Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1863-12-23


drum unheard there TO be ioul}eg talk ;
six guns atinteryals of two seconds, the signal
| TO advance Strong and steady his voice rang
out g Number one, fire Number two, fire !
Number three, fire ut seemed to me the
| tolling of the clock of destiny-and when at
Number six, fire :" the roar throbbed out
with the flash, 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 eye-leap like
a blade from its -cabbard, and sweep with a
two-nle stroke towards the Ridge. From
divisions TO brigades, from brigades to regi-
ments the order ran. A minute, and the Skin
misherS deplOy; minute, and the first great
drops begin to patter along the line; min
ute, and the musketry is in full play like the
cracking whips Of hemlock fire; men go
down here and there, before your eyes; the
wind lifts the smoke and drifts it away over
the top of the ridge; everything is too dis
tinct it Is fairly paIpaJie; you can touch it
with your hand. The divisions of Wood and
Sheridan are walking breast-deep in the val
ley of death
| never ear 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 skirInishers, like . heavy
trown, and after 1t, at quick time, the SPLEEN
did columns. At right of US and left of US
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 n that
this Is not the parade he prOphesied; that it
Is Of d truth the harvest of death to which
they go 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 a Sabbath DAYS journey, or
seemed endless as eternity, and vet they made
il in thirty minutes. The tempest that now
broke upon their heads was terrible. The
enemy's fire burst out of the rite-pits from
base to summit of Mission Ridge; five rebel
batteries of PARROTS and Napoleons opened
along tie crest. Grape and canister and shot
and she'll sowed the ground with ragged iron
and sarnished it with the wounded and the
dead. But steady and STRONG our columns
moved on.
:. BY Heaven 1t splendid sight to see,
For one VINO had no friend, brother there
but 70 all loyal hearts, alas and thank God,
those men were friend and brother, both in
one
And over their heads as they went Forts
Wood and Negley struck straight out like
mighty pugiIists right and left, raining their
iron blows upon the Ridge from base TO crest;
and Moccasiu Point cracked its fiery whips
and Iashed the rebel left till the wolf COVER
ed In its corner with 2 growL Bridges bat
terry, from Orchard Knob below, thrust its
pOnderOus fists in the face OF the enemy, and
planted blows at viii. Our artillery, was do
ing splendid service. 1t laid its shot and
shell wherever it pleased. Had giants car
ricd them by hand they could hardly have
been more accurate. All along the noun
~ Dol .i4
they fairly dotted the Ridge. Gen. Granger
Ieaped down, sighted gun, and in a moment,
right and III front, great volume Of smoke,
like . the cloud by day. lifted off the sum
init from among the rebel batteries and hung
motiouless, kindlng in the sum. The shot
had struck a caiss0n and that was its DIVING
breath In five minutes away foated anoth-
CT. / shell went crushing through building
In the cluster that marked Bragg's headquar-
tiers; a second killed the skeleton horses Of
battery at his elbow, a third scattered a gray
mass IS if it had been a 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 falter-
Ing, they charged up to the first rHe-pits with
a cheer, forked out the rebels with their bay
onets, and lay there painting for breath If
tine thunder of guns had been terrible, 1t was
now growing sublime; 1t was ike the football
OF God on the lodges of cloud Our forts and
batteries still thrust out their mighty yrms
across the valley the rebel guns that lined
the arc cf the crest full in our front, opened
like the fan Of Luciter, and conyerge1 their
fire down upon Baird and Wood and Sheri-
dan. 1t was rifles and musketry; il was
grape and canister; it WAS she'll and schrap-
mel. Mission Ridge was volcanic; "a thou
sand torrents of I'd poured over its brink
and rushed together to its base. And our
men were there, hating for breath! And
still the sublime Giapason rolled on. Echoes
that never walked before, roared out from
height TO height and called from the far ran
yes Of Waldron's ridge to Lookout. As for
Mission Ridge, it had Jared 10 such music
before IL was the sounding board" of Chick
amauga; it was behind US then; 1t frowus ana
flashes in our faces to-day; the old Army Of
the Cumberland was there il breasted tie
torn till the storm was spent, and left the
ground it held the Old Army Of the Cumber-
land is her, Ii shall roll up the Ridge like
a surge 10 its summit, and sweep triumphant
down the other side. Believe me, that mem
orv ana hope may have made the heart of
many b!ue-coat beat like a drum. Beat
did say? The teyerish heart of tire battle
beats on; hity-cight guns a minute, by the
watch, Is the rate of its terrible thr0bbiug
That hill, if YOU climb it, viii appal you Fur
rowed like a summer-taIlow, bullets as if an
oaA 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 ard breath
less wait 10 near; how they went up in the
teeth OF tac storm no man can tell
And all the while, rebel prisoners havebeeu
streaming out from the rear Of our lines Ike
the tails of a cloud Of kite. Captured and
disarned, they needed nobody to see them
going The fire of their own comrades was
Ike spurs 30 q horses Hanbs. and amid the
tempest OF their own brewing they ran tor
dear fife until they dropped ike quaiIs into
.ae Federal rifle pits and were safe But our
gallant lcgious are out in the storm. they
nave carried the works at the base of the
Ridge; they have fallen like leaves in win
ter weather. And now the are of FIRE on the |
crest grows hercer and longer. The dull
tslu-a of the hin kindles with the flash of
great gums. I count the tieeces of white
smoke that dot the ridge, rs battery after bat
terry opens upon our lines, until from the ends
of the growing are they sweep down upon il /
i'm mighty rs of Ere l count till that devils
-lrdIe numbers thirteen batteries, and NV
heart cries out ' Great God when shall tie
end be There Is poem learned in child |
hood, and 50 did you ii Is Campbelrs !
"HohenlIndcn." One line 7 never knew the
meaning of until l read il written along that
hill 1t mas lighted up the whole poem for me
with tile glow of battle forever: