Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1891-11-24
County Official Paper.
THE LAST ROLL-CALL.

"Herer as the, Sergeant called the
roll on the morning we awoke beside
the Potomac. There were young men,
middle-age1 men, men from the town
aud men from thetarm. Men who go
to war to fight and die beside each
other form strong attachments. Com
Panies and regiments resolve them
selves into communities which do not
look with favor upon intruders. There
was an even hundred rs we marched
away-as we took our first turn ut
picket-as we first sighted the enemy
as we went into battle for the first
time. After the Roar OF the guns had
died away and the dead had been
buried only eighty nine men answered
"Here!" to the. Sergeant's morning
roli-call. The others were covered up
in the long trenches, and their loss
drew the living closer together.
A few weeks went by, and we stood
shoulder to shoulder in battle line
again. There were charge and
counter charge-men screamed out
as they were wounded-men fell dead
and uttered no cry. In the gloomy
forest, by the light OF a camp fire. the
Sergeant called the roll, and now only
seventyeight men answered "HereT
The red earth trenches had claimed
more victims, and the ties between
the living were drawn still closer.
When man had braved death with
you, that excuses hundred short
comings in camp or on the march.
Then came Cold Harbor and the
falling back to Malvern Hill. Cannon
doomed and musketry crackled all
day long and far into the night.
Wounded men cursed and groaned as
they limped away or fell helpless
luen pitched forward with but a
single cry and died with their faces
hidden in the weeds and grass. After
Malvern Hill the Sergeant called the
roll again---not the same Sergeant as
before, but another had taken his
place--he was lying dead in the
thickets at Fair Oaks---und this time
only tifty-two men, answered "Here"
And so could you wonder that when,
recruits came down to us we looked
upon them as intruders, even though
they were good mon and true and had
come to help US win victories?. What
did they know OF our dead, of our
wearisome marches, of touching ell
bows with us as we waited for tho
word to charge the flaming guns?
Their names were called with ours,
and we heard them answer "Here!"
But they were only with us; they
could not be of us. They had come
too late.
And after South Mountain and
Antietam and Second Manassas and
Fredericksburg and Charlottesville
and GettsburG and the Wilderness
the roll was called and our dead were
covered up and other men were sont
down to take their places. We shook
hands with them and pretended to be
comrades, but we had no ties with
them. They had not learned wal
with us. They could not 90 back
to tho beginning---Lo our first dead
And at last came Appomatox and the
surrender, and then peace and the re
turn to Washington. We we're almos,
Il full company again us we turned
out on the meadows of. Arlington fol-
tho last rol-call. Upward of sevent,
living men could have answered
'Here" to their natGes.
"Fall in, Company G! Attention &c
roll. callw
1t was not the Sergeant who hat
called the roll after Frederick sbury
after Chancellorsville, after Gle! =
veg, after the awful grapple in tn,
ihickcts and swamps of the Wilder
ness. 1t was now man..-on. VIII,