Memoirs of Aaron Hinsdale Buie.
Memoirs of Aaron Hinsdale Buie.
"... I left the schoolroom at the age of 16 years and was examined and sworn in service..May, 1863, at Monticello, as a private in Company E, Fourth Mississippi Cavalry, General N.B. Forrest's Division... [I] was never wounded, taken prisoner, changed nor promoted...was in the battles of Harrisburg, Mississippi; Selma, Alabama, and many skirmishes. I served as a courier a great deal of the time. [I] received parole in Meridian, Mississippi. In the winter of '63, I contracted a cold which resulted in deafness and was discharged. I returned home and after a rest of two months, my hearing was restored. I returned to the same regiment...On the night of my arrival, after being sworn in, I was placed on picket duty and orders were given me to arrest any man passing that way without a pass from headquarters. So about 9 o'clock I heard a man advancing towards me with his sword rattling at his side, and it happened to be my colonel who was an old bachelor. Just to my left lived a rich farmer with four or five fine daughters, and the colonel had sent them a note that he would call on them that night, but he had no pass. We kept him under guard for about two hours until the young ladies had retired and then marched him back to his headquarters. He begged piteously to let him pass, telling me that he had given such orders, but I told him I must carry them out or suffer the consequences. On our return to camp, he told me that he would remember me for the act. Being only a lad, I expected severe punishment. Within two days, he ordered his regiment into line to secure an escort for him on a raid into Mississippi. After two days march about sunset we were nearing a little town, Fayette, in Jefferson County. We rode into the arms of 600 Yankees. He halted us for a few minutes and commanded us right about and charge. The Yankees broke their line and went out.... We then marched to Jackson, Louisiana, where a large force of Federals were in camp. We took them by surprise. I, with others, was ordered to run out on a road for some two miles and report the movement of the Yankees. While there we heard a noise and the hair stood straight up on our heads. In a few minutes, seven Yankees ran into the road about fifty yards in front of me. We halted them and carried them into camp. My colonel was so well pleased that he made me one of his couriers. I found this harder than a private's life, more risks to take and more hardships."
