The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1885-01-20

! II he had had the slightest excuse for
putting me on duty in the rear he
would have sent me there when the
fight began, aud that while the battle
was going on he looked every minute
to see me fall.
AN INCIDENT OF SEVEN PINES.
Perhaps my own feelings and those
of my comrades were Influenced at
this time by an incident that hap
pened at the battle of Seven Pines,
before Richmond, 10 1862. r. T. L.
and myself were the only men in the
company (Warrenton RiAes) from
Fairfax county. We had been school
mates, slept under the same blanket
and eat lobscouse out of the same fry
ing-pan. As our brigade was lying in
reserve behind ID. FL. Hills line no.
ticed that Bose" was pensive and
preoccupied in mind, thing very un-
usual with him. Now, he was as
brave a man as ever drew breath, and
| knew that his listlessness and gloom
did not proceed from any fear of the
combat into which we expected
to be shortly to be called, but l fore
bore to question him because in his
own time he always made me his con-
fidant. When, finally We were Or
dered into the fight, as We were
double-quicking through the knee
deep loblolly of mud to get into po-
sitiOn, he suddenly seized my hand:
Thorn, am going under to-day.
I've felt it all day. If you can, take
the things out of my pocket when
I'm dead and send them home" L
thought nothing of this, as it was
about the time we had gotten under
fire, and as | was sergeant (file closer
| had enough to do when the line of
battle was hastily formed to occupy
my thoughts. We advanced under
heavy fire, and / lost sight of "Bose.
Our line, irregularly formed on ac-
count of huge wood piles, shelter
tents, barns and outhouses, was
broken and forced to fall back short
distance to the captured breastworks.
These we held until the enemy In
front of us had been hanked and
routed by the 9TH regiment of our
brigade. Searching over the cory
field | found my comrade literally
riddled with bullets, but still alive
and conscious. He had fallen almost
at the first volley of the enemy. As
soon as he saw me he said: 81 told
you SO. Do what | asked you. Get
the surgeon to give me some opium
and let me die easily" / did what
he asked. and the next morning,
wrapped in captured blankets, we
buried him on the field of honor, the
bursting shells over his grave from
the enemy's guns (the second days
battle was then raging forming a fit
ting salute for his obsequies.
Now, Bose" was man of immense
vitality and supreme nerve. | do not
recollect ever before this date to have
seen him give way to mental depres-
sion or nervous fancies. Were his
sudden depression and his death mere
condolences
WHERE HE WAS TO BE SHOT.
A sergeant, now of the police force,
who was formerly of battery q, I'd
United States Artillery, informs me
that while fighting his gun at Frazier's
farm, and when the action was SO hot
that a man had no time to indulge in
sentimental fancies, he was suddenly
seized with the idea as he was sight
ing his gun that he would be shot in
the top of the head. He felt the
exact spot burning and throbbing, and
as the. horses of the battery were fall
ing and the men being killed around
him { it was an awful hot place, for
Jackson's men were on two sides of
the battery, the spot burned and
throbbed more and more, until he
felt that at the next sighting of his
gun that spot would be reached by a
bullet and he would be sent to his
last long home. Yet the sergeants
state of mind and his hallucination
(for it was nothing but an hailuciua-
tion) can be accounted for by the
fact that the men of the battery had
been on the alert for seven days with
every nerve on tension, and with
very little sleep and with very scant
rations. The human body is rather
tough. as far as hardship is concerned,
when it is dominated by determined
soul, but it can't stand everythina,
aud | believe there is a sort of
delirium tremens consequent from
exhaustive bodily fatigue, lack of
rations, and prolonged mental strain.
And that was what was the matter