Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-12-10
From Private to Captain.

IT was not once a year, but almost
once a week, that the soldier who had
anything of the heroic in his nature was
offered a chance TO develop it. Men
stepped from the ranks into shoulder
straps at one stride, and the case to be
related was only one in a hundred.
We were the rear guard. We had
fought the enemy at Malvern Hill and
checked him, but the army dared not
halt. Under the cover of darkness the
long trains and the battered and dis
heartened lines resumed the march
toward White House Landing and the
cover of the gunboats. Dead and
wounded were left on the field, and over
the swamp-road, deep with mire and
mud, plunged wagon and gun and
caisson and ambulance, followed by
men whose eyes closed in sleep even as
they walked. .. .t....- ,r.. ~.
The rear guard had work on hand.
Close on our heels came fresh troops
who had orders to ride us down-cutIus
to pieces--trample us in the mire--get
rid of us that they might reach the army
beyond. They followed US on the rood,
and they followed us on both sides OF Il
in the woods. There was hardly min
ute during that long night that the guns
were silent. Men fell dead in the mire
and were left to sink out of sight. Men
fell wounded in the bushes and were
not given a second look. When one file
of men had been shot away in the rear
guard another took its place, and so the
long and murderous night wore away
and the blessed daylight came. Day
light was not to end the pursuit or
make wounds less horrible or rob death
of its ghastliness. Yet it was a relief.
just at sunrise we had respite. The
enemy was closing up to push us with a
determined onslaught. Our men were
marching at will, detected, respondent,
sullen and ferocious could not see an
officer anywhere up the road. l could
look over q thousand men, but not SO
much as the bar of a Second Lieutenant
was among them. Where had all the
officers gone TOP Some were dead in the
road and bushes miles away, but death
had not claimed all. Here was an en-
tire regiment without an officer to COM
mand. We had made q dozen stands
since midnight, but no one remembered
to have seen an officer. Men had halted,
'bout-faced aud dressed lines like ma
chimes, and when the pursuit was
checked we had toiled on again.
We struck a terrible slough extending
across the road. Five pieces of six in a
battery had been abandoned there with
everything belonging except the horses.
Scores of men surrounded each gun and
caisson, and lifted them out Of the mire
and dragged them along TO clay hill
beyond. On the crest of this hill the
five guns were planted, and 800 men de-
ployed right and left in support. Fresh
cartridges were served out, supply Of
hard tack came down the line, and we
were resting and eating and wondering
what General was in command, when a
private soldier, face black with powder,
uniform covered with mud, and his left
arm In q sling and covered with blood,
mounted a gun before us and said
" Boys, we are going to stop right here
and give 'em bla2esl They can't flank
us, and they can't ride over US as long
as we have a shot left. Let's show Little
Mack how we can fight without should
er-straps TO boss usl"
He was only private soldIer--a man
from the ranks whom no one would susI
pect Of having anything heroic in his
composition-yet it was under his or
ders we had saved the battery-he had
deployed US in support-he had picked
up ammunition and provisions TO serve
US. rIfvI D.
We had rested for twenty minutes
when the head of the pursuing column
appeared. We had the key of the road
for three miles. They came on with a
yell, the road packed with them, and
our battery opened, Men were never
cooler. Almost like clOck-work were
the guns served, and In ten minutes we
had cleared the road Then they
brought up two batteries, and for half
an hour FIVE guns fought twelve, When
our fire slaokened by order OF that same
private soldier, the enemy came on with
rush. Whom they had reached the
slough 800 muskets blazed into them,
and the battery opened with grape, and
no man lived 10 CROSS It. We were
cheering and yelling when an aide came
gallOping up behind us and shouted
Where Is the General In commando Pn
Here l am replied the private as
he stepped out.
"You are directed 10 fall back beyond
the Hickory road, where we are mRssing
for battle, shouted the aide as he dashed
away. s.....f..'
We could have held that position
against 10000 men, but our "Generalp
obeyed orders. Il was a better road
now, and as We retreatod we dragged
the guns with US, coming from no one
could say whore, but they could not rob
our brave private Of his glory Before
we had passed the battle line Gen.
Mcclellan had taken him by the hand,
given him all due praise, and made him
q Captain. We were not jealous, We
cheered him and wished that hs had
been made Colonel.-Detroa Free
Press.
AN eiopement party at Vincent, N.
-o9psisted Of four couples, all Of