Connecticut western news., 1880-06-09
A Charge of Infantry.
A STORY TOLD OF. THE BATTLE OF ANTIE- TAM BY SENATOR GORDON, OF GEORGIA.

A STORY TOLD OF. THE BATTLE OF ANrIE- . TAM BY SENATOR GORDON, OF GEORGIA.
 The week before he forwarded his resignation, Senator Gordon, of Geor- gia, says Grafton correspondent, told me the following anecdote, which I at once wrote down. It explains the terri ble scars on his face and wounds on his person: ,.A,-.. ........ .g...-.,..!aB
 On the battlefield of Antietam, Sep tember, 1862, John Gordon, of Geor gia, at the Bunker Church, saw sight memorable to him early that fore noon. A regiment of Union infantry marched in six columns, one after the other, at quickstep, directly upon his grim, experienced lines. The strangers were new troops unscathed by any bat tie, novices in the sufferings of war, per haps never in their lives under fire, and their clothing and accoutrements were new, as if worn in militia parades only. White, shining gaiters were over their shoes, zouave jauntiness was in their suits as cut, their bayonets were bright as household silver, and they advanced without firing gun in. all the intrepid ity of schoolboys bred on moral histo- ries, conscious only of their good cause and the animation of the charge. Com ing forward they kept step, their colors were new from ladies hands, the band played gloriously, every officer was in his place; it was like ideal war on Euro pean open plains, not the war of ragged country and rough volunteer multitudes discovering tactics for. themselves.
 "Save your fire, men, till they are close on you," said Gordon; "fresh as they are, if they could break through us on charge as cool as that we should rue it."
 The gallant line came on, beautiful as women, intrepid as children, feeling the music and the holiday. An! it was to befor most of them the holiday of eter- nifty. As the first column was right up on the sullen Southern line the command of Gordon came to fire into them, taking aim. A terrible earthquake of rifles poured forth, renewed and renewed, as if devil had arisen and stamped and blew his breath. The field and wood were thick with those young boys piled up like cordwood spilled, and another of the doomed columns was coming un- dauntedly on, colors, music and glisten- ing belts and anklets as before, as if the perished column had second life and was renewed in the trampled corn and high, clean oak groves. "What unaf- fected, unconscious bravery !" thought Gordon, as he gave the command to hold fire until it would be deadly. Again the demon burst through the limestone TnOUfd ar1tt pturrr, and danced. and the bright pageant went out ill smoke, hail. stones and sighs.
 'Did you ever see such coolness ?" exclaimed Gordon, all black with the powder and sweat, as the third and fourth columns of the same doomed regiment came on again, parading above their dead and every officer in his place way ing his sword for the charge. Again the woods exploded, the air was ripped with lead, the pageant sank into the grave.
 The remaining column and it's gather ings wayered now. War had made its paralyzing impression upon these green natures like forest fire on blossoms. But there was one man left; an officer, who was seasoned through with courage. Gordon saw him speak strong words of courage to his shrinking command, higher in tone than the howl of the fallen :; he waved his sword in their faces, pointed it to the enemy and cried, "Advance p They would not step; the ground before them was too dreadful with dead. He took the color in his hands and waved it and ran forward with it. They hesitated
 Then wringing his hands above his head and throwing down his hat, he adjured them by duty, manhood and country to come on. They dared not go. Massacre had produced it's impression.
 "Then," says Gordon, who told it seventeen years after, when he was a Senator, .' that man whom Ihad watched all this while, with my men ready again and hot with battle, walked deliberately in front of his command, wholly unsup- ported, right on towards our line, more than half way between the two, and fold ing his arms looked into our muskets, as if to say T came here to dieP For myself, I remember no more, but my men have said to me many time that the last words I uttered, when I was struck in the face and fell with five wounds, were: Don't shoot that man l!
 never heard of his fate and have never known what was the regiment"
 I asked Senator Gordon if there was any difference between the courage ot Northern and Southern soldiers. "Very little, " he said. 1T have seen the North
 ern men stand charge before which any troops in the world would have finched. ,