Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-08-02
STORIES OF FHE WAR.
A RETIRED Ex-coNFEDERATE SOL
DER EXPRESSES HIS VIEWS.

DER EXPRESSES HIS VIEWS.
He Doesn't See How = Private Can Have
Any RecoIIections of the war-Hc
Calls to Mind a Few Stray Items and
Incidents.
The war Is over. The true sign of this Is
that another Is wanted right now-as Is
the case in every land each twenty or
thirty years Another and more pleasing
sign Is that in their magazine articles the
generals land their duly constituted at
torneys in fact, the staff officers, who
have converted their swords into that
mightier weapon, the pen, display no ami
mostly to their former enemies, but di-
rect all their assaults against some Co
operating general on their own side.
Sometimes the magazines have "Recol-
lections of Private;" but this puzzles me.
In the first place, it requires a great deal
of journalistic enterprise to find private.
In the second place, don't see how pri-
vate can have any recollectiOns Of the
war. was a private in the campaign Of
1862 through northern Virginia and Mary
land, and in every fight and ! must say
that never saw a single battle or had the
faintest idea of what was going on or
what We're the results until l was told Of
it afterward or saw it in a paper. was
three days at Second Manassas and then
slowly made up my mind that there
would probably be a genuine engage
ment next day. When we rebels began
to move the night after Shsrpsburg. |
had an idea that 1t was with a view
to open a battle In the morning, and when
we got to the Potomac and started in |
couldn't comprehend why we hadn't tried
a fight first Fighting, as We generally
was, with long line over miles OF front
in woods for the most part, and over hills
and valleys, don't believe that private
ever saw more than a small part of n bat
| tie Except at fredericksburg or knew a
| skirmish from general engagement, or a
reconnaissance from an attack
An Prtillery duel at Shepherdstown was
much worse to me and every member Il
my company than was the great battle OF
Sharpsburg the day before. There we lay
all day on the bluff Of the Potomac with
20-pounder PARROTS far away Ocross the
river and beyond our reach, firing with
| such precision that il seemed to me that
they could have knocked in the head of a
barrel about the third trial; indeed, l was
not sure they couldn't have driven a spike
at the distance of three miles. We were
on our faces making impressions in the
ground, from which felt sure accurate
casts of our countenances might have
been nodded, and those 20pOund shells
weIe shingling our back hair all the after
noon.
STRAY RECOLLECTIONS.
7 rarr-ibla
|. battle, aud was disappointed when
learned from the southern papers that il
was "an unsuccessful reconnaissance, and
from the northern papers that it was a
brilliant little affair"
Those people on the other side shot well
with their cannon. saw them at Peters.
burg at 1900 yards, just for practice, burst
five shells out of seven inside barn be-
hind our works, and send the other two
through 1t, bursting just beyond
At the same place, at 500 yards, saw
them hit with the first shell the first
shovelful Of fresh earth just picked in run
ming a second line on our side.
knew one shell there to skin the para
pet and go between the two logs which
formed the wall OF the only superstructure
TO our underground winter quarters and
burst on the breast of man standing
with his back against the far wall
knew one enfilading round shot to bound
and hit tree and fall back and break
both legs Of man on the safe side of a
traverse built as a protection against en-
filading-the safest place he could have
found anywhere within range.
At Dam No. at Yorktown saw a man
sitting with his back to the parapet, with
a Mississippi rifle leaning on his shoulder,
struck so hard by piece of shell rebound
ing from tree that his rifle was bent and
his shoulder broken
Again, at Petersburg ! saw a man arise
from behind the work after a conical shell
had exploded in front and the fragments
had gone chorusing over, and the Jagged
butt of the shell, evidently retarded by the
explosion. came struggling along and took
piece out of his arm.
But they didn't always shoot hard
enough with their cannon balls. For in
stance there was Lieut. Brander, of the
Richmond battery, who was hit in the
middle Of the back by a twelve pound
solid shot at Fredericksburg on the 18Th
Of December, and was 50 little hurt that
he couldn't find excuse to stay at home till
Christmas. And Capt 10 DeshDa, now
living at Cynthiana, was hit in the back of
the head with the same sort of missile at
Murfreesboro. l never heard what be-
came of the fragments Of that solid shot.
ADDITIONAL INCIDENTS.
Such incidents as these are about all
have ever personally known of battle.
have seen say as much as brigade emerge
from the woods on the other side and we
have let into them with our shells until
shells came fiying-I couldn't always tell
from where-sround and about US, or un-
til that brigade got near our woods where
our men were, and have then seen that
brigade 60 back faster than they came
Then have seen our men 60 across the
same opening and come back in the same
energetic style. But never knew a whole
battle till afterwards haven't the exact
recollection of incidents which appertslned
TO a certain friend of mine, who could re-
fer to such details as "a small persimmon
tree standing about eleven feet to the
northeast of a pond thirty-seven yards
west Of lane leading southwark from the
main cemetery road"
1t was this sort of exactness which
caused him to be selected by the caucus
as chairman Of the committee of Confed-
crate war lies But this position was cap
tured from him not long ago by one Of
the high state officers in Kentucky in this
wise: l had been telling of seeing a shell
go through q screen Of fresh earth at the
head of a new line of breastworks and
fall in the ditch unexploded, and how the
men rushed for it without waiting to see
if it was loaded. The general then said
he saw one strike outside and roll over
the parapet into the shovel of a man who
quietly heaved it over again. and in less
than ten minutes" he said, another shell
did exactly the same thing and the same
man heaved that one over on the outside
in the same quiet way, and"-but at this
point the audience left the general to keep
him from literally wearing that man out
with shOvalinu shalIs oyar the no rap -