River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1886-05-20

day and drawled:
"You are a nice lot of dod gasted
pumpkin seeds to leave me dead on
the battlefield, and / shan forget itl'
He had been struck in the stomach
by spent bullet, and. after being cap
tured by the rebels, had made his es-
cape He was mad at the whole COM
pany, and wouldn't give any of us q
civil word for weeks.
Our next brush was at Williams
burg. The regiment was ordered into
some fallen timber, and the position
was soon red-hot. The corporal was
sighting his musket across a limb,
when he suddenly rolled over, and
saw blood on his face as we crowded
further to the left for better cover.
One fifth of our company was wiped
out there, and we hadn't got over
mourning for them when Corporal
SCHENECTADY suddenly appeared in our
midst. This was two weeks after the
fight, and his face was tied up with
bandages. We rushed to greet him,
but he waved us off and said:
Don't nobody come near me! You
wretches went and left me there IN the
woods, and that night burial party
flung me into a trench, and was COW
ering me up, when l came to, and l
told EN- what | thought OF EN- and
walked off. kin lick any man in this
company
He had been shot ia the mouth, and
the bullet tore out three teeth and left
hole in his cheek as big as a walnut.
On the morning of the battle of Fair
Oaks we were Just crawling out of our
tents when the rebel wave rolled down
on Casey and drove him back. Our
company vas badly denoralized, and
Corporal SCHENECTADY was trying to
rally three or four of us behind a fall
len tree, wien a shell exploded near
us. saw two or three men 90 down
and among them was the corporal.
I'd have taken ny affidavit that one
side of his face was torn away. We
rallied after time and rGgained our
ground, but when night came we
abandoned the field and fell back to
make new stand. Five men on the
roll of my company were reported as
killed in action. and among them was
the corporal. A week after the battle
of Malvern Hill he walked into camp
after the old fashion and began:
''Durn the hull lot We for pack of
cOwardsl You went right off that day
without stopping to see whether | was
killed or not, aud I'll dare any two of
you to knock chip off my shoulder
The shell | have mentioned did not
hurt him, but he was splashed with
the blood of an unfortunate, and re-
ceived a whack over the head from a
club or limb. During the night he
exchanged clothing with Confeder
ate, and after many adventures, came
back to report for duty.
After that Corporal SCHENECTADY was
a marked man. We looked upon him
with such awe and superstition that no
body would be friendly. He became
sort of an outcast; indeed. we all agreed
that a man who wouldn't stay dead
when fairly killed had very mean
streak in his composition.
In dine time came PoDe fights around
Manassas We were fighting at Grove
ton, and as the regiment was ordered
to head its brigade in charge, a doz-
en- of us had our eyes on the corporal.
He realized it, and there was a look of
determination on his face. We inter
preted it to mean that if he was killed
again he would stay killed. The brig
AIDE was in a hot box. The enemy
gave us every sort of missile known 20
war, and we couldn't close up the
lanes ploHed through our ranks. |
had my cap knocked of and my can
teen cut away, and was making grab
to recover the latter when Corporal
SCHENECTADY got his desc again. |
saw him leap two feet high and fall in
a heap, and | knew by the way he
struck that he was a goner.
There were only twenty-eight men
in the company after the fight They
had given me the CorpOral's place,
and we had got around TO the fight at
Antietam without losing another man.
We had several times talked over the
fate of Corporal SCHENECTADY, and had
expressed regret at the way we had
used him. My brigade was under
Hooker then, and on the evening pre-
vious to the fight we had been pushed
across the Antietam, on the right, to be
ready to advance on jackson at day
light. About s o'clock, as we rested
on the lines in the darkness, / heard
voice saving: Il tell you it is dog mean
to 90 and report fel,er dead and give
his place away, until you are sur
about iti'
1t was Corporal SCHENECTADY come
back to u.s. A bullet had racked his
brain at Groveton and he had crawled
to the rear after dark and had been
sent 10 the hospital in Washington. He
was hopping mad at every man of US,
and we!gave him as good as he sent We
told him that any man who had played
hokev on death so often as he had
couldn't be trusted by the living, and
he was advised to 90 to the rear and be
surely and honorablv killed by the
heels of some mule. just at daylight
he crept over to me and whispered;
Il cant blame the boys Sc very
much Tell you what, if m not killed
for sure in this fight | shan't come
back to the company. | couldn't
have the face to. III just desert and
20 home"
He advanced with us, and we had
worked our way almost up to the corn
field, when saw him tumble. | bent
over him and saw that he had a bullet
in his breast. He looked up, smiled.
and, as | bent closer. he whispered:
I've got it this time, and | wish
some of the boys would see me planted
to stay; | don't want to come around
and make EN- more trouble"'
The day after the fight we hunted up
the body and helped to bury it. Cor
poral SCHENECTADY was dead enough
this time, and there was a mile on
his face as if he had won a victory over
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