Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-06-21
FANes OF THE SERPENT OF WAR.
They Struck with Deadly Effect When
There Was No Enemy IN Sight.

They Struck with Deadly Eject When
There Was No Enemy IN Sight.
My company lost Thirteen men
killed and five wounded at the battle
of Fair Oaks. If this percentage had
been followed out through every COM
pany engaged in the battle the total
loss would have Mortified the world.
1t wasn't that we lost four or five men
in this fight, three or four in that,
from two to six in third, that finally
worked a complete metamorphosis in
our company and regiment. 1t was
the fangs of the serpent of war; the
deadly bite of the dreaded reptile
which never rests after the alarm Of
war has sounded.
We went to the front 1O4 strong.
Before we had even seen a Confeder-
crate in uniform we had lost seven
men. A week after the seventh was
buried not one of us could recall how
nor where the seven had passed away.
The serpent had struck and fever had
followed, one had gone insane, one
had crept away into jungle on the
Chickahominy and blown out his
brains; death had come as surely as if
sent from the lannon's month"; but
yet it was insidious. A private soldier
in great army is one of the grains of
sand on the seashore. He answers
roll call tonight; tomorrow morning
he is not in line. If his absence is re-
marked it is soon forgotten. He drifts
away to the hospital, dies, is buried,
his name is dropped from the muster
rolls, and in few weeks he is out Of
mind
We lost eleven men between Fair
Oaks and Antietam, only one of whom
died with uniform on. The other ten
were bitten by the unseen serpent of
war as they lay on the damp earth, as
they drank the waters of the swamps,
as they stood guard with the vapor of
typhus fever floating around them
like smoke. One by one they were
marked absent" at roll call; one by
one they drifted out of the whirlpool
to die III their beds at Harper's Ferry,
Charleston or Washington. Between
Mcclellan at Antietam and Burnside
at Fredericksburg the serpent of war
struck his poisoned fangs into four
more of our men. They had been
foremost in the rush upon the guns;
they had been first at the enemy's
breastworks; they had been praised
and complimented for their bravery.
The serpent crept among them at mid
night, and never an ear heard his
movements. He struck them at high
noon in the presence of thousands,
and never an eye caught sight of his
loathsome form. We missed them for
day; hardly longer
Now and then a man who had been
struck did not die. He fled away-de-
serted-the victim of sortlid melan-
choly, soldier whose actions were
guided by the vagaries of lunacy.
We did not remember him with con-
tempt Every one of us could feel
how it was with him. And others
withdrew to the swamps and jungles
and there lay down to die alone or to
put a sudden end to the suiferings
which had become unbearable We
remembered these men with gentle
ness and sympathy. There were times
when each of us had to fight back the
same power which they could not re-
sist.
And the serpent crept among u.s. no
matter where we were encamped, and
he demanded his victim, no matter
who was taken, and SO it came about
before we sat down in front of Peters
| burg that our returns read:
Killed In action ..................24
Wounded and discharged. .....................H
! Deserted. e.. Observation-Disclosures.
Sick and discharged. .... ................... 2
Bitten by the serpent of war...................4S
Thus we had only five men left Of
the original band, and before the sur
render three of these had fallen in
action. We had three different cap
tains, two first lieutenants, four sec
onds, four first sergeants, and the two
sole survivors of the original COM
pany, who went out as privates, had
shoulder straps q year before the war
closed. After the first year we never
numbered over ninety men, and at no
time did we ever fall below sixty,
Recruits kept coming, but the serpent
never rested The missiles of war
would have left us almost half the old
company. The fangs of the serpent
were less merciful than the heat and
turmoil of battle. New York Sun.