The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1886-04-15


he was going to be killed, and the remarks of
the melancholy man did not make the impress
Sion upon him that might have been expected.
"Mebbe eff ye'd git yer gun m come long
with u.s." he said, "ye might have chance to
find out yerself how yer embalmin' works"
g would advise you to read these" was the
solemn reply; and the man handed Si a pack
age of tracts. ST said he would give them
around to the boys
The 200th Indiana had passed through the
first stage Of army life and experience, with
the result common to all regiments. A few
months of active campaigning, without deci-
nation by battle, always weeded out the two
classes of those who were but an incumbrance
to an army. There were the men of whom it
might be said the spirit was willing but the
flesh was weak They were ready to do and
dare but physically unable to endure the IA
tigucs and hardships Of the service. The other
class was composed of those who could march
and eat well enough, but were deficient in
sand" Every company had such men at first,
but they did not stay long This inevitable
| shrinkage had left the 200th with 500 or 800
sOldiers-men who were to fight its battles and
| follow its flag.
The prospect of meeting the enemy had a
varying effect upon the soldiers. Many of
| those who at that time were fairly entitled to
| be called veterans had already, at Shiloh and
| Perryylle, breasted the storm of battle. They
had seen and heard enough TO fully appease
| their curiosity. In their breasts the ardOr be-
gotten of desire to engage for the first time
| in the deadly fray, and to hear the whistling
of bullets, the bursting OF shells, and the awful
roar of conflict, had given place to a cour-
age far more enduring. The truly brave man
! was not the one who rushed into battle /" like
the unthinking horse" but rather he who
knew and appreciated the danger, and yet, at
the call OF duty, stood willingly face to face
| fhn oil l,af
ed the older regiments as they girded them
| selves for the trial that was before them.
The bulging patriotism of the new troops
manifested itself in the usual way. Not all the
| blood-curdling pictures of slaughter they had
| ever seen, nor the narrowing tales told by their
veteran comrades on the march and around
| the campfire could stanch the overflow of their
bubbling zeal. Most Of them could be salts
fed with nothing but an opportunity to charge
up to the very muzzles of belching batteries,
and to plunge their yet unstained bayonets
into the guivering bodies Of the foe. All of us
felt that way. We know what a radical cure
was wrought by one such experience as Stone
| River. The silence on this subject thereafter
was painfully oppressive.
| Corporal Klegg and bis friend Shorty were
| typical representatives of two extreme phases
| of feeling. ST, who had been so conspicuously
| rewarded by the Colonel for his gallantry in
the triiing skirmish some time before, was in
a state oil violent enthusiasm. lie was In that
condition sometimes described as spelling for
a fight" In imagination he saw the whole
country moved with admiration for the heroic
deeds Of Corporal Klegg. He was determined
that it should be through no fault of his if such
were not the case. 1t was with feeling o
glad and impatient expectancy that 81 awaited
the long delayed clash of arms.
Shorty took a more conservative view of the
matter. He was some years older than ST and
had lost the exubcrance Of youth. Prosy and
calculating, with an eye to the results that