Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1891-11-12
WAR "REMINISCENCES.
A DOUBTFUL CASE.
How One Soldier Boy Died to Escape .
Court-MartiaI


Toward the close of the struggle, ,
said grizzled veteran of the late war,
who, strangely enough. never fights
his battles over again unless he is press
ed to do so by friends who were not
there, Il saw young man die dishon-
ored, who. / believe, was the victim of
wretchedly unfortunate circumstances
/ don't know what his name was, and
/ should not mention it if l did, but he
was not more than seventeen years old,
and he was beside me as we charged
some confederate breastworks during
the preliminary skirmishing that pre-
ceded the battle of Gettysburg. He
was, Enthusiastically, very much fright
ened, for he had been sent to the front
with batch of raw recruits, and this
was the first engagement he had par
ticipated in. His face was ashy pale,
and more than once / saw him looking
back over his shoulder But he held
his musket firmly, and, he and l being
about the same height, the point of his
bayonet was in an almost unwavering
line with mine. As noticed this re-
member thinking, This young fellow
will make good soldier yet if the bull
lets spare him.
THE fire was very heavy as we drew
up to the works, and our men went
down by scores. Suddenly 1 saw the
lad beside me roll over, and several
others observed him falling, for he had
attracted good deal of attention by
his youth and evident nervousness.
"'That fellows fear didn't deceive
him. muttered the man who closed into
his place. His fighting days are over
Eve carried the breastworks with
great loss, and there was no more
s1irmishing that day. In the evening
sitting at the campfire watching the
coffee boil with the rest of us, was the
recruit which we had seen, as we sup
posed, shot down in the morning. Be
yond some scratches and bruises,
caused by the soldiers in the rear
trampling on him, he was not hurt at
all. He told us, in shamefaced way,
that he had tripped and fallen to the
ground, and that he was unable to get
up in time to join in the attack.
Not one of us believed his story.
We were convinced that he had pur-
posely dropped to get out of the fire.
The officers of the regiment held the
opinion when they heard of the matter,
and the young man had a narrow es-
cape of being tried by drumhead court
martial, and shot for rank cowardice
that night He pleaded his case so
earnestly, however, that he got the
benefit of the doubt and another
chance.
THE other chance came the next day.
We were advancing toward Gettys-
burg, and again we were ordered to
charge on some outlying sandworks,
from which the confederate marksmen
were harassing us. For the second
time the boy was by my side as we
rushed on, and again l noticed his pale
face and compressed lips, though / de-
tected no other indication of terror
about him.
"'Brace yourself up, my lad, l said.
1T will all be over in a minute
81 had hardly spoken when he pitched
forward on his face. He fell exactly as
he had gone down the preceding day.
81 hope he has a bullet in him this
time, l said to the man who filed the
gap he had made.
If he hasn't he will have before sun
down, was the grim rejoinder
"a couple of hours later the dead
body of the boy was found on the clear
ed field. He had killed himself. The
shoe and stocking were off one of his
feet, and his bare toe was pressed upon
the trigger of his empty musket The
muzzle of the piece was in his m nth,
and the bullet had passed toward his
brain. Nearly all the regiment believ-
ed that, in frenzy of terror, he had
thrown himself down to escape the
danger of the moment, and then, real
izing the utter hopelessness of his po-
sition, had summoned sufficient resolu-
ton to take his own life. But l al
ways fancied that he may have tripped
twice, and, despairing of explaining
the cause of his falling the second time,
blew out his brains Under any cir
cumstances that was the wisest thing
he could have done. IN. Y. Recorder.