Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1876-06-05

and other companies could show long
lists of captured" and wounded" but
no other company in the brigade had
suffered like G.
Then came Gettysburg. The eighteen
old veterans were there, and the COM
pany numbered sixty-eight with the new
men Other divisions were held in re-
serve, or escaped the hottest of the fight,
but ours was to beat back the fercest
charge of the bloody war-the charge
against Round Top. Somehow Company
G was at the front again, and as the
fierce yells Of the coming Confederates
wsrs heard above the mighty roar of the
cannon, l looked down the line. Some
of the new men were looking this way
and that, as If seeking cover, but the
old veterans peered coolly through the
smoke, and waited with levelled muskets
to catch the first glimpse of gray uni
forms. On across the fields came the
charging, cheering host, up the steep
hillside, and then sheet of fame leaped
out and withered them. The gray line
was absorbed in that fame of death just
as water dissolyes salt. But d second
line sprang at US, and third and fourth,
and then they were at the guns which
We were supporting. Some one gave an
order. No one exactly understood it,
but all rushed for the guns. Shrieks,
groans, shots, shouts, and then the line
of gray pushed back the line of blue.
They were all around us, front, right,
left-and men neither asked or gave
quarter. Back, back, went the line of
blue, and Round Top, the key of Gettys-
burg, was won for the Confederates.
But only for moment A double
line of blue pushed its way up through
the smoke, hurled itself forward, and
Round Top was won again. And how
won =? Men slipped and fell on the
bloody grass, heaps of dead were piled
up like logs, and the shrieks and groans
of the wounded were awful to hear.
And when Lee faced southwark, fight
ing as he marched, 1 called the roll
again. None wounded, none missing,
but upon the crest of Round Top we left
ten old veterans and fourteen men. Ten
out of eighteen, twenty four out of sixty
eight The blood Thirsty fend who
wields the sword of war should have
been satisfied with that Sixteen more
widows back in the little country vii
lage, more orphans, more sobs and tears
Not one of the living could show {
wound, but each one of US would have
, rejoiced at the loss of an arm-at som'
, grievous wound which would have mad,
the surgeons shake their heads and lool
; serious.
; Only eight left Only eight out o
: the one hundred and three who marched
out of the hamlet that May morning
The new men had fought well, and W
| respected them, but we went on count
ing eight. Three held commissions
e the other five were sergeants-not enougl
e to officer the company
Y In the dusk of the evening Stonewal
: jackson came down through the forest
e and thickets beyond the Rappahanock
o and struck the Federal camps and open
ed the battle of the Wilderness. Tn
r eight old veterans of Company G wer
e there, and the new men made up ban
o of forty strong. AS we heard the cras
Q of musketry over Oh the left, our poo
e skeleton brigade, numbering twenty -thre
9 hundred instead of four thousand fell int
l. line and pushed on through the stunte
/ pines after line of skirmishers. Compan
e G was on the left of the skirmish lin,
and we found the enemy frst-a heav
n line of gray coming through the wilde
/ ness at half run. Down we kne
n among the vines and bushes, and OF
e fire checked them. They fired a fe
n wild shots, retreated little, and the
IS we leaped up and drove them-a bar
i of forty drove line of skirmishers. su
e. ported by line of battle. History b
l. not told it to the world, but blood w
he left on the vines and corpses on Il
t. ground to prove it. They were feelil
e. over strange ground, after foe who
ID strength was not known, and that W
d, the reason of our success. We push
k, them back to the line of battle, attack
d. that, and then we were tossed back, to
en- and bleeding, almost blotted out of e
be istenee as company.
We OF the eight old veterans, six we
n lying dead under the trees of the III
nd men twenty-five answered roll-call aft
r. the Wilderness Was that war or slaug
it ter? A captain and second lieutena
20 only were left to represent the one hu
to dred and three?
rh The end was not yet, bu. the end "
ng coming. There were no new recru
for my company, but we marched towa
en- Richmond numbering twenty-seven. H
ok the country forgotten the fierce conf
ch at Petersburg? As we fell into line
en- make twenty-seven more in the briga'
ire | saw the lieutenant looking at I
of Poor fellow there was no need for b