News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-12-20
An Incident at Gettysburg.

''Here's where I came to grief, SAT-
q Twelfth Regiment man, as he stooc
upon Seminary Ridge. GLOW did i
happen ?" was asked. "Wel," said he
''if You wish I'll tell you, but [ fear
may be wearisome. I always had the
unenviabIe reputation of talking toe
much, and on that 1st day of July, 1868,
my propensity to be tooIoquacious came
very near ending my career. You see
! they brought us up to the brow of this
hill on the double-quick, and we found
we had a beautiful chance to geta cross
fire on brigade of 'Johnnies' that lay
down therein the open field. We pep
pered them awhile, and then our boys
began to shout 'FOrwardp and Charger
| don't think the order came through
the regularly constituted channels. It
was a sort of spontaneous and voluntary
movement on the part of the men, who
were brim full of fight on this occasion.
The Colonel and Adjutant both tried to
find out who gave the order" but all
we knew about it was that everybody
in the regiment was shouting Forward!
The advance was inevitable, so our off
GERS placed themselves in our front and
away we went like q whirlwind. We
had captured and driven in all but about
twenty or thirty of the rebs, after
slight resistance, and my propensity to
talk was so strong upon me that L
couldn't help telling the 'Johnnies' that
were hanging behind all about our good
treatment of prisoners, etc, and thus L
didn't notice when the regiment went
back to its old position. When I came
to nv senses [ found I was alone. l
concluded [ would go back, and so iu-
formed them, but they very emphatical-
ly ordered me to remain.
"Now, something had to be done, so
I quickly determined to take my chances
of instant death rather than perish by
the slower method of disease and star
walton, and informed them in not very
elegant terms, modes Of expression L DO
not now use, that they might gostraight
to a very warm country. Then L ran,
and the faster the bullets came the faster
ran. till after a while a shot from off to
my right came and struck me in the left
groin, and down [ went. O, you
needn't laugh the bullet struck me in
front, I'm happy to say, and I've never
regretted the decision I made in such a
hurry" ''What became of you after
ward ?" was asked. "Well, I lay there
unable to move, till nearly dark, and
had good chance to review the Con-
federate army, as most of it swept over
me. Artillery wheels and horses feet
came uncomfortably near, but [ escaped
death-providentiaIIy, it always seemed
to me. About sunset the 'JOhnnies' car
ried ne back to the Pennsylvania Col
Iege, but it would make too long a story
to tell You all my experiences there
Will only saw that from that point, lying
near an oI,on door, could 500 many Of
the movements of the JOhnnies, Includ-
ing the formation and advance of Pick
ctt's division, and could hear the yell of
the rebs as they swept forward, and then
the clad hurrahs of our boys when the
charge was repulsed. There were fif-
teen Of us wounded men at the College
the other 70O were Confederatcs-and
we cheered, too, when our boys did,
until the Johnnies threatened to kill us
if we didn't stop. [ shall never forget
the four terrible days passed thele-
DAYS of alternate hope and fear-nor the
iov [ felt on that morning when gray
coats went away and blue coats appeared.
But I'm getting back into my Old
habit Of talking too much. Please ex-
cuse me. I'm apt to forget myself when
thinking of those days. ."-Bo8ton
Journal.