The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1876-05-26
VOLUME 4.

brigade swung back under the fearful
rain of grapeshot and she'll. The right
caught the order 10 retreat and go for
ward. Some fell back; Others leaped the
ditch with a wild cheer and charged the
battery, Company q led. Half way to
the guns we left the recruits behind, and
only the forty-nine kept on. Men could
pause and retreat from that charge, and
no one would call them towards.
The smoke and the fame hid us for a
moment, and then we reached the guns.
leaped over them, crawled under them,
shot, stabbed. shouted and hurrahed.
The whole battery was onrs! We seized
the guns TO drag them of, when a heavy
line of battle came down through the
gap, closed it up, and men fought hand
to hand over the cannon, over the cais-
sons, over the great heaps of dead on the
grass. Less than three hundred Feder-
ais were fighting five thousand Confed-
eratesl 1t could not last long. For
moment we were driven back, over the
ditch, beyond the fence, into the Federal
line of battle.
pretty hot in there, Captain" shout
ed a hrigadier as the torn and mangled
remnant halted to reform.
pretty hot" My God! it was the
work of fends and devils. Forty nine
Of the bronzed old fighters in company
y l. al Anlx
ty-four came back! Twenty-Five were
lying dead under the gnns, heaped up so
that they blocked the heavy wheels!
The recruits were there to answer
"aye" at the next roll call. No one
thought i'll of them; men can not turn
to devils at once. We still had a strong
company than some, but we
went on counting twenty four-counting
only those who would stand until touch
ed by the fame of death. Both lieuten-
ants were gone, and they gave me men
from the ranks.
We look ed down upon the placid river
from the north bank in front of Fred
ericksbnrg, and when the blue column
crossed we were near the front. We
were still twenty four. Death had taken
some Of the new men, hut the old ones
had heen spared. On through the Curl
Gus old town, up through the valley be
hind it, and then the line of battle fol-
lowed the line of zkirmishers on the low
atone walls behind which Lees veterans
were painting for the word to fire their
sheets of fame which almost scOrched
our faces. The battle line melted
doubled twisted, and then we fell back
the living leaping over heaps of dead
Forward again. back again, and then the
piles of dead dressed in bIne, and we did
not charge again. Six of the twenty
four were left close to the walls, and
eleven of the new men never answered
roll call again. It was not war, it was
not murder-it was butchAry. But no
one murmured. The order had come
to charge and we had charged though
every soldier knew that he was charging
into the open jaws of destruction.
Not a soldier in company G had been
wounded; not one of those who fell
back to the rivers bank could show a
scratch from bullet or bayonet. 1t had
been thus ever since our frat battle.
There was nothing to report under the
head of wounded" and missing" but
all the names :of those who had heard
their last roll call went down under the
heading of "killed in action" When
they fought it was to the death.
After Fredericksburgh more recruits
came down to US. We received them
kindly, but we kept on co 1nting eigh-
teen, jnst as if company G would be
wiped out when the last old veteran
went. And they said that my company
was fated. Other companies had been
drcimaled, and other companies could
show long lists of Captured" and
wounded" but no other company had
suffered like G..
Then came Gettysburgh. Tho eigh-
teen old veterans were there, and the
company numbered eighty eight with
| the new men. Other divisions were
held in reserve, 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 q was at the front again, and
as the fierce yells of the coming Confed-
crates were 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, hut
the old veterans peered cody through
the smoke, and waited with levelled
muskets to catch the first glimpse OF
gray uniforms. On across the fields
came the charging, cheering host, up the
steep hillside, and then a sheet of flame
| leaped out and withered them. The
gray line was absorbed in that flame OF
death just as water dIssolyes salt. But a
second line sprang at us. and third
and fourth. and then they were az the
guns which We were supporting. Some
one gave an order. No one exactly un-
deartood it, but all rushed for the guns
Shrieks. groans, shots, shouts, and then
the line of gray pushed back the line ot
blue. They were all around us-front
right, left-and men neither asked mol
gave quarter. Back, back, went the line
of blue, and Round Top, the key O
Gettysburg, was won for the Confeder
ates,
But only for moment. A douhl'
line of blue pushed its way up thorugf
the smoke. hurled itself forward. anC
Round Top was won again. And hov
won! Men slipped and fell on tht
bloody grass, heaps of dead we're piled
up like logs, and the shrieks and groan
, of the wounded were awful to hear.
And when Lee faced southwark, fight
ing as he marched, l called the rol