National Republican., 1883-05-10

"Of COURSE" exclaimed the captain, as he
returned the messengers parting salute,
y Buckle on your swords and come on. Thank
heaven / haven't any sash. When L got
into that internal bandage feel all trussed
up like fat Christmas turkey"
And he growls and girds at everything in
that heathenish style till II O'clock" said
Lieut.. X to me, jerking his thumb over his
shoulder at the captain.
Ills 1t corns or indigestion ?" 1 inquired,
gravely assisting the lieutenant in his mild
attempt at insubordination.
think it's only the mollygrubs, but the
doctor says it's a serious attack of the fantods
IL will wear of when he gets little moro
hispidulous," said the lieutenant, looking in
tently at the sky.
This allusion to the captains ghost of a
| mustache never failed to start the color in
his cheek, but before he could frame any
suitable expression of opinion we had reached
the colonefs tent. We found there the re-
mainder Of the officers, and the colonel pre-
pared TO deliver his address. Throwing a
heavy tragedy scowl at the adjutant, who was
his pet aversion, Lieut.. X, slipped behind me,
whispering in my ear:
THAT monkey-faced popinjay expects to
walk into heaven in front of the archangels."
Wo are going in, gentlemen" said the
colonel "and, for the honor of the command
| there the captain nudged mo in the side, and
/
emit little toot of a whistle) l hope every
officer present will do his duty. As you all
| know, we have a number of new men in the
regiment, who have never been under fire,
and they should be looked after. The line
will be formed Immediately" And in cour-
| teous salute we were dismissed.
AS we left the tent, the weird clamor of the
bugles filled the air, and the men were bust
ling about, mahy of them drinking their
coffee while hurrying to their places in the
ranks. In few moments the line was
formed and turned over by the adjutant to the
colonel
The day had now fairly broken, but so far
aswe could hear no shot had yet smirched the
purity of the fresh, young morning. We did
not know then, AZ we knew afterward that
Grant had ordered the delivery o, the blow at
| b o'clock, though Lee had laid out u pro-
| gramme the performance of which started our
| right wing in business at 445.
While we waited for the ORDER which should
launch us into the struggle about to begin, all
our senses were on the alert to catch its first
manifestation Suddenly the Acadan quiet
of the scene was broken by tho sharp re-
port of a musket and tho first bullet
of the battle went flying TO its
mark. / have always thought 1 would
like to know who was this man, more watch
full or more bloodthirsty than his fellows,
that inaugurated this titanic fight; and /
his ambush with murderous eyes, impatiently
watching for living target. A scattering
skirmish fire Immediately sprangup, like the
cracking of dry brush burning under a camp
kettle, blazing out fiercely for awhile, and
then dying away almost to silence. Evidently
there was no advance yet of the line of battle,
and even the skirmishers were hardly yet
warmed to their work.
While the puttering fire continues, we will
take glance at the general army movements
During the night Burnside was brought up
and swung across part of the gap in the
union center, while ON the confederate side
a division of Hills corps, which had not ar
rived on the preceding day, came to Lees
hand and confronted Burnside and Hancock
Longstreet was still on the march, with di-
rections to double up the union left and drive
the Yanks" back to the river.
In this disposition of the forces. the bulk.
of each army was on its southernmost flank.
Tho general direction Of the lines of each or
ganization was from northwest to southeast,
with peculiar fish.hook shaped curve Just
south of the center. Behind the center of
the union front was tract Of open country
known as the Lacy clearing, Lacy's house
standing near its western border. In this
open space the bulk of the union artillery
was placed, with the grim muzzles pointed at
the woods, threatening destruction to the
confederate force, should it push back the
union troops and become visible in the clear
ing. Directly opposite, in a smaller clearing,
now occupied by one Faulkner. there was
similar concentration Of confederate artillery,
which would have given an exceedingly hot
reception to the union force had they pene-
trated the thick belt of timber lying be-
tween.
AS neither of the contingencies mentioned
above arose, the battle was fought almost ex-
clusively with musketry. Every available
l...1 Alagn
precincts nearly 100000 trained soldiers,
furnished with the most approved means of
blood-letting, piled their murderous trade
No part of Virginia ever was, and probably
never will be, SO densely populated as was
this desolate region on the 9th of May, 1864
Standing in line, waiting for the order to
move, we listened to the lirht firing, and
wondered that it was so long confined to the
skirmishers.
"I'll bet fifty cents the Johnnies skeedad-
died last nightl' exclaimed little Barney
"If you wouldn't want to borrow the money
from me to bet with" retorted Rowland, "Pd
so you months pay on it. You take my
word for it, Younker, they're there, lots Of
'em too"
"Now, of you'd bin at Charlottesville"
put in grizzled old vet, "you wouldn't
thought there's reb thin fifty mile, wen
Stunwall Jackson kim out % the bresh."
Attention, battalion !" came the long
drawn order from the colonel, and every
mouth was closed and every eye fixed to the
front.
Our time had come. Moving by the right
flank far enough to place the brigade opposite
a gap in the line of battle, we came into line
by the left flank and plunged into the jungle.
The firing was growing warmer, but as we
scrambled and tore through the underground
its sound was somewhat deadened by the
local noise we were creating in our struggle
with the chapparel. In brief halt, which
we made to rectify the alignment, as far as
possible, there came a pause in the firing,
which was broken by a tremendous cras IL
know of no other word 80 appropriate
and the real battle of the Wilderness had
begun. ,a
ANY Johnnies there, Barney?" inquired
Rowland, with satirical smile.
/ guess there is" returned the blood
thirsty little scallawag; 81 was afraid they'd
all run away; but IT, all right now p
The cheerful audacity Of the small man
drew a laugh from everybody within hear
ing, but from more than one it came through
pale lips. Though small in body, Barney had
the spirit of giant He was one of natures
heroes in miniature and his splendid conduct
in the battles of that desperate campaign put
to the blush many man who could have al
most put him in his pocket.
We were on the verge of the fight, but not
yet in, although a few wandering bullets
were tearing the bark from the limbs above |
our heads. Our entree was delayed few |
minutes by an unfortunate incident, which |
some of the new men trhe shaky |
in their nerves. An ambulance train coming |
mt nj the NVnOdg Inv n narrow road which Low |