The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1869-07-16
a Hot DaH in the Ranks.

a Hot Day IN the Ranks
We rested for halfan hour about
noon in a shady nook, and when w
again tookthe road, emerging from the
pleasant shelter of the wood, the sur
poured down upon Us, and upon the
parched earth around Us, with an ef-
feet that vas terrible to witness. The
men dropped under that terrific food
of heat and light as l have seen plants
wilt down when exposed to a like in
fUence. What they felt, l, of course,
felt with them; aud to me it almost
seemed that the heat had trans6xed
me, smitten me as with arrows, and
drained me of my strength. Hotter
and hotter glared.the sun; slowly and
still more slowly the column reeled
along the road; and often, as its suf-
ferings grew more exquisite, a sob, a
sigh, 4 grOan, or an ejaculation was
forced from between elenehed teeth,
and still we labored on.
"My God 1 can't stand this my
head Is burning up p
The exclamation was from a mar In
the company ahead of mine; and, as
we passed, | saw that two of his com
rades had laid him by the roadside,
and were trying to revive him. He
was unconscious. In ten minutes the
same scene was repeated a dozen times
within sight. The company officers
begged, entreated, nay commanded
their men by turns to keep on their
feet, and march with column; but the
poor fellows we're beyond any such
appeals. The water in their canteens
was exhausted, and no more was to be
had; their thrOats were parehed, their
heads aching and burning, and they
moved on only because the motion
was mechanical. Never in all my
long experience, Fever have | known
such solsticial heat, or such suffering
to be oecasioned by such a cause. 1t
seemed to seize hold upon the breath,
the blood, the vitality, and imprison
them, while the sultry atmosphere
weighed US down. Presently, groans
and cries of irrepressible anguish re-
sounded through the entire column;
men fell their length in the dust,
flinging their arms over their heads
in gasping Inconsistencies, as thickly
and as instantly as have seen them
fall in battle, smitten down by the hos
tile bullet: Down they went, right
and left, like beeves stricken in the
shambles, and they lay thick in our
line of IL arch, while the ambulances
we're busted in taking them up.
l had not realized, up to this time,
that these men we're the victims of
sunstroEe, and 1 think 1 did not quite
realize the fact until 1 heard, on the
following day, the startling figures of
the Medical Director, showing that
upon this one day, in this one COM
mand, seUeateeR were killed and dis
abled by this dreadful visitation.
x x x x x
The sublime and ridiculous, the pa
thetic and the grOtesque, are proverb-
tally neighbors; and an illustration
was not wanting in this situation.
Our halt was on the outskirts of Fred
erick. A small ice-house near by had
been discovered and broken open by
some of the soldiers, frantic with
thirst; aud for the next ten minutes
our miseries were hghtened by
the spectacle of some dozen of
stalwart men sitting by the roadside,
each graspiEg great splinter of ice
and sucking it with that keen relish
which child derives from its stick
Of candy. The scene presented a
ridiculous aspect. which would have
made any person laugh IN whom the
springs of mirth we're not all dried up,
and we laughed and forgot our woes
for the moment.
knew something before of the
power of music to inspirit a weary
body of troops, but | was neyerthe-
less astonished to see this poor col
umn, faint, weak, foot.sore aud sick,
take the quick-step promptly at the
tap of the drum, close up in good or
der and march through Frederick
like veterans, as they were, with
shouldered arms, banner flying, and
stepping nimbly to the martial music
of stWhen ,Johnnv oomas MsrchinO
Home again." Good and loyal old
Frederick the spirit of Barbara
Freitchie was there, if the old dame
was not. Flags and handkerehiefs
flew thickly from windows and door
ways; shouts and cheers Of welcome
greeted us on every side, and girls
came out from the houses to give us
pure, cold spring water from those
blessed Maryland rocks. 1t was well
come not to be forgotten.