The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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A REMARKABLE ESCAPE FROM DEATH
By S. C. Turnbo
Just over the line in Taney County, Missouri, on the north side of White
River is a rough gulchlike hollow which mouths into the river at the upper
end of the Panther Bottom. This gulch is known as Cedar Hollow. Up this
gulch near one half a mile above the mouth is a cliff of rock which runs
along on each side of the hollow. On the east side it Is 85 feet from the
beginning to where the water pours down and on the west side it is 48 feet
from where the water pours over to a gap in the cliff where the cliff sinks
into the bluff. Just on the west side from where the water in the bed of
the hollow pours down is a cave or basin in the rock wall that is 17 feet
high and 9 feet deep. Below this along the bed of the branch and on each
side of it is very rough with large rocks lying close together. The cliff
where it crossed the channel of this hollow makes a sharp curve. At this
place a bloody scene occurred during the Civil War. Three men, Bill Riddle,
Ben Williams, and Anderson Moore, had camped a few nights in the basin of
the cliff we have just mentioned and reconnoitering party of 3 men who happened
to pass one afternoon near this locality discovered the smoke from the fire
which the men had built under the shelving rock. This was on the 31st of
January, 1865. The air was calm and the column of smoke had ascended high
above the cliff. The parties who made the discovery lost no time in reporting
it to a company of mounted federal soldiers who on the following morning
at sunrise surrounded the hiding place of the three men and opened fire
on them. The poor fellows were taken on surprise and were almost defenseless
having but one old muzzle loading rifle with them. While the bullets fell
in a shower around the startled men they offered to surrender but the attacking
party refused to show them mercy and they started to run the gauntlet and
fled down the rough gulch. Williams got only a few yards from the shelter
when he was shot dead. Some 50 feet from where Williams fell on the west
side of the bed of the hollow is the middle of a steep point of land or
ridge like formation. On this spot Mr. Riddle received a severe wound in
the fleshy part of the leg between the knee and ankle which knocked him
down. Forty-five feet from here is a little rough gulch that empties into
the main hollow 150 feet below where the water pours over the cliff, and
after the man had fell he managed to crawl and roll into the little gulch.
By this time he was able to rise to his feet again and amid a shower of
bullets he ran down the gulch some 60 feet into the main hollow where he
received a bad wound in the hand. He now ran down the hollow where he passed
in a few feet of two guards that had been posted there to prevent the men
from escaping in that direction. One was standing on each side of the bed
of the branch and he ran between them and they both shot at him but missed
the mark. The wounded and bleeding man ran on down the hollow a short distance
below the two videts where he received A third wound but it failed to bring
him down, onward he rushed a few yards further then leaving the rough hollow
he ran up the hill on the east side and finally made his escape. Mr. Moore
escaped without being hit and ran along on the side of the hill on the west
side of the hollow to the mouth and concealed himself under a drift. The
attacking party who it is said numbered 20 men did not pursue Riddle and
assembled together on the side of the hill west of the cliff and rode on
down to the point of the bluff where they dismounted and lead their horses
down the steep hillside and across the mouth of Cedar Hollow and down through
the Panther Bottom. As the soldiers were passing the mouth of the hollow
they passed in a few yards of the driftwood in which Moore was hid. Now
let us return to Bill Riddle who ‘was fleeing for his life. The morning
was cold with a crisp wind blowing and the wounded man’s blood was
slowly ebbing away. The excitement from the attack, exhaustion from running,
and the suffering from the wounds and loss of blood made him weak and cold
and he felt as though he would stagger and fall as he ran over the ridge
just east of the hollow and down the hill into Pine Hollow. Going down this
hollow ¼ of a mile he stopped to rest under a ledge of rock, but
thinking the enemy might pursue him he left his rock shelter and fled onward
and made his way to Big Greek and sought refuge under another ledge of rock
in the face of the bluff just below the Daniel Quick ford where he lay behind
big icicles weak and shivering with cold. Late in the afternoon he saw the
same company of men pass up the creek. Soon after dark the wounded man left
his icy bed and groped his way over the rough hills and across the rugged
hollows to where he lived on the Allen Lucas place at the mouth of Little
Buck Creek. As the man was crossing Cedar Hollow below the cliff where they
were attacked he saw a light where the dead body of Williams lay and heard
voices which proved to be the grief stricken mother. Mrs. Mary Anderson,
wife of John Anderson and other women preparing to take the remains of her
beloved child to the ridge just west of the Robert Case-bolt residence on
Big Creek to bury them in a grave that had been dug to receive the remains
of Mr. Casebolt who was killed on Buffalo, but it was found that the body
of Mr. Casebolt could not be brought back home and he was buried where he
was slain and Mr. William’s body was buried in the grave that was dug
for the reception of the dead body of Mr. Casebolt. Mrs. Anderson was formerly
a widow woman and Mr. Anderson had married her near Fort Smith, Arkansas.
On the following morning Mr. Riddle mounted a horse that had got away from
the enemy in the excitement of the attack and which was found by some of
Riddle’s friends in the Buck Bottom just above the mouth of Big Buck
Creek and he rode him to the Mat Hovelenpile farm where he made the horse
swim the river with him at the mouth of Big Beach Hollow and made his way
to his friends in Locust Hollow who took charge of him. The wounded and
suffering man was bad chilled with cold when he arrived there, his wet and
bloody clothes were so bad frozen on him that they had to be out off of
him before they could put dry ones on him. Just as soon as his friends could
move him they taken him into the forest of pine trees near where Dodd City
now stands where they built a shelter and kept him there until he recovered
from his wounds. Oh those terrible gloomy days how dark and bloody they
were.
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