Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-03-27
10. torment me, but I had no water.
Lne last drop from nv canteon had

/ v~-J ~ oOAuC UdCk u
yards or so beyond the railroad emf, m
the ed &c of which our line Of h battle tia
naoI $1,000, and there, until the after
n;%hts Oh september Sd, four days and
ddgn's l lay in the midst of some /, 800
te .n ana wounded men. Until about
IVY wv CLOCK p. m. of the I'd of Septem-
ICE not a drop of water touched nv
Ups aaah except as the rain fell, and then
s aou orop that struck my parched and
sMollen tongue, which protruded from
any mouth, felt like molten lead.
= nad eaten my last food prior to the
Dattle-three small army crackers-on
ene morning of August 3Oth, so that in
my weak condition hunger as we'll as
'nirse came to increase my sufferiugs.
DEATH OF A CoMRADE.
The night of the SOth it rained quite
hard n chilled the badly wounded
20 the marrow. On that night. also
sergeant Jerrolds, of Company E, of
my regiment, died. He was wounded
IN the abdomen and hand by a shell,
ana it CHANGED that I had been laid
down close by him. He could not rest,
complained of the position Of his head,
ana, as we were alongside of each other
on the sloping ground, I managed to
spoon up" neat enough to slip nv
right and only useful arm beneath his
neck, forming q pillow. God bless
You, that feels BETTER" he murmurcd,
and those were the last words he ever
uttered. During the darkness I felt
him shudder and heard him give two
or three short: quick.gasps. Sergeant,
are you cold?" I inquired. There
came no response. and, supposing he
might be sleeping, I said nothing more.
In the morning I found him dead.
A P1LLoR1ED ARM.
1 attempted to withdraw nv arm
from under him, but failed. It was
not until the afternoon of September
I'd that any one came to lift away his
body, then very much swollen, the
flesh discolored, and after being re-
lieved from its burden it was some
time before the arm recovered from the
d%eadening effects of the weight that
had for SO long rested upon it disap-
peared.
The day and night of the 31st of
August were passed in about the man
ner that the preceding day and night
AAo0 OCCu' L was AutCl Wcak0r, IN
greater misery. owing to my con-
strained position, and during the day.
time had been greatly pestered with
flies, such as lust after flesh. NV
clothing, which had been partially
dried by the sun, was saturated
again at evening by another shower.
Meanwhile the sullen thunder of the
guns, the occasional volleys and scat
tering fire of musketry, with the groan-
ings of the wounded, had been almost
continually ringing in my ears, to-
gether with now and then the despairing
death cry as some poor anguished soul
yielded up his life to Him who gave it.
THREATS OF DEL1R1UM.
September 1st and the night of that
day "a very rainy night, too) I seemed
to have reached the crisis of my fate.
l had grown somewhat used to the
pains. continually felt, but the want of
sleep added a new horror for me to
contemplate. Magggots began to bur-
row into my wounds and I was
wholly helpless and unable to
prevent their ~desecrating touch. Be-
sides, mentally, I was approaching
delirium. My ears were harassed by
musical sounds of purling streams l
could not look upon; my eyes were
Toasted upon delicious springs Of
water clear, shaded pools, wherein
fair natures drapery of los and
brakes and feathery ferns were
pictured, but beyond my reach; my
palate was tantalized by visions Of
tables spread with richest viands set
just beyond my grasp. Language is
inadequate to describe even family the
sutferings of those far-otf, awful days.
The morning of the I'd of September
my thoughts were turned homeward.
Step by step memory led me back over
life's track to my earliest childhood,
and there my mind dwelt at intervals
for hours. But not so much upon the
scenes and associations of my later
youth as 1 had previously remembered.
seen and known them. Blessed visions
of childhood's early dawn rose up be-
fore me; dearly loved, smiling faces of
my early boyhood's friends thronged
into view; a tender mother came to
soothe all pain. l was her boy
again, sitting upon her knee, then-a
twinge of pain-a feeling as if the fin
gers of death were cropping for my
heart and l was returned to the reali-
ties that enveloped me.
MENTAL PHENOMENA.
Hour after hour, like the second hand
of a watch, my mind kept darling from
one thought to another, but with so
much regularitythat the sameness soon
grew monotonous and tiresome. The
circle of ideas travelled over was al
ways about the same at the start, and
gradually narrowed down, like the YES
sells course in a maelstrom, to the CEN
trail abyss, which then for me was
home. 1 realized the precarious condi-
ton of my mental faculties. but yet,
though striving hard to do so, could
not control them. l belle l could
have died then feeling comparatively
little of mental anguish-the physical
pains of dissolution had been already
borne.
But it was not to be. In the after
noon assistance came. The corpse was
lifted from my arm, water was brought
in the crown of an old SLOUGH hat to
quench the fever burning in my veins.
Hope grasped me firmly with her good
right hand. Iresolved, God willing, to