Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-04-28
NO. lOl.
MiseellaneoMs.
FATE'S CHOICE.
CONTINUED FROM YESTERDAY

'iou tHe HOrtn Dank IN front OF FreQer1ckS-
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 skirmishers 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, and we did not charge close to the
walls. and eleven of the new men never
answered roll-call again. 1t was not war,
1t was not murder-it was butchery. 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 soldier in Company G had been
wounded; not one of those who fell back
to the rivers bank could show a scrath
from bullet or bayonet. 1t had been thus
ever since our first battle. There was
nothing to report except under the head of
"klled in action" When they fought it
was to the death.
After Fredericksburg more recruits were
sent down to US. We received them kind
ly, but we kept on counting eighteen, Just
as if Company G would be wiped out
when the last old veteran went. And thev
said that my company was fated. Other
companies had been decimated, and other
companies could show long lists of soap
tured" and wounded" but no other COM
pany in the brigade had suffered like G..
Then came Gettysburg. The eighteen
old veterans were there, and the company
numbered sxty-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 fiercest 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 were heard above
the mighty roar of the cannon, looked
down the line. Some of the new men
were looking this way and that, as if seek
ing cover, but the old veterans peered
coolly through the smoke, and waited with
leveled muskets TO catch the first glimpse
of gray uniforms. On across the fields
came the cheering host, up the steep hill
side, and then sheet of flame leaped out
and withered them. The gray line was
absorbed in that flame of death Just as
water dissolves salt.
But second line sprang at US, and
third and fourth, and then thev were at
the guns which we were supporting. Some
one gave an order. No one exactly un-
derstood 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 nor
gave quarter. Back, back, went the line
of blue, and Round Top. the key Of Get
tysburg, was won for the Confederates.
But only for moment. A double 3lne
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. l called the roll again,
None wounded, none missing, but upon
the crest of Round Top we left ten old
veterans and fourteen new men. Ten
out of eighteen, twenty-four out Of sixty
eight The blood thirsty fiend who wields
the sword of war should have been salts.
fed with that. Sixteen more widows
back in the little country village, more Or
phans, 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 some grievous wound
which would have made the surgeons
shake their heads and look serious.
Only eight left Only eight men Of
one hundred and three who marched out of
the hamlet that May morning! The new
men had fought well, and we respected
them, but we went on counting eight.
Three held commissons-the other five
were sergeants-not enough to officer the
company
In the dusk of evening Stonewall Jack
son came down through the forests and
thickets beyond the Rappahannoc. and
struck the Federal camps and opened the
battle of the Wilderness. The eight old
veterans Of Company G were there. and
the new men made up a band of forty
strong. AS we heard the crash of mus
kerry over on the left, our poor skeleton
brigade. numbering twenty three hundred
instead of four thousand, tell into line and
PuohSN WI siiOu5h thS StubtOo PAhSo "itSe
a line of skirmishers. Company G was
on the skirmish line, and We found the
enemy flrst-a heavy line of gray coming
through the wilderness at half-run.
Down he knelt among the vines and bush
es, and our fire checked them. They fired
a few wild shots, retreated a little, and
then we leaped up and drove them-a
band of forty drove a double line of skirm-
ishers, supported by line of battle
History has not told it to the world, but
blood was left on the vines and corpses
on the ground to prove it. They were
feeling over strange ground, after a foe
whose strength was not known, and that
was the reason of our success. We
pushed them back to the line of battle,
attacked that, and then we were tossed
back, torn and bleeding, almost blotted
out of existence as a company.
OF the eight old veterans six were ~
ing dead under the trees; ofthe new men
twenty-five answered roll-call after the
Wilderness Was that war or Slaughter
A captain and a second lieutenant only
were left to represent the one hundred