The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1876-07-13


forms. On across the fields came the
charging, cheering host, up the steep
hillside, and then sheet of flame leaped
out and vithered them. The gray line
was absorbed in that fame OF death just
as water dissolves salt. But a second
hne sprang at us, anu third and fourth,
and then they were at the guns which
we were supporting. Some one gave IN
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 nor gave
quarter. Back, back, went the line of
blue, and Round Top, the key of Cettys-
burg, was won for the Confederates.
But only for moment. A double
line of blue pushed it's way up through
the smoke, hurled itself forward, and
Round Top was won again And how
won2 Men slipped and fell on the
bloody grass, heaps of dead We're 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. I 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
twenty eight The blood thirsty fiend
who wields the sword of war should have
been satisfied with that. Sixteen more
widows back in the little village, more
orphans, more sobs and tears. Not one
of the living could show a wound, but
each one of us would have rejoiced at
the loss of an arm-at some grievous
wound which would have made the sur
geons shake their heads and look serious.
Only eight left ! Only eight men of
the 103 who marched out cf the hamlet
that May morning! The new men had
fought well and we respected them, but
we went on counting eight. Three held
commissions-the other five were SER
geants-not enough to officer the COM
pany.
In the dusk of the evening Stonewall
Jackson came down through the forests
and thickets- beyond the Rappahannock,
and struck the Federal camps and open
ed the battle of the Wilderness. The
eight old veterans of Company G were
there, and the new men made up band
of forty strong. AS we heard the crash
of musketry over on the left, our poor
skeleton brigade, numbering twenty
three hundred instead of four thousand,
fell into line and pushed on through the
stunted pines after line of skirmishers.
Company q was on the left Of the shir-
mish line, and we found the enemy first
"a heavy line of gray coming through
the wilderness at half run. Down we
knelt among the vines and bushes, and
our fire checked them. They fired
few wild shots, retreated a little, and
then we leaped up and drove them-a
band of forty drove double line of skin
mishers, 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 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
ont of existance as company.
Of the eight old veterans, six were
lying dead under the trees, of the new
men twenty-five answered roll call after
the wilderness Was that war or slaugh
ter? A captain and second lieutenant
only were left to represent the one hun
dred and three.
The end was not yet, but the end was
coming. There were no new recruits
for my company, but we marched TO-
ward Richmond numbering 27. Has
the country forgotten the fierce conflict
ut Petersburg AS we fell into line to
make twenty-seven more in the brigade,
1 saw the lieutenant looking at me. Poor
fellow? There was no need for him to
speak. Wonld this fight wipe out the
old company entirely, or would one be
spared2 And which one2 He had
wife-I had none. I hoped he might
live to call the roll after the battle was
over, and that death would have taken
me.
The line quivered as they felt the
order coming, and then it dashed at an
earthwork, went forward with the same
old cheer which had been its own ever
since its bronzed veterans heard The
viii tie of bullets. But it was too much
for us. They had forgotten how weak
we were, and some one had blundered.
shot, we fell back, were charged in turn,
and [ went down among the heaps of
dead and wounded. The rear of battle
died away in a moment; daylight chang
ed to darkness, and when I opened my
eyes again the surgeons stood over me,
and my left arm was gone.
There was no one to call the roll. The
stark, stiff form of the lieutenant had
been given to earth, and the seven men
who represented Company G looked to
themselves. Fate had a choice who
should be taken and who left, and death
passed me by. / alone of the 103 vet