Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 31.djvu/173

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Zollicoffer's Oak. 165

efficient services. He cut the bullet from my father in the presence of the latter' s friends, my father refusing at all times to take an an- esthetic, saying that he would not give his enemies the pleasure of saying that he feared pain. While Dr. Nash was removing the bul- let my father was calmly smoking a cigar and conversing with his friends. Dr. Nash waited on Cleburne for many days and nights thinking each would be his last, but finally succeeded in improving his condition slightly. Later on both men were taken to Boone- ville, Miss., by Dr. Ellis, a brother-in-law of my father, who kept them at his house until they both recovered. In the meantime my father had been elected to his first term in Congress. He fully recovered from his wound, but General Cleburne felt the effects of the fearful wound which he had received until the day of his death. I thought that possibly you might care to use some of the above mentioned facts in regard to General Cleburne, if you should desire to do so in completion of the sketch given by General Hardee.

BlSCOE HlNDMAN.

[From the New Orleans, La., Picayune, August, 1903.]

ZOLLICOFFER'S OAK.

Recollections of the Battle of Mill Springs and the Death of this Gallant Soldier Efforts to Protect his Grave.

BY BENNETT H. YOUNG, COLONEL C. S. A.,

(Major-General, United Confederate Veterans, Commanding Kentucky

Division.)

Early in January, 1862, Major-General George B. Crittenden, who was then in command of the Confederate forces in East Tennessee, advised General Albert Sidney Johnston that he was then on the north side of the Cumberland river, in Pulaski county, Kentucky; that he was threatened by a superior force of the enemy in front; that it was impossible to cross the river, and that he was compelled to make the fight on the ground he then occupied. He had under his orders about 4,000 men, consisting of two brigades, the first