James DeFoe’s Experiences
Narrow Escape #15
Ironton Register 12 May 1887
Submitted by Debbie Meinhart
“Mr. DeFoe, the brave boys all over the country are giving us their ‘Narrow Escapes,’ making quite fascinating reading for the Register. We have let you escape long enough. You are my prisoner now. So please consider yourself under guard for about an hour while you narrate one of your narrowest escapes.
“Then, if I can capture someone else, I will exchange you for him.” I don’t know whether I have any very ‘Narrow Escapes,’ but as it is a soldier’s duty to obey, I will give you one. I thought at the time that I was in a very ‘narrow’ place, and as I got out, I suppose you can call it a ‘Narrow Escape.’
“I was a member of Company H 5th West Virginia Vol. under Captain Enochs. We were positioned at Gauley Ridge. Ten or twelve of us started on a general scouting expedition to Summerville, about thirty miles or so from our camp.
“We got to Summerville all right, and coming back ten or fifteen miles to the right of the place, we came across some more of our boys who were also scouting. It was shortly after meeting these boys that the fun began. These boys hadn’t had their breakfast when we met them. We had and were looking out for dinner.
“Sergeant Fuller who now runs a sawmill in Ky. (if you run across him, attack him for a ‘Narrow Escape’; he’ll give you some that will make your eyeballs tingle). Fuller told me to go to the house of a rebel for our dinner, and he would follow us with more men.
“While he was gathering up his men, a lady told him the rebels intended to cut us off at this house. We were at the house waiting for our dinner, or we thought. I was talking to a girl who was making soap in the yard. The other boys were seated close by. The first intimation we had of rebels was a loud cry of ‘Surrender’!
“We looked to see who wanted us but could see no one. Close by was a strip of weeds. We heard the cry ‘Surrender!’ three times before we saw anyone. If they hadn’t hollored so soon, they would have captured all of us, but as it was, it put us on our guard. Just then, about forty rebels came out of the weeds, dressed in our uniform. There was a company of home guards in that section, and at first, we thought they were the ones, but a second look told us if we wanted to save our ‘bacon’….
“Reporter, “What Bacon?” “Don’t you know what bacon is?” If you had been there, you would have known. I didn’t have time just to sit and talk anymore to the soap girl but left very abruptly. We didn’t even leave her a lock of our hair. She may have found several locks afterward, but I never went back to see. Well, I said we left rather unceremoniously.
“Close by the house was a meadow, and we had to cross that with our ‘bacon.’ It was about three hundred yards across. I thought it was about three thousand. They were shooting uncomfortably close to us. Their bullets were tearing up the ground all around us, but they didn’t hit us.
“Just as I was at the fence getting over….I didn’t stop to tear it down…a bullet struck the top rail. I used to jump as a boy and was considered an expert, but my longest jump was when a boy sank into insignificance when compared with that leap from the fence. I hadn’t time to measure it. Just outside the meadow was the timber.
“After reaching that, one of the boys Jno. Duncan lay down behind a log. I stopped and asked him if he was hurt. he said: ‘No; don’t run any further, or you’ll get shot.’ I said: ‘Get out of that and come on, if you stop there, they’ll get you for sure.’ I ran on and left him. They got him and three others, Tom Osborn, Jack De Bard, and Sam Dean. All died in prison. The rest of us reached camp the next day.”
“Thanks, you are now released on parole, but now mind you, don’t get into any more ‘scrapes.'”
“I won’t.”
“Good Day.”
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