Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 9, Number 2, May, 1999 Page: 83

                                
Reminiscences of the Old Brigade

turning but when the enemy saw him coming
they abandoned the Mesa, passed below it and
come down on our left front. When McNeil
saw them retreat, he turned, passed down above
the Mesa and came to us from our left rear,
getting to us about the same time that Carson
and Lord came down upon us. We drove them
into the river, and some of us crossed in pur-
suit, but were ordered to cease firing and stop
pursuit, the enemy having hoisted a white flag.
During the charge a heavy fire was poured upon
our left flank from the infantry and artillery
sent to flank our left ...
How long the battle lasted we do not know
... Davidson, of the 5th, said two years, nine
months, four days and three minutes; Trimble,
of company B of the 2nd ... said that he kept
close and accurate account of every year as it
sped by, by cutting a mark on the tree behind
which he stood, and that it was just nineteen
years to a minute, and he took us to the tree
and there were nineteen long marks cut on it.
But we, as faithful chroniclers of history, will
state that the sun was just cleverly up above the
eastern mountain when Burgess, of company
D of the 2nd, fired at Major Donaldson, and
the sun had just cleverly sunk behind the west-
ern mountain when Wash Seymour, of com-
pany A of the 5th, fired the last shot at the
fleeing foe. How many suns intervened we will
leave the reader to infer, and, if you conclude
it all occurred between the rising and setting of
the sun, then please account for those nineteen
marks on Fred Trimble's tree.
Remarks by Davidson
On the morning of the 22nd of Feb. 1862,
while yet we were succoring our wounded and
collecting our dead, Maj. Pyron with his four
companies was ordered to proceed up the river,
arriving at a little place called San Antoinetta,
twenty miles above, a messenger overtook him
with orders to return, which he did that night,
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having captured 30 prisoners-stragglers from
Canby's army.
On the 24th, Pyron with his four compa-
nies and two companies of the 5th, and one
section of artillery under Lieut. McGinnis, the
whole under command of Lt-Col. McNeil,
moved up the river, halted two miles below the
town of Socora. Just after dark a courier came
to them from Lieut. D. M. Poor, commanding
the advance, announcing the fact that Poor had
entered the town, captured one of the soldiers
and brought him out from under the fire of the
enemy, and that he had learned from him that
Pino's regiment was quartered in town.
Upon receiving this intelligence, McNeil
moved his forces up, demanded an immediate
surrender of the town, which was refused, and
McNeil made preparations to attack, ordered
McGinnis to open fire on the town, to which
McGinnis protested, stating that the town was
full of women and children, and he waged no
war on them.
He was then ordered to elevate his guns
and fire over the town, which he did, the firing
brought to Pino's mind the Texans at Val Verde,
that was enough for him, it was enough for any
of those Federals up there, that awful day at
Val Verde gave them such a dread of us, and
such ideas of our powers and prowess that when
they might have overpowered and captured us
they were actually afraid to try it; and Glorietta
coming on soon afterwards, made them dread
us still more. As soon as the Texans at Val
Verde came to Pino's mind, he bethought him-
self of the trick of the white flag there, and
how it acted, so he hoisted one here, demanded
a parley, was brought out under the white flag
and permitted to view a portion of our lines,
which, when done, convinced him we meant
business, he said he surrendered. 200 of his
regiment surrendered with him, but about 200
had during the white flag operations escaped to
the mountains, the balance of his regiment, had
not yet collected itself from the effects of Val