Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-12-09
CHAPTER II.
FIRST SHOTS.

CHAPTER II.
FIRST SHOTS.
All military courage of any value is the
offspring of pride and will The existence of
what is called natural courage" may well be
doubted What is frequently mistaken for
it is either perfect self-command or a stolid
indifference, arising from dull Drained ina
bility to comprehend what really is danger.
The first instincts of man teach him to
shun all sources of harm. and if his senses are
sufficiently acute to perceive danger, his natu-
raj disposition is to avoid encountering it.
This disposition can only be overcome by the
exercise of the power of pride and will-pride
to aspire to the accomplishment of certain
things, even though risk attend and will to
carry out those aspirations.
Harry Glen was apparently not deficient in
either pride or will. The close observer, how
ever, seemed to see as his mastering sentiment
a certain sterile selfishness, not uncommon
among the youths of his training and posi-
ton in the slow-living, hum-drrm country
towns OF Ohio The only son of weakly,
fondling mother, and father too earnestly
treading the narrow path of early dill
gences and small savings by which
pay any attention to him, Harry grew up a
self-indulgent, self-sufficient boy.
When he signed his name upon the recruit
ing roll-largely impelled thereto by the deli
cately fiattering suggestion that he should
lead off for the youth of Sardis-he had not
the slightest misgiving that by SO doing he
would subject himself to any of the ills and
discomforts incidental to carrying out the
enterprise upon which they were embarking.
He, like every one else, had no very clear
idea of what the company would be called
upon to do or undergo; but no doubt obtruded
itself into his mind that whatever might be
disagreeable in it would fall to some one
else's lot, and he continue to have the same
pleasant exemption that had been his good
fortune so far through life.
And though the company was UNEXPECTEDLY
ordered to the field in the rugged mountains
of western Virginia, instead of to pleasant
quarters about Washington, there was moth
ing to shake this comfortable belief The
slack discipline of the first three months ser.
vice, and the confusion of ideas that pre-
vailed in the beginning of the war as to mill
tary duties and responsibilities, enabled him
TO spend all the time he chose away from his
company and with congenial spirits about
headquarters, and to make Of the expedition,
SO far as he was concerned, q pleasant picnic
Occasionally little shadows were thrown by
the sight of corpses brought in, with ugly
looking bullet holes in head or breast but
these were always of the class he looked down
upon, and he connected their bad luck in
some way with their condition in life Doubt
less some one had to go where there was
danger of being shot, as some one had to dig
bitches and help TO pry wagons out of the
mud, but there was something rather pre-
posterous in thu thought that anything of
this kind was incumbent upon him.
The mutterings of the men against an Off
Ger who would not share their hardships and
duties did not reach his ears, nor yet the
gibes of the more earnest of the officers at the
"young headquarter swells," whose interest
and zeal were nothing to what they would
have taken in fishing excursion.
1t came about very naturally and very
soon that this continual avoidance of duty in
directions where danger might be encountered
was stigmatized by the harsher name of
cowardice. Neither did this come to his
knowledge, and he was consequently ignorant
that he had delivered fatal stab to his repu
tation one fine morning when, the regiment
being ordered out with three days rations
and forty rounds of cartridges, the sergeant
who was sent in search of him returned and
reported that he was sick in his tent. Joseph
Pancake expressed the conclusion instantly
arrived at by every one in the regiment:
"It's all you could expect Of one of them kid
glove fellers, to weaken when it came to seri-
Gus business
Harry's self-sufficiency had left so little
room for anything that did not directly con-
Germ his own comfort that he could not I'M
derstand the deadly carnestness of the men he
saw file out of camp, or that there was any
urgent call for him to join them In their I'M
dertaking.
Bob Benefits always going where there's
no need of it, he said to companion, as he
saw the last of the regiment disappear into
the woods on the mountain side. "He could
have stayed back here with us just as well as
not, instead of trudging Off through the heat
over these devilish roads, and probably get
into a scrape for which no one will thank
him.
"Yes," said Ned Burnleigh, with his af-
fected drawl, "what the DEVILS the use, I'd
like to know, for fellahs putting himself
out to do things when there's any quantity of
other fellahs, that can't be better employed,
ready and even anxious to do Them
THAT'S so. But it's getting awful hot here.
Let's go over to the shade. where we were
yesterday, and have Dick bring us bucket
of cold spring water and the bottles and
things"
"Abel" said Joseph Pancake TO his file
leader-a red-headed, pock-marked man,
whose normal condition was that of out
spoken disgust at everything-"this means a
fight"
"Your news wouldve been fresh and in
teresting last night" growled Abe Bolton.
81 suppose that's what we brought our guns
along for"
"Yes; but somebody's likely to get killed"
swell, you nor me don't have to pay their
life insurance, as know on"
"But it may be you or me-"
"The devild be mighty anxious for green
wood before he'd call you in"
"Come, now, don't talk that way. This is
a mighty serious time"
'Iil make it a burned sight seriouser for
you if you don't keep them splay feet o.
yourn often my heels when we're march
ing"
@Don't you think we'd better pray, or
something's"
'sYou might try taking up collection"
TRY starting hymn, Joe," said q slender
young man at his right elbow, whose face
showed color more intimately connected
with the contents of his canteen than the
heat of the day "Line it out, and Wen all
join in. Something like this, for example:
Hark, from the tombs a doleful sound;
Mine ears attend the cry.
Ye living men, come view the ground,
Where you must shortly lie"
Pancake shuddered visibly
"Come, spunk up. joe" continued the
slender young man. "Think how proud all
your relations viii be of you if you die for
your country"
I'm mad at all my relations, and l don't
want TO do nothing to please EN- sighed
Joe.
But hope you're not so greedy as to want
to live alwaysl" said the slender young man,
who answered roll call to Kent Edwards
"No, but / don't want to be knocked Off
like a green apple, before I'm ripe and
readyr
Better be knocked off green and unripe, I"
said Kent, his railing mood changing to one
of sad introspection, "than to prematurely
fall from a worm gnawing at your heart"
Joe's fright was not so great as to make
him forego the opportunity for brutal re-
tort:
eYou mean the worm of the STILL spose
Wen, it don't gnaw at my heart so much as
some other foIkses that know'd.n
Kents face crinlsoned still deeper, and he
half raised his musket, as if TO strike him, but
at that moment came the order to march,
and the regiment moved forward.