Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1877-09-22
JEFFERSON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA. SATURDAY, SEP 22 1877

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
reioiced at the loss of an arm-at some
grievous wound which would have
made the surgeons shake their heads
and look serious.
Ouly eight left. Only eight men o!
the one hundred and three who march
ed out OF the hamlet that May morning!
The new men had fought well and we re-
spected them, but We went on counting
eight. Three held commisSions-the
other FIVE were sergeants-not enough
to officer tie company!
In the dusk of the evening StonewaIl
Jackson came down through the forest
and thckets beyond the RappahannocS,
and struck the Federal camps and open
ed the battle of the Wilderness. The
eight old veterans of Company q were
there, and the new men made up band
of forty strong As we heard the crash
of musketry over the left, our poor skel-
eton brigade, numbering twenty-three
hundred instead of fou: thousand, fell
into line and pushed on through the
stunted pines after line OF sklrmisherS.
Company c was on The left OF the sklr-
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 a
few wild shots, retreated little, and
then We jumped up and drove them-a
band OF forty drove double line OF
skirmishers, supported by line of bat
tel History has not told 1t to the world,
but blood was left on the vines and
corpses on the ground to prove it. They
were feeling over strange grounds, 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 aud bleeding, almost
blotted out of existence as 4 company.
OF the eight old veterans six were ly-
INC dead under the trees, OF the new
men twenty-five answered roll-calI after
the Wilderness Was that war OF
Slaughter y captain and second lieu
tenant only were left TO represent the
ore hundred 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 twenty sew
en-. Has the country forgotten the
fierce conflict at Petersburg! AS we
! fell into line to make twenty y-seven more
in the brigade, saw the lieutenant
looking at me. Poor fellow there was
no need for him to speak. Would this
wipe out the old company entirely, or
would one be spared Aud which one!
| He had witc-I had none. | 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 or
der coming, and then it dashed at an earth
work, went forward with the same old
cheer which had been its own ever since
its bronzed veterans heard the whistle
of bullets. But it was too much for us.
They had forgotten how weak we were,
and some one had blundered. The
lines withered before the storm of shot;
we fell back; were charged in turn, and
| went down among the heaps OF dead
and wounded. The roar of battle died
away in a moment; daylight changed to
darkness, and when | 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 q look
ed to themselves. Fate had choice
who should be taken and who left, and
death had passed me by. | alone OF the
one hundred and three veterans who re-
turned to the country village to tell
them how this one and that one died;
TO hear the sobs OF widow and orphan,
until my heart ached Sometimes in
my day reveries or night dreams | call
the roll again, and shadowy forms stand
in line, and ghostly voices answer aye
and AYE" until | start up with sob in
my throat at the remembrance Of those
who sleep in the trenches beside the
Potomac, meath the shadow Of Round
Top, along the Rappanannock aud
down among the dark thickets OF the
Wilderness, sleeping there never to
know war again.-From The Gaiary f5r
ApfM