Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1882-11-01
SERGEANT SCANLAN,

Fill up your glasses, gentlemen, |
have one more toast to propose, and /
have purposely kept it for the last in
order that proper respect should be
done it.
The party was seated around large
circular table in a private apartment ad-
joining one of our fashionable bar
rooms. 1t consisted of veterans Of the
late war, many of whom carried upon
their bodies, in the shape of scars, She
proof of his gallantry.
The glasses were filled and they waited
for the words of the speaker.
"Let it be drank standing, gentle
men, and in silence Here's to the
memory of the gallant Sergeant Scan
LAM"
"Who was he, colonel ?" inquired
one of the party. "The name is not
familiar to me-.
"Neither are the names of thousands
of brave men. Their valorous deeds are
unheralded, and they fill heroes graves,
the gallantry unknown except to small
clecle of their companions. This was the
case with Sergeant Scanlan. We're you
at the battle of fredericksburg ?"
"No, colonel, was with my army in
the Shenandoah Valley when that bloody
battle occurred"
"You characterize it properly. 1t
was terrible day for the Union troops,
and, but for the prodigious valor they
displayed on the battlefield the repulse
would have ended in rout and
Washington would have been captured.
But 1 digress.
'' 1t was the night following the disas-
trous repulse of she troops. All day
long they had stubbornly charged the
enemy's works on the Heights of Fred
ericksburg, making desperate efforts to
capture them.
"Our men fell like hail from thun-
der cloud. Over their dead and man
gled bodies the troops in the rear passed
on bravely, only to meet similar
fate. Death and destruction met us
everywhere. The wide mouthed cannon
on the hill moved lis down everywhere
Our soldiers did ali that brave men could
be expected to do, and it is no reflection
upon their soldierly qualities to say that
they suffered defeat The Notifications
were impregnable.
might found us a beaten host, and
we returned to the cover of the woods
that skirted the banks of the Rappahan.
| mock, but not to sleep, for we expected
that the enemy would follow up their
advantage and attempt to drive us into
the river.
A night of intense anxiety followed
day of frightfui slaughter. Only
those slept who were never to be awak-
ened again in this world of ours.
4hn hot IF G1xlk
our regiment fought the entire day
Driven back again and again, we re-
formed and renewed the assault until my
command was reduced by casualties from
a regiment to less than company.
I" I remember distinctly the final eff
fort. The cannon on the Heights, that
was pointed toward us, belched forth
grape and canister increasingly.
"We reached the gully, crossed it,
and began to climb the Heights, when
the enemy's sharp-shooters opened upon
us deadly fire. It staggered us for a
moment. I called to my men to press
forward. They tried to reform but they
could not with the fire of hundred
cannon concentrated upon them. They
turned and fed stricken into the
woods In the rear.
GAS we retreated, looked for the
colors of the regiment, and my heart
throbbed with JOY as [ saw them in the
grasp of our standard bearer, still wav-
ing gallantly to the breeze, but bearing
proof ia their folds of the desperate ma
ture of the contest.
"We reached the woods, and as I en-
deavored to concentrate the scattered
remnant of my brave regiment, heard
the news that made my hair turn gray.
"The colors had been lost.
"The brave standard-bearer of our
regiment had been shot down while we
were retreating, and the flag was lying
upon the field about midway between
the woods and the enemy's fortified.
tons.
| "As the news of our loss spread