Four Months Under Arms

              The Battle of Duck Lake
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Page
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9
was

The cannon was not fired again, [Jut in before the powder and could

as in reloading the shell not be extracted.

I was between Middleton and :VIcKenzie on the extended line along the fence, and we fired at the man who had crawled under the fence, then on the man who was following the horseman across the field, and had dug a rifle pit in a snowdrift till he quit. Then seeing what we thought was Indians standing among the trees along the south fence we concentrated our fire on them. but soon found out that it was blankets wound around the trees, while the rebels were lying behind trees, but we silenced some of them. Charlie Ncwitt wus woundcd in the knee and was unable to come back. Alex Fisher waS next in line and he was wounded in the leg, and came along the path behind us going to the sleighs He had only gone a few yards when he was shot in the head by the man in the house. Then Jas. Bakey came along, wounded in the arm, and just passed us when he cried out, "God have mercy on my soul," and fell dead. Next to fall was Middleton on my right, then McKenzie, on my left, then McPhail and Jas. Anderson. all shot in the back. A large tree standing directly between me and the window is how I escaped the same fate. One of the groups of t.hree men who had gone into the poplar bluff, Capt. Moore, Capt. Morton and Mr. Napier, came into direct line of fire from the rebels in the house, and Capt. Morton and Mr. Napier were killed and Capt. Moore severely wounded. The other group of three, Hamilton, W. Haslam and Graham Neilson had worked around behind the house and shot one of the rebels and wounded the other. This group carried Capt. Moore to the sleighs. S. Elliot was killed when helping A. Markley into a sleigh. I heard the bugler sound the "Retreat" and ran to the road, and when I reached it, thcre was only three sleighs left, and He was having difficulty with Wm. Drain's was the last il' line. his black horse, "Antoine," who was a fiend to kick. Under directions from Drain, who was controlling him from the seat, I managed to get him hitched, and stepped back when a bullet passed my head with a whine and bu~ried itself in "Antoine's" flank. I ducked, Sergt.-Major Dann, a veteran of Zulu War, saw mc and said. "No use ducking lad, it was past before you heard it.!' SergI. Montgomery and Constable Gilchrist were covering the retreat. Standing behind the gun carriage, they were firing at every head that showed up above the ridge to the east. When all was ready to go, Sergt.-Major Dalln called them to come, and as they were passing Drain's sleigh, Constable Gilchrist fell, shot through both thighs. I helped put him in Drain's sleigh and we started at once. The rebel fire had slackened, and when we got to the top of the short slope, they stood up and watched us go. Dann, Montgomery, Gilchrist, Thos. McKay and myself were in Drain's sleigh. The rebels had ceased fire, and were standing in groups. McKay was just in the act of firing at one of the groups when Dann saw him, and snatched his rifle from him and said, "You dfool, do you want to draw their fire again."