Hunting Yankees.
--Three of the clerks of the Central Railroad Company being at leisure, owing to the temporary stoppage of business on their road, thought to amuse themselves yesterday by walking out and taking a shot at the enemy north of the city.
Carefully loading their guns, they strolled out the
Central road to our entrenchments.
Here they found all quiet, and our men in the earthworks told them there was no danger in proceeding further, as our pickets were still some distance ahead of them.
Assured by this information, they continued their walk across a wheat field in front of our line and in the direction of a heavy piece of woods on the left of the railroad.
On getting within three hundred yards of this wood they perceived a line of troops drawn up in battle array, and the line looking particularly
blue, they began to suspect they were venturing upon dangerous ground, and halted to confer and reconnoitre.
But any doubts they may have had as to who were before them were speedily solved by a volley of a hundred muskets.
The hostile bullets whistled about their ears most uncomfortably.
The three hunters threw themselves on the ground without loss of time, and one of them is said to have dived into the soft mud up to his ears.
Afraid to rise or look back in this their woful predicament, they bethought themselves of trying the efficiency of a flag of truce, and simultaneously pulled out their white
pocket handkerchiefs and waved them in a frenzied manner.
This however was far from having the desired effect, for the
Yankees instantly opened on them again, and harrowed up the mud about them in a style which taught them the necessity of changing their base.
Failing in their flags of truce, they sprang to their feet and ran for their lives.
At every step the
Yankee bullets hurried them.
They had a quarter of a mile to run, and are said to have made it in the shortest time on record.
Luckily none of them were hit, and breathless and spattered with mud to the crowns of their heads, they at last ran safely into our lines, where they were received with such yells and cheers as have seldom waked the echoes of the
Chickahominy.
All three of the gentlemen express themselves as thoroughly satisfied for the present on the subject of Yankee hunting, and say the next time they go out it will be in rather stronger force.
