Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1863-12-24


Bridges battery; the bugle swung idly at the
buglers side, the warbling fife and grumbling
drum unhea ard there was to be louder talk ;
six guns at intervals of two seconds, the signal
to advance. Strong and steady his voice rang
out: "Nunber one, fire Number two fire ,
Number three, fire PIT seemed to me the
tolling of the clock of destiny-and when at
Number six, fire !" the roar throbbed out
with the fash, you should have seen the dead
| line that had been lying behind the works all
day, all night, all day again, come to resur-
rection in the twinkling of an eye-leap like
Il blade from its scabbard and sweep with a
two-mile stroke towards the Ridge. From
divisions to brigades, from brlgades to regl-
ments the order ran. A minute, and the Skin
mishers deploy; minute, and the first great
| drops begin to patter along tie line; a min
ute, and the musketry is in full play like the
cracking whips of hemlock fire; men 60
| down here and there, before rour eyes the
wind lifts the smoke and drifts it away over
the top of the ridge; everything is too dis
with your hand The divisions of Wood and
Sheridan are walking breast-deep in the val
ley Of death.
never can tell you what it was like. They
pushed out, leaving nothing behind them.-
There was no reservation in that battle On
moves the line of skirmishers, like a heavy.
frown, anG after it, at quick time, the SPLEEN
did columns. At right of us and left of US
and front of Us, you can see the bayOnets
glitter in the sun. You cannot persuade your
self that Bragg was wrong, a day or two ago,
when seeing Hooker moving in, he said
NOW we shall have Potomac review - that
this is not the parade he prophesied; that it
is Of a truth the harvest of death to which
they 90 down And so through the fringe of
the woods went the line. Now, out into the
open ground they burst into the double quick.
Shall | call it Sabbath days journey, or a
long half mile? To me that watched, it
seemed endless as eternity, and yet they made
it in thirty minutes. The tempest that now
broke upon their heads was terrible The
enemys fire burst out of the rife-pits from
base to summit of Mission Ridge; five rebel
batteries Of PARROTS and Napoleons opened
along the crest. Grape and canister and shot
and shell sowed the ground with ragged iron
and garnished it with the wounded and the
dead But steady and strong our columns
moved on.
{. BY Heaven 1t was splendid sight to see,
For one who had no friend, no brother there
bus to all loyal hearts, alas and thank God,
those men were friend and brother both i'll
one.
And over their heads as they went, Forts
Wood and Neglcy struck straight out like
mighty pugiists right and left, raining their
iron blows upon the Ridge from base to crest :;
Forts Palmer and King took up the quarrel
and Moccasin Point cracked it's fiery whips
and dashed the rebel left till the wolf COVER
ed in its corner with growl. Bridges bat
terry, from Orchard Knob below, thrust its
ponderous fists in the face OF the enemy, and
planted blows at will. Our artillery, was do
ing splendid service 1t laid its shot and
she'll wherever it pleased Had giants car
ricd them by hand they could hardly have
| been more accurate All along the noun
tan's side, in the rebel rifle pits, in the crest,
they fairly dotted the Ridge. Gen. Granger
| lcaped down, sighted gun, and in moment,
right and III front, great volume of smoke,
| like g the cloud by day" lifted off the sum
nit from among the rebel batteries, and hung
motionless, kindling in the sum. The shot
| had struck caissOn and that was its dying
| breath In five minutes away floated anoth-
cr. A shell went crushing through building
| in the cluster that marked Bragg's headquar-
tcrs il second killed the skeleton horses of Il
| battery at his elbow, Il third scattered gray
mass as if it had been n wasp's nest.
| And all the while our lines were moving
ON they had burned through the woods and
| swept over the rough and rolling ground like
a prairie fire. Never hating, never talter-
ing, they charged up to the first rife pits with
Il cheer, forllcd out the rebels with their bay
onets, and lay there painting for breath. If
the thunder Of guns had been terrible, it was
| now growing sublime it was like the football
| OF God on the lodges Of cloud. Our forts and
batteries still thrust out their mighty arms
| across the valley; the rebel guns that lined
the are OF the crest full in our front, opened
! like tho fan Of Lucifer, and cOnverged their
fire down upon Baird and Wood and Sheri-
dan. 1t was rifles and muskctry; it was
grape and canister; it was shell and schrap-
mel. Mission Ridge was volcanic a thou
sand torrents of red poured over its brink
and rushed together to its base. And our
men were there, hating for breath And
still the sublime diapasOn rolled on. Echoes
that never walked before, roared out from
height to height, and called from the far ran
gcS of Waldron's ridge to Lookout. As for
Mission Ridge, it had Jared to such music
before: it was the sounding board" of Chick
amauga; it was behind Us then; it trowns and
flashes in our faces to-day; the old Army of
the Cumberland was there it breasted the
storm till the storm was spent, and left the
ground it held the old Army of the Cumber-
land is here 1t shall roll up the Ridge like
a surge to its summit, and sweep t umphant
down the other side Believe me, that mem
DRY and hope may have made the heart of
many blue-Coat beat like y drum. ''BCat,"
did say? The fevcrish heart of the battle
beats on; fifty-eight guns minute by the
watch, is the rate of its terrible throbbng.
That hill, you climb it, will appal you. Fur
rowcd like summer-falow, bullets as if an
oak had shed them; trees clipped and shorn,
leaf and limb, as with the knife of some he
role gardener pruning back for richer fruit
How YOU attain the summit, weary and breath
less, | wait to hear; how they went up i'll the
teeth of the storm no man can tell :!
And all the WHILE rebel prisoners havcbeen
streaming out from the rear of our lines like
the tails Of cloud of kite. Captured and
iisarmed, they needed nobody TO see them
going. The fire of their own comrades was
like spurs to a horses TANKS, and, amid the
tempest of their own brewing, they ran for
dear life until they dropped like quails into
the Federal rife pits and were safe But our
gallant legions are out in the storm; they
have carried the works at the base of the
Ridge they have fallen like leaves in win
ter weather. And now the arc of fire on the
crest grows fercer and longer. The dull
fringe of the hill kindles with the flash of
great guns. | count the feeces of white
smoke that dot the ridge, as battery after bat
terry opens upon our lines, until from the ends
of the growing arc they sweep down upon it
in mighty KS of fire. l count till that devils
girtile numbers thirteen batteries, and my
heart cries out, Great God when shall the
end bc!.H There is poem | learned in child
hood, and so did you: it is Campbells
Hoheninden" One line I never knew the
meaning of until l read it written along that
hill 1t mas lighted up the whole poem for NE