Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-10-08
BULLETS AND BAY0NETs
Stormy Scenes, Amusing Anecdotes, and
Interesting Incidents OF the
Late War.
bloody Battles, Buzzing Bullets. Bright
Bayonets, and Buggy
Beds.
A Confederate High Private's
Experience.

The following candid and racy statement
of what he saw of battle was written b,
| Theodore F. Hallam, in the Cincinnati En-
| q,lirer:
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 attorneys in
fact, the staff officers), who have converted
their swords into that mightier weapon, the
pen, display no luminosity to t'eir former
enemies, but direct all their assaults agains,
some operating general on their own side.
Sometimes the magazines have "Recol-
lections of a Private;" but this puzzles me.
In the first place, it requires 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. l was q private in the campaign of
| 1862 through Northern Virginia and Mary
| land, and in every fight, and l must say
that never saw a single battle or had the
faintest idea of what was going on or what
were the results until [ was told of it
afterward or saw it i'll paper, | was three
days at Second Manassas, and then slowly
made up my mind that there would proba-
bly, be genuine engagement next day.
When We rebels began to move the night
after Sharpsburg, had an idea that it was
and when we got to the Potomac and start
ed in l couldn't comprehend why We hadn't
tried fight first. Fighting, as we generally
were, 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 battle Except
at fredericksburg or knew skirmish from
general engagement, or reconnaissance
! from an attack.
An artillery duel at Shepherdstown was
much worse to me and every member of
my company than was the great battle Of
Sharpsburg the day before. There we lay
all day on the bluff of the Potomac, with
twenty FOUNDER PARROTS, far away across
the river and beyond our reach, firing with
such precision that it seemed to me that
they could have Knocked in the head of a
barrel about the third trial; indeed, was
not sure they couldn't have driven spike
ut the distance of three miles. We were
on our faces making impressions in the
ground, from which l felt sure accurate
casts of our countenances might have been
| nodded. and those twenty-pound shells
were shingling our back hair all the after
noon.
Drainesville, I thought, was terrible
battle, and was disappointed when learned
from the Southern papers That it was IAN
unsuccessful reconnaissance" and from
the Northern papers that it was "a brilliant
little affair.""
Those people on the other side shot we'll
with their cannon. l saw them at Peters,
burg at 1000 yards Just for practice, burst
five shells out of seven inside barn be-
hind our works, and send the other two
| fhrOY1cyh IL Inv i,,cf Garo,1
| Al the same place, at l 800 yards, I saw
them hit with the first shell the first shovel
full of fresh earth just picked in running o
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. I knew
one enfilading round shot to bound and hit
tree and fall back and break both legs of
man on the safe side of traverse built
as aprotection against enflading-the safest
place he could have found anywhere within
| range.
At Dam No. at Yorktown saw O man
sitting with his back to the parapet, with a
Mississippi rifle leaning on his shoulder,
struck SO hard by q piece of shell rebound
ing from tree that his rifle was bent and
his shoulder broken.
Again, Mt Petersburg ] saw man arise
from behind the work after 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
a piece out of his arm.
But they didn't always shoot hard enough
with their cannon balls. For instance. there
was Lieutenant Brander, of the Richmond
Battery, who was hit in the middle of the
back by twelve-pound SO id shot at
Fredericksburg, on the 18th of December,
and was SO little hurt thst he couldn't find
excuse to stay at home till Christmas. And
Captain DO Desha, now living at Cynthi-
ana, was hit in the back of the head with
the same sort of missile at Murfreesboro. !
never heard what became of the fragments
of that solid shot.
Such incidents as these are about all |
have ever personally known of battle. !
have seen say as much as brigade emerge
from the woods Oh the other side, and We
have let into them with our shells until
shells came tlying-I couldn't always tell
from where-around and about us, or un-
til that brigade got near our woods where
our men were, and have then seen that
brigade go back faster than they came.
ASAA law SCSu Jul lAtll SO iCfOoS VIC
same opening and come back in the same
energetic style. But never knew whole
battle till afte,ward. l haven't the exact
recollection of incidents which appeltaineG1
to certain friend of mine, vino could re-
fer to such details as "a small persimmon
tree standing about eleven feet to the
northeast OF Il pond thirty seven yards west
OF lane Leading southwark from the main
cemetery road"
1t was this sort Of exactncss which caused
INN to be selected by the caucus as chair
man of the committee of Confederate wal
lies. But this position was captured from
him not long ago by one of the high State
officers i'll Kentucky ill this wise: 1 haC
been telling of seeing a shell go through F:
screen of fresh earth at the head of new
lint of breastworlls and fall in the ditch
'lnexploded, and how the men rushed fol
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 man who quietly heaved it ove1
again. And in less than then minutes.
he said. "anoti,ersLell did exac:l, the same
thing and the same mau heaveI 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 wear.
iHu that man ont with cbovinr cboli. .ro,