Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1891-06-13
A WAIr or THE WAR,
Z Fragment Of History Chronicied by q
soldier WHO Wore the Grey.

enlisted as private in the Second
Louisiana Volunteers in 1861. My first
real soldering was on the Yorktown
Peninsula. While there or at Suffolk.
u forget which) there strOled into
camp "a young boy. not over 10 or IL
years OF age. who attached himself to
one Of the neighboring regiments.
Who he was, his name. or where lac
came from i can not now recall. He
was looked upon AS No Mans child.
aud as such found genial fellowship
among the soldiers.
j soon realized that he was n cosmo-
politan. and at home anywhere. for
next saw him the pet OF the First South
Carolina Volunteers. How long he
staid with them can not say. 1t was
nearly year before | saw him again.
His small form aud boyish face were a
great contrast to the men among
whom be mingled. | remember then
how odd it seemed To see that child in
camp. but he was truly the child Of
the regiment.
After we had fallen back TO Rich
mond, and after those terrible seven
DAYS OF battle, the army was rcOrgan-
lied. aud the troops brigadcd by
States. so lost sight of our Carolina
ncighbors aud also the boy.
At the second Manassas, on the 29th
of August. 1862, our brigade (Stark's
poor fellow, he fell ut Sharpsburg)
was lying in the woods nearly oppO-
site that terrible deep cut" When
the dripping. SCATTERING lire of the
Yankee skirmishers drove ia our out
lockers (as ''oid Jack" didn't have u
counter skirmish line) the cry For
ward rang along our lines. aud we
advanced and almost ran iuto the
YanNss who. giving US deadly vol.
lev. fell back rapidly across the field
aud into the woods beyond. where a
battery. supported by swarm of
troops. was posted. Nothing checked
US. Under withering lire OF minnies
aud canister we pressed OIL, Bushrod
johnson riding ahead. with his sword
run through his hat, waving us on
until we waved him out of our line
of lire by yelling to him to clear the
way.
When we arrived within about a
hundred yards of the battery the line
was halted. and uuder this raking fire
the alignment was corrected and the
men right dressed" TO be shot down.
have thought often that that COM
maud of "halth might have been
"heroic. "but it certainly "was not war;
however. not man faltered. Again
forward, and We drove straight for the
guns.
Just then felt thud. sting. q
| twist around and fell 4 mimic had
struck my pocket Bible edgcwise, aud,
passing nearly through the New
Testament part, dug trench across
my left side into the flesh. With the
blood squirting from my side start
cd rearward. while our boys, brave
fellows, went up and over the battery,
scatteriug.its supports like chaff.
As struggled back over the field
the dead lad wounded, blue and grey
alike, lying a.. around, | heard a great
rumbling on my left and noticed that
our guns were pluugiug to the front
under lash and shout TO seiZ- the hills
whence TO pour shot into the now re-
treating foe. | can see them now
tumbling, bouncing, surging to gain
! the front.
What else did I see?
SO close | could almost reach him.
the little boy sitting on the timber OF
one OF the pieces, his eyes aflame, his
nat waving. his treble voice shouting
( sXcitedly, and his whole being lit up
aud agow with the terrible magnetism
hi battle-cheering on the line.
u have never seen him since. He
T@ar,sed on aud was lost in the c.oud
"s smoke of the field. but the inem-
- of that inspiring scene will never
| '"NS / -Il@Is.a.I- L,~.s- -p-.@ss.