Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1886-07-22
MEMORIES OF THE PAST.

at was a beautiful moonlight night, that
night of the 22d, Hottailing," said the col
onel, land in caringfo my wounded, and in
looking to the welfare OF my boys / never
saw a field 80 thickly strewn with the up
turned faces Of the dead. Thought of yoa
then. Colonel Hottalling. and OF the order
YOU brought US that the Fourth division
must retake those rife pits If we lost half
our men in doingso Il was in Battery A, 4"
said Colonel Hottaliing, and the general
sent me to Morgan L. Smith, to aid him in
holding that line. i was fond OF Battery A.
1t vas originally the Dearborn Artillery
Militia company of Chicago. 1t WAS with
Grant at Belmont. b and 4 comprised the
artillery there. Peter Wood had it at
Shiloh. it was with us at Ficksburg, and
at Mission Ridge. was in battery opposite
Howelrs guns. This dav / stood by the
right section, talking t. Lieut.. Smyth
and thought we had repulsed the
massed attack. We had. but it was
only the first line. The powder and
smoke was so dense and as | was STOPPING
to look under the cloud when the second
line OF conEls poured over our works
and through the cut. gaining our rear. Our
battery horses were being shot down. Lieut..
Dutch took in the situation Mt glance.
Those Of his men who heard his order and
followed him, escaped. can't say precise
Il
membcr-that il occurred to me If hur-
ried should probably 20 30 Atlanta, so
just sorter sauntered of. disregarding calls
for surrender, surrender. got into q Ta-
vine by the caissons and rallied some of
our boys, get them to shooting then picked
up another squad so that by the time i
heard old Col. Mercey's Dutch profanity,
had perhaps couple OF hundred Of our boys
busy and Morgan L. and Lightburn and the
other officers were doing the same. The
scene shown in the panorama describes
what happened Immediately after, better
than can tell it. To me it is simply won
derful and / feel every old soldier of the
Army of the Tennessee and his friends,
il they knew what they would
see, would gladly travel hundreds of miles
to visit the panorama. Sergeant Sweenie
saws that one of his gunners threw himself
across Lieut. Rohb's dead body, ieigned
death and laid there until We drove the
Johnnies out of the works. Then he
jumped up and got gga. The Rev. Sam.
Jones and Sam. Small came in the other
day said Col Hottaliing. They were both
too young to remember the scenes Of TWEEN.
ty years ago altho' they instantly recog-
nized every point in the distant landscape
and commented on it's truthiuIness, but
the moment they were told what houses
now stand on the ground near by US here,
they added roads and houses so rapidly
that was surprised to see how thorough
~ they knew the ground which is now the
little town OF Edgewood, and yet the battle
field and it, scenes which are so familiar
to Us veterans quite unintslligible to them,
altho' natives to the manner born. You
would be surprised could you listen KS
do to the never ending stories and Incl
dents that are provoked and tod con.
corning the ground before us.
That cloud Of dust which fills the air and
partly wells Stone Mountain has clear
significa nee TO most old soldiers Nothing
but a wagon train or heavy bodies of cav
airy create that cloud oil dust. The whole
army train was in that vicinity. More
than 1000 wagons moving up from Ros-
vile to guard which one small brigade had
been placed at Decatur. Ii was a brigade
of veterans: Jersey men, Wisconsin men.
Ohio and Illinois were in that brigade OF
Col. Spragaes. The attack delivered upon
it by Wheeler's cavalry corps was vigorous
and well sustained. Wheeler, in his report
states that he could not, with his cavalry.
dislodse the division OF infantry fin fact
there were not thousand muskets.l But
Sprague was there and got his well-earned
star thatday. Cloddeeks Jersey mer would
not down nor fall back until Sprague with