The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1861-08-23

spread above them on rails and muskets,
so as to shade them somewhat, enjoved a
lunch of biscuit and hot water, ard four
hours repose.
Little they seemed to heed the cannon
which at long intervals-intervals Of from
ten to twenty minutes-when it first be,
gan to boom, off there in the hazy woods
below, told them the enemy was found at
last. One might have thought that every
man of the Goth had been hardened and
callous veteran, SO coolly, 50 irdifferenuy,
SO lazily did they take those dread inti>
nations that death had commenced his
havoc amid the lightenings and with all
the pomp of war. Not pulse seemed to
qu!cken-not an eye to flash-not heart
to quail-not mirthful thought or word
to falter-as those subdued thunders rol,
led upward from those enormous masses
of foliage under which hill and valley, ra~
vine and river, lay buried to the left of
our position, and about four miles in ad
vance of it, for league at least. Nor
was it that the fatigue, occasioned by
those sweltering marches of the last three
days, had deadened them so thoroughly
that they had become insensible to the ex-
elements and dangers of the conflict now
actually begun, and were incapable of emo
ton or activity. Harrassed, indeed, they
were. Weakened, too, they were for want
of sufficient food, it being impossible for
them, on such stretch of road as they
had to take with such rapidity, to carry
their three days rations far-the more es-
pecially as once or twice upon the march
they were ordered to prepare for action,
and with the instinct of their race-as,
for instance, when bearing down on Fair>
fax-they stripped themselves of every
thing but their muskets and cartridge
boxes for the fight.
The fact is-what with constant alarms
at Fort Corcoran, forced marches and
precipitate expeditions two or three times
a week, being under arms upon the ram
parts every second night or so, lying in
ambuscade at the Alexandria and Loudon
railway from midnight until dawn, and
undergoing all the hardships, violences,
and most of the shocks of war-the men
of the Goth had become famiiarized by
anticipation and analogy with the scene
which, at that moment, was being played
otit with such terrible effect amid the beau
tiful green trees of Virginia, and on one of
the oldest high roads to Ler capital.
Hence the strange GOODNESS with which
they heard those deep bellowings of the
conflict, awaiting the summons that would
fling them into its fierce currents, and
whirl their banner into the blackest and
widest eddies of the storm.
At four o'clock IN the afternoon that
ordered up to relieve the Regiments that
had been under fire for five hours and
more. The Goth led the way, and as they
hurried up the hill, the elasticity and en-
thusiasm of their race seemed to peryade
them thoroughly. OF those thousand
men, sweeping on TO battle, through chok-
ing clouds of dust and under that shifting
sun, there was not one but carried himself
right gallantly ly-not enc who did not feel
that the hotor of his race and its military
character was staked that hour upon the
conduct of the Goth, and who, feeling this
and lifting his eye in rapture to the Green
Flag rs it danced above the rushing col
umn, did not swear to meet the thrusts OF
battle with fearless heart. An hours
rushing-for the marching of the Goth to
Bull Run that evening cannot otherwise
be described brought the Regiment to
the brow of the hill descending into the
little meadow where the Federal troops,
Regiment after Regiment, had faced and
stood a tempestuous fire from batteries OF
rfed cannon-masked as we'll as naked
batteries-the fire of rifle pits-a down
right torrent and wbirlwind of balls and
shot, all Of the deadliest cunning and
ripest pattern.
And here they encountered several OF
the 10Th Regiment of New York Volun-
teers hurrying from the bloody arena in
the woods below, some Of them dragging
dead or bleeding comrades along with
them, othey, with bandaged heads or legs
or arms, sta geriug through the dust and
the vengeful storm from the ritled cannon
which still pursued them. Here, o,they
met the 18th Rochester on its retreat, this
fine young Regiment having stood its
ground until broken and over powered -
Seeing body Of men making through the
woods from where the raurderous hail was
pouring in upon them thick and sharp
and fast, and taking them to be the South
orrora ~ rursuit &c tho 10,b No1 VII,