Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1877-09-22

across the fields we went, following the
double line Of skirmishers, and at last
we struck the enemy. He had fence,
long ditch, and 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 weak B..
O)O were piercing Lees line. He saw
his danger, and a battery wheeled into
the gap, opened on US, and the left and
centre of our brigade swung back under
the fearful rain OF grapeshot and hell.The
right caught the order to retreat, and to
90 forward. Some fell back;others leap
ed the ditch with a wild cheer, and
charged the the battery. Company G
led. Halfway to the guns we LETT 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 flame hid us for
4 moment, and then we reached the
guns, leaped over them, crawled under
them, shot, stabbed, shouted and hur
rahed. TIE 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, and men
fought hand-to-hand over the cannon,
over the caissons, over the great heaps
of dead on the grass. Less than three
hundred Federals were fighting may
be five thousand Contederates ! 1t could
not last long. After a moment we
were driven back, over the ditch, be
vond the fence, into the Federal line OF
battle.
pretty hot in there, Captain!' shout.
cd q brigadier as the torn aud 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
/ G had dashed at the cannon; only TWEEN
ty-four came back! Twenty-Five were
/ lying dead under the guns, heaped up
so 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 a strong
company-stronger than some, but we
went on counting twenty-tour-count-
inc only those who would stand until
touched by the flame of death. Both
/ lieutenants were gone, and they gave
me men from the ranks.
We looked down upon the placid
river from the north bank in front OF
Fredericksburg, and when the blue
! column crossed we were near the front
We were still twenty-tour. 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
fell back, the living lcaping over heaps
ofdead. Forward again, back again,
and then the walls were hidden from
sight by piles of dead dressed in blue,
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 rolI-cal again. 1t was not
war, il was not murder-it was butch
erv. But no one murmured. The or
der had come to charge, and we had
charged, though every soldier knew
that he charged 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 bullet or bayonet 1t
had been thus ever since our first 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 Fredericksburg more recruits
came down to US. We received them
kindly, but we kept Yn. cotfnting eigh-
teen, just as if Company & would be
wiped out when the last old veteran
went. Aud they said my company was
fated. Other companies had been deci-
mated, 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 eigh-
teen old veterans were there, and the
company numbered sixty.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 G. was at the front again, and
as the fierce yells of the coming Cor
federates were heard above the mighty
roar Of the cannon, | looked down the
line. Some of the new men were look
ing this way and that, as if seeking COW
er, but the old veterans peered coolIy
through the smoke, aud waited with
leveled muskets to catch the glimpse Of
gray uniforms On across the fields
came the charging, cheering host, up
the steep hillside, aud 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 second line sprang at Us, and
third and fourth, and then they were at
the guns which we were supporting.