertson shooting that rebel.”
“That was on the Manchester & McMinnville R.R. and was somewhat exciting. We were guarding a railroad bridge and had built a little block house there; in fact, we did not have it quite done when the rebels came in on us. I was going out after a yoke of cattle and saw the rebels coming. They were pretty close, and we had not much time to spare. I hollered to our Captain–Capt. C.C. Ross–and told him the rebels were coming.
We had before this been making false alarms for fun and the Captain, thinking I was not in earnest, replied, ‘Now don’t lie, Andy.’ I then told him to come ahead and see for himself. He came up and saw it was the rebels. It was a race now for the blockhouse. Some of the boys got their guns, and some didn’t. The thing to do was to get to the shelter. In other words, it was a blockhouse or capture.
It was nip and tuck which would reach it first, us or the rebels, and we luckily reached the side the door was on as they came up on the other side. We went in the house, and the Captain stood watching the door and shot the rebel Captain as he attempted to enter, the ball going straight through his head, entering at his mustache, and coming out at the back of his head.
“We had to leave part of our guns out where we were when the rebels surprised us, so part of us was unarmed, but those who had their guns now commenced peppering it to the rebels outside.” Jack _________
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