Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-04-12


one day, and The two ieutenants were men
who had bravely won their shoulderstraps.
At Sharpsburg we numbered forty-nine
forty.nine old veterans, mean. The other
three had been killed on picket. As VIC de-
| ployed TO the left Of the pike, and filed across
the fields, J wondered If the new men would
do rs credit We were eighty strong as n
company, aud over thirty Of The men had
| never been under fire. Ices artillery was
pounding at our columns half an hour before
our brigade got the order 10 move Meadows,
fields, groves, knolls, fences, and a creek
and We knew that Lee was standing on the
defensive aud had a strong position. When
the work came | could see that some of the
new men trembled, but the old forty-ninc
took up their knapsacks aud fell into liuc as
| If we were breaking camp. Down across
/ the fields we went, following the double line
of skirmishers, and at last We struck the en-
envy. lie had fence, long ditch, and a
/ line of willows, and he did not yield until
we crushed him by weight of numbers. As
| he retired we followed men falling dead
every moment Unknown TO us a weak three
| thousand were piercing Lees line. lie saw
| his danger, and battery wheeled into the
/ gap, opened on US, aud the left and ceutre Of
our brigade swung back under the fearful
rain of grapcshot and shell. The right caught
| the order 10 retreat, and TO 60 forward. Some
fell back others leaped the ditch with a
wild cheer, and charged the battery. Com
pany G led. Half way to the guns we left
the recruits behind, aud only the forty-nine
kept on Men could pause and retreat from
that charge, aud no one would call them
towards
The smoke and the flame hid Us ior mo.
ment, and then We reached the guns, leapcd
over them, crawled under them, shot, stab
bed, shouted and hurrahod. The whole
/ battery was ours We seized the guns to
drag them of, when a heavy line OF battle
came down through the gap, closed it up,
aud men fought hand-to-hand over the can
non, over the caissons, over the great heaps
of dead on the grass. Less than three hun
dred federals were fighting five thousand con-
federates 1t could not last long. After a
moment we were driven back, over the ditch,
| beyond the fence, into the federal line Of
battle.
Pretty hot in there, captain I" shouted a
brigadier, as the torn and mangled remnant
halted to reform.
Pretty hot" My God, it was the work
Of fiends and devils Forty-nine Of the
bronzed old fighters in Company e had
dashed at the cannon only twenty-tour
came back Twenty-Five were lying dead
under the guns, 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 cannot turn to devils at once.
| We still had strong company--stronger
than some but we went ON counting twenty
| four-counting only those who would stand
until touched by the flame of death. Both
lieutenants We're gone, and they gave me
men from the ranks.
We looked down upon the placid river
from the north bank in front of Fredericks-
burg, and when the blue column crossed we
were near the front. Death had taken some
of the new men, but the old ones had been
spared. On through the curious old town,
up through the valley behind it, and then
the line of battle followed the line of skir-
mishers ON to the low stone walls behind
which Lees veterans were painting for the
word to fire Their sheets of flame 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 walls were
hidden from sight by the piles of dead
dressed in blue aud we did not charge again
Six of the twenty-four were left close to the
walls, and eleven of the new men never an
swered roll-cal again. 1t was not war, il
was not murder, it was butchery. But Nc
one murmured. The order had come tC
charge, aud we had charged, though every
soldier knew that he was charging into the
open jaws of destruction.
Not soldier in Company G had been
wounded; not one of those who fell back to
the rivers bank could show scratch from
I i.t
since our first battle. There was nothing tc
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 head of killed in action" When
they fought it was to the death.
After Fredericksburg more recruits We're
sent down TO u.s. We received them kindly
but we kept on counting eighteen, just as
if Company & would be wiped ont when the
last old veteran went. And they said that
my company was fated. Other companie,
had been decimated. and other companie.
could show long lists OF captured " and
wounded but no other company in the
brigade had suffered like G..
Then came Gettysburg. The elghteer
old veterans were there, and the company
numbered sixty-eight with the new men
Other divisions were held in reserve, oi
escaped the hottest of the fight, but our
was to beat back the iiercest charge of th'
bloody war-the charge against Round Top
Somehow Company & was at the iron
again, and as the fierce yels of the coming
confederates were heard above the might
roar of the cannon, | looked down the line
Some Of the new men were looking this way
and that, as if seeking cover, but the ole
veterans peered coolly through the smoke
and waited with levelled muskets to catcl
the first glimpse of gray uniforms. Oh
across the fields came the charging, cheorin.
host, up the steep hillside, and then a shee
of flame leaped out and withered them. Th'
gray line was absorbed in that flame of deatl
, lust as water dssolyes salt But secon,
line sprang at u.s. and a third and fourth
and they were at the guns which We wer'
supporting. Some one gave an order. NJ
one exactly understood il, but all rushed TO
the guns. Shrieks, groans, shots, shouts
, and then the line OF gray pushed back tn
, line of blue. They were all around us
, front, right, left--and men neither aske'
nor gave quarter. Back, back, went tn
line of blue, and Round Top, the key o
Gettysburg, was won for the confederates.
But only for a moment. A double line o
blue pushed its way up through the smoke
I
won again, And how won Men slippe'
and fell on the bloody grass, heaps of dea'
; were piled up like logs and the shricks AM
groans of the wounded were awful 10 heaI
Aud when Lee faced southwark, fighting
as he marched, called the roll again. Non
wounded, none missing but upon the ores
of Round Top we left ten old veterans AM
fourteen new men, Ten out of eighteen
twenty-four out of sxty-eight The blood
thirsty fiend who wields the sword of wa
should have been satisfied with that Six
teen more widows back in the little eountr
/ village, more. orphans, more sobs and tear
2 Not one of the living could show wounc
/, but each one of us would have rejoiced a
$ the loss of an arm--at some grieyous woun
| which would have made the surgeons shak
their heads and look serious.
0 Only eight left Only eight men Of Tia
G one hundred and three who marched out o
| the hamlet that May morning The neN
! men had fought well, and we respected them
/. but we went on counting eight. Three he'll
| commissions-the other five were sergeant
I mot enough TO officer the company
o In the dusk of evening Stonewall Jackso
, came down through the forests and thioket
! beyond the Rappahannoek, and struck Tia
: federal camps and opened the battle of tn
! Wilderness. The eight old veterans of Con
/, pany G were there, aud the new men mad
a up band Of forty strong. As we hear
4 tIa ,raab af fnual airy nvar m, tha laft IN