Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1891-06-10

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$50 G-SAy 10 most men going
for the first time in
to the fire of an enemy's guns on the
field of battle, it is certainly a trying
ordeal. an occasion attended with the
most thrilling sensations, feelings full
of dread and fear. No other expert
ence in life can fifty compare with it.
A volunteer army is composed of
varied classes of men; and in the
variety, dangers do not always develop
the same feelings or results. Men who
confront death on a battlefield from
sense of duty are affected differently
from those who under the mere thrill
of excitement rush, like the unthink-
ing horse, into peril needless of cause
or result. Then there is another class
of soldiery, men WHO are-they know
not utterly Indifferent to fate.
men who are unconsciously devoid of
the sense of danger, even if they do
not possess that sublime trait Of char
acter called valor. Bravery does not
always consist of the power or capacity
to meet and defy danger, and men are
often towards when there really is no
danger to face and overcome. Such
people are like children who are re-
luctant to go into the dark room even
though they are assured there is no
enemy there. Shadows brighten many
people as well as chickens.
Among soldiers there is-as observed
In our late war-still another class but
little different from those just referred
to, men who may be put under the
head Of "don't cares"-young men who
go into battle with about the same
feelings with which they would go
into a foot race Or swim in deep
water.
Then there are the men with the
pure lofty courage, the valiant and
true. who go out coolly and steadily
under the fire, even though there is
the restrained dread in the innermost
heart. even though there may be seen
the slight pallor on their cheeks, the
unconscious restlessness in the eye and
the evident subtle emotion that moves
the lip and the limb. Woe to The enc
my who stands or covers under the
steel of such foe.
The most trying ordeal in the first
battle-and in all battles, for that
matter-is in the start; in the getting
ready when the hour has come to move
on the foe; in the movements prepare
tory to the action; III the moments of
prelude, and before the enemy is in
sight; when the drum first beats the
loud alarm; when the bugle blast
fercely trills the sudden summons,
Boots and Saddles! and the cry
spreads like an electric fash through
the startled camp that the foe is in
front, and that the hour OF battle is
now at hand.
Oh! then it is that the heart and the
brain of the soldier are pierced with
the wild woe of war. Then it is that
the courage spirit wakes or wanes.
Then it is that vaIor begins to totter if
the sure props are not there. Then it
is that the soldier begins to think and
when he begins to think, he often be-
gins to dread; and when he begins to
dread, fear soon follows.
In the moments between the first
bugle blast or drum beat and the vision
of the enemy in front, the soldier has
time for reflection and thought has al
ways been a prolific source of fear or
reluctance to go into danger. Many
tragedies have been The result of men
not thinking or rejecting upon conse-
quences. And with the soldier-when
there comes the vision of home and
wife or child or loved ones, when the
vision Of these come and remain be-
tween man and prospective death
he always fingers over the images upon
the heart mirrors; and he shrinks from
the separation of the grave, even if he
does not exhibit cowardice.
It is not merely conscience that
makes towards of us all: but in the
workings of the brain otherwise, when
men have the time to think, they turn
away from the dangers that are in
front to the loved that are behind them;
and then comes, as [ have said, the
dread of that something hereafter SO
keenly felt and acknowledged by
Hamlet.
But as soon as the soldier gets up
under the enemys fire; as soon as he
finds he is being shot at, and the OPP
portunity is given him to return the
fire; as soon as he sees the real enemy
in his front, and the battle is upon him
then it is that all the trouble and all
the dread of battle are over with that
soldier who has any of the elements of
manhood In him. Then the man nat
urally wants to return the fire; then
comes the bending of the energies for
the assault upon the foe; then the
yearning for the fire and the advance.
Once in the din and fame and roar of
the conflict there is no time to think of
consequences, no time for thoughts Of
the loved ones far away in the embrace
of home; the only consuming passion
then is how to get at the enemy and
punish him-and hence the rush and
the shout, the incarnation of resolve,
that always characteriZes the charge,
the on to victory or death!
Once in the fire and tumult of the
struggle, with the battle spirit filling
and thrilling every sense; when the
soldier hears and sees and feels and
smells-tasting even the sulphurous
struggle-then it is that he knows nc
dread, no fear The mind and heart
full of that battle spirit, there is nc
room for her feeli gs. The man