This excerpt comes from “A History of the Army Life of Matt Jennings”: “After night I was placed by Lt. C.C. World on picket between the two lines in darkness by myself. I lay in some leaves in a kind of a sink and it was cold and I could hear my teeth chatter and being but a few steps from the enemy, I feared they could hear and I would be captured.
“Next morning the battle was renewed with vigor, lasting during the morning as the enemy began a hasty retreat. Our boys pursued them hastily with yells and firing until we reached the main battleground where a mansion the day before was struck with our shells and set on fire and burned. Their dead men lay with their clothes burned off of them and they lay so thick on the ground, we could scarcely find places for our feet.
“We could yell no more.”
Ruth (Jennings) Wilson
Peculiar, Missouri
Back in 1955 a call went out from the editors of the then CAPPER’s Weekly asking for readers to send in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first My Folks title – My Folks Came in a Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from CAPPER’s readers, and we are proud to make those stories available to our growing online community.
