New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1878-12-11

painful silence which always follows on
the battle field after death has held high
carnival.
I Then came the sad duty Of counting up
the cost. My brigade had suffered
severely the Twenty second South Caro-
lima had lost Colonel Fleming and MANY
soldier. Ny regiment had lost 163
men. Two whole companies, A and G,
Eighteenth South Carolina, had not a
man left, who was on duty 10 tell the tale.
One hundred and one of my men, includ-
ing Captains Mccormick and Birdgis.
were dead buried in the crater or scatter
ed alongt ne works and sixty-two miss
ing. e: 5'3.. 5,se 0s#.f s4-
Among the missing are Lieutenant
Hill and Sergeant Greer. We left them
in their almost living grave; Greer Dig
ging with his bayonet while Hill passed
back the dirt, with all the desperation of
despair. They hear not, they heed not,
the battle that is raging above them, but
toll on. Often hope would spring up in
their hearts to give way only to despair.
Hill has often told me how, when he
awcke to a conscio BUSINESS of his condition,
in the thoughts that flashed through
bis b ain like Tightening; how he thought
thatifShe could only see one ray of light
or breathe the fresh air once again, that
if he only could let his wife know how
and where he died, that death would be
relief to him. Almost sutfocated for the
want of fresh air, they worked on; at last
it seemed to them that something had
crushed them; they had dug through the
loose boulders, and the light burst upon
them. They both, overcome with the
sudden transition from their suffocation
and despair to light and hope, tainted.
How long they remained there they know
not. When they awoke from their swoon
the FIRST sound that broke on their ears
was the clash Of arms and the quick roll
ing roar Of the battle as it ragged around
and above. Almost in stupor, trying TO
realize that they could again see the
light of heaven, and hear the voice of
living creature, they lay still until they
recovered their minds enough to know
what was going on.
Hill has otten told ne that when he
knew and realized that it was battle the
sound was the sweetest music that ever
greeted his ears. At last the CRY of VIC
tory rose high above everything else
They knew that somebody was yanqnish-
ed and that somebody was victor, who
they knew not. They emerged from
| their awful retreat, weak, worn in body,
and with minds almost craxed. They
knew not how long they had been there,
they did not even know their old COM
rades; nor could they realize that it was
the same dav that they were buried.
They were brought back to me at the
field hospital more dead than alive
for, strange as it may seem, they were
the most sadly changed men that I ever
beheld.. Both were fine looking soldiers
before; now they were weak, with sunk
en- cheeks and eyes. Lieutenant Hill,
whose hair twenty-four hours before was
black, without a single gray hair in it Git
he was only 80 years old), was now
almost as white as snow. Whether as
turned from horror at his condition, or
the deathly heat OF his subterranean bed,
or both, do not pretend to say. I sim
| ply give the facts, not as ! heard, but as
saw them, and he still lives to verify
that this is no romance, but one of my
experiences in q war whose first gun
head fred, and theslast gun OF which
sounded the requiem of the lost cause
when I was at my post Of duty.