The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1880-07-02
SOLDIERS DREAMS.
Some Remarkable Stories that are
Said to be Susceptible of Proof.

Fair Oaks q New York volunteer who
passed the night in a tent of a mem
Der of the Third Michigan infantry
got up in the morning looking very
gIum and downhearted. and when
rallied about his fancied homesick-
ness he said
Il have only a week to livel l
had n dream last night which has
settled the business for me and lots
of Others. A week from to-day
battle will be fought and thousands
viii be slain. MY regiment will
lose over hundred men, and Ishall
be killed while charging across 4
field"
The men laughed at his moody
spirit, but he turned to them and
said:
Your regiment will also be in the
fight, and when the roll Is called after
the battle you win have nothing to
be merry over. The two sergeants
who were in here last night viii be
killed among the trees. saw them
lying dead as plainly as | now see
you. One will be shot in the breast
and the other in the groin, and dead
men will be thick around them
The battle took place Just a week
after. The dreamer was killed in
! full sight of every man in the Third
before the fight was an hour old,
and within twenty minutes after the
two sergeants and six of their COM
rades were dead in the woods, hit
exactly where the sergeant said they
would be. More than fifty men will
bear witness to the truth of this
statement.
Just before the battle of Cedar
Creek a camp sentinel who was off
duty temporarily and trying to put
in a little sleep, dreamed that he
went out on scout. 4 mile to the
right of our camp he came upon a
log barn, and as it began to rain just
then he sought shelter, or was about
to. when he heard voices and discov-
cred that the place was already oc-
cupied. After n little investigation
he discovered that three Confederate
scouts had taken up their quarters
for the night in the place, and he
therefore moved away. The senti-
mel awOke with such a vivid remem-
brance of details that he asked per-
mission to 90 over and confer with
one of the scouts. When the log
barn was described for this man he
located it at once, having passed it
! dozen of times. The dreamer de-
scribed the highway exactly as it
was, giving every hill and turn, and
the scout put such faith in the re-
mainder of the dream lat , took
four soldiers, one of wi Im vas the
dreamer, and set out for the place.
Three Confederate scouts were asleep
in the straw, and were taken with
out shot being fired. The dream
and its results were known to hun
dreds of Sheridan's cavalry, and
have been alluded to at reunions.
The night before the cavalry fight
at Brandy Station a trooper who
slept as his horse logged along in
column dreamed that a certain cap
ltain in his regiment would be m-
horsed in afight next day, and while
rising from his fall would be wounded
in the left knee. Everything was so
clear to the dreamer that he took an
opportunity to find the captain and
relate his dream.
"GO to Texas with your croak-
ing" was all the thanks he received,
but he had his revenge. In the very
first charge, next day, the captain
was unhorsed by the breaking ofthe
girth, and was pitched head-over-
heels into a patch of briars. As he
struggled out shell killed his horse
and two men, and one of the flying
pieces of iron mashed the captains
left leg to bloody pulp. He isnow
resident of Ohio, and his wooden
leg is indisputable evidence that
dreams sometimes come to pass.
While Mcclellan was beseiging
Yorktown the fun was not all on ore
side The Confederates had plenty
of shot and shell, and they sent them
out with intent to kill. One morn
ing Michigan man who was in the
trenches walked back to spot on
(which three officers were eating
breakfast, and warned them that
they were in great peril.
On the night previous he had
dreamed that he had looked at his
watch and marked that it was
quarter ofseven, whena shell hit the
ground behind him and tore up the
earth in terrible way. 1t was now
twenty minutes to seven, and he be
sought the officers to leave the spot
at once. His earnest manner in
duced them to comply, and they
had only reached cover when Con-
federate shell struck the earth where
they had been grouped and made
an excavation into which horse
could have been rolled, with room
to spare.
Three days before the affair at
Kelly's Ford corporal in the Sixth
Michigan cavalry dreamed that a
brother of his. who was sergeant
in another company, would have his .
horse killed in action, and would al .
most immediately mount dark bay
horse with a white nose. Within
five minutes both horse and rider
would be killed by a she'll This .
dream was related to more than n
score of comrades fully two days be-
fore the fight Early in the day the .
sergeant's horse was struck square
in the forehead by a bullet, and I
dropped dead in his tracks. II was
scarcely three minutes before awhile
faced-horse, carrying a bloOd-stained
saddle, ,galloped upto the sergeantand
halted. He remembered the dream
and refused to mount the animal,
and soon after picked up a black
horse. The white-nOsed animal was
mounted by a second corporal in
another regiment, and horse and rider
were torn to pieces by a shell in full
sight of four companies Of the Sixth.
These things may seem very foolish
now, but there was time when q
sold;or,, Jraar, eovad Eap Eilnaf-