THE
SCOUT AND RANGER:
BEING THE
PERSONAL ADVENTURES
OF
CORPORAL PIKE.
OF THE FOURTH OHIO CAVALRY.
AS A TEXAN RANGER, IN THE INDIAN WARS, DELINEATING WESTERN ADVENTURE;
AFTERWARD A SCOUT AND SPY, IN TENNESSEE, ALABAMA,
GEORGIA, AND THE CAROLINAS, UNDER GENERALS MITCHELL,
ROSECRANS, STANLEY, SHERIDAN, LYTLE,
THOMAS, CROOK, AND SHERMAN.
FULLY ILLUSTRATING THE SECRET SERVICE.
TWENTY-FIVE FULL-PAGE ENGRAVINGS.
CINCINNATI & NEW YORK:
J. R. HAWLEY & CO.
1865.
J. R. HAWLEY & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern
District of Ohio.
TO
MY LATE COMRADES IN ARMS,
THIS BOOK
Is Respectfully Dedicated
BY THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
Whatever aids in illustrating the spirit of the late greatstruggle, through which the nation has so successfully passed,must be of interest to the American reader. The occurrences ofthe late rebellion will ever form a study for the free citizens of theRepublic, of far deeper interest than those of any other event inthe world's history; and few will be content with the perusal ofmere outlines, or of battle descriptions, however vivid, but whichare only repetitions, though of a magnified type, of what the worldhas witnessed at almost every decade, since the dawn of civilization;and hence they will search out details, and incidents,which will lead them into the spirit of a conflict, to which theyare indebted for their national greatness, material prosperity,and civil and religious freedom; and those incidents may beas readily learned in connection with the career of the PrivateSoldier, as with that of the Major General.
The simple but touching narratives of one who has survivedthe horrors of a rebel prison; or the little hillock which coversthe remains of one of the murdered victims of rebel cruelty, arefar more perfect illustrations of the civilization of the rulingclasses in the South, and the malignity of their character, thanthe whole career of the ablest of our commanders.
Thousands of incidents in the life of every soldier, werethey recorded, would be invaluable in illustrating the history ofthe late war; but the mass of these will soon be forgotten, and[vi]the actors themselves fill unknown graves. Men who, in anyother era, would be singled out, and known as heroes to a wholenation for their gallant deeds, will pass through life as but oneof millions, and must rest content with a general tribute to thegreat mass.
We are now to have a national literature, as well as a nationalexistence. American writers of romance and the