The Portland daily press., 1890-01-21

the flow of blood. called to a soldier who
was passing, but he gave no heed. A second
came, stood for moment, simply remarked
Hes a dead man." and passed on. saw
the poor fellow die without being able to
render the slightest assistance.
KINDNESS ON THE FIELD.
Passing on was soon out of range of the
enemy, and in moment l realized how ut
terly famished and worn out l was Ny
thirst was something absolutely appalling. /
saw a soldier sitting upon the rough stump
of tree, gazing toward the battle, and OBJ
serving that he had a canteen, ran to him
and begged him for drink. He invited me
to help myself I kneeled beside the stump,
and taking his canteen drained it to the last
drop He did not even deign to look at me
during the performance, but he anxiously in
quired how the battle was going in front. l
gave him information which did not please
him in the least, and moved on toward the
point known as the Landing, toward which
all our fugitives seemed to be tending. But
my friend ON the stump; shall never forget
him. How gratefully remember that drink
of warm water from his rusty canteen. Bless
his military soul, he probably never knew
what kindness he rendered mel
A short distance beyond the point where
had obtained my water supply, found a
squadron of jaded cavalry drawn up and en-
gagged in the interesting work of stopping
stragglers. In the crowd of fear stricken and
detected soldiers found there, l saw a man
who belonged to my fathers regiment. !
recognized him by the letters and number on
his hat Inquiring the fate of the regiment,
he told me that it had been entirely cut to
pieces and that he had personally witnessed
the death of my father-he had seen him shot
from his horse. This intelligence filed me
with dismay, and I then determined, nom
combatant that / was, that would retire
from that battlefield. Watching my oppor-
tunity I joined an ambulance which was
passing loaded with wounded, and by some
means escaped the vigilance of the cavalry
men, who seemed to be almost too badly
scared to be on any sort of duty.
When through this line I pushed my way
on down past the point. where stragglsrs wers
being imp Sssed and forced to carry sandbags
up from the river to aid in the construction Of
batteries for some heavy guns which had been
brought up from the transports. l passed
these temporary works, by the old warehouse,
turned into temporary field hospital, where
hundreds of wounded men, brought dswn in
Cd, and where their arms and legs were being
cut off and thrown out to form gray, CHASTITY
heaps made my way down the plateau
overlooking the river. Below lay fifty trans
ports at least, all being loaded with the wound
ed, and all around me were baggage wagons,
mule teams, disabled artillery teams and thou
sands Of panic stricken men. I saw here and
there officers gathering these men together
into volunteer companies and marching them
away to the scene of battle. 1t took vast
amount of pleading to organize even COM
pany of fifteen or twenty, and was particu-
larly struck by the number of officers who
were engaged in this interesting occupation.
1t seemed to me that they were out Of all pro-
portion to the number of fugitives in the
vicinity.
TILE SIGHT OF GEN. GRANT.
While sitting on the bank overlooking the
road below between the beach and the river,
saw Gen. Grant. I had seen him the day
before review his troops on the Purdy road,
while a company of Confederate cavalrymen,
q detachment Of Johnston's army, watched
the performance from a skirt of woods less
than two miles away. When I saw him at this
moment he was doing his utmost to rally his
troops for another effort. 1t must have been
about half past in the afternoon. The gen.
eral rode to the landing accompanied by his
staff and bodyguard Of twenty-five or
thirty cavalrymen. Iheard him begging the
stragglers to 60 back and make one more
effort to redeem themselves, accompanying
his pleadings with the announcement that re-
Inducements would soon be on the field and
that he did not want to see his men dis
graced.
"A n ~ -. hot
stragglers before him did not return to their
commands he would send his cavalry down
to drive them out. In less than fifteen min
utes his words were made good. A squadron
Of cavalry, divided at either end of the land
ing, and riding toward each other with drawn
swords, drove away every man found be-
tween the steep bank and the river. The
majority of the skuikers climbed up the bank,
hanging by the roots of the trees, and in less
than ten minutes after the cavalry had passed
they were back in their old places again. I
never saw Gen. Grant again until saw him
che president of the United States.
While ~it+irs tAe hissh bs..is tho river
Hooked across to the opposite side and saw a
body Of horsemen emerging from the low
cane brakes back of the river. In moment
I saw a man waving white flag with red
star in the center. knew that he was signal
ing, for had seen thesplendid corps of Buell's
army, and recognized that the men with
that flag were our friends. Sitting by me
were two distracted fugitives, who also saw
the movement on the other side of the river.
Said one of them to his companion: "Bill,
we are gone now. There's the Texas cavalry
on the other side of the riverln The red star
had misled him. Fifteen minutes later I
saw the head Of column of blue emerge
from the woods beyond and move hurriedly
down toward the rivers edge. Immediately
the empty transports moved over to that side
Of the river and the first boat brought over
figure which / recognized. The vessel was
peculiar one, belonging in southern waters,
and had evidently been used as ferryboat.
On its lower forward deck, which was long
and protruding, sat a man of tremendous
proportions upon a magnificent Kentucky
race horse, with bobbed tail.
FIGHTING BULL" NELSON.
The officer was rugged out in all his regi-
mentals, including an enormous hat with u
black feather in i. l knew that this was
Cen Nelson, commonly known as Fighting
Bull Nelson" ran down to the point where
saw this boat was going to land, and as she
ran her PROV up on the sandy beach, Nelson
put spurs to his horse and jumped him over
the gunwale. As he did this he drew his
sword and rode right into the crowd of refu-
gees, shouting: damn your souls, if You
won't fight get out Of the way and let men
come here who will" I realized from the
presence of Nelson that my regiment (the
Twenty-fourth Ohio was probably in that
vicinity. / asked one of the boat hands to
take me on board, and after some persuasion
he did SO. The boat recrossed, and as soon as
got on shore ran down towhere the troops
were embarking to cross the river to the bat
tlefield. / soon found Ammen's brigade and
my regiment.
Hurrying on board one of the transports
climbed to the hurricane deck and there
found my brother with his company. He
was looking across the river where the most
appalling sight met his vision. The shore
was absolutely packed with the disorganized
panic-stricken troops who had fed before the
terrible Confederate onslaught, which had
not ceased for one moment since early that
morning. The noise of the battle was deafen-
ing. 1t may be imagined that my brother
was somewhat surprised to see me- made
hurried explanation Of the circumstances
which had brought me there, and gave him
news of my fathers death. Then I asked
him for something to eat. With astonish-
ment he referred me to his negro servant,
who luckily had a broiled chicken in his
haversack, together with some hard bread.
took the chicken, and as we marched Off
the boat I held drumsticlS in each
hand, and kept by my brothers side as
We forced our way through the stragglers up
the road from the landing and on to the
plateau where the battle was even then almost
concentrating. Right there I saw mans
head shot off by cannon ball, and saw i'm
mediately afterward an aide on Gen. Nelson's