Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-08-02


along the short threatenedfront.
The First Brigade of the "Old Fight
ing Fourth Division Commanded by
Gen. Lauman) lay little in front of the
batteries and just below them on the
slope. The hillside sloped to the east,
was bare and covered with fints. The
sun was now high and beating down
furiousIy. To lie upon those flnts was
something like lying on a gridiron. but
to stand up was to be exposed to the
shells from the rebel siege guns scream
ing close above. Oar artillery was suf-
fering terribly. The light feld-pieces
could do nothing toward silencing the
rebel guns, and the heavy shells of the
latter did much damage. One of them
struck gun of The Fifth Ohio Battery
full on the muzzle. The great brass
tube went spinning backward, crushing
everything in its way, while the frag-
mentS of the gun carriage knocked the
gunners right and left. Another cut
down three horses and their three riders
on caisson in the rear. 1t struck the
wheel-horse and his rider about the
riders thigh; the middle one little
lower and the leader about the riders
knee. The plunging of the mangled
horses upon their mangled riders, the
blood and dust and smoke, formed q
scene of confusion and horror never to
be forgotten, even though seen but for
a second.
Gen. Lauman, the commander of the
Fourth Division, and his staff rode up
from the rear, swept around the right
flank of the Thirty and up in front
of the regiment and halted. The Gen
eral addressed them in a half-choking,
half screaming tone, evidently greatly
excited.
"Thirty-third, you are to charge
those works. want you to do your
duty and l know you'll do it"
Then he rode on to the next regiment
and repeated his address, and so on to
the last. Then he rode back to the
rear
At last the order Forward came.
The Thirty-third held not only the right
of the brigade, but the extreme right of
the Union lines. This position, if the
rebels had been aggressive, would have
been one of great hazard, but as it was,
it was the salvation of the regiment.
The ground over which the three reg
Iments on the left had to advance had
been cleared of its growth of scru5by
black-oaks by cutting them down and
piling them in heaps or rows, not high
enough to shelter the advancing Union
men, but in such manner as greatly
to impede their progress. On the other
hand, the ground over which the Thir-
ty-third advanced was still covered, in
most places, with the thick, scrubby
growth, hard to get through, but con-
cealing the regiment from the rebel
works.
As the brigade swept down the slope
there was not private in the ranks so
stupid that he did not know that it was
hopeless charge and that a horrible
blunder was being committed. They
knew there was not supporter on the
right and nothing on the left except
fragment of regiment-the Twenty
eighth Illinois. 1t was twelve hundred
men against an army lying hidden be-
hind high earthworks, protected from
approach by line upon line of bristling.
tangled abatts and the sharp, thick-set
stakes of the cheUaur-de- tfise. But,
Theirs not to make reply
Theirs not to reason why.
Theirs but to do or die.
For someone had blundered.
At intervals through openings in the
brush some of the Thirty-third could
get glimpses of the field and their COM
rades on the left. | have said that the
shrubs cut down were piled in long
heaps with openings between them. In
to these openings the Iowa and Illinois
men would crowd thickly to get
through, when the double-shotted char
ges of canister would sweep through
the struggling masses with awful effect.
From every rebel embrasure rolled out
ward and upward thick gray-blue
cloud, pierced through at times with