The morning call., 1891-06-20
AN HONORABLE CAREER.
Sergeant HIPS Completion of
Twenty.seyen Years. Service.

First Sergeant Charles Hill of Battery d.
Fifth United States Artillery. was mustered
out OF the service and transferred 60 the re-
tired list of the army this morning, after
twenty-seven and half years of honorable
service The army regulations require
thirty years, but the three years that Ser
geant Hill served in the field during the
war count as double time and make up the
requisite term.
Sergeant Hill says he was born in Boston
on the 18th of May, 1913, and his word must
De taken for the fact, though his sturdy.
Wellknlt frame and general air of activity
and soldierly alertnesS make the listener
doubtful in spite of his closely cropped
grlzzled hair and moustache. He was con-
sequently eighteen when the war broke out
and the first call for volunteers was made
Dy PRESIDENT Lincoln.
The Sergeant a. once enlisted in the
Iwenty-third Massachusetts Volunteers
and served with them till the close of hos
Utilities: Soon afterward he re-enlisted in the
FIRST United States Infantry, and COM
pieted three years enlistment in that regi-
nent. bis next service was of somewhat
different kind, and he passed four years in
the Marine Corps. For the greater part of
THIS time he was stationed on the California,
Admiral WinSlow'S flagship on the Pacific
Station, and visited nearly every Pacific
port from Vancouver to Valparaiso.
-Four years sea service seems to have been
enough for the Sergeant and in The next
command with which he was associated ne
was to find a lasting military home. This
was Battery ID of the Fifth Artillery, which.
under the name of Grffin's Battery, made
an enVlab!e reputation during the war.
Sergeant HIPS connection with the battery
mas been OF nearly seventeen and half
ia hppn
during his long service with the colOrs in
most OF the military posts in tine Union.
Sergeant Hill saw his fair share OF fight
ing during the war and took part in eleven
pitched battles, in addition to numerous
sklrmiShes. He was twice wounded once
by spent she'll at Whitehall and again by
rifle bullet at the battle of Cold Harbor.
The latter injury was the more serious aud
Kept the Sergeant in hospital for six weeks.
THE hardest service Isaw," said the Ser
geant yesterday, was when we were lying
III front Of Petersburg, conducting siege op-
erations, which lasted from june TO Sep
TENDER, in 1864. The hottest fire expert
enced was at Whitehall, where | received
my first wound. The Twenty-third was
stationed on the side of gently-Sloping
hill, and the Confederates lay in hollow on
the further side of a small creek.
> Belgin's Rhode Island battery had taken
its stand behind us on the crest Of the hill,
and was obliged to depress its guns con-
siderably to find the Co1federstes. This
brought us right in the line Of fire, and two
or three rounds from the guns served by our
own men plunged right among us before
they discovered their mistake. We were
getting our share OF the attentions of the
enemy as well, and between the two fires
were faring badly.
q was sent by our Colonel to General
Foster to ask that the battery might be
moved little to the left, and before | had
gone far was brought down by piece of
spent shell, which struck me on the left leg.
This was a fairly trifing injury, but the
bullet wound was more serious and laid me
up for some time.
From my own experience, should say
tine worst pain of wound comes on the
next day. My first sensation was one of
complete nGmbness aud of doubt as to
whetner l had leg or not. But after this
passes off the fun begins and there is SEN
sation as If a hot iron were being applied
TO the wound"
Sergeant Hill will leave on Tuesday night
for Boston, where he has friends and rela-
tives whom he has not seen for some years.
He says he will take at least SIX months
holiday after his long, continuous service.
and then take up some light employment.