The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1866-09-20
NO.2z.

oiuS IorCy-nVe out OF Iorty -elSht or
their horses tethered in the neighborbood.
1t was the incarnation of slaughter, but
the only wonder was that they had not
done 1T sooner 1t was a fearful hour
Our hearts stood still Where was Hook
er? did he not hear the roar of battle p
Surely he must hear its echoes and come
to our relief 1t was q terrible moment;
! but the indomitable Geary was equal to
the issue He stood like some stole, of
old, unmoved amid the wreck around
him. Assailed by six times his force;
cut off from succor; in the midst Of an
unknown country; his ammunition almost
exhausted; one-fourth of his command
sweltering in death around him; all his
staff killed or wounded, and his heroic
son, his first born, the embodiment Of
every noble virtue and manly promise, a
mangle corpse near by; yet calm and un-
dismayed he still rode unscathed along
his weakened lines, encouraging, and or
dering, and firing his men with his own
indomitable pluck and resolution to stand
/ to the last extremity.
But why attempt this midnight scene,
its horrors and It's mighty issues? It
would require the pen of Scott, a Napier
or a Hugo to do it justice; to portray the
deadly struggle through the long hours
of that autumn night, when a nations life
hung in the balance, while nation slept
unmindful of the fact. To give the just
need of praise to the brave officers and
men that there bled or manfully battled
until the grey of morn; to tell how charge
after charge was repulsed until our am
munition was exhausted; when we re-
plenished from our dead, wounded and
! prisoners; how we watched hour after
hour for the relief that came not, until
the last cartridge was exhausted, we fixed
bayonets to sell the last issue with cold
steel, and how the enemy bafied and foil
ed and kept at bay through the night
had all his plans disarranged and so lost
the prize for which he made his
swoop-for the stubborn, prolonged and
unhear1 of resistance Of Geary defeated
his plans and saved the 11th corps from
the combined assault intended-and how
after hours and hours of dreadful struggle
the enemy hastily retreated just before
day, leaving over thousand killed and
wounded, besides many hundred prison
ers in our hands; and how, just after day,
Generals Grant and Thomas, from Chat
tanooga, and Hooker and Howard, from
Browns Ferry, came on the battlefield
and congratulated General Geary on his
glorious and unparalleled victory, as he
sat under the shade of tree begrimed
with the smut Of battle; how great was
their surprise when they found that he
had fought it single handed and alone,
they supposing that General Shultz had
been dispatched with division to his aid
as soon as the first echo of the fight was
heard the night before. Yes, all this
would require greater space and ability
than can command, for have not time
to condense this article into its proper
! limits, for each moment as [ write some
new incident rushes on the mind and
elamors for utterance. Nor can relate
the fortitude with which Geary bore up
under the loss of his noble son, or the sin
cere coincidence of his superiors as ten
dered him on that eventful morning, or
of Che frank and eloquent tributes paid
then, and afterwards, by both Grant and
Hooker, in which they freely acknowl-
edged him to be the savior of our army,
and with it, of all the mighty issues hang
ing thereon; nor mention with just
praise, the heroic and patriotic names
that bore a part in that night; but, suf-
fee it to say, that Geary's stubborn and
prolonged resistance consumed the
night, hurled back the rebels, baffled aud
bleeding, and thus saved US from untold
disaster, for all which he deserves not on
ly enduring fame, but the honest graft
tude of every patriot in the land, instead
of, as in the subsequent battle of Look
out, being shoru of his just renown and
assailed with political slauder. or over
slaughed by others, who played an infe-
rior part in the dreadful fray, for the wri-
ter stood by his side in both of those fear
full conflicts, and in the last, as we'll as in
the first, can testify that on both occa-
sions our success was wholly owning to
to the genius of his brain, and the daunt-
less nerve of his single heart. He alone
carried out the assault on Lookout, and
was the senior officer and alone on the
mountain until the day was won. But
he is as brave as he is modest, and suffers
upstarts, who were not even under fire on
those OCCASIONS to rob him of his just
need of praise.
l have not seen General Geary since
he started with Sherman on his famous
g march to the sea- and may never see
or communicate with him again, but |
cannot be still and see him uujustly as
sailed. Therefore, | beg you will give
this place in your columns, for, God
knows, he is entitled to all the praise and
place Won can possibIy give him L.