| OCR Text |
Show I MEN WHO FIRED LAST I SHOTS OF THE WAR ; AFTERWARD MET, - a COLUMBUS (Ohio) man I clulm3 to have fired the last I J. shot of the war of Seces- I slun David N. Osyor, the I Columbus Dispatch states, lie was a member of Compnny F, Ninth Ohio I cavalry. On the mornlnc of April 17, 18C5, tlint command was near Dur-hnm Dur-hnm Stntlon, N. C. It was keeping close watch on Gen. Joo Wheeler's cavalry, which was on tho opposite side of nn extensive swamp. Part of the Union cavulry' wns ordered to dismount dis-mount and wade across tho swamp to distract the. Confederates, while tho rest constructed a corduroy bridge. They used their carbines so vigorously, that the Confederates surmised thnt a very consldcrablo force was coming n them, and the road builders got along flno with their bridge. Near tho other edge of tho swamp Osyor says u Confederate bullet Just clipped his sergeant's chevron and the tekln on his arm. Looking for tho source of tho bullet, he spied the long , barrel of n gun and the gray legs of a Confederate soldier In the forks of a "tree In front 'of him, and ho flred.at them, Jle saw the Jegs withdrawn v and tho owner of them crowl slowly . away. j " Just then, a flag of truce came In sight and' tho Union men wero ordered i to cease firing. The occurrence Osyor said, did not impress him at the time, 1 buf that flag of truce was really tho feign of tho end of the Civil war, for the general surrender came noon and thottoops were sent home. A strange part of the story Is that long after the war Osyor met at Birmingham, Bir-mingham, Ala., a man named Amos Thompson, who wnB lame said he had been wounded In the Confederate service and, comparing notes, they cs-tahllshc-u to tho satisfaction of both that Thompson was the raun who was in tho tree on tho edc of tho Durlmm swamp back In 1803, had fchot at Osyor and been shot in turn by him. Osyors bullet struck Thompson In the knee and mndo him a crlpplt for Ufe. They ngreed that thoy had flrtd tho very last shot on each slda In tho Civil wer. |
