The party then proceeded to the house of another deserter. The house as usual was surrounded. One of the operatives discovered an open window with a blind, the window being about two feet square. While a search light and a good gun guarded the entrance, Agent B and an A. P. L. operative crawled through this opening in the room. After awakening the occupants, a deserter and the mother of another deserter were found. The deserter was forced to dress. The mother was closely questioned regarding her son, and finally agreed that if she would be allowed to go alone, she would bring him to us. This was agreed to. She was watched and in about fifteen minutes she brought her son, who was a deserter, and also her husband. It was discovered that the son and father were sleeping in a ditch about one hundred yards from the house. They had bed clothing, and slept in the open air with the sky for a roof. These two also were handcuffed and brought to jail.
The most interesting case on this trip was the capture of another deserter who had been away from camp for over a year. He and his wife, it is alleged, had sworn that he would never be taken alive. The information was that they had bought a lot in the community cemetery where they were to be buried together. Arriving at the house of the deserter at 2:15 A. M., the house was covered and each operative given detailed instructions. The deserter was called to the open door, and was warned not to offer resistance, as his house was fully surrounded. When told he was wanted by Uncle Sam's men, he opened his door and offered no resistance, stating that he had made up his mind to surrender to government officers, but not to the local officers. Judging from the weapons that he had by his bed, he evidently meant what he had said. He too was handcuffed and brought to jail. The total mileage of this trip was two hundred and sixteen miles, all without a scratch to car or man.
Lexington, North Carolina, was in this same mountain country which furnished so considerable a number of deserters during the war. It is a strange thing to say, but perhaps the largest numbers of deserters were found in the most American and most loyal part of the country—that
