Ironton Register 5 July 1888 – We talked the other day with Capt. A. J. Brattin (now Constable Brattin) on the subject of the Guyandotte, WV capture referred to by Daniel Woolum last week. Captain Brattin took an active part in the fight and the description of the capture which he gave included an interesting personal experience which we will endeavor to relate.
The captain was raising a company in Guyandotte at the time and they had heard for some weeks that the rebels were coming but after numerous alarms and no rebels, many had lost faith in the prediction. The promised attack was finally made however by Clarkson and Jenkins both when only one was expected and on Sunday night when some soldiers were at church.
“The first we knew the rebels were right on our pickets. All was confusion at once, but we nevertheless gave them a hard fight which is evidenced by the fact that I counted 18 dead horses in the streets the next morning. There was a terrible fight at the Guyandotte Bridge. A man named William Vititoe I believe stood next to me there and I saw him get a bullet fairly between the eyes and fall dead. I remember the incident with a feeling of horror.
“It wasn’t long will the town was full of rebels and the break was made, and it became a question of every man for himself. In looking about for some way to escape I saw a place under a house. It was the post office. The building was 18 inches off the ground and what a better hiding place.
I took that crawling in with my gun and the few cartridges I had left. As I groped my way under the house my legs slipped into a hole which proved to be a place where the ground half dug out to make room for the bulk-heading of a cellar for the next house.
Capt. Brattin continued, “The hole was only a crevice wide enough to stand up in with my head between the joists above. Into that hole I got, and I wasn’t there long till I heard the rebels passing on the search for yanks only a few feet away. It was only the distance to the sidewalk. I heard Col. Clarkson and Jenkins both talking and peering out under the house I saw their legs as a noted rebel citizen of the town came forward to congratulate them upon the capture.
“One of our men named Adkins had been wounded in the fight and I could hear him groaning in pain as he lay down by the bridge. Quick as the rebel squad passed, he made a different noise, and then came an ominous splash. The murderous fiends had dropped poor Adkins in the river and drowned him.
Then they posted a picket just in front of me on the sidewalk. All the time the rebel squads kept passing and I thought several times they’d get me. They went into the post office, looked under the house, and got a lantern, and thrust it under. But by that time, I had found a place big enough to stoop in and get clear out of sight so when they would look, I’d dodge each time afraid they would see me.
“To add to the perils of the situation there was a dog in the cellar on the other side of the bulkhead that kept up a continued racket. The dog had scented me, and he barked so persistently that the rebels were led to search the cellar several times but without success. I could see the glimmer of their light torch through the cracks of the bulkhead and picked out wide boards to stand behind when they were in there.
“But the searching business was over at last and I was getting awful tired of my cramped position. I didn’t think I could stand it much longer so I thought I would get out and was figuring out how I would pass along the pretense of having important news for Col. Clarkson. I had even got up out of the hole and started when I heard this interesting bit of conversation between two of the Virginia rebels stationed outside”
“Hello pard.”
“Hello thar. got another Yenfield just now.”
“Did ye? What dye do?”
“Oh, I made him squawk.”
“The ‘Yenfield’, I well understood was the Virginian’s term for the splendid Enfield rifles which we had just been equipped the possession of which was one of the main objects that prompted the rebels to come to Guyandotte.
I thought if that rebel out there had made a man ‘squawk’ for his gun and two together would certainly make me squawk if I went out so I crawled back in my hole and stayed there till the next morning when the rebels evacuated and I had the exquisite pleasure of seeing some fellow moving across the bridge with my elegant new carpet sack and clean clothes. I had the hardest work not shooting then,” A. J. Brattin concluded.
From Guyandotte and Ceredo
The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, Wheeling, West Virginia, 1 January 1862
A gentleman who arrived yesterday from Ceredo and Guyandotte reports that a large number of troops are scattered along Ohio. At Ceredo, Col. Lightburn has fortified himself and is confident that no Guyandotte affair will occur with him. Col. Boles 2nd Virginia Cavalry was at Guyandotte and Piatt’s Zouaves are at Barboursville.
Col. Boles Cavalry is the admiration of all who have sent the regiment. They have a splendid lot of horses, first-rate men, good and efficient officers, and the best of equipment. Col. DeVilliers is at Point Pleasant, with his regiment. There are also troops at Gallipolis, Ashland, Catlettsburg, and other points.
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