Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1860-01-18
ga Colonel from EgYpt.D

colonel DuJardon walked quickly doWD De
tween the two lines, looking with his fiery
eyes into the mems eyes on the right. Then
he came back on the other side and as he went
he lighted those mems eyes with his own
1t was torch passing along line of ready
gas lights.
1.-The work to us" he cried IN a voice like
a clarion, Git fired the hearts as his eye had
fired the eyes, etbe triumph to strangersi-
Our fatigues and our losses have not gained
the brigade the honor of going out at those
fellows. that have killed so many of our COM
rades.Is
A fierce groan from the men.
Nv bat. shall the colors of another brigade
| and not ours, fly from that bastion this after
noon?"
NO. no,'' in roar of thunder
''Ahl you are of my mind. Attention.
! The attack is fixed at FIVE o'clock Suppose
you and [ we're to carry the bastion ten min
utes before that Colonel from Egypt can bring
his meE upon the ground?"
A fierce roar of Joy and laughter-the
strange laugh of the veterans and born irwin
| cibles.
THAT was question put to your hearts
your answer"
The answer was yell of exulting assent,
but was half drowned by another response,
and thunder of the imperial drums, aud the
rattle of fixing hayonets.
The Colonel told off partJ to the battc-
~.
Level the guns at the top ties. Fire a.
my signal, and keep firing over our heads till
you see our colours on the place"
He then darted to the head of the column,
which instantly formed behind him in the cen
tire of Death Alley.
The colorsI No hand but mine shall ho Id
them to-day
They were instantly brought to him; his
left hand shook them free TO the afternoon
breeze.
A deep murmer of JOY from the old hands
at the unwonted sight. Out flashed the sword
like steel lightning. He waved it toward the
battery.
Bang bang. bang bang! went the cannon,
aud the smoke rolled over the trenches. At
the same moment up went the colors waving
and the ColoIPs clarion voice pealed above
ALL
Twenty fourth demi-brigade. forward"
They went so swiftly out of the trenches
that they we're not seen through their own
smoke until they had run some sixty
yards. No sooner were seen coming on like
devils, than two thousand muskets were lev
lied at them from all the PFussiap- line. 1t
was not rattle of small arms-it was crash
and the men fell fast; but in moment they
were seen to spread out like fan, aud when
the fan closed again, it half encircled the bas-
ton 1t was a French attack. Part swarm
ed at it like bees, part swept round the glacis
and fianked it. They were seen to fall in
numbers, shot down from the embrasures =
But the living took the place of the dead. and
the fight ragged evenly there. Where are the
colors? Towards the rear. There the Col
and hundred men are fighting hand to hand
with the Prussians, who have charged out
at the back door of the bas;ion. Success
there, and the bastion must fall-both sides
knew this.
All in moment the colors disappeared
There was groau from the French line No |
there they we're again, and close under the !
bastion.
And now iu front the attack was so hot |
that often the Prusslan gunners were seen to !
jump down, driven from their posts; and the |
next moment fierce hurrah from the rear |
told that the French had won some great ad- |
vantage there. The FIRE Stacking told SIM |
liar tale, and presently down came the Prus- /
sian flagstaff. That might be accident. A |
few moments of thirsty expectation, and up !.
went the colors of the twenty-fOurth brigade |
upon the DaSliOU Oh CT. Auure.
The whole French army raised shout that /
rent the sky, and their cannon began to play
on the Prussan lines and between the bas- /
tain an6 the nearest fort, to prevent a cap
ture
Then shot from the earth about cubic /
acre OF fire where last the bastion was seen to
stand; it carried up heavy mountain of red
and black smoke that looked solid as marble.
There was heavy, sullen, tremulous explo-
sion; that snuffed out the cannon's roar, and
oaralized the French and Prussian gunner's
hands, and checked the very beating of their
hearts. Thirty thousand pounds of gupp1w-
Ter were in that dreadful explosion
War itself heald its breath, and both armies
ike peaceful spectators, gazed, wOnder-struck
treat hell seemed to have burnt through the
,arth's crust aud to be crushing at Heaven
Huge stones; cannon, corpses and limbs of
soldiers were seen driven or falling through
he smoke. Some of these latter came quite
lear of the ruins, aye. into the French and
orussian lines, that even the veterans put
heir hands to their eyes. Raynal felt some
hing spatter from the clouds 1t was blood.
comrad's perhaps Oh, warl war;
The smoke cleared. Where a moment be-
ore stood the frowniug bastiou nothing re-
nained but a blackened and bloody pile of
tones and timbers, with dismountei canon
ticking up here and there
And rent and crushed to atoms beneath
be smoking mass, lay the relics of the gall
ant brigade and victorious colors
Skdting Ferer.-Five hundred persons of