MUSTERED OUT. 21 



Curtis that was engaged against Price. There was 

 heavy fighting at The Blue, at Westport, and at 

 Marisdeseynge. The command was also in the battle 

 of Newtonia, where Charles Marvin's horsemanship 

 and a good horse saved his life. A rebel cavahwman 

 had fallen, on whose saddle was slung a white blanket. 

 Eations were short just then, and Marvin mistaking it 

 for a sack of flour, went after it. When near the sup- 

 posed prize, some of the Confederate horsemen at- 

 tempted to cut him off, and he had a decidedly " close 

 call." The horse struck good footing and a clean piece 

 of prairie, and by the hardest kind of riding the Federal 

 horseman got back to his lines. Probably he never 

 rode or drove a finish in saddle or sulky quite so des- 

 perate as on the home stretch of his race for life with 

 the guerrillas, who would have been delighted to gather 

 him in. In the summer of 1865 the company was 

 mustered out at Fort Piley, and the war experiences of 

 the author of this work ended. 



In the army in these parts in the closing years of the 

 war a o:ood deal of horse-racino; was indulo-ed in, and 

 when it was over, and the company mustered out, Mar- 

 vin found himself in possession of two race-horses and 

 two saddle-horses. He went to Kansas City and re- 

 mained there, training and racing runners until the 

 fall of 1866. It is hardly proper to call them race- 

 horses, for they Avere merely quarter-horses, and few 

 of them were good half-mile sprinters, the most of the 

 races being at a quarter of a mile, 500 yards, and 600 

 yards straight away. The "cracks " of Marvin's string 

 were "Whitestockings, a good half-miler, of the Ariel 

 blood, and Battery Grey, a lively scrambler whose 

 ''pedigree" traced to the Xinth Wisconsin Battery. 



